Hey guys! How's it going? Well, some good news for you, as after taking a month or so off to visit family and friends back in the Motherland, and also to catch up on some personal projects of mine here, the TAAU newsletter is finally back in action and raring to go, and what better way to kick it off again than with a special edition full of world exclusive information regarding Madman Entertainment's up-coming G1 DVD box sets!

Yes, that's right, the team at Madman Entertainment have been nice enough to give me the lo-down on their up-coming G1 DVDs, including details on pricing, release dates, synopsis promo text and even cover art, which has been created by artists at both Madman and Dreamwave! So let's get stuck into it shall we?

Written by our good friend Dean over at Madman, here is the synopsis text featured on the back of the box:

"1984: Laying dormant for millions of years, the Mt. St. Helens eruption awakens a mysterious mechanical race of beings from their slumber - the Transformers.

With the amazing ability to transform from robots to vehicles and back again, the "Robots in Disguise" now continue their age old battle on Earth, as Optimus Prime and the benevolent Autobots fight to protect humankind from the maniacal Megatron and his evil Decepticons.

Will the Autobots and their human allies triumph over Megatron and his armies?

Before Beast Wars, before Armada, witness the birth of the legend of the Transformers!"

Yes, that's all very interesting, but what do they actually look like I hear you cry! Well, wonder no longer, as you can now view the very first glimpses of the three DVD slicks contained within the box set below, and as you can see, Dreamwave are continuing to collaborate with Madman on the production of their Transformers releases, which is fantastic to see!

They have decided to alternate the boxes between Autobot and Decepticon themes, and Matt Currie, the guy who came up with the menu design for the movie from concepts suggested by Dean, myself and many fans, is designing the DVDs and slicks for their G1 releases as well.

Madman have again asked me to give everyone the opportunity to have their say and provide feedback to them, this time concerning the characters which will be appearing on future DVD covers for the remaining series'!

For Series 2 - Part 1, they have told me that they will be featuring the following characters on the DVD covers:

Disc 1: Megatron
Disc 2: Starscream
Disc 3: Shockwave or Soundwave

But what they want to know is what you'd like to see on Disc 3? Shockwave or Soundwave? You decide!

They aslo want your suggestions for the rest of the series' covers as well, so now's the time to have your say and make yourself heard, because there's a good chance that the most popular suggestions will be chosen!

So what I'd like you all to do is use the following template and send your character suggestions in to me at:

myvote@theyareamongus.com

bearing in mind that Madman have decided that Series 2 - Part 2 will be Autobot themed, Series 3 - Part 1 will be Decepticon themed (with post-movie characters) and Series 3 - Part 2 will be Autobot themed (again, with post-movie characters). They apparently have something special in mind for series 4, but that will have to be a surprise for now!

Series 2 - Part 1
(Decepticon themed)

Disc 3 character:

Series 2 - Part 2
(Autobot themed)

Disc 1 character:
Disc 2 character:
Disc 3 character:

Series 3 - Part 1
(Decepticon themed, post-movie characters)

Disc 1 character:
Disc 2 character:
Disc 3 character:

Series 3 - Part 2
(Autobot themed, post-movie characters)

Disc 1 character:
Disc 2 character:
Disc 3 character:

Not that you need any incentive to have your say and decide which Dreamwave character should appear on our Aussie DVD covers, but the nice people at Madman have decided to sweeten the deal anyway by offering two series one box sets and posters to two random fans who send in their suggestions!