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DREAMWAVE OVERLOAD
How do your socks look? Well, if they haven’t been knocked clean off then chances are you haven’t kept up to date with the slew of Dreamwave news that's been thrown in our direction recently. Dreamwave took a stranglehold of Newsarama in the last week of February, releasing information on each of their new titles for four days straight.
Dreamwave have gone ballistic and I for one am not complaining. The Transformer comics aren’t released quick enough for me, so anything to fill that void is a good thing! Let’s consider just what could be available to fill that gap.
Ground zero: Dreamwave’s first news release at Newsarama. “Transformers turn twenty,” they say. Fair enough, yeah they do, what of it? “We want to make it special,” they continue. Mmm, why not? “So here’s what we’re going to do...”
This is where we get to the socks part.
First order of business: a Transformers Summer Special, which will be our Winter, or to be more precise, May. It will be released as a one-shot aimed at brining in more readers and testing the waters for things to come. Between the covers you will find 48 pages of goodness including Generation One, Energon, Robots In Disguise and Beast Wars.
The Generation One and Energon instalments will be off-shoots of their on-going counterparts, fitting in with the continuity yet not reliant upon it. The Generation One story will be written by the current writer, Brad Mick, and pencilled by Pat Lee. It will follow Megatron as he attempts to amass an army to help him get back on track to reclaim his title as Decepticon leader.
Similarly, the Energon title will focus on the Decepticons rather than the Autobots, looking into what makes them behave the way they do. Simon Furman will be continuing his duties as Energon writer and is going to be joined by James Raiz whom we haven’t seen perform sequential Transformer art in some time and I for one can’t wait.
Adam Patyk, whom you will remember as the scribe for the ‘Transformers More Than Meets The Eye’ series, will be helming the project of Robots in Disguise. He will be joined by artist Rob Ruffs, who’s art also graced the pages of More Than Meets The Eye. The story will centralise on four characters from the series: Optimus Prime, Ultra Magnus, Scourge and Skybyte. It won’t be as slapstick as the cartoon, however Adam will ensure there will be humorous moments. The real drive of this story will be the relationship between Optimus Prime and Ultra Magnus.
Now for the title that many fans have been clamouring for: Beast Wars. Brad Mick will scribe and with the help of Don Figueroa on art, it is sure to be a massive hit. In relation to the story, Brad is keeping his cards close to his chest, except that it will focus on two of his favourite Beast Wars characters. If that picture isn’t a huge hint then I have no idea who they could be, Quickstrike and Inferno…?
Another great announcement was the Micromaster Miniseries: Adam Patyk and Brad Mick will be co-writing while the art will be handled by Rob Ruffs. Continuity wise, this series is meant to fit in-between the War Within series and the Generation One on-going, taking part during the great Shutdown.
What does this mean for Transformer fans? Well depending on how deep your wallet is, or how your priorities are aligned, it means a lot. We currently have the Generation One on-going series, the Energon on-going series, More Than Meets The Eye, the War Within Vol. 2 - with a Vol. 3 series on the way towards the end of the year - the Micromasters mini-series and, depending on how the market takes to the one-shot a Beast Wars and Robots in Disguise series, possible on-going additional series' for these as well. Knowing the way Transformers fans follow their favourite franchise, it’s not hard to assume that the Beast Wars and Robots in Disguise series will get the go-ahead, which could mean a possible seven Transformer series' running concurrently. Thinking about that couldn't make me happier, however I am a little concerned that Dreamwave may be flooding the market for the casual fans, although if they continue to keep the quality high, concerns are kept low. Great work Dreamwave!
You can find the Newsarama articles at the following locations:
Transformers Summer Special | Robots In Disguise | Beast Wars | Micromasters
- Story by: Steven Franklin
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HASBRO UNVEILS UP-COMING ENERGON AND UNIVERSE FIGURES
Hasbro have again updated their official Transformers website to bring us more sneak peeks of up-coming Energon and Universe figures, so check out our summary of the year so far for a full-breakdown of recent announcements:
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HASBRO ANNOUNCE FIRST DECEPTICON ALTERNATOR, DEAD END
One of the most exciting announcements to come from Hasbro in recent weeks hit their official site on March 11, taking the community by storm. Almost out of the blue came news of two gorgeous new Alternators, and even more astounding was the fact that one of them is to be a Decepticon!
If you haven't seen pictures of Autobot Tracks and Decepticon Dead End by now, then you're in for a real treat!
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SUNSTREAKER PROTOTYPE PICTURES EMERGE?
As speculation continues to mount over various names and additions to the Alternators line, people are no doubt wondering which figures will actually be released.
The very impressive Smokescreen and Sideswipe have already hit the shelves and we are expecting Silverstreak and Hound to appear in the coming months, but speculation continues to mount over the proposed Dodge Viper…
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SUPANOVA 2004 TO PREMIERE ATARI PS2 TRANSFORMERS GAME
Supanova, Australia's largest annual pop culture expo is being held this year on May 1 - 2 at Wharf 8, Sydney.
The huge weekend event will be jam-packed with all things cool, from toys to anime to comics to collectible card games, and the organisers have told me that there's something special lined-up for Transformers fans as well, as Atari will be premiering their up-coming Transformers PS2 game at the event! Woo hoo!
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ATARI TO TRANSFORM ARMADA
As many of you know, Australian development company Melbourne House have been working on a new PS2 game based on the Transformers: Armada series. The game, entitled 'Transformers' (formerly known as ‘Transformers Armada: Prelude to Energon’), has been in the works for the last year or so now, but is finally due to be released in early May.
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LEAVING FRIENDS BEHIND
As many of you may know, I have just recently returned from a six month holiday in Europe. One of the hardest things about going away for such an extended period of time was leaving all my friends behind, shut up in cardboard packing boxes, their limbs bound by bubble wrap and masking tape, locked in a faceless storage facility...
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TAAU MEMBER INTERVIEW 004: CRANK
In this edition we are lucky enough to sit down and share a virtual drink with TAAU's resident Smartarse runner-up and all-round nice guy, Crank. So let's hear what he has to say about Calvin Klein, Red Setters and Jaffle making!
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TAAU MEMBER FEATURES IN DREAMWAVE COMIC
In January of this year, TAAU member Ravage posted a superb piece of Transformers fan art on the board. The amazing illustration depicted a lone Beast Wars Megatron standing beneath a colossal G1 Megatron, which very cleverly referenced and paid homage to the classic Planet of the Apes scene showing the Statue of Liberty buried in the sand.
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