In an email sent to all members of the Transformers Collectors’ Club, it was announced that Botcon 2008 will be held in Cincinnati, Ohio on April 28th.

Here is the full text of the email:

Here is the start of the information you have all been waiting for:

BotCon 2008 will be held in Cincinnati, OH at the Duke Energy Center.

Convention dates are: April 24-28, 2008

The hotel is across the street and is the Hyatt Regency.
You can make your reservations online by using the link at BotCon.com or call:

888.421.1442

Note: There will be tours and classes offered on Wednesday April 23 and
Thursday April 24. Currently Shawn will be teaching his class on Wednesday and again on Thursday so we will have 50 slots. We are also working on potential classes in sculpting and or molding as well. We can’t answer any specific questions currently but we wanted to give you a heads up for your hotel reservations needs.

Convention registration and details to follow….

Don’t delay as last year’s rooms went in less than a day….

Thanks for your support!

Brian

PS. The con set is really going to shatter your world….

Here is the direct link to the hotel. Be sure to reserve your room quickly! They go very fast. I already booked mine!

More information will be forthcoming. Keep an on Botcon.com until then.

So its seems there was some truth to those rumors after all.

Action-Figure.com brings us a look at the forthcoming Spiral figure. Hailing from X-Men lore, this six armed beauty is Mojo’s personal assassin/messenger. She will have a removeable helmet and shield, sword accessories and what appears to be six double jointed elbows. If only her knees were so lucky.

Thanks to Icarus of the FANtastic Forums for linking to the article and indirectly bringing it to my attention.

You may remember us reporting about an announcement at the 2006 SDCC. Basically, issue 102 of the Fantastic Four had a script re-write which forced Jack Kirby to shelve his already completed art for the book and redraw all the page. This shelved art recently surfaced and Marvel was going to have Stan Lee write a story and dialogue to go with the art and release it to the public. After that announcement, we never really heard anything more about it.

It turns out that the comic appears to have already been released, but not in the way we all expected. Here is the posting from the Blogs@Newsarama:

The story we first heard about a year ago, the lost FF #102 has finally been published. But not as Marvel announced but rather as a digital comic on a DVD as a Best Buy exclusive that comes with a Silver Surfer figurine for $14.99. I picked mine up last night but have not yet watched/read it… Here’s the info on the DVD.

“FANTASTIC 4 — THE LOST JACK KIRBY STORY (digital comic)
The Story Behind The Lost Story:
In 1970, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby talked ove the plot that was going to become FANTASTIC FOUR #102. Jack drew the pencils, but when Stan got them, he didn’t feel that they matched what he had discussed with Jack, so he put them aside. Parts of that story later appeared as flashback scenes in FANTASTIC FOUR issue #108, but the rest remained unpublished, and the pages have neve been put together to appear as a single, complete story in their own right — until now! With the help of Jack Kirby’s estate, Marvel has reassembled most of that story. Stan Lee has rescripted it, and Joe Sinnott has inked the pages that weren’t inked before. Ron Frenz has filled in on pencils for any gaps in the existing material, and worked in Jack’s classic style. Chris Sotomayor colored the story in classic comics style. Now for the first time, experience this Golden Age Fantastic Four story that has never been publiehsed — on your TV using your DVD player!”

I’m pretty disappointed that Marvel chose this as the format for its release. It seems like a bit of a slap in the face to have to pay $14.99 for the digital book. I’m still holding out hope that it will be released in hard copy format at my local comic shop.

Figures.com is reporting that Kaiyodo, makers of the hit japanese toy line Revoltech, will be releasing a subline of female figures starting with the ever-underaged and curiously hot Rei Ayanami of Neon Genesis Evangelion.

Description from CoolJapaneseToys:

The FRAÜLEIN REVOLTECH Rei Ayanami stands six inches tall and features multiple articulation points, including a newly developed joint and body system known as E.L.F.. The five innovations of “E.L.F.” are as follow:

1) – The ball & socket joints are hidden inside the torso, imparting an elegant shoulder shape.

2) – The shoulders rotate on all axis, allowing poses never before possible, including folded arms.

3) – The special concealed custom Kaiyodo’s Revolver joints maintain the natural leg shape and posture.

4) – The curved lower pelvis flows smoothly into the leg and creates a natural bikini line.

5) – The ankle Revolver joint clicks comfortably into position for graceful poses.

In addition to this new joint system, FRAÜLEIN REVOLTECH Rei Ayanami will include multiple accessories; the Lance of Longinus, 2 sets of hands and a display base.

FRAÜLEIN REVOLTECH Rei Ayanami will be imported to the U.S. via Organic Hobby in January 2008 with a SRP of $23.00.

Its pretty cool that they threw in the Lance of Longinus as an accessory, not to mention the new joint system. The figure looks amazingly posable. You can bet this line will be popular among anime fans, toy collectors and pedophiles!

   

Transformation instrumental mixed by Tony Bacala

The transformation sequence has been sped up in the main video. You can see the full transformation in normal speed in a separate video attached after the jump. Keep in mind that its long and that is why it was sped up in the main video.

Correction: I refer to 20th Anniversary Optimus Prime as 25th Anniversary Optimus Prime. My bad.

If you are looking to purchase Ultimate Bumblebee, you can do so by going hereat Amazon.com.

[Read the rest of this entry…]

CoolToyReview.comhas gotten word from a ‘reliable source’ (grain of salt recommended) for the lineup for the next wave of Marvel Legends. Curiously, the listing also shows UPC numbers. The wave will consist of the following:

• Adam Warlock (UPC # 65356931894)
• Black-suit Spider-man (UPC # 65356931891)
• Silver Savage (UPC # 65356931893 – Silver Surfer from the Planet Hulk storyline)
• Spiral (UPC # 65356931895)
• USAgent (UPC # 65356931890)
• Union Jack (UPC # 65356931892)

And it appears that they have wildly guessed on the Build-A-Figure for the wave so I won’t even mention what it was.

I am ecstatic about a Spiral figure, assuming its done right, but rather apathetic to the rest of the wave. I’m still waiting on a Nimrod Build-A-Figure. Make it happen Hasbro!

The longstanding rumor that Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson will play Black Adam in the upcoming Shazam! movie has finally been confirmed. It appears that it was really up to Dwayne, if he wanted to play Shazam or Black Adam, so he talked to fans and did a little research and chose Black Adam. The overwhelming majority of fans’ feedback apparently leaned this way, heavily influencing Johnson’s choice.

It was also mentioned that Corpse Bride screenwriter, John August, submitted a revision of the film’s script on November 2nd, ahead of the current Screenwriters’ Guild strike. Filming is said to begin in late 2008.

Did you know that the modern X-Men logo was originally designed by Jim Steranko and made its debut in X-Men 50 in November of 1968 (as seen in the above post banner)? In a surprisingly interesting series of articles, Todd Klein, who has done a wide variety of work as a letterer and designer, has assembled an exhaustive analysis of logos for the X-Men related books going as far back as issue 1 of X-Men from 1963. You can see his blog here and for the specific articles, see the direct links below.

Part 9 was particularly interesting because it shows the most recent iteration of the X-Men logo and many of the other designs that were submitted with it all mocked up on the same cover for issue 233 (I suspect this is just filler numbering and lettering because we are currently only on issue 203 at retail and Whedon and Cassaday have never been revealed as the creative team for X-Men that I am aware of. Not sure what the cover art is from or will be.) I kind of liked this one:

Throughout the series, Klein offers up glimpses of logo art samples that could have been. See below for an example of that for the X-Factor logo.

I should also note that Klein designed several X-Men related logos himself, including an X-Factor logo and an Excalibur logo. I found it interesting he noted in several places that when given a choice of logos, the editorial staff often chose the one closest resembling the original Steranko logo.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9
Update

Let us know what you think in the comments!