Okay, before we go any further: Read our previous story to get yourself caught up, because I don’t feel like repeating myself in the second consecutive front-page story because they couldn’t have just done this earlier.

Got the gist? Good.

Today, Activision Blizzard decided to roll out a second trailer, featuring actual gameplay of their characters cosplaying as Cybertronians in action. Have a gander:

If you’d like to discuss this with other fans on our forums… well, as I said before (verbatim), we don’t really have an Overwatch thread, sequelized or otherwise. We do have this Activision Blizzard thread in our “Fun & Games” section, though. It hasn’t really been touched since the company laid off nearly 2,000 employees at the start of the year, so this might be a way to liven it up, yeah? No? Well, you can start a separate thread, if that’s your whim. In the Transformers Discussion section, perhaps? The trailer is kinda anime-ish, so PrimalxConvoy shared it in the “Japanese Transformers News” thread, even though that’s about as far as the relevance goes.

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Does that mean anything? Maybe. Maybe not. Probably not. But keep it in your back pocket, I guess.

Anyway, those folks rolled out a trailer for a new collaboration that begins today, and features some of our favorite robots in disguise as skins (for the gamer illiterate, that’s basically like “costumes”) for a quartet of pre-existing characters from the game. Check ’em out:

For what it’s worth, Overwatch 2 principle artist Mike Hardison explained on SMOKAT that these are the Overwatch 2 characters cosplaying as the characters, rather than the actual characters themselves. That said, there is a little more meat to this crossover than just everyone playing dress-up, as they also released a free digital comic online called “Transmission” that shows Megatron establishing a trade with Ramattra: He gets Cybertronian tech in exchange for Megatron using him as an avatar in this world. Naturally, the Autobots can’t have that, and so the race is on to find new heroes to which they can lend their aid.

So… maybe these costumes are actually — say it with me — more than meets the eye?

Right.

So, anyway. If you play the game (it’s free on Nintendo Switch, Steam for PC, Xbox One/Series X|S, and PlayStations 4 & 5), for those interested by this), the costumes will be available starting today, July 9th, 2024. And if past crossovers, specifically the recent Cowboy Bebop, are anything to go by, they aren’t cheap. Those went for 2,500 Overwatch coins, or roughly $25/£21.

Oh, and that’s each, by the way. So kiss your favorite picture of Ben Franklin (or whatever the equivalent would be in other countries) good-bye if you decide to go all the way in on this.

If you’d like to discuss this with other fans on our forums… well, we don’t really have an Overwatch thread, sequelized or otherwise. We do have this Activision Blizzard thread in our “Fun & Games” section, though. It hasn’t really been touched since the company laid off nearly 2,000 employees at the start of the year, so this might be a way to liven it up, yeah? No? Well, you can start a separate thread, if that’s your whim. In the Transformers Discussion section, perhaps? The trailer is kinda anime-ish, so PrimalxConvoy shared it in the “Japanese Transformers News” thread, even though that’s about as far as the relevance goes.

Not a member? Register now! It’s totally free, save for that teeny little fragment of your Spark that helps sustain our existence! If forums aren’t your bag and you’re more of a social media kid, then you can find us on SMOKAT (that’s the Social Media Once Known As Twitter — just you wait, this’ll catch on better than “X” ever will) @AllsparkNews. Or you can do your web-slinging Into and Across the Metaverse to find our Facebook page, Facebook Group, and Instagram! Or you can go Beyond the Metaverse, and join us on our Discord, Discord.gg/allspark, where our operators are standing by to serve you!

While the fate of Transformers: Reactivated remains unknown, and the state of Hasbro’s initiative to get the now Microsoft-owned Activision Blizzard back catalog of Transformers titles re-released is anyone’s guess, Outright Games announced today a new entrant in the digital arena of battles between Autobots and Decepticons.

As the story goes, the evil Nemesis Prime has stolen the Prime Relics, leading to both Autobot and Decepticon alike to set out on an adventure to recover the artifacts and take control of the “incredible powers” they can grant. Among those vying for the prize are, of course, mainstays such as Optimus Prime, Megatron, Bumblebee, and Soundwave. Backing them up — or perhaps in it for their own reasons — are Autobots Arcee, Wheeljack, Elita-1, and Decepticons Flamewar, Shockwave, and Nightbird. And it looks like they’re all sporting their “Evergreen” designs.

They will race across “battle-race circuits” to collect the relics and beat their opponents as they race arcade-style in vehicle form and engage in combat in robot mode, all in an effort to defeat their enemies and make it to the finish line. Hmm, think Velocitron will play a part in this? Because this sounds like exactly the kind of game that planet was made for.

As players progress and collect relics, they’ll be able to level up their skills and unlock new “iconic” playable characters and skins. Hopefully that means there are more characters than we’ve seen already, and not just that half the ones named above are locked away. After all, who wouldn’t want Hot Rod and Blurr to join Bumblebee on the track?

There are two game modes: Galactic Trials and Arcade. The former is the single-player mode where you’re out to collect relics, while the latter is where you can race locally with a friend in 2-player mode, create your own custom race tracks, characters, and weapons, or enter “location-based specialized tournaments.” Not quite sure what that means; is it based around a specific in-game location? Or do I have to hope they come to Toronto in order to participate?

“As TRANSFORMERS celebrates its 40th year alongside the theatrical premiere of its first fully CG-animated film, TRANSFORMERS ONE, we are proud to continue our collaboration with Outright Games to unveil an epic journey that speaks to the enduring legacy of the iconic brand,” said Eugene Evans, SVP Digital Strategy and Licensing at Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro. “With immersive gameplay, and a storyline that resonates with fans old and new, TRANSFORMERS: Galactic Trials is sure to ignite excitement. Through this all-new TRANSFORMERS racing experience, we continue to expand our digital offerings through strategic licensing and internal development and we can’t wait for TRANSFORMERS fans to see what else we have in store.”

Outright Games has formed a track record of publishing Transformers games, which includes Transformers: Battlegrounds and Transformers: Earthspark – Expedition, among other licensed titles. The developer, 3DClouds, doesn’t have quite the same track record with the license, but we’ll see how they do when the Matrix of Gamership is passed to them when they release Transformers: Galactic Trials on October 11th, 2024, on Xbox, Nintendo Switch, Steam for PC, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5.

Until then, you can discuss this upcoming prospect in the “Transformers Galactic Trials: new console game” thread in our forums!

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Note: The prices are shown on COP currency.

Interestingly, the games do not seem to be currently showing up on the PlayStation store, this all leads us to believe it could be a result of the recent Activision Blizzard buyout by Microsoft, the games seem to be the own native version on Xbox as they are not marked as “Backwards compatible” but in the same menu as other regular Xbox games, funnily enough War for Cybertron in particular shows up on Steam but it’s missing on Xbox.

Will you game to these certified gaming classics or are you gonna crank out of this discovery? Join the discussion in our Transformers forum, our Discord Server, our twitter, or our Facebook group! 

But maybe this will be close enough for a while?

As reported previously, Hasbro Pulse magnanimously brought the four original Transformers episodes they removed from their YouTube channel back, around a month after their short-lived 40th anniversary theatrical run was completed. There was hope that when they brought back the first episode, which saw a table reading redub as part of the theatrical event, that said table reading would be a part of it.

Alas, it was not to be.

That is, until now! Or rather, until soon! About a week from when this post goes live, anyway.

Here, have a trailer:

Transformers Generation 1 S01 E01: Table Read! With special guests: Arif S. Kinchen & Frank Todaro

Transformers fans prepare yourselves…

Our 40th Anniversary celebration continues with the release of the Transformers Generation 1 Season 1 Episode 1: Table Read on June 28th 12 noon ET/9am PT!!!

We can’t wait to bring our big screen celebration to the Pulse Channel with the release of the full Transformers Generation 1 Season 1 Episode 1: Table Read, featuring the voices of Arif S. Kinchen, Frank Todaro, Peter Cullen, Frank Welker and many more!

But that’s not all! Arif S. Kinchen (Jazz) and Frank Todaro (Starscream, Wheeljack, Reflector and Sparkplug) will be joining us live to chat with you during the screening!

The screening starts at 12 noon ET/9am PT, but Arif and Frank will be joining us from 11:30 ET/8:30am PT so you, the fans, have plenty of time to chat!

Don’t forget to turn your notifications on, this is one you don’t want to miss!!!

If you’re game to check it out when it goes live and participate in the chatroom fun, then you’ll want to go here at the time of the event.

In the meantime (or after it goes live, your choice), if you’d like to talk to others about the best makeover this episode has had since Generation 2, then head over to the “G1 Episodes Available on YouTube! Again! (And Again!)” thread in our forums!

Not a member? Register now! It’s totally free, save for that teeny little fragment of your Spark that helps sustain our existence! If forums aren’t your bag and you’re more of a social media kid, then you can find us on SMOKAT (that’s the Social Media Once Known As Twitter — just you wait, this’ll catch on better than “X” ever will) @AllsparkNews. Or you can do your web-slinging Into and Across the Metaverse to find our Facebook page, Facebook Group, and Instagram! Or you can go Beyond the Metaverse, and join us on our Discord, Discord.gg/allspark, where our operators are standing by to serve you!

EDIT: More pics and description on Mark’s Instagram page

Want to eject your opinions on this reveal? Then head over to the Legacy Line Thread in our forums!

Not a member? Register now! It’s totally free, save for that teeny little fragment of your Spark that helps sustain our existence! If forums aren’t your bag and you’re more of a social media kid, then you can find us on SMOKAT (that’s the Social Media Once Known As Twitter — just you wait, this’ll catch on better than “X” ever will) @AllsparkNews. Or you can do your web-slinging Into and Across the Metaverse to find our Facebook page, Facebook Group, and Instagram! Or you can go Beyond the Metaverse, and join us on our Discord, Discord.gg/allspark, where our operators are standing by to serve you!

Xaaron is a heavy retool of WFC Reflector/Refractor, while Flame is retooled from Gamer Edition Megatron. Pictures of the set are below:

The two-pack will be available today exclusively on Hasbro Pulse beginning at 1PM Eastern for Premium Members, 2PM for standard members.

Always wondered what the heck ah Emirate is? Then head over to the Legacy Line Thread in our forums!

Not a member? Register now! It’s totally free, save for that teeny little fragment of your Spark that helps sustain our existence! If forums aren’t your bag and you’re more of a social media kid, then you can find us on SMOKAT (that’s the Social Media Once Known As Twitter — just you wait, this’ll catch on better than “X” ever will) @AllsparkNews. Or you can do your web-slinging Into and Across the Metaverse to find our Facebook page, Facebook Group, and Instagram! Or you can go Beyond the Metaverse, and join us on our Discord, Discord.gg/allspark, where our operators are standing by to serve you!

See the release including a great reveal video HERE!

See Treds, Pathfinder, and Smallfoot in all their glory. Below are a few screen captures from the official reveal video:

Pre-order yours tomorrow at BigBadToyStore at 12pm CST! Don’t forget to use the link to let ’em know that the Allspark sent you!

If you’d like to join in the Mighty Discussion, then head over to the thread in our forums!

Not a member? Register now! It’s totally free, save for that teeny little fragment of your Spark that helps sustain our existence! If forums aren’t your bag and you’re more of a social media kid, then you can find us on SMOKAT (that’s the Social Media Once Known As Twitter — just you wait, this’ll catch on better than “X” ever will) @AllsparkNews. Or you can do your web-slinging Into and Across the Metaverse to find our Facebook page, Facebook Group, and Instagram! Or you can go Beyond the Metaverse, and join us on our Discord, Discord.gg/allspark, where our operators are standing by to serve you!

Too quiet.

Quiet enough to make moves like Hasbro offloading the Power Rangers toy license to rival Playmates instill worry in the Ranger Nation.

Well, it would seem that there has been a reason for that quiet, according to a report from TVLine.

According to them, the Power Rangers/Netflix deal to develop a new series is donezo. The project, which had been in development for more than two years, is no longer moving forward. Instead, Hasbro Entertainment is looking to explore “a new creative direction for the series” with a new partner.

The as-yet unnamed series that had been in the works prior had Daisy & the Six co-executive producer and veteran Supernatural story editor Jenny Klein acting as its showrunner. They are said to have been working in collaboration with Jonathan Entwistle, co-creator of Netflix’s I Am Not Okay With This and The End Of The F***ing World, who has been overseeing the franchise’s television and motion picture prospects.

Allspark forum member Steevy Maximus weighs in with their thoughts on the matter: “THAT’s probably why Hasbro gave Playmates a license to make toys. Their big media plans fizzled and they’re passing the franchise off for cheap license dollars until… they do something?”

“It’s not entirely unprecedented,” Steevy continues. “Mattel kicked Masters of the Universe to Super7 for about [four] years until Mattel started their renewed initiatives in 2020. We could be looking at a similar situation with Power Rangers, get Hasbro some easy license dollars until they figured out what they want to do with Power Rangers. Be it a continued effort at an American initiative or go back to converting Super Sentai.”

For more details, be sure to check out the full TVLine article, brought to us by new Allspark user Ookalf.

If you’d like to join in the discourse about Hasbro Z-waving whatever they were doing since 2022, then head over to the “Power Rangers General Discussion Thread” in our forums!

Not a member? Register now! It’s totally free, save for that teeny little fragment of your Spark that helps sustain our existence! If forums aren’t your bag and you’re more of a social media kid, then you can find us on SMOKAT (that’s the Social Media Once Known As Twitter — just you wait, this’ll catch on better than “X” ever will) @AllsparkNews. Or you can do your web-slinging Into and Across the Metaverse to find our Facebook page, Facebook Group, and Instagram! Or you can go Beyond the Metaverse, and join us on our Discord, Discord.gg/allspark, where our operators are standing by to serve you!

It all began back in March, when some eagle-eyed fans noticed that the first four episodes had been removed from (well, set to “Private”) the official Hasbro Pulse YouTube channel. What could this mean? Was this going to be the beginning of more takedowns of archived Transformers episodes, or even episodes from other Hasbro properties?

We reached out to Hasbro themselves to see if they could provide an answer. That went about as well as you’d expect.

Then in April, it was revealed that the same four episodes that had been removed would be shown in cinemas! Well, some cinemas. Depending on how lucky you were. And for three non-consecutive days in May, no less!

When the time finally came, fans ventured forth to take in this new experience, and… well, it was an experience.

At the very least, the redubbed first episode went over well. Well enough to leave some wondering why they didn’t just redo the other two parts of “More Than Meets The Eye,” if not all four episodes being shown.

Then, just as quickly as it came — well, quicker, really — it was gone. Over. Finished.

Yes, I’m invoking Furmanisms when talking about the cartoon, and you can’t — won’t — stop me.

As I was saying, the 40th anniversary experience came and went, and the episodes that Hasbro opted to remove from YouTube remained gone from the platform.

But now, hope shines anew!

It all happens on Friday, June 14th at 12pm EST, and you can be a part of it!

“But,” we know you’re asking, “will the newly redubbed live voice reading version of the first episode be included this time?”

We don’t know! They haven’t really said here one way or the other.

If you’re ready to give Hasbro Pulse the heroes’ welcome they so richly deserve, then head on over to the “G1 Episodes in Select Theaters in May” thread (because why not? It’s close enough) in our forums to plan the ticker-tape parade in their honor. (I get to drive the float.)

Not a member? Register now! It’s totally free, save for that teeny little fragment of your Spark that helps sustain our existence! If forums aren’t your bag and you’re more of a social media kid, then you can find us on SMOKAT (that’s the Social Media Once Known As Twitter — just you wait, this’ll catch on better than “X” ever will) @AllsparkNews. Or you can do your web-slinging Into and Across the Metaverse to find our Facebook page, Facebook Group, and Instagram! Or you can go Beyond the Metaverse, and join us on our Discord, Discord.gg/allspark, where our operators are standing by to serve you!