Akiva Goldsman Out as Transformers 5 As Takes Over Hasbro Writer's Room

It seems that Hasbro found the Transformers Writers Room concept so successful they decided to use it for their other properties that are in the pipeline including G.I. Joe and the Micronauts. They tapped the leader of the TW Room, Akiva Goldsman, to lead the Hasbro Writers Room. Due to his new responsibilities he will no longer write the script for Transformers 5 but instead supervise script writing for TF5 (whatever that means). Paramount is negotiating with Art Marcum & Matt Holloway (Iron Man) and Ken Nolan (Black Hawk Down) to write the Transformers 5 script.

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Linkfest - Christmas Time Is Here

Hopefully just in time for Christmas wish lists and gift giving (to fellow TF fans or yourself), here is a ton of reveals on Hasbro's Combiner Wars figures, Takara Masterpiece figures and a bunch of 3rd party figures with the year long emphasis on combiners. The 3rd party output remains painfully high for wallets with the combiners contining unabated (and most looking amazing) but now there is a more heathly mix of other, often Masterpiece scaled, figures. In addition to the reviews there are galleries to upcoming 3rd party toys, licensed statues, and action figures. To start though is some fan-art including a custom paint job, transforming Lego, and more. On a side note for Transformers: Robots in Disguise fans it has been confirmed the second season is also the final season with only 16 episodes and will end with a "movie" that is equal to 3 episodes. Exactly when it will start airing has not been revealed. On to the info dump.

Fan Art
Custom IDW Optimus Prime and Shockwave - Sadly this version of Optimus Prime and Shockwave isn't available. This custom paint job from LEK Custom Toys was inspired by the artwook from Transformers: Devastation IDW comic book from a few years ago that added a shiny sheen to all the TFs as a kind of hybrid of metal and cartoon look. The result is pretty fantastic looking. Even more images can be found at their Facebook page.

Transformers 5 Temp Logo and Transformers: Micronauts Revealed

At Monday's Hasbro Investor Day, a few tidbits was revealed by CEO Brian Goldner in regards to Transformers. The main takeaway, as the graph shows (purposely dropping the last 3 000s for space reasons), is TFs are selling well but does rely heavily on the movies for boosts in numbers and a cartoon series in non-movie years. Still sales or more than double what they were in 2005 when Hasbro paid far less attention to Transformers. If look in the bottom right you will also see Hasbro's temporary logo for Transformers 5 that will likely be jazzed into a final version once the movie begins pre-production sometime in early 2016.

Nothing newsworthy was mentioned about Transformers 5 but they did share that China will be getting a Kre-O Armor Hero line that currently isn't coming stateside. Of greater interest is the 1980s Micronauts are returning as Transformers: Micronauts. Exactly how and when this merge of two lines will happen was not explained. Hasbro will also continue to provide fans with opportunities to impact the line like they have done the last two years with Generations Windblade and Combiner Wars Victorian. So in short TF is doing just fine. You can find the full slide show from the day at TFW2005.