Sunday, June 10, 2001
Transforce preview the new Furman story...
...about the end of the great war! Yes friends, all your post-g2, pre-Beast Wars questions will be answered in this exclusive tale to the Transforce convention in the UK.
As you can see from the artwork and the text... we're in for one hell of a ride! Big thanks to Paul Cannon for this.
-Zac

Sunday, June 10, 2001
ColdHardSlag Interviews Neil Ross
Thanks to the Voiceroy, I have learned that Neil Ross, voice of Springer and other Transformers characters, will soon be interviewed by ColdHardSlag.com, who have interviewed veteran voice actors such as Garry Chalk (Optimus Primal). By following the link, you can enter your own questions for the voice of Transformers Slag and Hook!
-Jim

Friday, June 8, 2001
More info on the Mysterious RiD CGI...
I just recieved a new email from Stephen Finney about his work on RiD

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Thanks for your patience. I've been kind of busy lately.

So I guess I can give you a little bit more info on what kind of stuff you should be expecting once "Robots in Disguise" is released. Basically I'm working on doing some CG which will be added to the show. To make the show more up to par with the expectation of American audiences there will be a number of changes. Some scenes will be lengthened to allow for more dialogue. Rather than just have obvious looping of footage this is one area where some CG will be added to extend the scene without having redundancy. I guess to get and idea of what we're doing you could just look at what was done with "Transformers Generation 2".

As a long time transformers fan myself I know how there are certain fans who disliked the "Generation 2" CG that was added. I'm happy with the way things have been going though. One of the big complaints of "Generation 2" was that it was neat at first but just repetitive after a while. There will definitely be more variety in the cut screens and other CG. Technology in the industry has progressed so much that at times it's impossible to tell the CG from the live action.

I can't say for exactly what kind of changes will be made partially because we're not certain on what the final product will look like. Even the sequences we've completed may not be used. Of course there are also some secrets I won't be revealing until the show airs. Some nice surprises I'm confident everyone will like.

I'm not sure if I can send you a screenshot or clip of what's being done. I hope there's no red tape about it. I'll keep you posted.

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Stephen Finney
Computer Animator
Fox Kids Television Network ---------------------------

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Friday, June 8, 2001
First RiD twopack on eBay
Ok, so this has already been on message boards for nearly 2 days. Still, there it is. As of logging this report, the bidding is up to $33, with 4 days left to go.
And just incase the picture disappears when the Auction is over, click here
-Zac

Friday, June 8, 2001
Transformers- Believe it Or Not!
An unsigned email from DEVILFANJ@aol.com stated the following

On Thursday, June 6th's episode of Ripley's Believe It Or Not, a huge transformer mention happened. First, there was a 40-foot robotic dinosaur that transformed into a car-carrier style trailer. As it was being explained about its flame-breathing and car-destroying powers, it said that the inventor was influenced by Quote: "The popular line of Transformers." As this was said, a portion of the Jetstorm commercial was shown. So, I just wanted you all to be clued in on this. I believe the episode will re-air on Sunday, June 10, but I'm not sure. Later.

Thursday, June 7, 2001
Apelinq's Journal Part 17
The Botcon exclusive story continues to unfold
-Zac

Thursday, June 7, 2001
Bob Skir and RiD?
Confirming (or debunking depending on your point of view) that CG will be added to RiD, a small RiD FAQ page has been added to bobskir.com
So while now we have a more definite idea of whats coming, does this mean Skir is the writer?
-Zac

Wednesday, June 6, 2001
CG sequences to be added to RiD?
I just recieved the following email from even_stephen@canada.com:

Hi Zac,
You don't know me but I've got some great information for you about the upcomming Transformers series "Robots in Disguise". I've recently been contracted by Fox Kids to do some CGI segments for the show and I've noticed that not many people have heard about this news yet. Just wanted to give you the heads up about it since you seem to run a pretty successfull news site.
Let me know how I can help you out with any sort of information.

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Stephen Finney
Computer Animator
Fox Kids Television Network

Tuesday, June 5, 2001
BWTF confirms further RID releases.
Although Ben Yee has dismissed the idea of Supreme Optimus Primal or Brave Maximus being released, he has confirmed that JRX, Black Convoy, and the Combaticon repaints are going to be released in the US.
The only figures that remain up in the air are Devil Gigatron and The Super Car Brothers, and those may very well be released in 2002 or as store exclusives.
Ben has also written a retrospective on Beast Machines, wrapping up his thoughts on the animated series and toy line
-Zac

Also: read as he shuts down a Beast Wars hater! Take that, you fan boy!