As we mentioned a short time ago in a separate story, about another program in the long-running franchise, this past weekend
Transformers fans gathered in Cincinnati for the BotCon 2008 convention. At the show, Hasbro revealed many new upcoming toys. We imagine a lot of fans had their eyes caught by the "Optimus Prime 25th Anniversary Pack," made to the order of the original 1984 toy with the transforming tractor-trailer and cab, exactly as it was back in the day. For those of us (yep, me included) who foolishly did not hang onto our copies of this great item from almost twenty-five years ago, this will be a great chance to own it all over again.
But to sweeten the deal, Hasbro is tossing in a few extra goodies. An Autobot-shaped "shield" will generate sound effects and quotes from the character. A replica of the original comic book will be included (I still have my original, believe it or not!). And one more thing...
Yes, this is where the "TV-DVD" angle comes into play. The other item included will be a DVD of the original
Transformers 3-part pilot mini-series, "More Than Meets The Eye." From what we can tell here, this marks the first time these episodes have seen a DVD release since the April 2002
Rhino release of Season 1 (also available at that time on a single-disc release). The old releases are out of print and difficult to find, so this may be something to look into, if you've been wanting a taste of the original show.
The whole package - toy, sound-maker, comic and DVD - will be available sometime in the
Fall 2008 timeframe, at a cost of $69.99 SRP. Official details about this special combo set (and pictures of this toy, and others announced at BotCon) are available
at Hasbro's official announcement. Our thanks to reader Bradley K. for tipping us off about it!
