The first place I saw Zone was when I downloaded it for free from Seibertron.com, but they don't seem to have it any more. At a push, you could always watch this YouTube version, but be wary as it's been fandubbed into English and has a lot of completely different sound effects. About halfway through 2007 Metrodome decided to piss off all of it's fans in the UK by announcing the Takara Collection box set - which features the Headmasters, Masterforce and Victory sets everyone already had, but it also has Zone as an exclusive bonus. As you can imagine people who had already bought the sets separately (like me) were not too chuffed at this news, although I've still got the collection on pre-order and I'll update here when it's released in September.[Q] Akira is a boy? What
I had no idea either until recently, but yes, I can confirm that Akira is a boy...scary.[Q] What do we know about Zone?
I'll split this up into facts and rumours:FACTS
*This is the only episode of Zone available.
*It was released on video, but only in Japan.
*The video came packaged with the Micromaster Autobot Rabbicrater.
*The story was finished off in TV Magazine.
RUMOURS
*As many as five episodes may have been completed, but so far only one has even been released.
*The series was not meant to be that big in the first place, consisting of seven or eight episodes max.
So yeah... we don't know that much about it really, and it looks like it'll stay that way.
[Q] What do we know about the toyline?
The toyline largely consisted of Micromasters, hence why there are so many of them featured in the episode. Dai Atlas and Sonic Bomber, the "Poweredmasters" were also available to buy as toys. There was another Poweredmaster toy called Roadfire who isn't in the single episode but is in the story pages in TV Magazine for Zone. None of the resurrected Decepticons were re-released and were not part of the toy line, and neither was Violen Jiger. The only Decepticon toys available were Metrotitan (a recoloured version of Metroplex) and the Race Track patrol. Metrotitan was featured in TV Magazine's story pages for Zone, and I presume that the Race Track patrol was there too.[Q] What is this TV Magazine you keep mentioning?
TV magazine is, funnily enough, a magazine available in Japan, and it features story pages for various things, including Transformers. The pages combine text with pictures, and the story for Zone was finished off here. As the story continued, Metrotitan attacks the Earth and Violen Jygar was able to obtain the Zodiac. Roadfire joins Dai Atlas and Sonic Bomber as they fight the Decepticon leader, who shows his power be changing into three different insect beings, but he is beaten. In classic villain style he then reveals that he has another form and this form is a mass of fallen Decepticon spirits, but he is then finally killed for good when the three Autobots unite into Big Powered and destroy him. This battle took place on a newly discovered planet in the Earth's solar system, which becomes a new place for Transformers and humans to live together in peace on.[Q] Is there anything else available about Zone?
If you want to see just a little bit of new animation, try these toy commercials: