The Cartoon Network has announced a new 52-episode of those 80s favorites, the Transformers, will debut on Friday, August 30 at 6:30 pm (Eastern and Pacific).  Transformers: Armada as the series is known in the U.S., pits the heroic Autobots against the evil Decepticons, as they battle over control of a third race of Transformers, the diminutive, but powerful, Mini-Cons.  The show will air weekly on Fridays until November when it will join the daily Toonami block.

 

The reappearance of the Transformers on television is good news for pop culture retailers since there will be a wealth of Transformers products available this year, led by Dreamwave's hugely successful Transformers comic series (see 'Retro Rules April'), vintage toons from Rhino (see 'Retro Toon Update'), toys from Hasbro (see 'Licensing is Back At Hasbro'), and a brand new CCG from WOTC (see 'WOTC Launches Transformers CCG'), plus Transformers trade paperbacks from Titan Publishing (see 'Titan Takes Transformers Trades').