The 3rd annual Hall of Fame awards voting has begun with preliminary nominations for the character to fill the fourth slot (3 have been nominated already by Hasbro, and one is voted on by the fans after a round of nominations generates a short-list).
The first three Awards recipients have been named as Gen1 Grimlock, Gen1 Jazz and Gen1 Shockwave. (yes, significant characters from the first year and from the current year - and were the other three serious short-list voting choices for both previous years, so we could see this year's nominees as future Hasbro-selected Inductees)
As usual, this "global" Fan vote is restricted to the American run Fansites, so if you are wanting to participate in this nominations phase, check out one of those sites if you are a member. Just be aware of the voting deadlines - Nominations are only up for a week (Hasbro wants the results by March 1st), and voting will take place sometime during March (in time for the late April Awards ceremony at BotCon).
That Voting phase in March "should" be open to all fans, as it has taken place on Hasbro's Transformers website in previous years.
Since we can't take part in the Nominations phase, POST HERE whom you think should be in the fourth spot, and I'll tally up the results on March 1st (and see how we compare with other sites... and the official short-list).
NOTE - the following characters are already in the Hall of Fame, so are now invalid:
2010 - (Gen1) Optimus Prime, (Gen1) Megatron, (Gen1) Bumblebee, (Gen1) Starscream, (BW) Dinobot (fan choice).
2011 - (Gen1) Ironhide, (Gen1) Soundwave, (Gen1) Ratchet, (BW) Waspinator (fan choice).
And for a bit of fun, whom do you think the "Human" HOF Inductee should be, and whom you think Hasbro will end up choosing this year?
Previous Human inductees have been:
2010 - Peter Cullen, Bob Budiansky, Kojin Ohno, Hideaki Yoke.
2011 - Steven Spielberg, Michael Bay.
(here's hoping the global fansites that were invited to participate in this one mature thing Hasbro has given fans of Transformers, take it more seriously than some sites did last year, so that we don't have joke characters included - perhaps any sites that submit joke characters this year shouldn't be invited next year)