Good to hear straight from the source!
Hey I said about the Wheelie spotlight taking place over a long time. He spent "Meta-cycles" (which I assume is something like decades) on the planet between sending the distress call from Spotlight Optimus and Reflector showing up.
Robot characters slaughtered. I think Shane is saying that he can't have anything too graphic when it comes to human characters (hence the removal of the blood soaked shoes between the preview and issue one)