1. I don't know the exact number of fans who are girls, but there are quite a few female Transformer fans (some who love drawing TF Yaoi...), including here on this board. But Transformers has always been a predominantly male thing (but that's not to say that girls aren't welcome) Beast Wars International is a predominantly female Transformers community and there are also quite a few female TF fans on The Lexicon -- the admins of both these communities are female TF fans. I've met them both IRL and they're great gals.

2. No idea if Bulkie's still alive or not... we'll find out when TF Prime resumes airing.