Fit For Natalie

I think they have some sort of weird agreement in place with convention exclusives. For instance, even though Hasbro owns the brand and characters, the convention organisers own any unique toolings or colorschemes made for their exclusives (even if the colour schemes are based upon ones Hasbro came up with in the first place for an older toy). Usually the tooling is destroyed after Hasbro finishes its run for the Botcon. 3H would probably own that OFTCC 2005 Defensor prototype (which is now at Hasbro HQ) if not for the fact they probably didn't pay for it.

Ahh who cares. Flew completely over my head when I watched that scene because Sam was funny. Its kind of the point of the whole 'robots in disguise' thing when the robots don't have gigantic, obvious faction sigils on them.

Methinks it was a combination of a (in summer blockbuster terms) small budget and Bay's shooting style, but at the same time, even Bay doesn't shoot THAT frenetically when he doesn't need to, he does sweeping shots just as well. So yeah, I think that they just didn't have the money to show us everything. But its impressive what they could do given this film cost (roughly, IIRC) half as much as Spidey 3.

I wonder what other films are being pushed there instead. That or Takara (read: Tomy) doesn't really care for the movie since they had nothing to do with it.

They based this movie on multiple sources, including the Marvel comic, which is where the concept of a mystical device giving life to machines (and can also be used for evil) came from. So I wouldn't be surprised if elements of comic Primes were in there. Eh? Both Roberto Orci (one of the writers) and Hasbro confirmed that 'Devastator' is the mistake. One thing Hasbro has over the movie as owner of the brand and characters, they have overriding control over how the characters are named, because they need to be able to sucessfully trademark those names for toys and merchandise. BTW, I checked and its not on Teletraan-1, the TF wiki (otherwise I would have changed it), and I can't find it on the Wikipedia's movie page.

I just saw it and it was awesome. I got all choked up when the Autobots made their big entrance with the heroic music in the background.

Yeah, he contacted them back during the height of BT/Alternators to find out why they had passed on the Porsche Boxster(?) Jazz toy that was revealed in a Binaltech book. While Hasbro's claim of naming the Mazda guy 'Meister' was because 'Autobot Jazz' sounded crap, Takara said its really because Hasbro was still holding out hope Porsche would change its mind. I find Welker's Megatron WAAAAAAAAAY too cartoony sounding to fit Movie Megatron.

A friend of mine (a very notable fan who has friends at Hasbro and has interviewed the Hasbro executive in charge of TF in the 80s) contacted Porsche in Germany's licensing and marketing department awhile back, and the person in charge said that she didn't think Transformers deserved Porsche's license. So far they seem to be mostly positive. For another Australian review, which out At the Movies with Margaret and David - they are by far the most respected and well-known film critics in Australia, and they are 'artsy fartsy' high-culture types. They gave 3 and a half stars each out of 5. Truncated transcript. As of writing, the ABC hasn't transcribed the rest of the review: David went on to say he agreed that Transformers, like many modern action films, cuts too quickly and didn't stay focused on particular shots, possibly because of the younger generation's being used to things moving very, very quickly, perhaps due to being brought up on computer games (joking that maybe they should train the younger generation should slow down abit, or alternatively train the older generation to speed up). He then asked Margaret if this was her first good Bay review, and she disagreed (They gave The Island 4 and 3 stars respectively), and he replied Bay hasn't had a very good track record, to which she agreed, but said Bay did bring that sort of muscularity to films to which he agreed. David said what sets this film somewhat apart (though he is not a huge fan) are the human characters, who are pretty well defined, well acted and an interesting cast, there's alot of humour in it and the special effects, as always in these films, are wonderful. Margaret then said what surprised her was that the TFs had real personalities, which he agreed. She said they seem to have more personality than some real characters they've seen in films lately, which he said was true.

Most swearing you'll get in TF is made-up TF swear words like 'slag', because shoving real swearing into dialogue is immature. The only reason Spike swore in the original TF movie was to ensure it go the appropriate rating that required adults to be with children (and hence allow the kids to pester the adults to buy this and that toy).

"So, you want a realistic, down-to-earth show... that's completely off-the-wall and swarming with magic robots?"

If it offsets the cost of production, cross promote the movie and allows them to do what they want with the vehicles, what does it matter? Better than dealing with the whiny, tempermental European car makers who don't think Transformers (any Transformers) are deserving of their licenseses. But understandably, they have an image to maintain. And besides, Transformers fiction has always been the very definition of product placement.

Beast Wars raping childhood? Please. The series considered the finest Transformers series by fans can hardly be childishly accused of being a 'childhood rape', especially 11 years after the fact. 'Just another'? Tell me, what Transformers shows have met an 'early demised? Don't start to say Armada, Energon or Cybertron, because Hasbro specifically planned their toylines (and thus the cartoon) to only run for 18 months before the mainline switches to something else to prevent maket fatigue with the brand. And you know what? They've been profitable. Very profitable. Armada, one of the most hated Transformers cartoons and toylines (at least by internet fanboys) was one of the most sucessful Transformers lines ever, according to Hasbro. So if many of the adult fans and collectors did not like it, the kids must have. So, we shall if this show takes off with kids in a similar way.

I generally think Blackout is the worst due to his design flaws and his inability to transform back into vehicle mode properly. Megatron is abit back heavy for my taste and I wish he was painted silver like Cybertron Galvatron, but he's nowhere near as bad as some people claim. I've noted the harshest criticism is generally from people that haven't actually played with one.

Which is why I wanted a new poll - the poll was made before ANYBODY here saw a single frame of animation, and is thus now outdated and invalid. Scorponok. They sped up most of the robot scenes for the TV spots as they only have 30 seconds to show them. In one of the early tv spots they cut out a few frames of Ironhide jumping through the air, making it look abit jerky.

Download the tv spot - its awesome.

Ugh, not a fan of YTMND so I won't click - is it the clip of Starscream transforming and shooting the real F-22 raptors out of the sky? Its in the last three tv spots, including the new one released today.

Thanks, Chewie! Yeah, the movie has quite abit of cheesy action movie humour. Its kind of old-fashioned 80s action movie in a way. Yeah, Dropkick's bio is great - he's an emo!

I don't give a crap whether Starscream in realistic colours and weathering or not. I just wanted the tooling in his G1 colours, sold by Hasbro so I can hopefully obtain it easily. Then our Japanese friends will say 'farting Takara and Kawamori!' I am well aware of that. Most realistic unlicensed Transformers are based upon real vehicles, though changed slightly for legal reasons. Such as Cybertron Hot Shot, he's based on a Chrysler ME 4-12 concept car and an M1117 security vehicle thing. I was just wondering what truck Dropkick is based upon.

Movie line Dropkick Anybody know what truck he's based upon?

Demolishor. Demolishor is awesome... until they ruined his noble death by turning him into a dump truck who acted like a gorilla

Starscream blows up two human-flown Raptors in a new TV spot. Because evidently Takara doesn't know how to market the line to its own people in a way that will interest them, in that as they don't emphasise TF's differences to average japanese kids shows, they try to make it like other japanese shows. Even somebody from Takara admitted that they admired TF for its western themes and values, which is frankly something they SHOULD have capitalised upon. Cybertron did well for Hasbro.

Folding them any further will just stuff up his already wonky center of gravity, as they would only be able to pile on top of the nose cone, making him harder to stand, and take up more shelf space - because a wide figure is less annoying to place in the back of the shelving unit than a figure that has alot of crap on his back.

DUDE! Don't say that, you'll give ammo to the 'Brawl is Megatron' conspiracy theorists!

I belive Ultimate Bumbles plays some songs, but I'm not sure if he talks or not. Apparently he does in the movie briefly. Everybody, I recommend just getting the upcoming Deluxe-class Bumblebee in the new Camaro body instead. Its more accurate and much more affordable. Yeah I got him today. He's abit back heavy for my taste.

Ultra class is smaller than Leader class, so that would mean a less accurate transformation (either final robot mode or transformation sequence).