Fit For Natalie

The Optimus Prime and Megatron being brothers is only canon in some divergent continuities of the movie, apparently. The reference of their familiaral relationship was clearer in the video games and other supporting 2007 fiction, but it was left deliberately ambiguous in the movie itself. Roberto Orci said after the movie (shortly before writing a treatment for Revenge of the Fallen) that it was up to us to interpret what "brother" meant, and obviously, in light of ROTF, it is now meant to refer to a Cybertronian brotherhood in nationality, rather than a family relationship. As for The Fallen, he's a big bad for the comics, though an unknown one as far as 99.9% of viewers are concerned, and perhaps obscure to even 90% of people who consider themselves Transformers fans. I prefer to see it as a pretty decent writer shout-out to hardcore fans for them to even *consider* using The Fallen. That was actually the crashed remains of the Nemesis, possibly on one of Saturn's moons (hence the ringed planet. According to the comics, it was the ship used by the Fallen and the bulk of Decepticon forces to try and find the last solar harvester. I suppose the movie can interperet it as a ship used by the Decepticons to escape the death of Cybertron. Frank Welker has previously stated that he didn't like what they did to his Soundwave voice (which is essentially Dr Claw) on the G1 cartoon. It's entirely possible he asked Bay to leave his voice alone and Bay agreed. Eh, Pretenders have been around since the 80s. So long as not every (small) Decepticon has that ability, it's fine. The Fallen has always had magical powers from his time as one of the first thirteen Transformers. That force-pull/lift power was like his force crush from the War Within comics, as was his ability to create dimensional portals. As far as Hasbro is concerned (and they will be the last word once Bay and Paramount get tired of Transformers), The Fallen in this movie is exactly the same guy from the comics, being a multiversial singularity. Assuming you're talking about the 1970s-80s car, the Countach is a bit rubbish now, though. From Bay's blog Hey dude, visit TFWiki.net, that's the real Transformers wiki, where staff and all the major contributors left for. We wrote 99% of what's currently on the rotting corpse that is Transformers Wikia *advertisement* We have almost 2000 articles more than they do, and of greater quality, if I may say so

I mean "Serious Business" as in the sarcastic internet term. "Serious Business" as in taking something not so serious, such as a hobby, too seriously. Something you should always consider about Transformers is until very recently, toys came first in Transformers, and then fiction was written around them. Transformers is unashamedly commercial, since pretty much all of its fiction exists to sell toys or to promote the brand. Essentially in Hasbro's viewpoint, the movies are there for massive brand awareness that most other toylines from other competitors cannot hope to match. It's to prove that they have the franchises and the characters to take the fight to big guns such as Batman and Spider-Man, and at least with Transformers, they've proven that. It ain't that bad. Frankly, the critics are out with knives for Bay personally. I don't like Bay much, but I think the criticism over ROTF is getting really ridiculous. Because it's funny, amusing and makes for one of the greatest vehicle modes in Transformers, ever. Hasbro pretty much said they made it because it such an off-the-wall concept.

That had the longest sustained laughter at the IMAX press screening I was at. And it is a perfectly reasonable belief in the circumstances of a war with giant alien robots. Last I checked, the United States has the largest and most technologically advanced Air Force and Navy in the world, and are possibly the only nation who can actually field a . Those directors think fairly highly of themselves, so they would not have anything to do with this franchise. Transformers is a toy franchise, and for that reason Bay didn't want to do the movie at first place. Transformers has been for the most part popcorn entertainment. It's silly, it's fun, it's not meant to be taken very seriously. Looking for 'art' in Transformers suggests you are looking at the franchise in completely the wrong way. I don't mean Transformers shouldn't have quality, mature storytelling, what I mean is you're looking at Transformers from a viewpoint of a art scholar or academic, which is quite comical given it's Transformers. Transformers = Serious Business indeed.

Hey, that's uncalled for.

I love this film. As much as I am a Transformers fan, I am an even more passionate Star Trek fan (though not of the Klingonese-spouting nerd variety). I have never felt so satisfied in having my faith in a movie rewarded. I am also particularly enjoying the fact it has received consistently good reviews (96% on Rotten Tomatoes with 209 positive out of 218 reviews, last I checked), and shows that despite what critics of Transformers say, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman can actually write. I LAUGH IN YOUR FACE, TREKKIE NERDS WHO PREDICTED DOOM I think it was clearly said the original timeline of Trek (if you can call it as such given how many times Star Trek stories have messed around with time travel) still exists, but this is a new tangent of Star Trek continuity coexisting alongside it. I think that's a pretty reasonable way to say "we got a whole load of ships". Like it or not, Starfleet's mission is also of defense of their worlds, so it's equally a military organisation as it is a science and exploratory body. When Nero's ship entered this timeline and destroyed the Kelvin, it changed the course of history, so MAYBE the Romulans established contact with the rest of the galaxy far sooner than in the original timeline.

Yeah, one of the great unknowns of Auto-Bop is just what that building the Decepticons had constructed was supposed to be. From TFWiki.net's article for Auto-Bop: I doubt it was Eric Siebenaler who answered that, since he's in charge of Animated and doesn't design any Universe toys. You probably mean Bill Rawley. Here you go:

It's most likely an Insecticon. The Decepticon referred to as "The Doctor" (name most likely Scalpel) is a larger, spider-looking creature. His toy transforms into a microscope.

So, anybody have any idea about this? I was going to ask about the differences between the physical Raptors and the CGI Raptors as well.

Ahh, I apologise for assuming, since the American way is apparently also the same way down here in AU.

Oops. Here are some caps I took of the helos I was wondering about As for the movie people marking things weirdly, besides Blackout's fictitious 4500X tail number, they left military hardware alone. Here's the USAF article I just wrote, if anybody is interested. It's TF specific so I don't bother going into detail about equipment, though I provided Wikipedia links for those who are interested in learning more. From what I understand, Hasbro isn't actually responsible for distribution. Once the items arrive on US shores, they are almost immediately sent from the ships to the distribution centers for the retail chains that ordered them. From there, it's more truck rides to various regional warehouses, which is all controlled by the retailers, not Hasbro. After that, the schedule for taking product from those warehouses and putting it on shelves is dictated by each chain's inventory system.

Hey guys, I need some help. I'm writing an article on the USAF for the TF Wiki, and since I'm not terribly knowledgeable on helicopters or the service branches, I've come here for help about the aircraft seen in the 2007 Transformers movie (shot in 2006) *Shortly after the destruction of SOCCENT Qatar and during the Sec Def's speech at the Pentagon, we see two medical Blackhawks flying in the desert. Are these US Army Blackhawks or USAF Pave Hawks? My DVD is not clear enough to see any service markings besides the red cross. *Why does the medical UH-1 seen after Scorponok's attack on Captain Lennox's ranger team have the USAF roundel and have "ARMY" marked on the side? Do I classify it as a USAF or US Army craft? It appears to be painted half green (well, some dark colour) and white. I was going to ask about the Blackhawks seen in Mission City, but fortunately they managed to get a shot of the helicopter's tail where it says "United States Army". When Japan got their hands on Transformers, they made some unfortunate changes to the American-created female characters. Carly in the G1 cartoon was depicted as a brilliant, strong-willed teenage MIT graduate who had the magical ability to use alien computer systems without instruction or prior knowledge. Plus she raced cars towards Decepticons - hardcore. She later became an ambassador for Earth in the post-Decepticon defeat. When Carly appeared in the Japanese Headmasters, she became a damsel in distress housewife who made coffee and worried about the men. Similarly, Arcee went from a warrior to a secretary office lady.

From my understanding, "anime" in Japan just means "cartoons", but it may be necessary in this case to define "anime" as "Japanese-produced cartoons". G1 Seasons 1-3 and the movie were not anime, since they were American productions. That is, all of the creative stuff such as the writing, the direction, the designs were done in America. Headmasters, Masterforce, Zone, Japanese Beast Wars, Car Robots, Unicron Trilogy are anime because they had mostly Japanese production staff and were created mainly for Japanese consumption, and in the case of Galaxy Force/Cybertron, sometimes total disregard for what is supposedly a jointly-produced series that was to be aired in Hasbro's markets as well. I mean, the Hansen family in Galaxy Force/Cybertron, a white American, European-descended family in Boulder, Colorado for some reason lived in a Japanese house with sliding paper doors. Not only that, these supposedly American characters bowed to strangers and elders, Japanese-style. What?

Is Overcast an F-15 in this panel from Alliance issue 3? His toy was a redeco of Movie Dreadwing, that MiG-29-looking plane with the stubby legs. What's funny is, according to what the TakaraTomy Henkei designers said, apparently both Hasbro and TakaraTomy wanted Powerglide to be big because he was an A-10.

Don't be so melodramatic. From what I understand of Transformers design, they usually take a vehicle and then figure out a vague transformation of the vehicle into the robot look that they want. They are under no obligation to stay true to the proportions of the real-world equivalent vehicle, or even use all the vehicle mode parts to form sections of the robot mode (hence times when roof chests and hoods are faked). A theory I have is that since the Transformers are characters, and not just mecha, they prefer to keep the robot mode true to their vision of the character's look, personality and symbolism at the compromise of the aircraft modes. Traditionally, TFs are "big and tough". From what I've seen of Japanese transforming fighter-mecha, they are comparatively lithe and slender. Then there's also toy safety. TFs that are designed to represent flying characters are tested extra-rigourously with the knowledge that kids will most likely fly the toy and throw it around. Hasbro designers look to past Takara robot lines for inspiration, too. Hence Cybertron Prime's various combinations.

I kind of doubt it. Hasbro's reasoning (if you read between the PR-polished Q&A answers) is that basically the individual toys would have been unable to transform into the combined mode parts and stably support the weight and size of the Devastator design, not without significantly compromising the design of the individual robot and vehicle modes (hence the non-transforming limbs and things essentially being bricks). Now, if the robot modes were G1-like bricks in the first place, maybe they could have transformed, but they aren't.

Nothing wrong with gimmicks, unless they are obnoxious like 2007 Movie Starscream's rotating launchers.

I think they're all pretty much the same designers. Last I heard Bill Rawley's team were moved to the ROTF line after they completed work on Universe, while Eric Siebenaler (lead designer of Animated) has also done some toys. Alex Kabulsky at TakaraTomy, whose work has been admired by in the main TF thread here, worked on the 2007 movie line, has worked on Universe and Animated, so no doubt he worked on the ROTF line and whatever else Hasbro has planned. And you forgot Leader Prime. He's pretty damn accurate in terms of Transformation.

Demolishor-Scavenger thing is either a bizarro mistake by Hasbro or a bizarro homage to Scavenger for a character who has a totally different name. And man, some of you guys are taking things A BIT TOO SERIOUS BUSINESS

Now you're being silly.

Most of the designers from the past 7 or so years are still at Hasbro. Eric Siebenaler (Animated lead designer) designed some ROTF toys, though he didn't say which ones. Apparently the entire Universe team was move over to ROTF. Calm down man. Besides Devastator, the rest of the ROTF line is fine. In fact, thus it's better than the 2007 movie line.

So, anybody like the F-35 guy, Breakaway? The fact his face is inside his cockpit amuses me. You seem to be confusing this movie continuity with G1

Based upon confirmations, leaked toys, on-set sightings and rumours... Autobots Optimus Prime Bumblebee Ironhide Ratchet Jolt (Chevy Volt) Sideswipe (Centennial Corvette) Arcee (three bikes that seem to have individual modes that combine into Arcee) "Skids" and "Mudflap" (Chevy Spark and Trax twins) Possibility: Springer as an Osprey and Wheelie (RC car, rumoured) Decepticons Megatron Starscream Soundwave Ravage Audi R8 bot (rumoured to be Barricade) Jetfire Constructicons (one of whom you saw in the tv spot trailer) A Decepticon Pretender ??? The Fallen (IDW confirmed this before Paramount had apparently okayed for them to do so, and so the interviews where they mentioned him were subsequently censored)

Jerry Bruckheimer had nothing to do with this movie. Regarding the budget, from what I heard, $150 mil is considered to be relatively low budget for an effects-driven film. ILM must have cut a deal given this was a Dreamworks Spielberg-backed film, and indeed, what we saw in terms of robot CG was most likely all that they could afford. Banachek: President Hoover had the dam built around it. Four football fields thick of concrete, a perfect way to hide its energy from being detected by anyone or any alien species on the outside. Starscream didn't magically divine the location of Megatron and the All Spark. Right after Banachek's exposition, Frenzy finds the All Spark and contacts Starscream. The Cube was never moved. Megatron tracked it as it fell on Earth, and himself crashed into the Artic circle. Megatron inscribed the coordinates of the Cube onto the glasses when he was briefly reactivated by Archibald Witwicky.

New pics of Bumblebee with Sam http://www.the-arker.com/bbs2/dispbbs.asp?...ar=1&page=1 Newer pics of Starscream's box http://www.the-arker.com/bbs2/dispbbs.asp?...=330&page=1 Try hooking Nightstick to Cyclonus' either of his wrists when his fist is folded into his arm. It's an undocumented feature Hasbro did in references to the Japanese Headmasters series, though Cyclonus was never a Targetmaster in that show.

Check your local Meijer for the latest and most likely final wave of Universe Legends - Cosmos, Warpath, Rodimus and Wheelie.