Preview Soundwave A Triple-Changer

Action-Figure.com has posted pictures of the preview wave of Deluxe Soundwave and Bumblebee in their packages which includes a nice CGI image their heads. It turns out that the theory that Soundwave's alt mode is a satellite still lives to fight another day as the package indicates he is a triple-changer. Those wing flaps in his Cybertronian jet could easily become solar panels for a satellite. Hopefully the backside of the package will be leaked soon to verify the various theories about the character. Thanks to Phil for the links.

Bay: Teaser Trailer Slot, Full Length Trailer Coming

Transformers director Michael Bay posted on his forums the slot Transformers Revenge of the Fallen teaser trailer is expected to air and when a full length trailer is due.

So,

The Super Bowl spot is coming Sunday in the third Quarter (few minutes into the quarter slot). The spot will be online a few minutes after that - The full length teaser trailer will only be on Friday the Thirteenth. It will not hit the internet until a week later. The Teaser really only teases stuff - I'm holding so much stuff back from the final trailers because I personally hate going to movies where you have seen it all.

Tell me what you think,

Michael

For those that don't know (say those that don't call football soccer), the Superbowl is the championship game for American football. The game usually starts about 6:00PM EST. While on paper a quarter is 15 minutes long, in reality due to commercials, time-outs, penalties, etc, they really last about an hour each. Half time is another 30 minutes. So grand total, my estimate of when the trailer will appear in the third quarter is around 8:15pm EST. That is a very rough estimate.

The main take away to me is that the teaser trailer will be online shortly after for worldwide fans and that a longer length trailer is coming in two weeks, 2/13/09. I might actually have to watch Friday the 13th now. Exactly where online the trailer will pop up first, I don't know but if history is a guide, I thinkYahoo! Movies is a likely candidate. Thanks to Firefrost and Gregory for the Bay forum link. Oh and thanks to Michael Bay for the heads-up, its nice to know I don't have to slog through the entire game now.

Ironhide, Twins and Megatron Robot Images

Thanks to Phil who sent me the below pictures that I think came from the Transformers The Game website joining the previous leaked pictures of the Twins. Nowadays its hard to tell but the detail isn't up to the level of Empire's Optimus Prime image making me think they are all based on ILM's designs but modified for the game's graphics engine. Ironhide looks slightly different, I just can't pin down why. The new angle on the Twins just makes them even stranger looking. As for Megatron, in the bottom right you can see potential tread and he has two claw-hands instead of a cannon arm, either a game design change or maybe the cannon is not permanent but a sub-transformation similar to his weapon in the first movie.


Update: Just a side note, as the below image proves, final verification that those images leaked back in September where related to "Mudflap". Apparently the buggy look eyes were related to his head design. Thanks to Phil for the image below.

First Look at The Twins

Activision has updated it's website for Transformers The Game with the first images of The Twins in their robot modes. An M&M package confirmed that the Chevy Beat (Skids) and Chevy Trax (name still unknown, Mudflap new rumor) were the alt modes of the Twins but this is the first good look at their robot modes which show a lot of similarities but they seem to be fraternal rather then identical twins. I think the image is from the game rather then from ILM (but probably based on their model) so its possible the final movie design could be futher modified. Something about their post and design that makes me think these are going to be hyper playful characters. Thanks to Gregory for the link and info.


Update: More images can be found here.

UK Toy Fair Revenge of the Fallen News

The UK Toy Fair 2009 started today and TFW2005 was provided some of the information that was revealed to some of the attendees there. Thanks to Gregory for the link.

- Devastator will be around about 2 feet tall and built like a gorilla.
- The Human Alliance Bumblebee that we have been seeing recently will be the first release in his range.
- No toys of the Fallen at present.
- There will be new Robot Replicas of Ironhide, Ratchet and Starscream.
- More information on the RPM - Robot Powered Machines - line. The cars are "Hot Wheels style" and are mainly Autobots, with their robot modes embossed on the bottom. The racetrack has tracks all over the place, and instead of the central "mountain" you sometimes see on these tracks, you've got Devastator!
- There will be a radio controlled Optimus Prime truck with Peter Cullen soundclips.
- The tank mode Megatron toy (which version is not specified) was on display, although nobody was available to comment on whether or not he is in the film.

Some footage, featuring animatics, was also shown. If you do not want to be spoiled, look away now!

- Devastator is... devastating! The mixing drum in his chest becomes a massive turbine grinder. It creates a turbine effect, sucking everything in Devastator's path up, and spitting it out of his back. (similar to previous rumor)
- Wheelie is effectively confirmed as a remote controlled car, in line with other rumors we have heard recently. (ditto)
- Legions of Decepticon drones, resembling Frenzy, will cause carnage in the Witwicky household.
- Sam fights for his life on top of a car against Pretender Alice.
- Captain Lennox also gets to see some serious action against the Decepticons, with full helicopter backup.

Official Bumblebee, Soundwave Toy Pics

Empire Magazine has posted a "first look" at the Deluxe toys for Soundwave and Bumblebee. The images are really nothing different then what we have already seen from leaked images. At least now though we do have official confirmation that at least initially Soundwave's alt mode is a Cybertronian jet. I also am assuming that these to toys are now confirmed for preview release ahead of the main wave as rumored otherwise why provide them to the press now versus other characters like Optimus Prime.

Legends in Packaging and More Bumblebee

More pictures of the Legends line are now online that helps show off the modes of Bumblebee, Jetfire, Optimus Prime and Springer. The full gallery is here.

For those that want a better look at Voyager Bumblebee with Sam, The Arker has posted bunch of pictures of the toy out of the box that provides a closer look at the new toy for the Transformers Revenge of the Fallen toy line. That entire gallery can be found here.

Sam's Parents On the Run Again

Thanks to Mauricio who found new footage by "Nosebleed" from the Transformers set in Philidephia, PA back in June that shows Sam's parents (Julie White and Kevin Dunn) on the run down an alleyway as Michael Bay directs it. It is essentially a new angle on previously footage and amazing enough has been online for 7 months now just no one was aware of it. The set is on Chancellor Street but is dressed as L'Arc de triomphe in Paris, France where the parents are on vacation before a probable Decepticon attack.

TRANSFORMERS 2

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Press Conference?

US Magazine is reporting the return of Transformers' Josh Duhamel returning from his honeymoon with new wife Fergie (Congrats!). Of note though is a little nugget of information they are reporting that, "Duhamel is due to attend a Transformers Revenge of the Fallen press event later today." I have no idea what that means or if it is true. It could just be a chance for the cast and crew to get a sneak peak at the upcoming Superbowl trailer. Thanks to Katie for the link.

Packaging Pics Hint At Megatron

More pictures via The Arker are online for the various Voyager Transformers that show off the packaging and character descriptons in greater detail then the previous pictures. Also apparently a new game will be released.

Voyager class Optimus Prime Gallery

From the moment Optimus Prime took Earth as a new home for himself and his people, he was rededicated to its protection. Since that day, he has focused all of his considerable will and power on rooting out the last few Decepticons and destroying them. To that end, he has upgraded and refined his sensor suite, and trained with Ironhide in tracking the evil robots.

Voyager class Starscream Gallery

The moment his sensor net registered Megatron going offline, Starscream knew that battle was over and the Allspark lost. He converted to vehicle mode and boosted for outer space, hoping to buy enough time to rally the Decepticon survivors. Returning from Cybertron bearing the marks won during his reign over the Decepticon army, he is cocused on conquest. With a new army behind him, he has the strength to pursue his own goals, and perhaps, when the time is right, bring Megatron back.

Bumblebee with Sam Gallery

Bumblebee and Sam were best friends almost from the moment they first met face to face. As they learned more about one another, that connection grew deeper and deeper. Now, whether Sam is behind the wheel, or standing side by side with his friend, they work together as a team. Against Bumblebee and his human friend, no Decepticon stands a chance.

Transformers: RoTF Missile Mania Gallery
From Milton-Bradley, a two player game that involves knocking opponents players with toy missiles.

I think the most significant piece of information, is the image of Megatron that is on all the packaging either in the background behind the toy, on the Missile Mania box and the side of the packaging as multiple readers pointed out from the previous set.

Now the question is how you know that is Megatron? It is a case of following the pictures. Earlier in the year, CGI pictures of a tank with a head image appeared online. Later an action pose of a robot with claw hands and a face nearly identical to the previous pictures appeared online. A post that is almost identical to the toy packaging. Last we have images of Fast Action Megatron in his packaging (therefore official), that has a tank mode and a face mold nearly identical to the previous images. End conclusion is thanks to the toy, we have official confirmation that all are images of Megatron. Now does this mean he returns in the movie? Michael Bay said no to Empire Magazine but who knows at this point.

More Ask Orci Answers

Transformers, Star Trek, Fringe, Eagle Eye, etc writer Roberto Orci did a stop by his thread on the Don Murphy forums and covered a few topics about Transformers 2 including writing, editing, and being a fan boy.

would you say that di Bonaventura’s latest comment that there are “40-odd” robots is a gross exaggeration?
No.

Will the name "Spike" be uttered by anyone in TF2?
No.

if the decepticons are in fact mostly CGI, would that give you greater flexibility in terms of rewrites, or not? would it also mean that ILM can still tweak their designs even till now?
It does give us some freedom. We can even add a scene or two, if need be, which we are mulling over.

now that you've had chance to (hopefully!) devote more screen time to him, how do you feel about the character of Starscream?
He has a much more g1 feel, finally.

Are these scenes which add and help the plot? Serve the fanbase some fanboy goodness? Or are to help with the humor aspect?
Serve fan boy goodness. One of the scenes we're mulling over was Bay's idea, and he pitched it as, "you and the fans are gonna love this..."

Will the camera angles & editing be a bit more steady in TF2? In TF1, people often felt the scenes involving the actual Transformers, where too chopped up to get a clear idea of what's onscreen. I mean, imo the better martial arts movies employ static camera's and continuous editing ; not needing quick edit cuts and weird angles to hide any potential shortcoming. Similar principle would apply to Transformers onscreen, right?
Yes, quite often. (I second this, please end the constant redux of the Bourne movies style. Quantum of Solace's taking it to the nth degree to horrible effect should finally put that filming style to bed.)

do you consider yourself a fanboy and are there things that you get giddy and excited about seeing, that when Bay says "alright cool..lets do it" or when he suggests fanboyish ideas that you think to yourself... "fuck yeah...this is gonna be awesome" and do you have a backlog of fanboyish ideas sitting in the back of your mind incase a good opportunity arises?
I think I am half and half. When Bay pitches a cool idea, he can sometimes get my inner fan boy going, but my professional screenwriter mind has to remain critical and active. Weird balance. If I weren't in this profession, I would be all fan boy.

Canadian Toy Fair TF Info

ActionFiguresNews.ca provides a brief summary of information about the upcoming slate of Transformers 2 and other Hasbro toys. Sadly no pictures however.

Transformers:
-RPMs (Robot Powered Machines), Hot Wheel type cars with robot designs molded onto the bottom
-Soundwave and Bumblebee are confirmed for the Revenge of the Fallen preview wave
-Tons of mock up Revenge of the Fallen toys behind the scenes to show retailers including a Bumblebee Voice Changer Helmet and train set

Chances are the preview will be the Deluxe version of those two characters (pic here). As for the train set, I hope it's new Transformers, maybe something like Hearts of Steel Prime. However, considering that Hasbro has already shown it is content to dip in their well multiple times with re-releases before the new toy line's first wave is even out, I doubt it. More likely, in continuing the combiner theme, the train set a repaint of Rail Racer or JRX from the Robots in Disguise line from 2001. (source)

Voyager Class Transformer Toys in Packaging

The Arker has posted a bunch of new pictures for Transformers Voyager class toys for some returning characters from the first movie. Ironhide returns with an even bigger gun, Bumblebee gains a passenger in form of Sam Witwicky action figure, and Starscream and Optimus Prime gets some modifications, sadly Starscream remains ugly.

Based on the pictures, it appears our returning favorites will remains very close to how they where in the first movie while the toys have been upgraded just a touch in the detail and gimmick department to make buying them all over again very tempting.

Vote For Best Fan Blogging

The Total Film Movie Blog Awards ends January 25th as Transformers Live Action Movie Blog is up for contention. This site did have a pretty good lead until Twilight Movie News got into the game and now commands a 66% lead. We can not have that wimp of a movie beat anything Transformers related.

So vote for me, or at least Transformers here.

Update: Well it appears that polls closed much sooner then expected. I guess I forgot to account for time zone differences. Oh well. Thanks for those that voted, the support is appreciated.

Hearts of Steel Optimus Prime

This has nothing to do with the movie, just some good old fashion Transformer goodness combined with Transfan know how. A few years ago a limited series from IDW came out called "Hearts of Steel" that is kind of an elseworlds story of the Transformers landing on earth sometime around the Industrial Revolution in the early 1900s. Famed Transformer artist Guido Guidi was able to redisign our favorite Transformers based on technology of the time period such as Optimus Prime as a locomotive.

I guess "griffith_76" took a liking to it because he built his own Optimus Prime Transformer that turns into a locomotive that looks pretty darn sweet, complete with a Nemesis Prime repaint. Below are just two pictures but the full gallery is worth the time to check out.

If you do like the toy and have money to spend, you can buy an unassembled kit for $125. For additional money you can get it pre-assembled ($80) and painted ($80). Full details are at Monoblog. It just shows that Hasbro isn't even close to taking advantage of the many iterations and possibilities of the Transformer brand.

Bruticus, Wreckage Repaints

It appears a few more repaints will join the Transformers 2 toy line in the form of Bruticus and Wreckage.

Bruticus is a repaint of the Transformers: Energon toy that came out around 2005. A full gallery can be found here.

Wreckage orginially was released with the first movie toyline, based on a character that had been part of early drafts and designs for the movie. Now the character will be mostly green. A full gallery of that toy is here.

Peter Cullen's Knight Rider Appearance

The episode of Knight Rider where Peter Cullen's reprises his role as the voice of KARR aired last night. Over all the episode was rather bland and considering the build-up, the appearance of the very Transformers-like KARR was just so-so and very brief. How he was defeated just stuck me as strange as if it was a either a stunt that had to be saved in the editing room or maybe they ran out of money.

Thanks to wickweezl, below are two videos. The first is a converted version of NBC's sneak peak and the second is a voice only video (for copyright reasons) of only the moments from the episode that used Peter Cullen's voice.



If you interested in watching the entire episode, click here or watch below. Peter's part in the episode starts at 35:05 point.

Kyle Busch M&M Transformer Car

If you're a fan of Nascar, Transformers, and M&M's you might be interested in the Kyle Busch #18 Diecast car that is for sale. It's the person's car with Optimus Prime colors, Transformers 2 logo and the M&M TF characters. Buddytoy's has it for "sale" at $62 for those interested. Sadly the car does not transform.

Update: Turns out that the above car isn't the only version that will be available. A 1/64 scale will almost be made and can be ordered here for $5.50. I don't know much but I am guessing that size is about Matchbox sized.

Autobot Fleet, Helicopter Painting Pictures

A few pictures from past Transformers sets have come up again. First up is a gallery of pictures that show the work that went into converting helicopters into the Shanghai police copters used for the Bethlehem set back in June. Below is a before, during, and after pictures but a whole lot more are at the full huge gallery here.
Thanks to Mike taking and providing the pictures for us.

Spoiler-TV posted to pictures Queensway Bridge, Long Beach, CA that shows off the entire known Autobot fleet (except for the always absent Ratchet).

Jolt Video and More Constructicon Toy Pictures

The toy pictures and such keep coming. For those thinking "who cares about toys!", the reason is hey we like toys and the toys provide hints on the movie characters and their design. They are basically plastic spoiler alerts.

First up is a video review of Jolt the Volt Fast Action Battler brought to you by the same person that did the great Audi R8 review.


More Construction RH400 pictures have popped up that show off the vehicle mode and head, still no confirmation of character name of if this is 1 of many. Below are a few pictures, the full gallery is here.

Possible Arcee Toy Bike?

TF08.net's mod yizhi521 has posted pictures of a blue Autobot bike that could be the robot form or a component of that form for the Arcee for Transformers 2. The current rumor is that Arcee is the merge of three different bikes colored blue, pink and purple that was custom made by RetroSBK. This idea has not been verified but is supported by the three identical dressed biker women seen on the Bethlehem set and also footage posted by Wal-Mart of the ladies on their respective bikes.

None of this is proof that the bike is Arcee. It could just be another miscellaneous character tossed in to the Transformers 2 toy line much like Depthcharge and Ransack probably are. It is interesting that I don't see any obvious hands and arms for the character however the there isn't a real transformation in the pictures. If the bike is one of three, that head sure is small. As usual, it's going to come down to more toy leaks, hopefully one in its proper packaging.