The Energon Pub

not long after the new photos emerged of TF2 at the Arizona Boneyard, car-enthousiast website Jalopnik.com has received some photos of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen at the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona. The photos show Bumblebee along with the Chevrolet Beat and Trax.

Interestingly enough, the license plate of the green Chevrolet Beat seems to point towards the possible identity of the transformer. It appears that the Beat will be "Skids"

See the photos by clicking here.

Just for kicks I tried upsizing the other plate. I might see if my wife can use photoshop later and do anything clearer. I for one can make nothing out, although I really want it to say "Jumper" so he can be a non-BB repaint for once.

Skids, huh? Not a character I usually care much about, but no disappointment either. For some reason, I really want the Trax to be Skram. We need some G2 references!

if it wasnt for that dumb water mark over the licens plate of the red car i could find out but the watermark makes it blurry its hard to tell bad place for watermark should put watermark on top of the picture

A few people on other boards have guessed "Mirage" for the Trax, and looking at the photos again, it looks like that could almost be it.

If that orange/red car is Mirage, sh*t's going to hit the fan again.

Lol, I swear that was the first thing I thought I saw on it but then I figured it would be ridiculous so I didn't even mention that. If others have that makes me rather..um...concerned? If that's the case I guess Bay just can't use original colors. Maybe theres some kind of random color wheel used. "This guy was blue....*spin the wheel*..he's green now!"

Seriously though, the car fits Skids perfectly, but there's plenty other of minibot types to cast as a little guy. A subcompact doesn't scream "I'm in ur ship blowing up ur controls" to me. It says something more like "I can always find a parking space!".

Here's the zoomed up plate:


Edit: Looking closer again,after waking up a bit more, I do see an "M" (I think), but if it is it's more "grafiti" style than standard plate writing. I'm thinking we can speculate, but it's just shy of seeing enough to really tell.

That being the case, lets start a name pool! I'm totally going with Seaspray, because it wouldn't make any sense at all, therefore it's more likely.

I don't think it's the watermark making it blurry, which makes me wonder why SKIDS is so clear. I thnk it's fake

Just for kicks I tried upsizing the other plate. I might see if my wife can use photoshop

dont see how thats possible unless if photoshop is able to take watermakrs off of a photo thats unlikly

i can barley make the first 2 letter first one is either
m, n, or w and the next is I oy J think i see an L in there somewhere last letter looks y, x or k

kinda looks nightbeat to me or has the words night or beat in it who knows

Well if that one is Skids I think they should honour another under used G1 character and call the Trax Swerve.

Plus if they are the twins I think "Skids and Swerve" sounds good together.

I think the Red one would make a better skids but the beat is good. But what the hell is with the color? That lime green is horrid. Its nice to see that there still is no color continuity in the movies. First Black Ironhide and Green Ratchet now green Skidz and silver Sideswipe. Im still waiting for the purle Hot Rod and White Soundwave.

I saw other pictures that show a red beat next to the green one. There was also the image on TFW of a blue cars wheelwell that had the same general shape and hubcap as the beats. That makes 3. We know there are 3 Arcee-esque motorcycles right? Now I know this is gonna sound a might bit crazy but what if the autobot combiner (if there is one) Is a combo of the Beats and Cycles into a big multicolored mess? Maybe the blue beat is Skids and we are just getting odd information again. (this crackpot theory brought to you by 1 picture of a blue beat-esque wheelwell)

I can't help but think 'Why put the characters name on their numberplate?'

I smell an Admiral Ackbar impression coming on

I loved the movie, but I am getting more than a little frustrated with the random color schemes. Yellowish ratchet, black ironhide, tan starscream, and now white sideswipe and green tracks?!!

Yeah, this little car will suit Skids good enough.

His original alt form was a similar econo hatchback anyway. Some sort of Honda mini hatchback in the past.

Soldier of Shockwave wrote:I saw other pictures that show a red beat next to the green one. There was also the image on TFW of a blue cars wheelwell that had the same general shape and hubcap as the beats. That makes 3. We know there are 3 Arcee-esque motorcycles right? Now I know this is gonna sound a might bit crazy but what if the autobot combiner (if there is one) Is a combo of the Beats and Cycles into a big multicolored mess? Maybe the blue beat is Skids and we are just getting odd information again. (this crackpot theory brought to you by 1 picture of a blue beat-esque wheelwell)

The blue car you saw is the Chevy Volt - already spotted on set. GM says its not a TF, but I smell BS.

SDL wrote:I can't help but think 'Why put the characters name on their numberplate?'

I smell an Admiral Ackbar impression coming on

Maybe Bay have a collection Binaltech/Alternator toys.

OK, I don't know if anyone else has noticed this, and I'm not sure if they will try to explain it in TF2, but Bumbulbee is different.

here is a decent pic of him from the pics given:



And here is a pic from Bumbulbee going into the first TF movie:



Some major differences include:

#1: Hood scope/air intake

#2: Weird verticle grill on the bottom where the fog lights used to be.

#3: The car, overall, looks a tad different, could be the angle or lighting, but it looks kinda different.

As for the other cars, I wish one of them was Cliffjumper, but I doubt it will. Mainly because of Hasbro. They already released a toy as a red repaint of BB, and from what I've seen, as much as they re-use names, they usually tend to leave well enough alone when within the same series. So I doubt Bay would make CJ when Hasbro said "well he'd have to be a red Camaro".

Just my thoughts.

do they really need to explain why bumble be has a diff front bumper, wheels, and hood scoop? its not that serious of a change to have to explain in my opinion

Hmm...although I wouldn't be dissapointed at all (I thought Skids was a cool cat,) I'm hoping for Brawn and Windcharger for minibot goodness. Meh, they can make Skids a minibot too I guess.

I don't buy it.

Why Skids?

No offense, but there are several better choices to use other than Skids.

I wouldn't surprised at all if that's just a temporary/fake name for it just to fool people and so they wouldn't be able to guess the real name.

My 2 cents.

oldskooltf wrote:I don't buy it.

Why Skids?

No offense, but there are several better choices to use other than Skids.

I wouldn't surprised at all if that's just a temporary/fake name for it just to fool people and so they wouldn't be able to guess the real name.

My 2 cents.

what do you mean, why skids?

why not skids? what you guys have to remember is that this is not g1, the characters in this franchise are NOT the same characters from the cartoon, they only share name and in some cases personality and alt modes...in other cases they dont share anything at all...

Its better that Bay chose a character that is less "known" because now we wont hear people bitching about how "skids would never do that in g1." New characters who just happen to share old character names is not a bad thing (i.e. beast wars)

You also mention that there are better choices than skids..better how? You dont know what the script calls for, maybe skids is a better choice then your assuming....

I do agree that the names are probably just there to help the crew distinguish which car has to do what, the plate doesnt even really say skids, it says "SKID5" but i admit thats closenough to call him skids for the time being

Bottom Out wrote:

oldskooltf wrote:I don't buy it.

Why Skids?

No offense, but there are several better choices to use other than Skids.

I wouldn't surprised at all if that's just a temporary/fake name for it just to fool people and so they wouldn't be able to guess the real name.

My 2 cents.

what do you mean, why skids?

why not skids? what you guys have to remember is that this is not g1, the characters in this franchise are NOT the same characters from the cartoon, they only share name and in some cases personality and alt modes...in other cases they dont share anything at all...

Its better that Bay chose a character that is less "known" because now we wont hear people bitching about how "skids would never do that in g1." New characters who just happen to share old character names is not a bad thing (i.e. beast wars)

You also mention that there are better choices than skids..better how? You dont know what the script calls for, maybe skids is a better choice then your assuming....

I do agree that the names are probably just there to help the crew distinguish which car has to do what, the plate doesnt even really say skids, it says "SKID5" but i admit thats closenough to call him skids for the time being

I do love my G1, but I did not mind Ironhide being a black truck or Ratchet being a green/yellow hummer, etc... I loved Ironhide's personality in the movie.

I also appreciated how they chose Optimus, Bumblebee, Ratchet, Ironhide, and Jazz as the 5 autobots for the first movie because those were main characters from the original cartoon. Now... the deceps were a little different. Bonecrusher was not as popularly seen as Scrapper or Long Haul and Brawl was not as popular as Swindle, but I didn't mind since they gave us Megatron & Starscream and Blackout & Barricade were very cool -- I didn't mind the new-ish names for them.

From what I read, they choose names mostly based on the character's popularity from G1 or due to the type of vehicle they need (like Brawl being a tank or Scorponok being a scorpion). I'm not one of the people who wants everything like G1 (Blackout and Barricade were awesome for example)... but if they do use G1 names, I assume it's either cause the original G1 guy was popular or because it's the best fit for the altmode. Skids does not meet either of those... in my humble opinion.

I WILL reserve my final judgement for when I finally see TF:ROTF, but as for now... I'm a little surprised and skeptical for those reasons.

That's why I said "Why Skids"

I'm just guessing this like everyone.

I was thinking Perceptor earlier but now looking at the pic again think it may be Powerglide. The reason is the first letter looks more like a P to me than an M. Also the car is red - both Perceptor and Powerglide were red-coloured and the name looks like its at least 9 characters long - so it can't be Mirage. Another reason is, despite the old G1 Powerglide being a plane, its also a well-known minibot (like Skids), and since powergliding is almost another term for drifting, the name would seem to go well with Skids.

Comparing the pics posted by powersteamracing, i prefer the old TF1 Bumblebee. The car looks better.

TF2 Camaro looks like it is trying very hard to look "improved".