The Energon Pub

And lo, i have returned. Well, i say returned, i never really left. I just didn't feel a desire to actually say anything beyond what i said about ROTF's depiction of Egypt and et cetera until now. Thought i'd make a "Bayformers fun facts/clarification" thread where everything gets lumped into one spot, just to avoid cluttering up the main movie forum page with individual topics.

Thought i'd (re)start with Blackout and Grindor. First off: it's a very common misconception that the rotor weapons used by the terrible twins are smaller duplicates of the main rotor assembly. They're not, they're actually the tail rotors with the blades split apart. You can tell they're not duplicates just by comparing the shapes of the blades. SS Blackout also uses the tail rotor as the melee weapon, although it's only semi-movie accurate due to the onscreen rotor splitting not being included since engineering that would be too much of a pain for Hasbro to figure out.

Grindor only has six main rotor blades in his CH-53E Super Stallion mode whereas normal Super Stallions have seven main blades, this fictionalization of the Super Stallion was done to make the helicopter match the robot. The way i see it there are two possible in-universe explanations for why Grindor's Stallion only has six main blades: one is that he scanned a damaged Stallion and compensated for the missing blade, the other is that he scanned a fictional CH-53E prototype variant. The latter is what i've been going with, because fictional variants/upgrades of real vehicles are fun.

And lastly, Grindor and Blackout seem to be the same height. At least that's what Hasbro seems to be going for since the height difference between SS Optimus and SS Blackout is the same as the onscreen height difference between Optimus and Grindor.

And that concludes that. If anyone else wants to chime in here then feel free, i'm not exactly aiming for an echo chamber here. All i ask is that people be smart about it and keep the not-smartness to a minimum.

Some general info on Drift.

Drift is a former 'Con who defected to the Autobots.

Drift and his companions arrived on Earth in the mid 19th century, specifically Japan where they took a liking to the local culture and integrated themselves into Japanese culture and society as best they could, styling their behavior and physical structure to better fit in. Which is why they look like Samurai. Drift, and possibly his companions, stayed on Earth throughout the rest of the 19th century, the entire 20th century (1945 would've been a fun year for them) and the early 21st century.

Drift has likely had many an alt-mode since arriving in 19th century Japan. His original alt-modes prior to the widespread adoption of the car on Earth were most likely a Cybertronian car of some sort and a Cybertronian attack helicopter that he acquired when he joined the military/'Cons before the reformation of the military into the Decepticons and the beginning of the war between the 'Cons and the Autobot rebels. The Cybertronian helicopter, as i understand it, was retained up to the present day. His 21st century alt-modes, the ones we've actually seen him use at least, are a Bugatti Veyron, a Mercedes AMG GT-R, and the Cybertronian helicopter.

His weapons include a pair of swords that serve as the second pair of main rotors in his helicopter mode and missiles. In the year or so following the battle of Hong Kong Drift retrieved his other sword but decided to switch to a different fighting style, only using the sword for his meditative balancing act. And as of TLK he no longer has need of the helicopter with both Pterry and his progenitor Strafe around. At least as far as recon missions are concerned. He would bring his other sword if the helicopter was needed for combat.

And that concludes my explanation of Drift as i understand him.

The reason Skids and Mudflap fought over their alt-modes in ROTF is because Mudflap tried to go for the green car even though they'd already agreed prior to the Shanghai mission on which of the two cars they would be using when they returned, as shown by the licence plates and dialogue. Quite simple really.

Speaking of the Shanghai mission, Skids and Mudflap's voices swap around at the end of their part of the Sideways chase as a result of them accidentally disconnecting from each other, the sudden and unplanned disconnection briefly scrambling their software. The Twins make their final onscreen appearance in vehicle mode in DOTM and later meet their end offscreen via Sentinel's rust chemical gun. The debris that flies out of the hangar during Sentinel's Pillar heist is, as i understand it, the Twins. Or what's left of them.

Quintessa, the all-powerful creator of the Creators, and through them Cybertron and the Transformers. Or so she thinks. What she really is is a delusional, malfunctioning Cybertronian whose origins can be traced back to a laboratory on the Creator homeworld, just like all the rest. She created the Staff, the energy siphon ship, the ignition chamber and, in collaboration with Sentinel Prime using cold construction as opposed to growth in an Energon womb as with the others, Optimus Prime. And that's as far as her creator status goes. She is no god, just a malfunctioning AI with delusions of grandeur.

The Unicron killer system and her co-creation of Optimus are the only things that make her in any way special. Take that away and she's just a small floating Cybertronian. A con artist who believes her own lies, great deceiver indeed.

The Bayverse version of the British Army uses the M1 Abrams main battle tank and M2 Bradley infantry fighting vehicle in place of the Challenger 1 and 2 MBTs and the Warrior IFV, as shown in TLK. The British Chieftain MBT is also shown being used along with the Abrams at Stonehenge. The presence of the Chieftain shows that the Abrams entered British service before 1983, which is the year the Challenger 1 was introduced. The M2 Bradley would have entered British service before 1984, the year the Warrior was introduced, with the M2 probably replacing the FV432. The US and British M1s and M2s most likely entered service in the same years, 1980 for the M1 Abrams and 1981 for the M2 Bradley.

In fact, in the real world the M1 Abrams was briefly considered as a replacement for the Challenger 1 though the MOD decided to go with an updated Challenger instead. In ROTF Egypt is also briefly shown using the Bradley shortly before the four RJAF UH-60s arrive.

The Constructicons as i understand them.

1. There are multiple teams of Constructicons, as is clearly shown throughout the films.

2. They would've served as workers and labourers on pre-war Cybertron, hence the name.

3. All Constructicons are capable of combination.

4. There would have been two Devastator-type combiners prior to the events of ROTF. With only two Constructicons, Scavenger and Demolishor, being large enough to serve as the cores of the combiners, and with their deaths the Devastators are no more.

5. They likely would have been conscripted into Decepticon service and then remade by Shockwave into combiners.

6. The original Devastator combiner, the one assigned the task of uncovering the Star Harvester, was a quick bodge job using less than ideal resources, resulting in a combiner that was mechanically and mentally inferior to previous and subsequent combiners.

7. Trench, the excavator Autobot that hides out in Cade's junkyard in TLK, is a Constructicon deserter that defected to the Autobots following the battle of the Gulf of Aqaba. As i understand it the excavator 'Con visible in the background of the quarry combination scene is Trench, with him deserting as the other Constructicons are combining. His role there would've been to oversee the combination process.

8. Scrapmetal is shown transforming from a wheeled loader to a tracked excavator, with Rampage briefly taking on Scrapmetal's yellow paint job before changing his mind and switching back to his usual red.

9. Scrapmetal is indeed "ze little one". Scalpel was speaking in a derogative, non-literal "you are worthless beyond being an organ donor" manner.

And that's my understanding of the Constructicons.

I've decided, against my better judgement i suspect (but hopefully not) given my less than stellar experience on the interwebs, to continue this thread.

ROTF's forest fight takes place in New Jersey's Pine Barrens, approximately 29 miles northeast of Philadelphia near the Pemberton Township and Country Lake Estates by my reckoning. More specifically the location i've decided on is a patch of forest just east of the Country Lake Estates.

The derelict power plant Grindor drops off Sam, Mikaela, Leo and Wheelie at is a fictional hybrid of the Richmond and Delaware power plants. In the real world there are two derelict power plants in Philadelphia positioned a little under 3 miles apart, Richmond to the east and Delaware to the west. In the Bayverse they are one and the same hybrid building. The hybrid, named Delaware station, is located on the site of Richmond power plant. The general architecture of Bayverse Delaware station is largely that of Richmond with various elements of the real Delaware station dotted about the area. The name Delaware station is clearly visible on the exterior of the building when Megatron crashes through the window and transforms into flying tank mode.

The aircraft carrier USS Midway is also visible in the background when Grindor is flying to the Delaware power plant. This is another divergence between real world history and Bayverse history, in the real world Midway is moored up in San Diego.

And that's my understanding of that.

The UCAV/unmanned combat aerial vehicle featured throughout the films is the General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper, most often identified in the films by the manufacturer designation Predator with the full designation being Predator B. The military designation of Reaper is used in Age of Extinction, and the plural designation "Preds" is used in The Last Knight. Predator is used for the entire line of drones starting with the MQ-1 Predator which retroactively became the Predator A when the Predator B was developed. Most recently the name was assigned to the Avenger, AKA the Predator C.

Two variants are featured in the films: a fictional black unarmed jet powered variant and a turboprop variant. A single jet Predator B was sent to scout out and monitor the Qatari village in TF1. In Revenge of The Fallen a jet Predator B along with two turboprops, one white, the other grey, were sent to scout out and monitor the Gulf of Aqaba in the absence of the US military satellite network which had been shut down by Soundwave. It can also be assumed that the UCAVs used to probe the Decepticon blockade around Chicago were Predator Bs.

The weaponry of the Predator B includes the AGM-114 Hellfire missile, the GBU-12 Paveway II bomb, and the GBU-38 JDAM bomb. It can also carry the AIM-92 Stinger missile and the Brimstone missile.

A variant of the original MQ-1 Predator, the MQ-1C Gray Eagle, is visible in the background in the Autobot's hangar at the Washington DC NEST facility.

A few lines that include the name Predator are: "Predator's coming up in a minute, from TF1. "Scramble Predators now", from Revenge of The Fallen. And "Get Preds and satellites eyes on", from The Last Knight.

Thanks to KSI using an artificial version of solar plasma, solar plasma being the raw form of Energon in the Bayverse, to repower their dead head collection in order to pull data from them Megatron's Fusion Cannon wound has continued to regenerate in the 5 years following his death on La Salle Street Bridge, his axe wound has also completely regenerated by the time he began his takeover of the 5th Galvatron drone. The lower part of the cheek plating on his right side is also absent in AOE because it broke off when Optimus decapitated him 5 years prior on that bridge.

And while the other heads had all the sentience of Glenn's Nokia before S7 fired a bolt of Energon at it Megatron was fully conscious and aware of everything going on around him after Joyce had him reactivated thanks to Scalpel modifying his computer systems to be fully operational while being powered by raw Energon.

As for what happened to the rest of his body after Chicago, it was most likely dismantled, melted down and used to make KSI drones.