The Energon Pub

optronix91 wrote:

Auto Bot wrote:That's a nice one.

But Jazz have to be an exotic high-end sports car. As a homage to his G1 Porsche alt mode.

Well, he's still dead in the end...

Yeah. What the heck.

I didnt mind having SOME autobots as GM vehicles, but the product placement was WAY too glaring.

I mean, since when did all transformers have to be the NEWEST most EXPENSIVE cars available? That seems to be what they were going for...

Back in G1, the Autoobts were a mix of American, Japanese, and German vehicles. To suddenly have all of them from 1 car maker is pretty silly.

And in addition, lots of the other background cars were also from GM. (Like someone said about the Sector 7 vehicles...)

This just made the product placement even more noticeable.

Graz73 wrote:I didnt mind having SOME autobots as GM vehicles, but the product placement was WAY too glaring.

I mean, since when did all transformers have to be the NEWEST most EXPENSIVE cars available? That seems to be what they were going for...

Back in G1, the Autoobts were a mix of American, Japanese, and German vehicles. To suddenly have all of them from 1 car maker is pretty silly.

And in addition, lots of the other background cars were also from GM. (Like someone said about the Sector 7 vehicles...)

This just made the product placement even more noticeable.

You forgot to mention... Since when did all Autobots have to clearly show the car brand emblem right on their chests?

Graz73 wrote:I didnt mind having SOME autobots as GM vehicles, but the product placement was WAY too glaring.

I mean, since when did all transformers have to be the NEWEST most EXPENSIVE cars available? That seems to be what they were going for...

Back in G1, the Autoobts were a mix of American, Japanese, and German vehicles. To suddenly have all of them from 1 car maker is pretty silly.

And in addition, lots of the other background cars were also from GM. (Like someone said about the Sector 7 vehicles...)

This just made the product placement even more noticeable.

Once again though, that wasn't Micahel Bay's fault. He put the offer out to just about every car manufacturere out there. GM was the only one to take the offer. None of the european companeis want anything to do with Transformers, particularly the German companies who want nothing to do with anything that deals with war. Ford gave them permission to use the Mustang Saleen for Barricade, but that is it. Only GM signed on. That is why all the major vehicles are GM vehicles. It wasn't Michael Bay's doing, it was the car companies. They didn't want to be a part of it, GM did. It was good marketing for them, and they have had a good relationship with Bay in the past.

Tramp wrote:

Graz73 wrote:I didnt mind having SOME autobots as GM vehicles, but the product placement was WAY too glaring.

I mean, since when did all transformers have to be the NEWEST most EXPENSIVE cars available? That seems to be what they were going for...

Back in G1, the Autoobts were a mix of American, Japanese, and German vehicles. To suddenly have all of them from 1 car maker is pretty silly.

And in addition, lots of the other background cars were also from GM. (Like someone said about the Sector 7 vehicles...)

This just made the product placement even more noticeable.

Once again though, that wasn't Micahel Bay's fault. He put the offer out to just about every car manufacturere out there. GM was the only one to take the offer. None of the european companeis want anything to do with Transformers, particularly the German companies who want nothing to do with anything that deals with war. Ford gave them permission to use the Mustang Saleen for Barricade, but that is it. Only GM signed on. That is why all the major vehicles are GM vehicles. It wasn't Michael Bay's doing, it was the car companies. They didn't want to be a part of it, GM did. It was good marketing for them, and they have had a good relationship with Bay in the past.

This is not true. Because of Michael Bay's past relationship with GM, they were his primary choice. This is alo reflected in the amount of "sponsorship" they paid to be in the movie...next to nothing. If this were a bid for the sponsorship, you would have seen a higher fee paid. And the reason Saleen is in the movie is because they built the 09 Camaro in the movie (plus a Mustang makes a good arch enemy for a Camaro).

They may have been his primary choice, but he did shop around, and no other car company wanted to sign on. This is public record. Michael Bay put the word out to every major car company, not just GM because of their past relationship. He definately wanted the Camaro for Bumblebee, but he was open to all car manufactureres, none of the others wanted to be a part of it, particularly the German companies.

Tramp wrote:They may have been his primary choice, but he did shop around, and no other car company wanted to sign on. This is public record. Michael Bay put the word out to every major car company, not just GM because of their past relationship. He definately wanted the Camaro for Bumblebee, but he was open to all car manufactureres, none of the others wanted to be a part of it, particularly the German companies.

Show me proof of this because it has been said in many magazines that Michael Bay went directly to GM. Show me proof.

Tramp wrote:They may have been his primary choice, but he did shop around, and no other car company wanted to sign on. This is public record. Michael Bay put the word out to every major car company, not just GM because of their past relationship. He definately wanted the Camaro for Bumblebee, but he was open to all car manufactureres, none of the others wanted to be a part of it, particularly the German companies.

Please don't f***ing poke the bear. In a fandom divided so many times over choices higher-ups have made, we don't need more hostility here. Couldn't people just stop bashing one another?

Whoever said Jazz could have been a G6... just yuck. I'm a Pontiac guy, but yuck.

VW is known to have passed, which didn't seem to hurt Bay's feelings any. So VW took Porsche, Lambo, Bugatti, Bentley, and Audi with them.

Ford didn't allow the Mustang, but Saleen allowed the S281, and that's why you don't see Ford listed in the credits or on the back of the Barricade box.

I think it just pisses people off that it was GM, not someone else, that got the deal. Had it been Toyota, would we hear all the whining?

GM does something very well, they supply a product to nearly everyone. There are still lots of cars to chose from for sequels and new characters. The Corvette, the XLR, the CTS-V, the Sky could be a brother written to avenge Jazz, the new G8 or any of the other Holden varients, any of the Opels in Europe. Lots of possibilities. So it also makes sense if you have to have a licensing agreement with major company that probably covers possible sequels, might as well leave yourself with future selections. And I wouldn't be at all suprised if the deal included sequels, these kinds of contracts and licensing deals get pretty specific with each sides lawyers.

And as for the movie being a commercial, the only part that was blatent was when BB changed forms and pulled up. The music starts playing and you here "da dant dant!". That was like a commercial, but how did it really hurt anything? You can't go buy a Camaro anyway, so what's the harm. Now if GM had been outside the theater selling Camaros to people exiting, I could see that being a huge issue.

GetterDragun wrote:

Tramp wrote:

Graz73 wrote:I didnt mind having SOME autobots as GM vehicles, but the product placement was WAY too glaring.

I mean, since when did all transformers have to be the NEWEST most EXPENSIVE cars available? That seems to be what they were going for...

Back in G1, the Autoobts were a mix of American, Japanese, and German vehicles. To suddenly have all of them from 1 car maker is pretty silly.

And in addition, lots of the other background cars were also from GM. (Like someone said about the Sector 7 vehicles...)

This just made the product placement even more noticeable.

Once again though, that wasn't Micahel Bay's fault. He put the offer out to just about every car manufacturere out there. GM was the only one to take the offer. None of the european companeis want anything to do with Transformers, particularly the German companies who want nothing to do with anything that deals with war. Ford gave them permission to use the Mustang Saleen for Barricade, but that is it. Only GM signed on. That is why all the major vehicles are GM vehicles. It wasn't Michael Bay's doing, it was the car companies. They didn't want to be a part of it, GM did. It was good marketing for them, and they have had a good relationship with Bay in the past.

This is not true. Because of Michael Bay's past relationship with GM, they were his primary choice. This is alo reflected in the amount of "sponsorship" they paid to be in the movie...next to nothing. If this were a bid for the sponsorship, you would have seen a higher fee paid. And the reason Saleen is in the movie is because they built the 09 Camaro in the movie (plus a Mustang makes a good arch enemy for a Camaro).

Yup. It was a Michael Bay-GM deal all the way.

optronix91 wrote:This would do....
They could do a modified sports-version.

Oh, I do love the Grand Prix.

And yeah, Bay got $3 Million in cars. Would you pass down an offer like that?

Shadowman wrote:

optronix91 wrote:This would do....
They could do a modified sports-version.

Oh, I do love the Grand Prix.

And yeah, Bay got $3 Million in cars. Would you pass down an offer like that?

That was a turd of a G6 he posted, not a Grand Prix.

Shadowman wrote:

optronix91 wrote:This would do....
They could do a modified sports-version.

Oh, I do love the Grand Prix.

And yeah, Bay got $3 Million in cars. Would you pass down an offer like that?

That's being faithful to the economics. Not to the making of Transformers story.

Someone made the point of them choosing vehicles that are not common and I have to agree with that, what better way to draw attention to yourself than choosing the new Pontiac "this" or the new GMC "that".

It will be nice to see some Autobots transform into ordinary everyday cars.

Auto Bot wrote:That's a nice one.

But Jazz have to be an exotic high-end sports car. As a homage to his G1 Porsche alt mode.

Kind of like a Chevy Corvette.

DorkimusPrime wrote:Barricade was the Saleen Mustank so that GM could prove that they were the good guys and Ford were the baddies.

Oh, hang on a sec...let me adjust my tin-foil hat...

Too bad Ford did not want to be in line with the "bad guys". Barricade was just a Saleen S281 “Extreme” Mustang with no Ford attachment.

Now the funny thing about Bumblebee is that because there was not a moving 2009 Camero when filming started so Saleen also built that. He started out as a Pontiac GTO and they cut him down, used specs from GM (yes Chevy is a GM owned company), and built him back up to the Camero we see.

Autobot Vanquisher wrote:

Auto Bot wrote:That's a nice one.

But Jazz have to be an exotic high-end sports car. As a homage to his G1 Porsche alt mode.

Kind of like a Chevy Corvette.

Hmm.. Possible.

But in my personal opinion, Corvette's front hood/bumper could be a bit too thin and sharp.

I think this is all obvious.

Optimus prime told all the autobots to take GM vehicles so he can esily recognize them and the humans can recognize them as allies.

duh

Autobotic9 wrote:I think this is all obvious.

Optimus prime told all the autobots to take GM vehicles so he can esily recognize them and the humans can recognize them as allies.

duh

You didnt mean that.... right?

Nemesis Optronix wrote:

Autobotic9 wrote:I think this is all obvious.

Optimus prime told all the autobots to take GM vehicles so he can esily recognize them and the humans can recognize them as allies.

duh

You didnt mean that.... right?

Autobots needed the negotiated deal. Otherwise, if they were caught indiscriminately copying the designs of cars without permission, they could be sued!

Auto Bot wrote:

Nemesis Optronix wrote:

Autobotic9 wrote:I think this is all obvious.

Optimus prime told all the autobots to take GM vehicles so he can esily recognize them and the humans can recognize them as allies.

duh

You didnt mean that.... right?

Autobots needed the negotiated deal. Otherwise, if they were caught indiscriminately copying the designs of cars without permission, they could be sued!

And that wouldn't be good for brand image. Autobots: Now With Less Litigation!

From the sounds of things it looks like all the other car companies didn't want nothing to do with the movie.
Beside GM,
I think it was a dumb part on the other car cmpanies to pass up such an awsome advertisement method, this is were GM probably cashed in.

Personally I do feel that there was too much GM advertising, & hopfully we'll see other car makers give permission to use their vehichles in the second movie some verity would be great.

Has any thought of emailing the other car makers & asking them why the would not have their car models in the movie?

I know that for the video game Grand Turismo, some of the car companies would not want agree to let the game makers use their cars if the cars were able to take damage. Could this be somehow related as to why other car companies did not want anything to do with the Tansformers movie.

But Transformers can heal themselves.

Auto Bot wrote:But Transformers can heal themselves.

Via CR chambers...