The Energon Pub

This may be confidential, but the "author" of this email gave a fake name anyways - Bob Marley... What gets me is not the content necessarily, it's the utter lack of attention to spelling and grammaticar. Here's what he had to say:

"You had the chance to have your Volks Wagon Beetle plastered across every childrens wall in America and said no because you didnt want to license the vw image to the new Transformers Movie. Your completly insane. Your completely nuts. Unbelievable and marketing should be fired. If this has to do with someones Pride I think a good Firing should be the business of the day. Think . the most popular childrens animated car was going to be a VW Bug and now thanks to you its a camoro. Ohh My God. You FOOLS. Enjoy watching camaro sales go up.."


I wonder if anyone from this board wrote it.

Better a Camaro then an import.
Feel sorry for the jerk who *attempted* to write this.

the dude has a point but the camaro is way cooler than the beatle,
beatles are more minicon than anything

i would've liked bumblebee as a beetle

I've been saying this about VW for so long.

Bumblebee is the Gilligan of Transformers, everyone loves Bumblebee, he's the friend every kid wanted to have.

But VW says no because they don't want their vehicles to be portrayed as "war machines."

Boy, I bet they're kicking themselves in the cahones over the Transformers movie now.

Lets hope Hasbro tells VW to "sod off" if they come asking to be involved in the property again.

As far as I know VW wasn't even approached regarding the movie. Not just because of their refusal to license the Alternators line but because Bay has a close working relationship with GM. Even if Volkswagen were willing to give the okay, Bumblebee still would have been a GM vehicle.

i can categorically say that VW is NOT concerned about Transformers. they have the Toureg in Bourne Ultimatum and the new Audi R8 in Iron Man. trust me, Transformers is an afterthought.

AbsumZer0 wrote:As far as I know VW wasn't even approached regarding the movie. Not just because of their refusal to license the Alternators line but because Bay has a close working relationship with GM. Even if Volkswagen were willing to give the okay, Bumblebee still would have been a GM vehicle.

a geo metro!

armandez wrote:i can categorically say that VW is NOT concerned about Transformers. they have the Toureg in Bourne Ultimatum and the new Audi R8 in Iron Man. trust me, Transformers is an afterthought.

At the time Transformers was being made however Iron man was a gleam in Jon Favreaus eye and Bourne was just getting off the ground.

The "writer" really thinks that Bumblebee will cause more people to buy a Camaro? Either I'm not as gullible as I think or something is wrong here...

I agree, a Geo Metro would have been awesome.

yeah that sucks.

While the writer is correct about VW's sentiments about not wanting their vehicles associated with anythignt that has to do with war, It was not VW's choice that Bumblebee was not a bug. That was purely Michael Bay. He specifcally chose not to even consider using the old VW Bug for Bumblebee because of the new Herbie the Love Bug movie, which he absolutely hated. He did not want Bumblebee associated with Herbie in any way, shape, or form.

Tramp wrote:While the writer is correct about VW's sentiments about not wanting their vehicles associated with anythignt that has to do with war, It was not VW's choice that Bumblebee was not a bug. That was purely Michael Bay. He specifcally chose not to even consider using the old VW Bug for Bumblebee because of the new Herbie the Love Bug movie, which he absolutely hated. He did not want Bumblebee associated with Herbie in any way, shape, or form.

Which is more badass, a VW Beetle, or a Chevy Camaro?

I'd pick the Chevy any day. How about you?

Shadowman wrote:

Tramp wrote:While the writer is correct about VW's sentiments about not wanting their vehicles associated with anythignt that has to do with war, It was not VW's choice that Bumblebee was not a bug. That was purely Michael Bay. He specifcally chose not to even consider using the old VW Bug for Bumblebee because of the new Herbie the Love Bug movie, which he absolutely hated. He did not want Bumblebee associated with Herbie in any way, shape, or form.

Which is more badass, a VW Beetle, or a Chevy Camaro?

I'd pick the Chevy any day. How about you?

A camaro is definately more badass. the other point was what would a teenage boy rather own, a VW Bug or a Camaro? Obviously, the Camaro, it's "cooler".

I dont think there was anything on VW's part. I mean surely they would have had to Ok the appearance of the Beetle that Bumblebee trashed.
Thing that bothers me is the fact that alot of the charachters were named due to their vehicle forms.
Prowl is a cop car, Ratchet an Ambulance, Inferno a fire engine etc.
Hook, Hoist, Astrotrain, Mixmaster, Seaspray (do they even have sea's on Cybertron?)

Bumblebee has that name because of what he was. A beetle. a VW 'Bug' and now the film tries to fob it off as some Mohammed Ali reference.

If Bumblebee had been a Geo Metro...

I would be THE happiest fangirl in the world

My car would've gotten a paint-job lol

Fananga wrote:I dont think there was anything on VW's part. I mean surely they would have had to Ok the appearance of the Beetle that Bumblebee trashed.
Thing that bothers me is the fact that alot of the charachters were named due to their vehicle forms.
Prowl is a cop car, Ratchet an Ambulance, Inferno a fire engine etc.
Hook, Hoist, Astrotrain, Mixmaster, Seaspray (do they even have sea's on Cybertron?)

Bumblebee has that name because of what he was. A beetle. a VW 'Bug' and now the film tries to fob it off as some Mohammed Ali reference.

I agree with you for the most part, but they did keep his personality and color scheme. He is still a yellow and black car. Hasbro just can't use the Bug any more, and Bay refused to even consider it. That is why he chose the Camaro for the movie, and why in both the Classics and new Animated lines, Bumblebee is still not a VW Bug. They cannot under any circumstances use the VW Bug for Bumblebee any more.

Tramp wrote:

Fananga wrote:I dont think there was anything on VW's part. I mean surely they would have had to Ok the appearance of the Beetle that Bumblebee trashed.
Thing that bothers me is the fact that alot of the charachters were named due to their vehicle forms.
Prowl is a cop car, Ratchet an Ambulance, Inferno a fire engine etc.
Hook, Hoist, Astrotrain, Mixmaster, Seaspray (do they even have sea's on Cybertron?)

Bumblebee has that name because of what he was. A beetle. a VW 'Bug' and now the film tries to fob it off as some Mohammed Ali reference.

I agree with you for the most part, but they did keep his personality and color scheme. He is still a yellow and black car. Hasbro just can't use the Bug any more, and Bay refused to even consider it. That is why he chose the Camaro for the movie, and why in both the Classics and new Animated lines, Bumblebee is still not a VW Bug. They cannot under any circumstances use the VW Bug for Bumblebee any more.

If the car was owned by anyone then vw wouldnt have to approve it. Most of the cars that were trashed in the movie were katrina and texas flood cars so they were bought from insurance agencies and such. New cars are generally the ones that the car makers donate or authorize in order to promote.

As a die hard G1 fanboy, I'm glad Bumblebee is a Camaro. It's nice to see Bumble as a warrior capable of kicking ass instead of grabbing Spike and running all the time.

Robinson wrote:

Tramp wrote:

Fananga wrote:I dont think there was anything on VW's part. I mean surely they would have had to Ok the appearance of the Beetle that Bumblebee trashed.
Thing that bothers me is the fact that alot of the charachters were named due to their vehicle forms.
Prowl is a cop car, Ratchet an Ambulance, Inferno a fire engine etc.
Hook, Hoist, Astrotrain, Mixmaster, Seaspray (do they even have sea's on Cybertron?)

Bumblebee has that name because of what he was. A beetle. a VW 'Bug' and now the film tries to fob it off as some Mohammed Ali reference.

I agree with you for the most part, but they did keep his personality and color scheme. He is still a yellow and black car. Hasbro just can't use the Bug any more, and Bay refused to even consider it. That is why he chose the Camaro for the movie, and why in both the Classics and new Animated lines, Bumblebee is still not a VW Bug. They cannot under any circumstances use the VW Bug for Bumblebee any more.

If the car was owned by anyone then vw wouldnt have to approve it. Most of the cars that were trashed in the movie were katrina and texas flood cars so they were bought from insurance agencies and such. New cars are generally the ones that the car makers donate or authorize in order to promote.

Actually, no, they wouldn't since Hasbro would not have been able to produce a toy version because, in order to do that, they would need VWs permission, and VW will absolutely not grant it under any circumstances. They will have nothing to do with anything even remotely associated with war in any form. I think they're foolish, but that is their stance.

Tramp wrote:

Robinson wrote:

Tramp wrote:

Fananga wrote:I dont think there was anything on VW's part. I mean surely they would have had to Ok the appearance of the Beetle that Bumblebee trashed.
Thing that bothers me is the fact that alot of the charachters were named due to their vehicle forms.
Prowl is a cop car, Ratchet an Ambulance, Inferno a fire engine etc.
Hook, Hoist, Astrotrain, Mixmaster, Seaspray (do they even have sea's on Cybertron?)

Bumblebee has that name because of what he was. A beetle. a VW 'Bug' and now the film tries to fob it off as some Mohammed Ali reference.

I agree with you for the most part, but they did keep his personality and color scheme. He is still a yellow and black car. Hasbro just can't use the Bug any more, and Bay refused to even consider it. That is why he chose the Camaro for the movie, and why in both the Classics and new Animated lines, Bumblebee is still not a VW Bug. They cannot under any circumstances use the VW Bug for Bumblebee any more.

If the car was owned by anyone then vw wouldnt have to approve it. Most of the cars that were trashed in the movie were katrina and texas flood cars so they were bought from insurance agencies and such. New cars are generally the ones that the car makers donate or authorize in order to promote.

Actually, no, they wouldn't since Hasbro would not have been able to produce a toy version because, in order to do that, they would need VWs permission, and VW will absolutely not grant it under any circumstances. They will have nothing to do with anything even remotely associated with war in any form. I think they're foolish, but that is their stance.

That is true about licensing for the toy, however what I was speaking on this part of the previous posts "I mean surely they would have had to Ok the appearance of the Beetle that Bumblebee trashed." for that part they dont need vw's permission, just the permission of the owner of the car or if it was purchased by the studio then they don't need permission to use the used cars..

I think it's a big lost marketing opportunity for VW. I wonder if they fired the one who made this epic-blunder decision. Unless it's the boss who made it.

(Regardless whether Bay will even consider the bug or not)

TF may be a war movie. But BB is on the good side. What's more, they belong to the Autobot race/faction that DISLIKES war.

So BB would actually be on the VW side. Fits very nicely into their supposed "anti-war" policy.

Auto Bot wrote:I think it's a big lost marketing opportunity for VW. I wonder if they fired the one who made this epic-blunder decision. Unless it's the boss who made it.

(Regardless whether Bay will even consider the bug or not)

TF may be a war movie. But BB is on the good side. What's more, they belong to the Autobot race/faction that DISLIKES war.

So BB would actually be on the VW side. Fits very nicely into their supposed "anti-war" policy.

I frankly don't think VW even really cares one way or another. Bumblebee was never even licensed to be a beetle in g1 in the first place. I think VW is giving a big FU to transformers because they didnt seek out licensing rights the first time around. Transformers screwed themselves 23 years ago on that one.

Imagine what could have been a a big come-back of the new Beetle.

They don't even have to pour development cost for a new concept car model.

Tramp wrote:it's "cooler".

Meh, I woulda just left and bought a Mustang, Bumblebee would be fine alone.