The Energon Pub

Ok so can someone please confirm or deny that there is at least one Autobot or Decepticon that is not a horrible product placement *cough* Ford *cough* GM *cough*. Like is there at least one exotic car ? I know that whole thing about Bumble Bee not being a VW because they didn’t want their company to be associated with war machines, But how about Porsche for Jazz? They took one of my favorite characters and totally screwed him. Couldn’t they have at least included Prowl and made him a 350 Z. I highly doubt Porsche wouldn’t give license rights seeing as how there was that Jazz toy re-released by Takara. And if VW was so touchy about the whole war machine thing wouldn’t that mean he wouldn’t even have existed in the fist place when the G1 cartoon was produced? I seriously think a super euro-tuned 70’s beetle would rock the hell out of a Crapero(pun seriously intended). How about Sideswipe and Sunstreak as a Murcielago and Gallardo? How about Hotrod/Rodimus as a tuned Lancia or a Ferrari? Hell I would have even been happy with Mirage as an F-1 car. Seriously if they plan to make a sequel they’d better have make a huge effort to re-Gen 1 it. Look I was born in 87 and I have grown so fond of the franchise that I find the motion picture an atrocity. I would have trusted Tokyo Cinema to make a live action 10 times better. Anyone Ever hear of “The Grudge” “The Ring” or “Battle Royale” if you have, it was probably the cheap Hollywood knockoff. Unless someone can intice me to see the film by showing me some Juicy Gen-1 ness present in the film (aside from Optimus Prime) I doubt I’ll intentionally see the film. And that’s the end of my questionnaire/rant lacking paragraph breaks.

Wow sixteen posts already and not a single reply. Sure looks like people aren’t as opinionated as I thought. LOL @ lack of answers.

its probably pretty tough to get multiple licenses to use a car as a movie character, good or bad, so they just with one big manufacturer whose target audience will make up most of the movie and has a pretty wide model range.

I don't know why bumblebee was a bug in the cartoon but can't be one now.

I also think they should have done multiple licenses. Wouldve loved to see proper treatments...thats business for you.

Has anyone seen 2 Fast 2 Furious (horriable movie) but atleast they managed to get lisences from everyone, Japanese, European, and American. I mean comon, who wouldn't want to see a BMW M3 as a transformer, at least try to give Peguot a cameo because if it wasn't for them, this movie wouldn't exsist.

Ford is a dieing company, do they really think being product placement whores in a movie based off of an 80's cartoon is going to save them? Laughable at best.

I'm sarting to get an urge to boycot this film for bring one huge commercial. I mean how many times have you seen a commercial with good writing ? almost never.

VW did not want the bug to be used in a movie that portrays war... or something to that effect.

Sunstar wrote:VW did not want the bug to be used in a movie that portrays war... or something to that effect.

I said "if VW was so touchy about the whole war machine thing wouldn’t that mean he wouldn’t even have existed in the fist place when the G1 cartoon was produced?"

so that was a redundant statement you made, sorry Sunstar.

Then again who said the car had to have the maker's logo on it? TV shows get past this all the time, like covering up an apple on an i book with a sticker.

Sometimes I wounder how smart the great and respectable really are.

I don't believe it was reduntant, but if that is what you feel, then so be it.

Well if VW is so anal about War Machines, how is it Bumble Bee exsisted in the first place?

Rodimus_Raver wrote:Well if VW is so anal about War Machines, how is it Bumble Bee exsisted in the first place?

Because the original Bumblebee toy wasn't made to resemble a VW. It was a toy car made to resemble toy car that resembled a VW, if you follow me. In the original Japanese toy line it came from (Microman), all the minibot toys were supposed to look like toy cars that became robots. In the Microman fiction/backstory, the Minibot toys were supposed to be toys - not real cars - that changed. They weren't designed to look like real cars that became robots, unlike the larger Autobot cars (Tracks, etc., that came from the Diaclone line). In the Diaclone fiction, the cars were real-life cars that became mindless mecha, and so they resembled more closely their original templates. It's for that reason that Windcharger is a Trans-Am, but doesn't actually resemble any real-life Trans-Am.

Then, of course, when Sunbow made the Transformers cartoon, they took the Bumblebee toy and tweaked it so it looked less like a toy car and more like a real VW, but even then it obviously wasn't 100% accurate.

Did that makes sense?

EDIT: O, and I don't think Takara ever actually got the license to use real-life cars for their Diaclone series, anyway. As far as I'm aware, they just kind of used the car modes for Jazz, Wheeljack, etc., without permission. Of course, they changed tack when they produced the Alternators line.

But the Alternators suck so badddddddd So does the movie! There is no reason to justify going to see it after Bay butchered one of my beloved characters. NO JUSTICE! And again whats wrong with the badgeless loophole it has worked in so many other tv series and movies.

I don't know what you mean by "badgless loophole" so, even though I could hazard a guess, I can't comment.

I have to say, though, I really don't think Jazz has been butchered. His Solstice alt.mode isn't a far cry from the original Porsche alt.mode, as far as I can see.

You know all of the alt modes and characters have been confermed for months now where you been? Under a rock?

Optimus Prime: long nose truck cab no trailer red with blue flames

Jazz: Porche silver

Bumblebee: Camero yellow with black raceing stripes.

Ironhide: GMC Pickup truck black

Ratchet: Humer puke green

Megatron: Cybertronian Jet silver

Starscream: Earth jet seems to be in G1 colors but haven't really had a good look at him can't stop thinking about that Waspinator head.

Frenzy: portable boombox allso seems to be able to form the radio inside of Barricade.

Barricade: Police car

Blackout: freaking huge helicopter.

Scorpinok: Scorpion. Allso appears to attach to Blackout some how and unsure if he will even have a robot mode in the movie.

Brawl: Tank

Bonecrusher: Construction vehicle

Jazz isn't a Porsche, he's a Pontiac.

Bonecrusher is a bomb disposal or minesweeping vehicle, not a construction vehicle.

Bonecrusher is indeed a minesweeper. Blackout is a Sea Hawk helicopter

Rodimus_Raver wrote:Seriously if they plan to make a sequel they’d better have make a huge effort to re-Gen 1 it. Look I was born in 87 and I have grown so fond of the franchise that I find the motion picture an atrocity. I would have trusted Tokyo Cinema to make a live action 10 times better. Anyone Ever hear of “The Grudge” “The Ring” or “Battle Royale” if you have, it was probably the cheap Hollywood knockoff. Unless someone can intice me to see the film by showing me some Juicy Gen-1 ness present in the film (aside from Optimus Prime) I doubt I’ll intentionally see the film. And that’s the end of my questionnaire/rant lacking paragraph breaks.

What sort of "Juicy Gen-1 ness" would you like to see, apart from a bigger cast (which is limited so that they can tell a better story)?

[quote="Saber Prime"]You know all of the alt modes and characters have been confermed for months now where you been? Under a rock?

Scorpinok: Scorpion. Allso appears to attach to Blackout some how and unsure if he will even have a robot mode in the movie.

quick question (and granted may be a stupid one here) scorpinok's transformation, could it be the large bot which tussles wtih (dives ino) optimus near the end of the trailer with 'cage' style head?

Just a thought

Leonardo wrote:

Rodimus_Raver wrote:Seriously if they plan to make a sequel they’d better have make a huge effort to re-Gen 1 it. Look I was born in 87 and I have grown so fond of the franchise that I find the motion picture an atrocity. I would have trusted Tokyo Cinema to make a live action 10 times better. Anyone Ever hear of “The Grudge” “The Ring” or “Battle Royale” if you have, it was probably the cheap Hollywood knockoff. Unless someone can intice me to see the film by showing me some Juicy Gen-1 ness present in the film (aside from Optimus Prime) I doubt I’ll intentionally see the film. And that’s the end of my questionnaire/rant lacking paragraph breaks.

What sort of "Juicy Gen-1 ness" would you like to see, apart from a bigger cast (which is limited so that they can tell a better story)?

Apart from a bigger cast? How about an actual effort in retaining authenticity? And still I'm not going to shut up about how a movie 10 times worse seemed to get 80% of the automobile lisences in the world (2F2F) and I'm not going to shut up about the badgeless vehicle loophole.

Rodimus_Raver wrote:Well if VW is so anal about War Machines, how is it Bumble Bee exsisted in the first place?

It's all speculation at this point Rodimus... but that is the most prominent excuse floating around on the web. Personally it's pretty obvious to me that the use of mostly GM cars/trucks stems from a product placement deal... nothing more. It would have been too expensive to license more exotic cars and GM needs the publicity for its struggling business right now.

Rodimus_Raver wrote:Look I was born in 87 and I have grown so fond of the franchise that I find the motion picture an atrocity.

I was born in 1979, so no offense but you're birth year doesn't guarantee you any sort of entitlement to knowing what is best for this film. You weren't even born when the original movie came out! I agree that a lot of the designs are less than stellar and I agree that it would have been nice to see a more diverse cast of vehicles but this isn't G1 and in present day 2007 I think it's time to get over that fact. We're never going to see a completely G1 remake because the original cartoon was over 20 years ago and based heavily on popular material items of that time frame. Those items (cars, stereos, trains, planes, tanks, etc) while cool and still around today no longer resemble the alt modes our favorite transformers took so its time to move forward.

Rodimus_Raver wrote:

Leonardo wrote:

Rodimus_Raver wrote:Seriously if they plan to make a sequel they’d better have make a huge effort to re-Gen 1 it. Look I was born in 87 and I have grown so fond of the franchise that I find the motion picture an atrocity. I would have trusted Tokyo Cinema to make a live action 10 times better. Anyone Ever hear of “The Grudge” “The Ring” or “Battle Royale” if you have, it was probably the cheap Hollywood knockoff. Unless someone can intice me to see the film by showing me some Juicy Gen-1 ness present in the film (aside from Optimus Prime) I doubt I’ll intentionally see the film. And that’s the end of my questionnaire/rant lacking paragraph breaks.

What sort of "Juicy Gen-1 ness" would you like to see, apart from a bigger cast (which is limited so that they can tell a better story)?

Apart from a bigger cast? How about an actual effort in retaining authenticity? And still I'm not going to shut up about how a movie 10 times worse seemed to get 80% of the automobile lisences in the world (2F2F) and I'm not going to shut up about the badgeless vehicle loophole.

Alot of the cars in the fast & furious series are peoples personal cars as well as show cars from different racing enthusiasts. I dont think if you have to get a license from the manufacturer in order to use someones personal car on film. And it's easier to cover a logo on a laptop of a computer because most computers looks similar, most cars look very different from one another so that may not be an actual loophole.

Almost all designs are trademarked anyways so you cant use a car that looks exactly like a vw beetle without having permission from the manufacturer.

Jawnee wrote:

Rodimus_Raver wrote:

Rodimus_Raver wrote:Look I was born in 87 and I have grown so fond of the franchise that I find the motion picture an atrocity.

I was born in 1979, so no offense but you're birth year doesn't guarantee you any sort of entitlement to knowing what is best for this film. You weren't even born when the original movie came out!

I Concure. I was born in 1975 and I do not use my age as a "right to entitlement" or whatever. You are, however, welcome to your opinions on the movie. I still stand on the fence in regards to it, but thus far, I may get off and join the line. Not opening night of course though.

Sunstar wrote:

Jawnee wrote:

Rodimus_Raver wrote:

Rodimus_Raver wrote:Look I was born in 87 and I have grown so fond of the franchise that I find the motion picture an atrocity.

I was born in 1979, so no offense but you're birth year doesn't guarantee you any sort of entitlement to knowing what is best for this film. You weren't even born when the original movie came out!

I Concure. I was born in 1975 and I do not use my age as a "right to entitlement" or whatever. You are, however, welcome to your opinions on the movie. I still stand on the fence in regards to it, but thus far, I may get off and join the line. Not opening night of course though.

I was born in 78 so that year does give me entitlement so I am spethial

I think I may be there on the 3rd if they do indeed move it up.

The reason I stated my birth year, was to show that someone as young as myself who grew up on beasties and the transformers anime, could be a Gen 1 loyalist. Sorry if stating my birth year came across some other way.

Anyways if Jazz does die in this first film he’d better be a 911 GT-3 or GT-2 Turbo in the sequel. In regards to the size of the autobot cast, does anyone have the producer’s excuse, to put up here?

Lastly, who thinks my 21st Century character incarnations I mentioned previously are pretty awesome? Sideswipe and Sunstreak as a Murcielago and Gallardo? Prowl as a 350 Z? As for the film shouldn’t Prowl have been the Saleen Cop Car?

You seem to be doing a lot of complaining fella. Did you sign up for any reason other than trashing the movie?

Rodimus_Raver wrote:The reason I stated my birth year, was to show that someone as young as myself who grew up on beasties and the transformers anime, could be a Gen 1 loyalist. Sorry if stating my birth year came across some other way.

Anyways if Jazz does die in this first film he’d better be a 911 GT-3 or GT-2 Turbo in the sequel. In regards to the size of the autobot cast, does anyone have the producer’s excuse, to put up here?

Lastly, who thinks my 21st Century character incarnations I mentioned previously are pretty awesome? Sideswipe and Sunstreak as a Murcielago and Gallardo? Prowl as a 350 Z? As for the film shouldn’t Prowl have been the Saleen Cop Car?

I dont really care what car is who because as its been said before, this ain't g1 so prime could be a damn pimp my ride chevy van conversion for all I really care.