The Energon Pub

News Credits: 19 · Mon Apr 03, 2017 3:16 pm

New rendering for Hot Rod. I don't know the original source, but it should be from Weibo

hot rod render.jpg

Mon Apr 03, 2017 7:10 pm

MadProject wrote:New rendering for Hot Rod. I don't know the original source, but it should be from Weibo
hot rod render.jpg

Honestly, I'm surprised that most of the right shapes are there (minus the Wolverine exhausts, but I'm strangely okay with that?) but the colors are all wrong. I AM FULL OF MIXED EMOTIONS.

News Credits: 1646 · Mon Apr 03, 2017 7:19 pm

Thanks to Weibo user 变形金刚改造工厂的淘宝店 we have some new CGI renderings of the Transformers: The Last Knight Hot Rod! Since being confirmed as a character back in August of last year, Hot Rod has garnered little attention, with only a brief vehicle mode shot in the first trailer and a metal die-cast toy to speak of. The new image shows Hot Rod in 3 different poses, showing off how similar he looks to Bumblebee - who is supposed to be his "brother in arms" - and how he looks standing, bracing, and jumping. Check out the new images below!

News Credits: 1646 · Mon Apr 03, 2017 7:20 pm

He honestly does look good, and I do like his similarity to Bee yet being a whole new fellow. The only bit I'm not too mad on is the face, but we really haven't seen much of him yet

News Credits: 54 · Mon Apr 03, 2017 7:28 pm

Well someone on another site zoomed on Hot Rod's face and well... there is a young face there it all makes sense now. (look at the chin you can see the mouth and I feel stupid for not noticing it sooner)

Looks a bit better now to me.

News Credits: 1646 · Mon Apr 03, 2017 7:30 pm

Deadput wrote:Well someone on another site zoomed on Hot Rod's face and well... there is a young face there it all makes sense now. (look at the chin you can see the mouth and I feel stupid for not noticing it sooner)

Looks a bit better now to me.

Ok, that is much better. I can actually see a mouth that I didn't know he had and I can clearly see his optics. That looks much better

News Credits: 54 · Mon Apr 03, 2017 8:46 pm

D-Maximus_Prime wrote:Ok, that is much better. I can actually see a mouth that I didn't know he had and I can clearly see his optics. That looks much better

It is a very humanoid face which is something people have been wanting from the films.

Yet Dino's beautiful face will never be beaten.

Mon Apr 03, 2017 8:54 pm

Deadput wrote:Well someone on another site zoomed on Hot Rod's face and well... there is a young face there it all makes sense now. (look at the chin you can see the mouth and I feel stupid for not noticing it sooner)

Looks a bit better now to me.

Now that is a better face than 90% of the rest of the series. I'd only say either move the orange bit up above the brow or leave it there and color the bit over the eyes yellow and they got it. Still, DAYUM. So much better.

News Credits: 3642 · Mon Apr 03, 2017 8:57 pm

Deadput wrote:
D-Maximus_Prime wrote:Ok, that is much better. I can actually see a mouth that I didn't know he had and I can clearly see his optics. That looks much better

It is a very humanoid face which is something people have been wanting from the films.

Yet Dino's beautiful face will never be beaten.

All of the movie faces are a disaster in my opinion. I gave up after the first movie. Optimus with the face shield used to look somewhat OK, but whatever they did to it for this movie made it a mess too. I don't understand why their faces have to be so overly complicated and weird looking. I'm assuming that they must look too cartoonish the more humanoid they look, but there's got to be a compromise somewhere.

Even from a design perspective, it seems like making Hot Rod's "face" silver or some other contrasting color to make it stand out against the color of his head would help make it pop some more to help give visual cues what we're looking at. We shouldn't be having to figure out that he has a humanoid face because someone did some highly zoomed in crop of an image of his head.

News Credits: 1646 · Mon Apr 03, 2017 9:00 pm

We have learned that Flickering Myth managed to snag an exclusive interview with Isabela Moner, the rising star in Transformers: The Last Knight! The interview is a video interview, and features questions dealing with her role in the movie, her upcoming movie roles, her CinemaCon award, and more, such as the revelation that she got into Transformers by watching it with her brothers when she was younger. Check out the video below!

News Credits: 54 · Mon Apr 03, 2017 9:06 pm

Seibertron wrote:
All of the movie faces are a disaster in my opinion. I gave up after the first movie. Optimus with the face shield used to look somewhat OK, but whatever they did to it for this movie made it a mess too. I don't understand why their faces have to be so overly complicated and weird looking. I'm assuming that they must look too cartoonish the more humanoid they look, but there's got to be a compromise somewhere.

Even from a design perspective, it seems like making Hot Rod's "face" silver or some other contrasting color to make it stand out against the color of his head would help make it pop some more to help give visual cues what we're looking at. We shouldn't be having to figure out that he has a humanoid face because someone did some highly zoomed in crop of an image of his head.

Well what's done is done the best we can hope for in the future are more faces like Crosshairs, Drift and Hound that are easy to make out but are distinct to thier character.

At least for the Autobots their faces are a bit creative and distinct from each other compared to G1 where you needed a different helmet, visor or different mouthplate shape to make them distinct because all the "liquid metal" human faces were 100 identical.

There really is no win win for any of us since for the franchise as a whole faces are either going to be to generic or too complicated.

News Credits: 1646 · Mon Apr 03, 2017 9:07 pm

Just saying, Hound wins for faces. I love his, it is literally perfect.

News Credits: 191 · Mon Apr 03, 2017 9:29 pm

I think I felt myself actually back away from my laptop for a second when I noticed Hot Rod's mouth... that is 100% creepy, not gonna lie.

News Credits: 54 · Mon Apr 03, 2017 9:33 pm

Kurona wrote:I think I felt myself actually back away from my laptop for a second when I noticed Hot Rod's mouth... that is 100% creepy, not gonna lie.

You should watch out Hot Rod knows where you live lol.

News Credits: 191 · Mon Apr 03, 2017 9:41 pm

Deadput wrote:
Kurona wrote:I think I felt myself actually back away from my laptop for a second when I noticed Hot Rod's mouth... that is 100% creepy, not gonna lie.

You should watch out Hot Rod knows where you live lol.

Doling out vengeance as he discovers I like every Hot Rod/Rodimus except him :lol:

My defence will be saying that Armada Hot Shot was called Hot Rod in Micron Legend, and I certainly don't like him either :twisted:

On a slightly more serious note Transformers does get off kinda lucky when it comes to face designs, especially recently. Faceplates and Visors alone bring in some variety, and then you've got stuff like Windblade - whether you like her and her design or not, you've gotta admit that face certainly ain't generic.

News Credits: 54 · Mon Apr 03, 2017 10:03 pm

Kurona wrote:Doling out vengeance as he discovers I like every Hot Rod/Rodimus except him
My defence will be saying that Armada Hot Shot was called Hot Rod in Micron Legend, and I certainly don't like him either

On a slightly more serious note Transformers does get off kinda lucky when it comes to face designs, especially recently. Faceplates and Visors alone bring in some variety, and then you've got stuff like Windblade - whether you like her and her design or not, you've gotta admit that face certainly ain't generic.

Yup I was kinda put off by Windlbabe's head at first but I'm starting to like it due to the fact that Windblade is a much more original character in most of the Transformers franchise then say any Arcee.

Speaking of her do any of you think she might have a role in this film?

She "could" be the red Mclaren but I doubt it and think said car is actually a returning Dino which I think there might be a small chance since "Mirage" is getting a toy in the Tiny Changers line but then again characters such as Blackout, Starscream, Lockdown and Sideswipe are getting one too and their pretty much not in the movie due to most of them being...well dead.

News Credits: 3642 · Mon Apr 03, 2017 11:04 pm

Deadput wrote:Speaking of her do any of you think she might have a role in this film?

No I don't. She wasn't listed on any of the character sheets of the hundreds of characters shown in those scale sheets at the Last Knight set in Detroit last summer.

News Credits: 3 · Mon Apr 03, 2017 11:11 pm

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News Credits: 54 · Mon Apr 03, 2017 11:23 pm

Seibertron wrote:
Deadput wrote:Speaking of her do any of you think she might have a role in this film?

No I don't. She wasn't listed on any of the character sheets of the hundreds of characters shown in those scale sheets at the Last Knight set in Detroit last summer.

A few questions. 1: What's a scale sheet? 2: Are you allowed to talk about any of the characters on said sheet or is it something forbidden according to contracts?

Anyways I did not think she would be but I was thinking maybe there was a chance said Windblade turns into a jet and Megatron's new jet mode was not on set due to being a "alien" jet also most of Starscream's flying scenes were just cgi and not actually filmed from what I heard.

News Credits: 191 · Mon Apr 03, 2017 11:33 pm

It is rather surprising that Hasbro wouldn't order the movies to have their new put-them-in-everything-ever-thanks character, but then it seems like the movies make so much on their own they get much more of a say in what they can do and who they have.
Of all the media to have creative freedom... :HEADHURTS:

Tue Apr 04, 2017 12:01 am

ToaLeePrime wrote:
high noon.png

WHAT IN CAR NATION?

News Credits: 462 · Tue Apr 04, 2017 12:07 am

Arsnof wrote:
ToaLeePrime wrote:
high noon.png

WHAT IN CAR NATION?

I don't see any flowers. :-P

News Credits: 19 · Tue Apr 04, 2017 12:33 am

I dunno. This face looks a bit too cutesy weird for me. And I'm a big fan of most of the movie faces and love their uniqueness and complexity (I hate the face styles in Animated cos they're just awful and RID2015 cos they creep me out more with their eyes). I wanna see him in action though.

News Credits: 3 · Tue Apr 04, 2017 1:05 am

Arsnof wrote:
ToaLeePrime wrote:
high noon.png

WHAT IN CAR NATION?

What in Transformation!?

News Credits: 3642 · Tue Apr 04, 2017 1:05 am

Deadput wrote:
Seibertron wrote:
Deadput wrote:Speaking of her do any of you think she might have a role in this film?

No I don't. She wasn't listed on any of the character sheets of the hundreds of characters shown in those scale sheets at the Last Knight set in Detroit last summer.

A few questions. 1: What's a scale sheet? 2: Are you allowed to talk about any of the characters on said sheet or is it something forbidden according to contracts?

Anyways I did not think she would be but I was thinking maybe there was a chance said Windblade turns into a jet and Megatron's new jet mode was not on set due to being a "alien" jet also most of Starscream's flying scenes were just cgi and not actually filmed from what I heard.

This is a G1 scale sheet that shows all of the characters in scale with each other. Paramount had these all around the art room we saw back in August, but with Movie characters instead of G1 characters (obviously). The characters weren't just from Last Knight, it seemed all Transformers from all of the movies were including among various different sheets around all of the walls in the art room. My memories are a little foggy from last August, but I seem to recall Devastator alongside other larger characters like Jet Prime, etc. Most were characters we had seen but some seemed to be characters that were well known from special features or whatever.

Surprisingly, Paramount didn't have me sign a non-disclosure in August 2016 or March 2017 so I think I'm able to talk about whatever you guys want to ask me about. Ask away and I'll tell you if I know something or if I can't talk about it.