Bumblebee Movie sends a special New Year's message in Japan

I've seen the very first screening, normally in digital theaters, in 3D, IMAX and in RealD 4D. I still love this movie. In fact, the things I didn't love stopped bugging me after my third viewing. The more I see it, the more I enjoy it. I would still love this film even if I hadn't worked on it so I promise it isn't bias. I told my kids that if I could go back and see the 86 film in theaters over and over, I most certainly would. I feel as though this is my chance not to make that mistake again. I just wished I could watch it with all my Transformers buddies like all of you. I visited another fan site today that I haven't been on in over 2 years and was instantly reminded of all the toxicity and negativity outside of this site. I don't think I've ever taken the time to thank all of you for accepting me and making me feel like part of the fandom. I joined that other site when I was 15 years old and they are still treating me like a 15 year old who isn't one of them and is unimportant 24 years later. I guess I needed a reminder of why I love this site so much. I truly appreciate all the support and kindness you've all shown me both before I worked on this amazing brand and during. Love you guys! If you haven't seen the movie, you're doing yourself a disservice.

Thanks, Jon! Sorry to hear about the folks on the other site--toxic fans seems to be the "thing" lately for all fandoms, so I wouldn't take it personally. You're good people, and you know it.

jON3.0 wrote:I've seen the very first screening, normally in digital theaters, in 3D, IMAX and in RealD 4D. I still love this movie. In fact, the things I didn't love stopped bugging me after my third viewing. The more I see it, the more I enjoy it. I would still love this film even if I hadn't worked on it so I promise it isn't bias. I told my kids that if I could go back and see the 86 film in theaters over and over, I most certainly would. I feel as though this is my chance not to make that mistake again. I just wished I could watch it with all my Transformers buddies like all of you. I visited another fan site today that I haven't been on in over 2 years and was instantly reminded of all the toxicity and negativity outside of this site. I don't think I've ever taken the time to thank all of you for accepting me and making me feel like part of the fandom. I joined that other site when I was 15 years old and they are still treating me like a 15 year old who isn't one of them and is unimportant 24 years later. I guess I needed a reminder of why I love this site so much. I truly appreciate all the support and kindness you've all shown me both before I worked on this amazing brand and during. Love you guys! If you haven't seen the movie, you're doing yourself a disservice.

Yeah I noticed some of the more negative comments from Tfw2005 about your performance, shame about that really, but that's life unfortunately.

I will say that your Soundwave and Shockwave voices were great, I don't care much for the standard Soundwave vocoder voice normally because for me it's hard to understand at times even though it sounds cool, nor the G1 cartoon Shockwave voice since he sounded like some boring guy who works at an office instead of a high ranking Decepticon, but your takes on their voices are spot on, with that and good dialogue that your carried out, that alone speaks of your talent as a voice actor.


I would love to hear your takes on Ironhide, Ratchet and any others that you talked about on here and Tfw2005, same goes for the other actors like David Sobolov and Steve Blum, like in a bonus feature or something, honestly I feel that the voice actors and their work for these movies are underappreciated and a bonus feature focused on you guys (including Peter, Dylan, Angela and Justin as well) would be great.

Edit: Quick question, was your take on Ironhide the G1 western voice? I admit I really like Jess Harnell's take but sometimes I do miss the ol voice from Peter Cullen since it stood out among the G1 Autobots and I can't think of any other character in the franchise who has a similar voice where as you have a bunch of similar takes on the young Autobots (Bumblebee,Hot Shot, Smokescreen, etc) or the different takes on the treacherous Starscream voice where as there is only one western Ironhide voice (Besides maybe the RID version but I did not watch that show so I don't know what he sounds like).

Probably going to see it today, do we need to worry about mid/post-credit scenes or have they stayed off that bandwagon?

Burn wrote:Probably going to see it today, do we need to worry about mid/post-credit scenes or have they stayed off that bandwagon?

There are two scenes that happen at the start of the credits, but only after the "directed by Travis Knight" part, after those two scenes there is nothing else, no mid credit or end credit scenes.

Aw, man, I would love to have a copy of the screening where I was the voices for Optimus, Shockwave, Soundwave, Wheeljack & Ratchet (can’t remember anymore if Starscream & Ironhide were in the screening of not?) and Steve Blum as Cliffjumper. That would be so dope!

Deadput wrote:

jON3.0 wrote:I've seen the very first screening, normally in digital theaters, in 3D, IMAX and in RealD 4D. I still love this movie. In fact, the things I didn't love stopped bugging me after my third viewing. The more I see it, the more I enjoy it. I would still love this film even if I hadn't worked on it so I promise it isn't bias. I told my kids that if I could go back and see the 86 film in theaters over and over, I most certainly would. I feel as though this is my chance not to make that mistake again. I just wished I could watch it with all my Transformers buddies like all of you. I visited another fan site today that I haven't been on in over 2 years and was instantly reminded of all the toxicity and negativity outside of this site. I don't think I've ever taken the time to thank all of you for accepting me and making me feel like part of the fandom. I joined that other site when I was 15 years old and they are still treating me like a 15 year old who isn't one of them and is unimportant 24 years later. I guess I needed a reminder of why I love this site so much. I truly appreciate all the support and kindness you've all shown me both before I worked on this amazing brand and during. Love you guys! If you haven't seen the movie, you're doing yourself a disservice.

Yeah I noticed some of the more negative comments from Tfw2005 about your performance, shame about that really, but that's life unfortunately.

I will say that your Soundwave and Shockwave voices were great, I don't care much for the standard Soundwave vocoder voice normally because for me it's hard to understand at times even though it sounds cool, nor the G1 cartoon Shockwave voice since he sounded like some boring guy who works at an office instead of a high ranking Decepticon, but your takes on their voices are spot on, with that and good dialogue that your carried out, that alone speaks of your talent as a voice actor.


I would love to hear your takes on Ironhide, Ratchet and any others that you talked about on here and Tfw2005, same goes for the other actors like David Sobolov and Steve Blum, like in a bonus feature or something, honestly I feel that the voice actors and their work for these movies are underappreciated and a bonus feature focused on you guys (including Peter, Dylan, Angela and Justin as well) would be great.

Edit: Quick question, was your take on Ironhide the G1 western voice? I admit I really like Jess Harnell's take but sometimes I do miss the ol voice from Peter Cullen since it stood out among the G1 Autobots and I can't think of any other character in the franchise who has a similar voice where as you have a bunch of similar takes on the young Autobots (Bumblebee,Hot Shot, Smokescreen, etc) or the different takes on the treacherous Starscream voice where as there is only one western Ironhide voice (Besides maybe the RID version but I did not watch that show so I don't know what he sounds like).

It is what it is. No one does a job and EVERYONE likes it. Plus this is the age of internet haters. No skin off my teeth.

Of course I did the old school G1 Southern Ironhide! Personally, I was hoping if Ironhide did make it in the movie, they would just have Peter Cullen do it since he was already going to be recording for Optimus.

Found this little gem today. You might hate Wal-Mart, but this commercial is freaking awesome. Keep an eye out for our favorite yellow friend.

Alrighty, let's see...

The Batmobile from the DCEU's Justice League movie
The Ecto-1 from Ghostbusters (with Slimer inside)
KITT from Knight Rider (and even voiced by William Daniels in this commercial!)
Lightning McQueen from Disney-Pixar's Cars
The Mutt Cutts Van from Dumb and Dumber
The Mystery Machine from Scooby-Doo (with Scooby himself inside it)
The Griswalds' car from National Lampoon's Vacation
A Jurassic Park SUV from you-know-what (with some tiny dinos inside)
Cinderella's pumpkin carriage, complete with stock footage of the Disney theme park meetable character and her coachmen
Fred Flintstone and his car from the 90's live action films
Bumblebee from his new movie
The DeLorean time machine from Back to the Future

jON3.0 wrote:It is what it is. No one does a job and EVERYONE likes it. Plus this is the age of internet haters. No skin off my teeth.

I didn’t know human teeth had skin!

LOLOL

Anyone?

No?

I’ll see myself out..

BUT FIRST!! Great job Jon. And I agree, I can’t wait to own that movie to watch it a bunch!! It was a lot of fun in the theater.

Ironhidensh wrote:Found this little gem today. You might hate Wal-Mart, but this commercial is freaking awesome. Keep an eye out for our favorite yellow friend.

I saw that last night! There were at least two cuts of the commercial, pretty awesome!!

Sabrblade wrote:Alrighty, let's see...

The Batmobile from the DCEU's Justice League movie
The Ecto-1 from Ghostbusters (with Slimer inside)
KITT from Knight Rider (and even voiced by William Daniels in this commercial!)
Lightning McQueen from Disney-Pixar's Cars
The Mutt Cutts Van from Dumb and Dumber
The Mystery Machine from Scooby-Doo (with Scooby himself inside it)
The Griswalds' car from National Lampoon's Vacation
A Jurassic Park SUV from you-know-what (with some tiny dinos inside)
Cinderella's pumpkin carriage, complete with stock footage of the Disney theme park meetable character and her coachmen
Fred Flintstone and his car from the 90's live action films
Bumblebee from his new movie
The DeLorean time machine from Back to the Future

At the very end, a late '70s or very early '80s red and white Ford F-150 pulls in. I swear I recognize it, but can't for the life of me think of where.

Ironhidensh wrote:At the very end, a late '70s or very early '80s red and white Ford F-150 pulls in. I swear I recognize it, but can't for the life of me think of where.

Uncle Jesse had one in the Dukes of Hazard I think. I don't think it had red on it though.

With the movie having only just made its debut in China - Amazon.com already have the pre-orders up for the Bumblebee movie in DVD,Blu-Ray, 4K and digital formats. The listing doesn't have a release date yet, but the Blu-Ray and DVD editions have a pre-order sale price with 26% off.

Bumblebee Blu-Ray $31.99 - Pre order price $23.52
Bumblebee DVD $25.99 - Pre order price $19.20
Bumblebee 4K - Pre order price $37.99

The Blu-Ray has already reached #13 on Amazon's best selling Blu-Ray charts, which is good news for anyone concerned about the potential future of the movie-franchise as rumored sequels are dependent on the movie doing well. Have you already placed your pre-order or will you be picking up at launch? Drop us a comment here on the Energon Pub at Seibertron.com!

Thanks to an article from Rebecca Rubin of Variety magazine, we now know that "Bumblebee", the latest installment in the live action Transformers series of movies, has raked in an additional $59.4 million USD. The prequel starring everyone's favorite kid-friendly yellow Volkswagen Beetle, opened in 9,180 locations in China this past weekend, putting the total ticket sales generated outside the United States up to $192 million USD. Adding in domestic ticket sales, the worldwide total for Bumblebee comes to $289 million. Bumblebee also opened recently in some other key non-U.S. markets in the last few days, including Columbia, India, and Poland, contributing $1.1 million, $1 million, and $486,000 respectively to that worldwide total. As a bonus, thanks to the TF Thai Fanclub on Facebook, we have a nice look at a new Chinese movie poster, featuring Bumblebee taking on the likes of Dropkick and Shatter, two new Decepticons that antagonize everyone's favorite Autobot scout in his titular movie.



What did you think of the Bumblebee movie? Do you agree with the critics that it's the best Transformers film since the inaugural "Transformers" from 2007? Are you on board with the "buzz" and getting some of the new characters and toys featured in the movie for your own collections? Let us know in the comments below, and keep it tuned to Seibertron.com for the latest news on all things Transformers!

of course the one time we have a decent Transformers movie it doesn't do well in the box office

well isn't that just our luck?

To put this all in perspective, remember that the production budget for Bumblebee was somewhere between $100 and $137 million USD, according to various sources. While it looks like the worldwide totals clearly indicate a profit, we don't know yet how much additional money was spent on marketing the movie, which is a separate figure from the production budget used to create the film itself. There are other factors that will impact the profitability of the Bumblebee film such as the cost of marketing and the profits from movie merchandise. In addition, there will be sales on DVD, Blu-ray, and digital options, which will add to the total profits for the movie when it is released for the home consumer market later this year. On top of that, Bumblebee doesn't open in the Japanese market until March 2019! Japan is probably the last big Transformers market for this movie, so the total ticket sales will get another bump in a couple of months. It's definitely too early to say the sky is falling on the Transformers franchise, but admittedly, these box office returns are not as robust as in years past.

Was on Instagram and came across a user sharing another user's concept art for Dropkick in this movie.

The concept art is from Instagram account conceptbyjosh, which belongs to Joshua Viers who has worked on the upcoming Captain Marvel movie and also Star Wars

Two different rough designs, the first one seems to just be helicopter with no car parts in sight while the second is close to Dropkick's actual design. (Kinda fits my theory that originally that Shatter and Dropkick weren't going to be triple changers with Shatter just being a car and Dropkick just being a helicopter, I have no actual proof for this but with this, the studio series figures it kinda and apparently Bumblebee being chased by a blue helicoptor in the same early screening rumors where we first heard about the "starscream" that turned out to be Blitzwing before the first trailer dropped.)

Edit: looked at the first design again, I see car wheels on his legs but otherwise not much else.

I personally think these would make some sick generic Decepticons, the second as a movie version of the TFP Vehicons. (Having all 4 wheels on the shoulders however seems to make a toy out of that design...problematic)

A coincidence for sure but the second design also resembles what I was imagining Decepticon Battlecharger grunts in my version of the Cybertron sequence that I wrote in this thread a few weeks ago except in Earth mode and with helicopter bits.








Source:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BsV63GGFnyd/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BsWLWRDlnTA/

Follow up to the last post, Joshua posted a third concept today, this one looks quite Lockdown inspired (whether intentional or a coincidence who knows)

In his own words

"With this guy I was trying to come up with a Decepticon that looked like he could be fast."

Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/BsYbiC-Fva7/

Wolfman Jake wrote:To put this all in perspective, remember that the production budget for Bumblebee was somewhere between $100 and $137 million USD, according to various sources. While it looks like the worldwide totals clearly indicate a profit, we don't know yet how much additional money was spent on marketing the movie, which is a separate figure from the production budget used to create the film itself. There are other factors that will impact the profitability of the Bumblebee film such as the cost of marketing and the profits from movie merchandise. In addition, there will be sales on DVD, Blu-ray, and digital options, which will add to the total profits for the movie when it is released for the home consumer market later this year. On top of that, Bumblebee doesn't open in the Japanese market until March 2019! Japan is probably the last big Transformers market for this movie, so the total ticket sales will get another bump in a couple of months. It's definitely too early to say the sky is falling on the Transformers franchise, but admittedly, these box office returns are not as robust as in years past.

I don't think a very good box office is good for transformers. You still remember this news?
http://news.tfw2005.com/2018/02/16/tran ... ted-358641
"Hasbro specifically stated that a new team at Paramount will reset the Transformers Live Action Movie Series following the release of Bumblebee: The Movie."

This means that Lorenzo di Bonaventura will probably be out after the bumblebee movie. But after the good reviews and global box office for the bumblebee movie, it is this guy who is getting interviews and talking about things like continuity or future movies while the director Travis Knight is very quiet. Don't you feel strange? I think that this guy is trying to send a signal to Paramount. "See, I can still manage the transformers franchise to make money for you. There is no need for a new team to replace me." Therefore, if you want more G1 films, then better hope that the box office for bumblebee is just OK instead of being excellent. It is the G1 elements that bring so many good reviews. Unless the guys at Paramount are idiots, they will know that. Therefore, if we see more transformers movies, I bet there will be more G1 elements.

See I was always of the thinking (begrudgingly) that the reboot would be more G1 flavoured anyway. Especially now after Bumblebee.

Thanks to Seibertronian Deadput, we have news on some concept art for the released Bumblebee film, with what we assume to be the Decepticons. Additionally, we also have concept art of Bumblebee's battle mask. The concept art was done by Joshua Viers on his Instagram. First, we'll show off the Bumblebee battle masks and a few Decepticons, then the rest with commentary from Deadput!

We have 5 different designs for the Bumblebee battle mask:










Then four, quite unique, Decepticons, which obviously didn't make it to the film:








Now take it away, Deadput!

Deadput wrote:Was on Instagram and came across a user sharing another user's concept art for Dropkick in this movie.

The concept art is from Instagram account conceptbyjosh, which belongs to Joshua Viers who has worked on the upcoming Captain Marvel movie and also Star Wars

Two different rough designs, the first one seems to just be helicopter with no car parts in sight while the second is close to Dropkick's actual design. (Kinda fits my theory that originally that Shatter and Dropkick weren't going to be triple changers with Shatter just being a car and Dropkick just being a helicopter, I have no actual proof for this but with this, the studio series figures it kinda and apparently Bumblebee being chased by a blue helicoptor in the same early screening rumors where we first heard about the "starscream" that turned out to be Blitzwing before the first trailer dropped.)

Edit: looked at the first design again, I see car wheels on his legs but otherwise not much else.

I personally think these would make some sick generic Decepticons, the second as a movie version of the TFP Vehicons. (Having all 4 wheels on the shoulders however seems to make a toy out of that design...problematic)

A coincidence for sure but the second design also resembles what I was imagining Decepticon Battlecharger grunts in my version of the Cybertron sequence that I wrote in this thread a few weeks ago except in Earth mode and with helicopter bits.










Source:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BsV63GGFnyd/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BsWLWRDlnTA/

Follow up to the last post, Joshua posted a third concept today, this one looks quite Lockdown inspired (whether intentional or a coincidence who knows)

In his own words

"With this guy I was trying to come up with a Decepticon that looked like he could be fast."

Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/BsYbiC-Fva7/

Ah darn I forgot to post the rest of the concept art here after I saw them up on the artist's Instagram, I'll make sure to post any other concept art though since I'm following just about every concept artist who worked on the film.

For my thoughts on the Bumblebee mask designs, the first one resembles a junk/gas mask to some degree, would like to see the "face" on a flamethrower or toxic based Decepticon like Oil Slick, Acid Storm or Sun Storm.


The other ones make for some nice pilot mask looking guys, maybe battle masks for Arial bots?

Whirl, is that you?

-Crossfire- wrote:
Whirl, is that you?

I was thinking that same thing

Bee has a hard hat

Ultra Markus wrote:Bee has a hard hat

1547180267-bbconcept8.jpg

*Gasp* head design for generic prewar Constructicons! (Not the group of 6 we know I mean a worker class with set designs like the Seekers)

Could also work as pre war miners or something.

Hmmmm, I actually like the far more insectoid and less "cute wasp" battle masks.

The Decepticons look AMAZING! Like something that walked out of Half Life: Episode 2. This just proves what some bold artistic risk balanced with practical design can achieve in the live action visual realm, and frankly makes all the vanilla G1 takes look boring and outdated by comparison. I realize the filmmakers didn't feel like they were "resigned" to recreating G1 onscreen, but with enough more GEEWUHN! in ALL of our evergreen pop culture franchise, we're all going to start feeling the burnout soon. This would have been a dose of fresh air to keep my hope alive. As it is, now we pretty much know what all of the characters are going to look like for the next several films at least (I mean, what's the risk they betray their G1 "mandate" so soon?).

Acolyte wrote:I realize the filmmakers didn't feel like they were "resigned" to recreating G1 onscreen, but with enough more GEEWUHN! in ALL of our evergreen pop culture franchise, we're all going to start feeling the burnout soon.

We'll be sure to check in with you when that happens.

My hot take? That's exactly what happened with the old movies. Designs that were confusing to follow in motion. Designs that made crowd scenes unintelligible. Designs that made following characters between scenes difficult ("Is he the one from before?").

Bumblebee's currently rocking a 93% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. That's more than the previous four films combined.

If you want to tell stories that feature the robots as characters, you need to make them personable and easily identifiable. That's what they did.

Bumblebee’s fourth battle mask actually looks really cool, I think I prefer the one in the movie, though.

You know, the more I think about it, the more I feel that this movie going for a more heavily G1-inspired look for its robot cast was kind of a necessary move to bring back audience familiar with the classic G1 looks after TLK had burned its audiences so much.

TLK was not the success it was anticipated to have been, so the Bumblebee movie really needed to do something new to really shake things up and pull audiences back in. And what with this movie already being a love letter to the pop culture of the 1980s, what better way to capitalize on that 80s nostalgia than to try for some 80s Transformers nostalgia?

It's actually a pretty smart move when you think about it. Giving people something familiar to reel them in, kinda like what The Force Awakens did with its many homages (both thematic and conceptually) to A New Hope.

Sabrblade wrote:You know, the more I think about it, the more I feel that this movie going for a more heavily G1-inspired look for its robot cast was kind of a necessary move to bring back audience familiar with the classic G1 looks after TLK had burned its audiences so much.

TLK was not the success it was anticipated to have been, so the Bumblebee movie really needed to do something new to really shake things up and pull audiences back in. And what with this movie already being a love letter to the pop culture of the 1980s, what better way to capitalize on that 80s nostalgia than to try for some 80s Transformers nostalgia?

It's actually a pretty smart move when you think about it. Giving people something familiar to reel them in, kinda like what The Force Awakens did with its many homages (both thematic and conceptually) to A New Hope.

Yet people had a go against The Force Awakens for that reason

I have to say, I was always confused when people said they couldn't follow the action as I could perfectly. I know its my opinion but I've always had trouble understanding that criticism.

Although... Imagine if they made Bumblebee 2 take place in the 90s and had the cast sporting their G2 colour schemes and looks Though using G2 Turbo masters and Predator Jets as cast would get around continuity issues Sky quake or Clench could fit in the main villain role quite easily.

The child of BM Strika and Obsidian

some of those robots kind of give me robocop ED-209 mixed with some of the many terminators from Salvation vibe

Well here is some more Bumblebee concept art, this time from multiple people.

First we will start with an artist who has already shared art with us, Joshua Viers also known as conceptbyjosh, he has shared some early Decepticon head designs which eventually led to Dropkick's final head design, you can see the whole "speaker" mouth concept was planned for at least awhile as according to the description in the instagram post.

"Quick Decepticon head concepts for #bumblebeemovie . The director had some specific ideas that were fun to play with."

Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/Bsgxja1lnws/

Although the final design looks great itself and probably fits more with the "G1" like designs of the other characters these ones are still good looking on their own.










Compare with the final version in the film.




Next up we have another concept artist Thomas Pringle (Pringleart) who has done work on Transformers in the past, recently The Last Knight but has done other projects such as A Quiet Place and Star trek Discovery.

Only one art piece for now with presumably more to come but probably the most revealing one, art for a frozen Megatron with a different design, not quite G1 inspired like the ones in the final film or as describe by those who saw the Test Screenings in March but it is a much more rounded design and certainly one that clashes with the depiction in the 2007 film.

Much more is that the date for the art piece is 2017, 03, 28 which is March 28 in 2017, so they were possibly toying with reboot or redesign ideas before The Last Knight even hit theaters, this is a good example of how much time it takes to develop the behind scenes and development art for movies and a good reason why for Hasbro's movie toys tend to draw from concept art rather then final film stuff.

Even further backed up by the description on Instagram.

"A concept i did for the Bumblebee movie a few years back."



Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/BsgCY2sFc21/


The final art for today comes from artist Tim Flattery who has done some work for previous Transformers films such as The Last Knight and even the original 2007 film not to mention his other work.

There is a lot of photos so I'll only post a few after the description but from top to bottom we have art for the "arm thing" that Bumblebee drops from his undercarriage when Charlie first works on him in her garage in the film.

Then we have have our first look at the "Allspark mutations" that were originally supposed to be in the film when Bumblebee accidentally got "Allspark Engergy" on the electronics in Charlie's house causing them to come to life and trash the house, ultimately despite the props for the creatures having been made and the scenes presumably filmed with other reports that Martin Short was to lend his voice to the scene, it was cut from the film and instead Bumblebee trashes the house all on his own, however one element of the film remained in an odd line from Charlie's Mom about why the Tv cord was cut.

Then we have some art and some pictures of the props for a couple of Sector 7's equipment in the film, first we get a look at the Harpoon guns that were used multiple times in the film at the start and the end, then we get a look at the "Electric Gun" that Sector 7 use to disable Bumblebee at one point in the film and Charlie used to "revive" Bumblebee after Dropkick shot and left him for dead, this electric gun resembles a Grenade tube launcher somewhat.

Finally we see some pics of a Bumblebee head and chest prop with notable focus on the "eye" design.

The source comes from his website http://www.timflattery.com/work/bumblebee/ and I'll post one picture for each of the concepts that I just talked about.












Final art, although this has been up for a bit I couldn't find any page sources for the art itself but according to others the art is from Mark Yang who did do some work for The Last Knight and it fits his art style so it's probably true.

So while I wouldn't add it to a news article until the source is found I wanted to share the art regardless, these are near final designs for Blitzwing, Shatter and Dropkick with only some slightly different proportions and different but very similar head designs to the final film.

Although Tfwiki has the art on their page for the artist so maybe they have a real source
https://tfwiki.net/wiki/Mark_Yang

Ah just as I finish submitting that post I find on Tfw2005 more of Thomas Pringle's art including a bigger pic of the Megatron pic, although no source is listed in the post I found it on and I can't find anything on Thomas's sites and accounts which was the same case with Mark Yang's work.

But here are some pics including early looks at scenes like Bumblebee running from S7 in his WW2 look from TLK which is either what Bee was originally going to look like or it was a placeholder, notably as shown in the art itself and in the art name the beginning was originally going to take place in Vietnam. (I heard some thing about Vietnam in one of the posts from one of the March Test screening watchers but I don't remember the exact quote.)














Can I just say Megatron looks absolutely huge here compared to 2007?

Design changes are the least bit worrying regarding continuity look at aligned I think the idea was that Bumblebee was meant to be something of a last hurrah for that timeline and that a reboot was always planned (just not as soon as they first wanted) to allow the franchise to blend in seamlessly with the other hasbro movies that are being planned.

That said, a smaller cast of characters and a smaller budget with a tight script is probably the best way to handle tf movies at the moment, to gather momentum again.

ZeroWolf wrote:Design changes are the least bit worrying regarding continuity look at aligned I think the idea was that Bumblebee was meant to be something of a last hurrah for that timeline and that a reboot was always planned (just not as soon as they first wanted) to allow the franchise to blend in seamlessly with the other hasbro movies that are being planned.

That said, a smaller cast of characters and a smaller budget with a tight script is probably the best way to handle tf movies at the moment, to gather momentum again.

Yup a 2007 style film would probably help in regards to main robot cast, not including minor or background characters like most of the characters in the intro sequence on Cybertron in the film, I think those are fine, this also doesn't include any cannonfodder, Autobot or Decepticon. (I would love to see some Autobot fodder, not in large numbers but like 4-5 extra guys compared to the Autobots, don't even need to kill em all either)

I think a good balance of 6 Autobots (I hate 5 man bands, I hate this concept in the Transformers tv shows) and 7-8 Decepticons (Just a little more to "outnumber" the Autobots but still keep the cast tight and focused) is decent enough, it would help if there was only like 3-4 main humans including military
so that there is enough focus on the Transformers and their story assuming that it takes place on Earth.


As much as I liked the human characters in 2007 I think it was a bit much to have Sam and his family and school "friends", the Military, the Hacker group and Sector 7 plots all over the place, just one or two bystanders and the military/Sector 7 type group is enough.

As for the robot casts themselves they should comprise of half familiar G1 characters and half obscure (Unicron trilogy, etc) and "new" characters, I have no problem with visiting old characters as long as we get new characters/ideas with them.

How cool would it be to have an Autobot cast of Prime, Bee, Prowl, Ironhide, Hot Shot, Arcee, Strongarm, Medix/First Aid/Red Alert (Armada) and some Autotroopers/Generic Autobots like the Bumblebee Cybertron scene (That blue Ironhide/Ratchet looked crisp) vs a Decepticon cast of Starscream, Soundwave (and minions), Barricade, Slipstream, Skywarp, Thundercracker, Bludgeon, Flatline, Flamewar and a small squad of Seekers and Battlechargers/Vehicons.

I only have the generic characters there so we can avoid killing important characters as much as possible but we know the audience is gonna want action and at times the action might get a little boring without some awesome robot deaths. (I mean it's war, people die and such, the films should take more advantage of being allowed to tell more mature stories by exploring war and the internal conflicts it has.)

(I would like to avoid the token female Trope, I'd prefer multiple female Transformers or none at all)

The next movie should be a tad bigger in cast since Transformers is an ensemble cast type property and doesn't work as well for solo Superhero style movies with only Prime and Bumblebee being exceptions that would work with an audience. (A Dinobot, Wrecker, {insert name of combiner/other team here} is still an ensemble cast movie even if the focus was on a small squad of characters.)

With Bumblebee comfortably enjoying its fourth weekend in American theaters, fellow Seibertronian Sabrblade has made us aware that Bumblebee’s success has not been limited to the critical-sphere. Far from it, for a recent statement from Viacom CEO Robert M. Bakish has cemented Bumblebee as a financial success.

Speaking at the Citi TMT West Conference in Las Vegas this last Wednesday, Bakish made explicit reference to Bumblebee’s success, and that it had proven “solidly profitable”. Bakish specifically compared Bumblebee to 2017’s infamous The Last Knight, which had lost over $100 million domestically. As recorded by Box Office Mojo, Bumblebee currently stands at a domestic gross of over $100 million with a $135 million budget, with an additional $307 million grossed worldwide. Though relatively low compared to early films in the franchise, Bumblebee does appear to be steering the franchise back towards profitability.

With Bumblebee still running strongly in theaters, only time will tell how far it climbs. Fortunately for fans of the films, it appears that these earnings only further reaffirm the franchise's continuation into the foreseeable future.

Please lead to Beast Wars movie, please lead to Beast Wars movie, please lead to Beast Wars movie, please lead to Beast Wars movie... And also a reboot because this movie is too different from Bay's universe, and it'd be nice to see a new cinematic Transformers universe

For all the hype that surrounds the movie........, I hate to admit....., this can’t even beat any of the 5 bayverse movies. I wouldn’t say worst, but the most on par.

Blitzwing was so short lived. Luckily it’s not Starscream. But it was definitely a missed opportunity that Knight didn’t make use of the story of SS , instead of Biltzwing, damaging Bumblebee’s voice cord and having BB seeking revenge in the next movie.

The sparks between Charlie and BB also can’t be compared to Sam and BB’s. I really hate to admit...., but the bond between man and machine was so much fun and interesting in Bay’s TF than in Knight’s.

The fights between the bots were very unrealistic, i.e. one can easily twist the plot to make either the bot or the cons win. It’s very obvious that BB can’t possibly beat any of the cons, and at times, can easily be killed. but it managed to win all the battles.

What about the rumours on the show focusing more on the story of the bots and transformation? To me, I don’t find myself knowing more about BB or the cons. The transformation was also very minimal.

The G1 looking of the bots are really not bad, much much better than the insects-looking things in bayverse. Except, why still give us a ‘Grandma-on-pacifier’ looking BB?

.....I really, really hate to admit....., but I will still watch TF 1 to 5 over and over again, but this Bumblebee movie, it will be the first and the last time...

Sentinel_Primal wrote::PRAY: Please lead to Beast Wars movie, please lead to Beast Wars movie, please lead to Beast Wars movie, please lead to Beast Wars movie... And also a reboot because this movie is too different from Bay's universe, and it'd be nice to see a new cinematic Transformers universe

What made Beast Wars so good in the first place would likely never be recaptured by Hollywood.

With our luck, we'd end up with Optimus Primal throwing his feces at the camera while Megatron (voiced by a misdirected Sylvester Stallone) roars all of his dialogue (because he's a dinosaur, geddit?), while Cheetor (voiced by Owen Wilson) is the personal ride/pet/aide/sidekick/etc. of the movie's lead role who, for some reason, is an obnoxious human character played by a white male actor with a macho physique and a 'Murica! attitude.

Sabrblade wrote:

Sentinel_Primal wrote::PRAY: Please lead to Beast Wars movie, please lead to Beast Wars movie, please lead to Beast Wars movie, please lead to Beast Wars movie... And also a reboot because this movie is too different from Bay's universe, and it'd be nice to see a new cinematic Transformers universe

What made Beast Wars so good in the first place would likely never be recaptured by Hollywood.

With our luck, we'd end up with Optimus Primal throwing his feces at the camera while Megatron (voiced by a misdirected Sylvester Stallone) roars all of his dialogue (because he's a dinosaur, geddit?), while Cheetor (voiced by Owen Wilson) is the personal ride/pet/aide/sidekick/etc. of the movie's lead role who, for some reason, is an obnoxious human character played by a white male actor with a macho physique and a 'Murica! attitude.

Bumblebee turned out well Though I think we are a long way out from a Beast Wars movie anyway, and if they can find someone who cares for G1, they'll find someone who cares for beast wars... If they do ever make it. But I'd imagine it'll be after the big reboot film.

Sabrblade wrote:

Sentinel_Primal wrote::PRAY: Please lead to Beast Wars movie, please lead to Beast Wars movie, please lead to Beast Wars movie, please lead to Beast Wars movie... And also a reboot because this movie is too different from Bay's universe, and it'd be nice to see a new cinematic Transformers universe

What made Beast Wars so good in the first place would likely never be recaptured by Hollywood.

I don't get how people think a Beast Wars movie is a good idea. The story of Beast Wars is too complex to be told in 2 hours, unless it's limited to a handful of Transformers characters and all the events of the series get crammed into the movie. Leaving them out would cripple the story severely. If they go in another direction and come up with an all-new story, it would have to be a prequel to the series.

With our luck, we'd end up with Optimus Primal throwing his feces at the camera while Megatron (voiced by a misdirected Sylvester Stallone) roars all of his dialogue (because he's a dinosaur, geddit?), while Cheetor (voiced by Owen Wilson) is the personal ride/pet/aide/sidekick/etc.

Don't give them any ideas, in case any of them are reading these boards.

of the movie's lead role who, for some reason, is an obnoxious human character played by a white male actor with a macho physique and a 'Murica! attitude.

As bad as that is, it would still be a step up over the disgusting interracial garbage they tried to pass off as romance in the Bee movie.

Rodimus Prime wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:

Sentinel_Primal wrote::PRAY: Please lead to Beast Wars movie, please lead to Beast Wars movie, please lead to Beast Wars movie, please lead to Beast Wars movie... And also a reboot because this movie is too different from Bay's universe, and it'd be nice to see a new cinematic Transformers universe

What made Beast Wars so good in the first place would likely never be recaptured by Hollywood.

I don't get how people think a Beast Wars movie is a good idea. The story of Beast Wars is too complex to be told in 2 hours, unless it's limited to a handful of Transformers characters and all the events of the series get crammed into the movie. Leaving them out would cripple the story severely. If they go in another direction and come up with an all-new story, it would have to be a prequel to the series.

I'd agree, unless it was an original story not actually set in the BW continuity but heavily inspired by BW it wouldn't work. I can't see it turning out well anyway, and to be honest I don't think it's necessary. Animation aside, BW still holds up very well.

With our luck, we'd end up with Optimus Primal throwing his feces at the camera while Megatron (voiced by a misdirected Sylvester Stallone) roars all of his dialogue (because he's a dinosaur, geddit?), while Cheetor (voiced by Owen Wilson) is the personal ride/pet/aide/sidekick/etc.

Don't give them any ideas, in case any of them are reading these boards.

If Knight or someone like him (a fan of the series) was at the helm then I can't see that being an issue. Though to be fair BW could be pretty low brow at times (remember Rhinox's indigestion episode?).

of the movie's lead role who, for some reason, is an obnoxious human character played by a white male actor with a macho physique and a 'Murica! attitude.

As bad as that is, it would still be a step up over the disgusting interracial garbage they tried to pass off as romance in the Bee movie.

I assume the word you're looking for is "interspecies", as in Bumblebee X Charlie, because interracial means something quite different and might raise a few eyebrows!

I thought he meant the humans with the romance comment

ZeroWolf wrote:I thought he meant the humans with the romance comment

SPOILER

But weren’t they just friends at the end of the film

ZeroWolf wrote:I thought he meant the humans with the romance comment

I did. The end result may have been friendship, but that was still cringeworthy. And because of the end result being a friendship, it was totally unnecessary.

Also, it's almost a given that there will be at least one sequel. Is Bee going to find yet another human to be best friends with before he gets to Sam? Wouldn't it have been better to leave Bee and Charlie's friendship open-ended so it can be built on in a possible sequel?

Rodimus Prime wrote:

ZeroWolf wrote:I thought he meant the humans with the romance comment

I did. The end result may have been friendship, but that was still cringeworthy. And because of the end result being a friendship, it was totally unnecessary.

Also, it's almost a given that there will be at least one sequel. Is Bee going to find yet another human to be best friends with before he gets to Sam? Wouldn't it have been better to leave Bee and Charlie's friendship open-ended so it can be built on in a possible sequel?

Would I prefer more of Bee and Charlie over another Human? Absolutely. But I think for the arc of Charlie’s emotional growth this was the best and only option.

Remember,, she says int he beginning that what’s eating her up was that she never got to say good bye to her Dad. And take it from someone who lost their father at the same age, but had 5 years to prepare for it, that’s an important thing to miss out on. Bee wasn’t really a surrogate Dad, but he was the first person she could connect with after that And since her Dad was a Car Guy, having someone like him manifest AS a car was probably a close enough bridge. When she thought Bee was dead at the bottom of the DryDock, she dove in to do just that, (or that’s my interpretation.) And getting to say it properly to Bee at the end set it in stone.

In my head, Bee tries to revisit his old friend sometime later, by surprising the now Mechanic Charlie at a repair facility. However. While up on the lift, Charlie manages to recognize the old battle wounds first, and shouts Oh my God a Decepticon!” Causing Bee to attempt to Transform and go on the Defensive, but of course he’s on a car lift and transforming doesn’t go... exactly as planned. Two old friends reunite with Bee hanging like a broken marionette, half transformed, 7 feet off the ground, unharmed but stuck, running through old clips of exasperations while Charlie is rolling on the floor laughing.