More Images of Transformers One Chinese Trading Cards

Thursday, September 26th, 2024 10:45AM CDT

Category: Movie Related News
Posted by: william-james88 Views: 53,193

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We have more images of the Transformers One cards. Turns out these are Chinese physical cards, some with holographic effect. While the Primes were the biggest news, since they were not clearly depicted in the film, it is nice to see other chars like Brawn, Sunstreaker and Ironhide. These characters have cogged and non cogged versions. There are a lot more cards than the ones shown below, as we can see from their indicated numbers. Hopefully the rest of the Primes subset will be found and shared.

Here is where they can be purchased by westerners: https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256807604521125.html

Transformers News: Re: Character Models of Transformers One Micronus and Quintus Prime found on Card Designs

Transformers News: Re: Character Models of Transformers One Micronus and Quintus Prime found on Card Designs

Credit(s): CsbiaoO_ on twitter

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Re: More Images of Transformers One Chinese Trading Cards (2184534)
Posted by william-james88 on September 26th, 2024 @ 2:33pm CDT

ScottyP wrote:
Glyph wrote:Ah, cheers - trading cards are a closed book to me. And likely to remain so at an estimated $35 per box times however many it might take...
If you get them on Aliexpress they're much cheaper, especially if you get several boxes at once. Anywhere from $11-15 per box, usually. I don't think this set is up there yet? Might be and I just don't see it from a quick scan over the "Kayou Transformers" results page. They have a lot of product now - RotB set, 3 pan-generational sets (mostly G1), various promo things, and now TF One product.

Edit: I think I found the TF One boxes here: https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256807604521125.html Roughly $15 per box if you buy the thing of 4 boxes. Only 50 cards per box in these though, blegh. Not sure what the significance of the different characters on the box is.

50 cards per $15 box is not many cards? I remember card packs being more expensive growing up.

Re: More Images of Transformers One Chinese Trading Cards (2184535)
Posted by william-james88 on September 26th, 2024 @ 2:35pm CDT

Re: More Images of Transformers One Chinese Trading Cards (2184558)
Posted by AzureNight on September 27th, 2024 @ 9:11am CDT

Here's all of the 13 from the trading card line

Re: More Images of Transformers One Chinese Trading Cards (2184559)
Posted by AzureNight on September 27th, 2024 @ 9:14am CDT

All 13 Primes from the trading card line

Re: More Images of Transformers One Chinese Trading Cards (2184570)
Posted by Glyph on September 27th, 2024 @ 10:57am CDT

Ah, here we go - full set of the Primes cards showcasing their movie designs:
https://www.facebook.com/10008693189766 ... 979930394/
(via TFW2005)

(Probably should have split the trading card stuff into its own thread a little while ago...)

Part 1:

Kayou_TFO01_TP-001-013_Prima.jpg

Kayou_TFO01-TP-002-013_Megatronus.jpg

Kayou_TFO01-TP-003-013_AlphaTrion.jpg

Kayou_TFO01-TP-004-013_Vector.jpg

Kayou_TFO01-TP-005-013_Solus.jpg

Kayou_TFO01-TP-006-013_Amalgamous.jpg

Re: More Images of Transformers One Chinese Trading Cards (2184571)
Posted by Glyph on September 27th, 2024 @ 11:00am CDT

Part 2:

Kayou_TFO01-TP-007-013_Nexus.jpg

Kayou_TFO01-TP-008-013_LiegeMaximo.jpg

Kayou_TFO01-TP-009-013_Onyx.jpg

Kayou_TFO01-TP-010-013_Micronus.jpg

Kayou_TFO01-TP-011-013_Quintus.jpg

Kayou_TFO01-TP-012-013_Alchemist.jpg

Kayou_TFO01-TP-013-013_Zeta.jpg

Re: More Images of Transformers One Chinese Trading Cards (2184573)
Posted by Sabrblade on September 27th, 2024 @ 11:06am CDT

You do know that you can post all of the pics in a single post if you embed them rather than attach them, right?

(Example post with 41 embedded pics)

Re: More Images of Transformers One Chinese Trading Cards (2184574)
Posted by Sabrblade on September 27th, 2024 @ 11:14am CDT

Who wants to see IGN's terrible review of the movie get completely torn to shreds? :-D

(Language warning, btw. So many f-bombs)

Re: More Images of Transformers One Chinese Trading Cards (2184575)
Posted by Glyph on September 27th, 2024 @ 11:16am CDT

Sabrblade wrote:You do know that you can post all of the pics in a single post if you embed them rather than attach them, right?

You mean hotlink to them? I don't see any other embed option - is that a user group thing?
I attached rather than hotlink in case they disappear or change, so we have the images saved.

Also, I see @Csbiaoo has updated with more scans of the non-Prime bots, including:
Skywarp, Thundercracker, Slipstream and Redwing (UR set)
Wheeljack, Hound, Arcee & Jazz (SSR set)
Ironhide, Brawn, Moonracer & Firestar (SSR set)
Prowl, Sideswipe & Sunstreaker (SSR set)
Arcee, Jazz, Ironhide & Sideswipe (cog versions) (SSR set)

Mod(s), I don't want to keep cluttering up this thread with card scans - is there any gallery option we could do?

Re: More Images of Transformers One Chinese Trading Cards (2184581)
Posted by cloudballoon on September 27th, 2024 @ 12:32pm CDT

Just found Alpha Trion, Solus & Onyx Prime designs interesting enough to get theirStudio Series toys if they do come (or Yolopark AMK). I really wish, the future Autobots & Deceptions designs being mostly 'meh' but shiny, they did the reverse Star Wars prequels in deisgn ideology. In the SW prequels everything were nice & shiny, but SW IV-IX things got all grimy with exposed pipes, panels, etc. Wish the Primes had Aplha Trion's aesthetic.

Re: More Images of Transformers One Chinese Trading Cards (2184588)
Posted by Glyph on September 27th, 2024 @ 1:35pm CDT

I've collected the trading card pics into a separate thread, grouped by set for easier reference. It's a mix of onsite & offsite links atm - Mods, if you want to copy images to seibertron, I'll update the ones that still point to imgur.

Re: More Images of Transformers One Chinese Trading Cards (2184595)
Posted by Quantum Surge on September 27th, 2024 @ 3:35pm CDT

The designs of the Primes in this movie are my favorites. I liked seeing how they don't feel as been-there-done-that as with almost every other robot in this film. I do hope we see them have larger roles like with Alpha Trion, like maybe Megatronus could be in conflict with Megatron for doing bad things while not liking Sentinel Prime either, or Quintus Prime helping Optimus find a way to destroy the Quintessons once and for all (if he did make them in this universe, that is)...assuming people would go out and financially support the movie instead of being stuck on social media rinse and repeating the same things in the fandom.

Re: More Images of Transformers One Chinese Trading Cards (2184604)
Posted by steve2275 on September 27th, 2024 @ 7:48pm CDT

very good praise

Re: More Images of Transformers One Chinese Trading Cards (2184616)
Posted by hausjam on September 27th, 2024 @ 11:59pm CDT

“it's unfortunate that a film that had such a great reception did so poorly. Especially when this is in the same brand where films that were panned by critics and fans made over a billion dollars”

Yeah, yeah, the lousy bayverse films. Panned by hack critics (who are just bitter, failed filmmakers, that only like artsy tranquilizers) and sanctimonious movie snobs (who believe everyone should agree with them because they are elitist, arrogant dopes).

God forbid there are people out there who like something you don’t.

Re: More Images of Transformers One Chinese Trading Cards (2184621)
Posted by Glyph on September 28th, 2024 @ 6:00am CDT

hausjam wrote:Yeah, yeah, the lousy bayverse films. Panned by hack critics (who are just bitter, failed filmmakers, that only like artsy tranquilizers) and sanctimonious movie snobs (who believe everyone should agree with them because they are elitist, arrogant dopes).

hausjam wrote:God forbid there are people out there who like something you don’t.

A++ self awareness! :lol:

Besides, the quote was a statement of fact: the Bayverse films were broadly panned, and TF:One has had great reception from viewers & critics alike. Doesn't mean you're wrong to like the Bayverse films, if that's your thing. But it's a shame that TF:One is doing relatively poorly given how much the people who have seen it appear to like it.

Still waiting for it to open here on the 11th... >:oP

Re: More Images of Transformers One Chinese Trading Cards (2184622)
Posted by Quantum Surge on September 28th, 2024 @ 6:06am CDT

hausjam wrote:“it's unfortunate that a film that had such a great reception did so poorly. Especially when this is in the same brand where films that were panned by critics and fans made over a billion dollars”

Yeah, yeah, the lousy bayverse films. Panned by hack critics (who are just bitter, failed filmmakers, that only like artsy tranquilizers) and sanctimonious movie snobs (who believe everyone should agree with them because they are elitist, arrogant dopes).

God forbid there are people out there who like something you don’t.

Re: More Images of Transformers One Chinese Trading Cards (2184623)
Posted by -Kanrabat- on September 28th, 2024 @ 7:11am CDT

Glyph wrote:
hausjam wrote:Yeah, yeah, the lousy bayverse films. Panned by hack critics (who are just bitter, failed filmmakers, that only like artsy tranquilizers) and sanctimonious movie snobs (who believe everyone should agree with them because they are elitist, arrogant dopes).
hausjam wrote:God forbid there are people out there who like something you don’t.

A++ self awareness!

Besides, the quote was a statement of fact: the Bayverse films were broadly panned, and TF:One has had great reception from viewers & critics alike. Doesn't mean you're wrong to like the Bayverse films, if that's your thing. But it's a shame that TF:One is doing relatively poorly given how much the people who have seen it appear to like it.

Still waiting for it to open here on the 11th...

How does that work though?

TF1 is a movie that "everyone love" but no one get to see it.

Most if not all Bay movies (at least the first 5) were "hated by everyone," but everyone went to see them.

Only the Bee and ROTB movies were "fairly balanced" with love, hate, and attendance.
I think the main factor is care/apathy. Everyone cared about the Bay movies. As for TF1, "no one" seems to care. It is unfortunate. Especially for a movie that is pure, timeless, and devoid of any "troll drama".

Re: More Images of Transformers One Chinese Trading Cards (2184625)
Posted by Glyph on September 28th, 2024 @ 8:17am CDT

-Kanrabat- wrote:How does that work though?

TF1 is a movie that "everyone love" but no one get to see it.
Most if not all Bay movies (at least the first 5) were "hated by everyone," but everyone went to see them.
Only the Bee and ROTB movies were "fairly balanced" with love, hate, and attendance.

Because audience reviews come from the people who've already seen it, generally? "Not many people saw it, but the ones who did all loved it" is a valid sentence. I don't believe that critic reviews really tend to move the needle all that much among the general public, certainly not as much as word of mouth - but word of mouth requires enough people to have seen it in the first place to tell their friends...

The Bay movies, by contrast, get a lot of flack for being "not very good" as movies, but still got major audiences by being big tentpole summer action movies. Cinema history since the 80s is pretty littered with brilliant flops and also "dumb popcorn action flicks" that still pull in big casual summer audiences! (Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe their US box office actually diminished as the series went on, but they made massively more money overseas, particularly in China)

I have no doubt that TF:One will be a "better" film than most of the Bayverse by most judgements, but it's also undeniably failed to connect with a big audience so far, and I suspect The Wild Robot will probably kill it dead in domestic box office. That probably has more to do with things like the marketing (I really don't think the initial trailer made a great first impression for general audiences, and you famously don't get a second chance at that), choice of release date (remember, all the other movies except BB came out in June/July and TF:One was supposed to come out in July but was delayed) and the staggered international opening, than it does with reviews or adjudged quality.

Re: More Images of Transformers One Chinese Trading Cards (2184626)
Posted by -Kanrabat- on September 28th, 2024 @ 10:17am CDT

I made a montage to show the critics VS the money. Appart the 2007 movie and the ROTB movie, the audience and "pro" critics are fairly the same. (Bee is MIA)

What's impressive is that TF-One is a "perfect" movie, yet it is the poorest so far money-wise.

So I think my theory is correct. What matter most for a movie success is not whenever it is good or bad. It is MARKETING and PUBLIC INTEREST that decide it all.
I think what killed the interest in TF1 is the first trailer that made it too "kiddy" and the overall designs of the movie. If the first trailer would have had a nice balance between jokes and bad-ass moments, it would have made a big difference. But honestly, it is the overall design that didn't sit well. The faces are a bit too "human" (uncanny effect) and the overall look is too "cartoony." If the design would have been exactly like the intro sequence of the Bee movie, that would have changed everything.

Let's not forget that the Bay movies will soon be VINTAGE and a whole generation grew with the Bay designs. These designs are nostalgic for a huge portion of the fanbase. This doesn't make me any younger...

(Click the picture for a better view.)

Transformers Movies.png

Re: More Images of Transformers One Chinese Trading Cards (2184630)
Posted by #1 Signal Lancer fan on September 28th, 2024 @ 11:21am CDT

-Kanrabat- wrote:ISo I think my theory is correct. What matter most for a movie success is not whenever it is good or bad. It is MARKETING and PUBLIC INTEREST that decide it all.

I think there are two other factors to consider: Animation and the franchise

Animation: Unfortunately, a lot of people in the U.S. don’t respect animation as a medium and view animated movies as “kids movies.” While I think the Spider-Verse films have been huge for the public perception of animation, it’s still something a lot of people look down on.

The franchise: Againx unfortunately, most people know of the franchise because of the movies. So when most people see that a Transformers movie is coming out, they don’t think about G1, Animated, or Prime Transformers, they think about the Michael Bay movies. Which makes this movie kind of doomed for failure. The people who don’t like the Bat movies won’t go see it because they think it’ll be like the Bag movies, and the people who do like the Bay movies may not go see it because it’s very different from the Bay movies.

Re: More Images of Transformers One Chinese Trading Cards (2184636)
Posted by -Kanrabat- on September 28th, 2024 @ 12:11pm CDT

#1 Signal Lancer fan wrote:
-Kanrabat- wrote:ISo I think my theory is correct. What matter most for a movie success is not whenever it is good or bad. It is MARKETING and PUBLIC INTEREST that decide it all.

I think there are two other factors to consider: Animation and the franchise

Animation: Unfortunately, a lot of people in the U.S. don’t respect animation as a medium and view animated movies as “kids movies.” While I think the Spider-Verse films have been huge for the public perception of animation, it’s still something a lot of people look down on.

The franchise: Againx unfortunately, most people know of the franchise because of the movies. So when most people see that a Transformers movie is coming out, they don’t think about G1, Animated, or Prime Transformers, they think about the Michael Bay movies. Which makes this movie kind of doomed for failure. The people who don’t like the Bat movies won’t go see it because they think it’ll be like the Bag movies, and the people who do like the Bay movies may not go see it because it’s very different from the Bay movies.

You're right on both accounts. Still, this all factor in the overall interest.
That's why I think that indeed, the fact that TF1 is too "cartoony" without the Disney, Pixar, or Dreamworks name, it was detrimental. If the CGI would have been Bay-Bee "realistic," the movie would have had much more success.

Re: More Images of Transformers One Chinese Trading Cards (2184682)
Posted by william-james88 on September 30th, 2024 @ 10:37am CDT

It looks like word of mouth did no favors for Transformers One in its second weekend. It opened very poorly last week and has plummeted in its second weekend, ending up third place at the domestic box office behind The Wild Robot and Beetlejuice.

While it was expected that the Wild Robot would get first place this weekend, it lays the smackdown on Transformers One’s candy ass by opening 10 million dollars higher that the later did. Which means that the reason Transformers One did less truly comes down to the brand. Parents chose to bring their kids to the Wild Robot and not Transformers, plain and simple. As bad as Transformers did last week, it did even worse this week, dropping over 60%.

The global numbers are not better. It opened in China to 8 million, which is a far cry to previous Transformers films. When looking at the week-end charts worldwide, the film ends up 4th behind The Wild Robot, Devara Part 1 and Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.
In total internationally, the film has only made 32 million across 61 countries. Added to the domestic numbers, the film has made 72 million globally. It needs to make approximately 190 million to break even, using industry standards. Even if it makes that, it will be the worst performing Transformers film by a country mile, making even less than half what Rise of the Beasts made.

The Wild Robot didn't just beat it in terms of box office debut but also in terms of critical reception. While both films have a 98% user rating, when it comes to critics, 98% recommend the Wild Robot while 88% recommend Transformers One.

Re: More Images of Transformers One Chinese Trading Cards (2184685)
Posted by #1 Signal Lancer fan on September 30th, 2024 @ 11:03am CDT

william-james88 wrote:It looks like word of mouth did no favors for Transformers One in its second weekend. It opened very poorly last week and has plummeted in its second weekend, ending up third place at the domestic box office behind The Wild Robot and Beetlejuice.

While the domestic numbers are far from ideal, it's worth noting that this does not spell financial doom for the movie.

The movie has yet to open in many international markets, which can make up a big portion of its box office success.

Of course, with this being a relatively cheap movie to make, it has already nearly made back its budget, which is good news.

Re: More Images of Transformers One Chinese Trading Cards (2184690)
Posted by Glyph on September 30th, 2024 @ 1:02pm CDT

william-james88 wrote:It looks like word of mouth did no favors for Transformers One in its second weekend. It opened very poorly last week and has plummeted in its second weekend, ending up third place at the domestic box office behind The Wild Robot and Beetlejuice.

The Wild Robot I expected, but behind the fourth week of Beetlejuice?!
Damn, this movie had a major marketing fail. Even if the movie itself was lacklustre, you'd think the franchise marketing could push it better than that in its initial week - for all the money spent on spots and the like, it doesn't seem to have made much impression on the general public. Pretty sure the September release did it no favours either (though that was more about the planned July release date being unrealistic to start with, as I understand it).

I hear it's opened in the top spot in China this weekend... on the slowest weekend of the year to date.

Still nearly two weeks before I can go see it at a cinema...

Re: More Images of Transformers One Chinese Trading Cards (2184693)
Posted by william-james88 on September 30th, 2024 @ 5:06pm CDT

Glyph wrote:I've collected the trading card pics into a separate thread, grouped by set for easier reference. It's a mix of onsite & offsite links atm - Mods, if you want to copy images to seibertron, I'll update the ones that still point to imgur.

Thanks, and yeah I'll move the discussion over to the new thread. No gallery options though.

Re: More Images of Transformers One Chinese Trading Cards (2184702)
Posted by -Kanrabat- on September 30th, 2024 @ 7:21pm CDT

Mistake #1 was to not make the movie in the same style as the intro of the Bee Movie.

And mistake #2 was the minimal marketing. Sure, the usual fans were already sold with the toys and overall fidelity. But the casuals were ignored. A shame.

Re: More Images of Transformers One Chinese Trading Cards (2184703)
Posted by Sabrblade on September 30th, 2024 @ 7:33pm CDT

-Kanrabat- wrote:Mistake #1 was to not make the movie in the same style as the intro of the Bee Movie.

No. That was no mistake because this movie is gorgeous. There is no reason to make a fully animated film look photorealistic if there is nothing actually realistic in the movie to juxtapose it with (hello Disney's Lion King remake).

Re: More Images of Transformers One Chinese Trading Cards (2184704)
Posted by Nexus Knight on September 30th, 2024 @ 8:32pm CDT

Honestly, I think the biggest mistake that they had was releasing alongside the second Beetlejuice movie (which had all the marketing and is a follow-up to a supposed classic) and Wild Robot, which was always going to be likely to draw in a bigger family following. I plan to see the latter, so I can't comment on the quality of the movie, but based on what I've seen marketing-wise... yeah, it's not shocking it's doing better. And I freaking loved TF1. I'm going to see it again with my brother soon, but I think it suffered the most from a poor release window. If it had released a week earlier like planned awhile ago, I feel it may have had a better chance to do super well before being dethroned bt Wild Robot.

Re: More Images of Transformers One Chinese Trading Cards (2184705)
Posted by -Kanrabat- on September 30th, 2024 @ 8:36pm CDT

Sabrblade wrote:
-Kanrabat- wrote:Mistake #1 was to not make the movie in the same style as the intro of the Bee Movie.
No. That was no mistake because this movie is gorgeous. There is no reason to make a fully animated film look photorealistic if there is nothing actually realistic in the movie to juxtapose it with (hello Disney's Lion King remake).

Personally, I too, find the style of the movie to be perfect.
But marketability dictate that it would have fared way better in the hyper realistic style.

The Lion King remake was totally unnecessary and was quite uncanny with their hyper realistic cartoon style. But it made enough money to warrant a sequel. A sequel that is panned by the hardcore, but the casual are exited to see. Comparing to what my family say VS what the comments/forums/content creators says.

So, it is sad to say, buy TF1 in super realistic Bee Movie intro style would have sold more tickets. Way more.

Re: More Images of Transformers One Chinese Trading Cards (2184711)
Posted by SkyFire Prime on September 30th, 2024 @ 10:33pm CDT

Why do we have to boost imagines of it as failing?

Guys, if this fails, it will truly be the last good Transformers Movie. It has to succeed in some way.

Re: More Images of Transformers One Chinese Trading Cards (2184712)
Posted by Glyph on September 30th, 2024 @ 10:44pm CDT

Well, we never know "what would have happened if X" or that there will be no good TF movies in the future, ever, so... By all indications, this movie should return a modest profit in the end and hopefully at least one sequel. But it's certainly not performed as well as we / Hasbro / Paramount were hoping, and there's little point pretending that isn't the case.

Where it's succeeded is in being well-reviewed and well-received by its (modest) audiences, and we can expect that more people will eventually watch it on streaming / disc than saw it in the cinema. So one big thing it can do is help rehabilitate the brand, which doesn't exactly have a stellar reputation at the movies right now, and maybe get more people interested in seeing the next one.

Re: More Images of Transformers One Chinese Trading Cards (2184713)
Posted by Rodimus Prime on September 30th, 2024 @ 11:35pm CDT

-Kanrabat- wrote:Mistake #1 was to not make the movie in the same style as the intro of the Bee Movie.

And mistake #2 was the minimal marketing. Sure, the usual fans were already sold with the toys and overall fidelity. But the casuals were ignored. A shame.

Agreed on both counts.

The movie as it is looks pretty good. But it never establishes the illusion that these are actual living beings. For all of Bayverse's faults, when I was looking at the screen I was convinced (or at least could easily pretend) that I was looking at metallic living beings.

If we had gotten the style of the opening scene of Bumblebee, which was the best part of the movie aside from perhaps the fight scene with Bee and the triplechangers, it would have gone a long way in helping the general audience decide to see it. The way TFOne looks, we all knew it was gonna be an animated movie, and not a movie with CGI in it.

Now I can imagine how expensive that type of rendering can be for that long of a movie, but it most definitely would have boosted the box office. Probably not enough to turn a profit, so in the end financially this was the smarter choice, but if money was no object, it would have looked much better the other way.

Re: More Images of Transformers One Chinese Trading Cards (2184714)
Posted by Bumblevivisector on September 30th, 2024 @ 11:55pm CDT

Yeeesh, will's description's making me picture a future Robot Chicken sketch where The Wild Robot literally lands on Cybertron beats up the entire population.

The video mentioned that TF ONE still did better than TWR outside the U.S. this weekend, and that's making me wonder what countries each film was released in. But no amount of data mining can change the totals.

Re: More Images of Transformers One Chinese Trading Cards (2184715)
Posted by Sabrblade on September 30th, 2024 @ 11:57pm CDT

Rodimus Prime wrote:The movie as it is looks pretty good. But it never establishes the illusion that these are actual living beings.

Rodimus Prime wrote:The way TFOne looks, we all knew it was gonna be an animated movie, and not a movie with CGI in it.

Photorealistic CGI is still animation. It's impossible to make a truly live-action movie if there's nothing actually shot in live-action in the movie. No matter how realistic it appears, photorealistic CGI is still animation. I go back to Disney's "live action" remake of The Lion King. That movie was 99.9% animated with photorealistic CGI with no actual live action shots in it other than the opening shot of the sun rising over the horizon at the beginning of the movie. After that, everything for the remainder of that film was completely animated.

Re: More Images of Transformers One Chinese Trading Cards (2184716)
Posted by Glyph on October 1st, 2024 @ 12:29am CDT

Rodimus Prime wrote:For all of Bayverse's faults, when I was looking at the screen I was convinced (or at least could easily pretend) that I was looking at metallic living beings.

Really? Because one of the big issues I had with the Bayverse films was that the robots never felt right in the scene to me - they always seemed floaty, or the physics didn't sell, or some other thing. They always just looked like special effects IMO, and not at a level I expected from ILM. #shrug#

Rodimus Prime wrote:If we had gotten the style of the opening scene of Bumblebee, which was the best part of the movie aside from perhaps the fight scene with Bee and the triplechangers, it would have gone a long way in helping the general audience decide to see it. The way TFOne looks, we all knew it was gonna be an animated movie, and not a movie with CGI in it.

Matter of taste I suppose - for me, the Cybertron section was one of the less interesting bits of the film, and the most jammed-in-for-fan-service. (Not the bits I most disliked - that would probably be the very Bay-esque little brother / cringe stepdad.) The designs were vastly improved from the previous films though, in that they actually looked like Transformers ( :-P

), but a whole movie that looked like that would have been (a) incredibly expensive and (b) targeted very much at older fans, not new kids and casuals. I thought the animation in the rest of the film, particularly between Charlie and Bee, did way better both at actual character acting and in feeling realistically grounded in the scene, over the same 'robot PAWNCH!' bouncy action we'd seen before. IMO, YMMV, etc.

I maintain that the timing of release - back to school, sandwiched between Beetlejuice and TWR, staggered by almost a month overseas - did far more to hurt its chances than the style. But who knows, in the end - there's a lot of variables in play.

Re: More Images of Transformers One Chinese Trading Cards (2184717)
Posted by Sabrblade on October 1st, 2024 @ 1:10am CDT

Glyph wrote:but a whole movie that looked like that would have been (a) incredibly expensive and (b) targeted very much at older fans, not new kids and casuals.

And here I think we've reached the crux of the matter, that it all comes back to the longstanding belief that live-action is superior to animation because, supposedly, live-action is for grownups and mature audiences while animation is for children, losers, and stupid people. That photorealism is somehow better than illustrated artwork.

The thing is, Transformers is a brand that thrives as illustrated art, whether moving pictures or stilled drawings. It's at its best when it's not trying to be super hyper-realistic as it's more focused on telling good stories with engaging characters, regardless of whether it looks like a Hanna-Barbera cartoon, a Jack Kirby drawing, a PlayStation 2 game, or a Flash animation.

At the end of the day, Transformers doesn't and shouldn't belong to one specific demographic. Not adults, not kids, not fans, not casuals, but everyone. Transformers is and should be something that everyone can enjoy, as given in this excellent short video that the entire fandom could stand to watch and learn from:

Re: More Images of Transformers One Chinese Trading Cards (2184721)
Posted by Glyph on October 1st, 2024 @ 5:13am CDT

Amen to that, in the general!

In the specific, as an animation junkie and proponent of "it's a medium, not a genre"... that bias that sees non-hyperreal animated movies as "kids' stuff" and turns adults away is unfortunately a big factor. Unless you're a proven big name like Pixar or Dreamworks - and often even then! - you've got an uphill struggle if you're putting out an all-ages animated feature. There are always some standouts - Spider-Verse, Arcane etc - but the bias is sadly pretty pervasive.

But we also can't attribute everything to that - after all, the film currently kicking TF1's ass is another, much more polished-looking all-ages animated feature from Dreamworks. When I said a whole movie that looked like the BB movie's Cybertron scene would be targeted at older fans, I wasn't (only) talking about the "realistic" rendering but about the whole aesthetic: heroic-proportioned bots leaping around the place, blasting and punching each other to shreds over a constant backdrop of explosions. Though I haven't seen it yet, my understanding from the discussions is that that aesthetic would have been badly mismatched with TF1's overall tone and story style. (The other thing to note is that it would have been much more expensive, and on current performance would likely have turned TF1 from modestly profitable to a financial flop.)

I hear that the full movie has some gorgeous visuals, particularly vistas and individual scenes, but that initial trailer (the only thing I've really seen besides the Kayou cards, by intent, which puts me in a similar position to much of the prospective audience) looked fairly mid-tier on the level of both character design and animation - more like a game cutscene than a full movie in places. The character designs are serviceable but not really much more than that, pretty generic and interchangeable, and the animation was weirdly stiff at times (B-127 turning and running was a standout in my memory, along with that shot of Dread/Darkwing looking like a cheap, cobbled-together game extra). For contrast, TF Prime, while much less advanced in the rendering and 14 years older, managed some excellent character animation on a much lower budget!

If there's one thing I can assume for The Wild Robot, based on Dreamworks' past record, it's that it will be polished to a high sheen, with characters carefully tuned for audience appeal. That polish & appeal in the design is what I felt was lacking in TF1's marketing presentation, and the cut of the initial trailer ("Badassitron" #-o

) really wouldn't help raise it to must-see rather than meh if I wasn't already invested as a TF and animation fan. Which is a crying shame, because from everything I've heard the rest of the movie is excellent.

--EDIT--
I'm probably coming off as more negative than I mean to. I'm tired. Really just rambling on designing for appeal and the need to make the story, presentation and marketing all line up the same direction for the target demo.

Re: More Images of Transformers One Chinese Trading Cards (2184725)
Posted by Rodimus Prime on October 1st, 2024 @ 10:12am CDT

Sabrblade wrote:
Rodimus Prime wrote:The movie as it is looks pretty good. But it never establishes the illusion that these are actual living beings.

Bang your head all you want, it still won't change the fact that not everyone thinks like you. What you have are opinions and others are allowed to have differing ones.

Rodimus Prime wrote:The way TFOne looks, we all knew it was gonna be an animated movie, and not a movie with CGI in it.
Photorealistic CGI is still animation. It's impossible to make a truly live-action movie if there's nothing actually shot in live-action in the movie. No matter how realistic it appears, photorealistic CGI is still animation.

Fair enough. So let me rephrase. The animation in Bayverse looks much more organic than in TFOne. Again let me stress that I really liked TFOne. I even liked the animation. But just as with TF:Prime or TF:TM before it, I knew I was looking at animation. In Bayverse, I was able to suspend my disbelief and think I was looking at a real living alien machine on the screen who had just as much life as the human characters. With TFOne that's not the case. I still prefer the complete lack of humans, so no real complaints. But speaking strictly of the art style used, Bayverse still looks more believable.

Re: More Images of Transformers One Chinese Trading Cards (2184726)
Posted by Rodimus Prime on October 1st, 2024 @ 10:26am CDT

Glyph wrote:
Rodimus Prime wrote:For all of Bayverse's faults, when I was looking at the screen I was convinced (or at least could easily pretend) that I was looking at metallic living beings.

Really? Because one of the big issues I had with the Bayverse films was that the robots never felt right in the scene to me - they always seemed floaty, or the physics didn't sell, or some other thing. They always just looked like special effects IMO, and not at a level I expected from ILM. #shrug#

To each her/his own. Bayverse wasn't perfect visually by any means. But as I explained in my response to Sabrblade, I still had easier time believing I was looking at a real living being in the live action films. Perhaps because real humans were also included in the scene?

Matter of taste I suppose

Full stop. You suppose correctly.

I maintain that the timing of release - back to school, sandwiched between Beetlejuice and TWR, staggered by almost a month overseas - did far more to hurt its chances than the style. But who knows, in the end - there's a lot of variables in play.

Agreed on the timing. This should have been either a June release or even a March or April release. Just seems that the producers already knew this would mainly appeal to TF fans so they just put it out there and didn't bother serious marketing to children. Which should anger Hasbro because that damaged their promotion of the toyline.

Re: More Images of Transformers One Chinese Trading Cards (2184727)
Posted by Sabrblade on October 1st, 2024 @ 10:31am CDT

Rodimus Prime wrote:Agreed on the timing. This should have been either a June release or even a March or April release. Just seems that the producers already knew this would mainly appeal to TF fans so they just put it out there and didn't bother serious marketing to children. Which should anger Hasbro because that damaged their promotion of the toyline.

It seems they went with September to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the G1 cartoon. But a May release would have better coincided with the actual 40th anniversary of the whole brand.

Re: More Images of Transformers One Chinese Trading Cards (2184728)
Posted by Rodimus Prime on October 1st, 2024 @ 10:53am CDT

Sabrblade wrote:
Rodimus Prime wrote:Agreed on the timing. This should have been either a June release or even a March or April release. Just seems that the producers already knew this would mainly appeal to TF fans so they just put it out there and didn't bother serious marketing to children. Which should anger Hasbro because that damaged their promotion of the toyline.
It seems they went with September to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the G1 cartoon. But a May release would have better coincided with the actual 40th anniversary of the whole brand.

Absolutely Agreed. May 8th to be exact. It was a Wednesday, would've given the movie a nice 5-day opening.

Re: More Images of Transformers One Chinese Trading Cards (2184729)
Posted by Sabrblade on October 1st, 2024 @ 10:58am CDT

Rodimus Prime wrote:
Sabrblade wrote:
Rodimus Prime wrote:Agreed on the timing. This should have been either a June release or even a March or April release. Just seems that the producers already knew this would mainly appeal to TF fans so they just put it out there and didn't bother serious marketing to children. Which should anger Hasbro because that damaged their promotion of the toyline.
It seems they went with September to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the G1 cartoon. But a May release would have better coincided with the actual 40th anniversary of the whole brand.
Absolutely Agreed. May 8th to be exact. It was a Wednesday, would've given the movie a nice 5-day opening.

The only real competition it would have faced had it been released in May would have been Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes and IF. Which, admittedly, is some pretty steep competition, but we'll never know what might have happened, alas.

Re: More Images of Transformers One Chinese Trading Cards (2184731)
Posted by TFIta369 on October 1st, 2024 @ 11:23am CDT

it lays the smackdown on Transformers One’s candy ass

I cringed. #-o

Re: More Images of Transformers One Chinese Trading Cards (2184732)
Posted by Glyph on October 1st, 2024 @ 12:00pm CDT

Sabrblade wrote:
Rodimus Prime wrote:Agreed on the timing. This should have been either a June release or even a March or April release.
It seems they went with September to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the G1 cartoon. But a May release would have better coincided with the actual 40th anniversary of the whole brand.

As I understand it, it was supposed to be July 19 for the summer crowd, but pushed back to September 13 (presumably for final crunch because it wasn't ready) then again to September 25 to avoid the Beetlejuice premiere. Which then, ironically, only gave it one week before TWR.

Re: More Images of Transformers One Chinese Trading Cards (2184733)
Posted by Sabrblade on October 1st, 2024 @ 12:04pm CDT

Glyph wrote:
Sabrblade wrote:
Rodimus Prime wrote:Agreed on the timing. This should have been either a June release or even a March or April release.
It seems they went with September to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the G1 cartoon. But a May release would have better coincided with the actual 40th anniversary of the whole brand.

As I understand it, it was supposed to be July 19 for the summer crowd, but pushed back to September 13 (presumably for final crunch because it wasn't ready) then again to September 25 to avoid the Beetlejuice premiere. Which then, ironically, only gave it one week before TWR.

September 20.

Re: More Images of Transformers One Chinese Trading Cards (2184735)
Posted by Glyph on October 1st, 2024 @ 12:43pm CDT

Yeah, that (brain fart, 13 + 7 != 25)

Re: More Images of Transformers One Chinese Trading Cards (2184768)
Posted by JazZeke on October 1st, 2024 @ 4:30pm CDT

Transformers One is even better on the second go-around. Something about expecting the emotional beats and dramatic moments lets you savor them even more. Honestly this time I cried during Orion's ascension into Optimus.

Re: More Images of Transformers One Chinese Trading Cards (2184770)
Posted by Immortal Starscream on October 1st, 2024 @ 6:15pm CDT

such a shame, because the movie is absolutely amazing. I feel this is mostly due to branding. People are sick of hyping up movie franchises only to get a lackluster, brainless, boring or dumb flick. But then again, many box office flops have gone on to be regarded as some of the greatest movies of all time. Citizen kane, john carpenters Thing, the 1986 TF movie. (ok ok, its not on the level of the last two, but it was a flop that most people here regard as gold)

Re: More Images of Transformers One Chinese Trading Cards (2184774)
Posted by william-james88 on October 1st, 2024 @ 11:20pm CDT

Bumblevivisector wrote:Yeeesh, will's description's making me picture a future Robot Chicken sketch where The Wild Robot literally lands on Cybertron beats up the entire population.

The video mentioned that TF ONE still did better than TWR outside the U.S. this weekend, and that's making me wonder what countries each film was released in. But no amount of data mining can change the totals.

Yeah, both films have odd stagerred release dates making it hard ti get a sense of their momentum internationally

And glad you liked my description, we have to find some fun in all this

Re: More Images of Transformers One Chinese Trading Cards (2184775)
Posted by Quantum Surge on October 2nd, 2024 @ 12:17am CDT

So much for trying to boost TF out of #SaveTFONE LMAO, this flick's biggest defenders at least tried staying offline for once to be outside their homes rather than rinse and repeat the same "Bayverse and/or any non-G1 series bad" bs they'd say on forums or social media. :lol: