Southpaw Samurai

Not that I need to ramble further, but eugimon brings up a good point. Whether or not the Southrons or Easterlings were analogous to Asian/Middle Eastern/African people or not, there WERE many examples of 'white' people working with Sauron, whether you go from the low end of the people who ratted the hobbits in Bree up to the Black Numoreans ('black' as in 'fall into the shadow' rather than any racial features), who were among Sauron's most loyal buddies in their time and most likely made up a number of his ringwraiths and probably the Mouth of Sauron. The movies, due to time restraints and not wanting to confuse people, kept it relatively simple and stayed with the 'white guys/dwarves/elves/hobbits vs. orcs/trolls/Easterling/Haradrim' Besisdes, we really never know what percentage of Easterlings and Southrons support Sauron. Obviously those in the border lands, but they have a lot of just cause to have bones to pick with Gondor anyway.

"Middle Earth" could be used to define the whole world, although it seems to be specifically the lands of mortal folk (not counting Aman, where the Elves go). The main landmass of the story, also known as Endor, is a large, not-ever-finalized-in-shape landmass (there are some maps Tolkien did that show the eastern side better, but it doesn't appear he had ever made one official). There doesn't really NEED to be other 'races' of men... our races are merely slight, but widescale genetic differences, reinforced by environment and geographic region. Middle-earth could have developed quite differently. Given that it could very well be an analogy for our world (sort of a 'ancient history'), one could associate the various types of men with our real world counterparts, but that might lead to incorrect conclusions. One might assume Easterlings are supposed to be Asians (the movie did to some extent, giving Easterlings fantasy versions of Asian-like armor and weapons) and the Haradrim as Middle Eastern and/or African (again, as the movie did, with bits of Aztec thrown in). Easterling, though, is a term that encompasses apparently a number of various sub-groups whose only similar defining characteristic is that they hail from the east side of the continent. There's the swarthy, broad-featured folk, to chariot driving Wainriders, to big, brawny guys with beards. It would almost be as if you drew a line starting at the western Russian border down and stating that everyone east of that was an 'Easterling'. The Haradrim also represent a vast mixture (hence their other name, "Southrons". They are probably more clearly defined as sort of analogous to Middle-Eastern/African people, between their oliphaunts, their scimitars, their 'dark and tall' features, their extensive use of gold in decoration, etc. But Tolkien goes into more detail over what an oliphaunt looks like than all the descriptions of the people themselves combined, so we'll never know for sure. People like to criticize Tolkien for making the 'non-white' groups 'bad guys', but that's mainly because the stories are told from the POV of the western forces and they win the war. The Haradrim, for example, actually were a noble and decent folk, but it was the Numenoreans (the ancestors of the men of Gondor and Arnor and perhaps (more distantly) the Rohirrim) who came to Endor and in their haughtiness settled down in Endor and started to levy taxes and tribute from the Haradrim, which put them at odds. Sauron, being the opportunist and charmer, basically convinces the Haradrim that they'd be better off siding with him and eventually avenging these slights than forever being second-rate toadies to the pompous Dunedain. Imagine people lording themselves over you and constantly implying through looks and reactions that they are superior to you just because they may have some elven blood running through their veins. You'd side with the first powerful guy who offered to help, whether he came in pretty form or as a big, dark lord. Similarly, the Easterlings, who had beefs with the men of the West as well, were lured by offers of wealth and power. Sauron gets his way and the heads of the factions under him get their little cut... meaningless to Sauron's grand scope, but important to them.... it's much the same way he got his nine ringwraiths. Sauron wanted to enslave, not decimate. Jeez... sorry for rambling....

Haven't gone back to play Insane yet... thinking of doing a friend of mine 'a favor' by allowing him to play co-op with me... get some Dom time in and beat Insane. Haven't done almost any Live play... have just been too busy. I still don't get the end boss... beat him solo on hardcore after about fifteen attempts mainly because Dom jumped out in front of him, died, but got caught 'dying' in front of Raam who at that point couldn't seem to move. Would've felt empty over the victory had I not had a number of irritating attempts where I seemed to have everything down but somehow I'd die in what felt like one blow... and it felt good that Dom was actually useful... even if he was just kneeling in front of Raam grunting over and over... ...thanks for taking one for the team, Dom!

I don't mind that they look like Grievious or a Bionicle on its own merit. In fact, all that 'skinless human, sculpted in metal' look just adds to the 'alieness' of the Bayformers. And it does make sense that you'd design yourself for maximum agility and ease of repairs. Where my main balking point is with the designs is that it doesn't make a lot of sense from the standpoint of robots that know they're in for combat. Sure big, bulky robots like the G1 designs or even the Alternators/BTs look a little less 'cool' than what they went with (I guess), but in many ways its makes sense that combat machines would go for bulk... for armor if nothing else. Look at most civilians machinery compared to military hardware. The military stuff invariably has an extra piece of plate, a skirt, a cowling, etc covering delicate parts like joints. Heck, civilian stuff often tries to protech parts from the environment. The Bayformers are exposed left and right and while you can make excuses like 'their interior parts are tough enough', you start going down a path of logic where inevitably you'll question why they bother fighting if they can't hurt each other 'naked'. You can convince me that what looks like the fiberglass shell of a race car is actually a highly durable piece of armor... it's harder to convince me that the completely exposed lower arm workings will survive human explosives or even dirt and grime, much less a shot from Cybertronian weaponry. It would've been cool had the Bayformer designs been their original designs (particularly the Autobots if you start them out as non-war machines) and once they got to earth, part of their transformation would be to add some protection. Many of the G1 (and even BT/Alt) designs wouldn't work because of gaps, spaces, and the lack of necessity to have actual parts to allow articulation and movement, but more solid designs would both have harkened back to them better and also would've made more sense. And if knights can look cool in a movie wearing full plate, more solid, armored Transformers could've too.

I'm going to break G1 Transformer fan rank and file here and say it isn't the worst thing that could've been done with the franchise. The trailer sold me that Bayformer movie woud've been a pretty fun and interesting movie had we never had the Transformers to compare it to, much less be aware its a license of. The trailer has its moments (the Autobots driving up to a transforming Optimus, the Autobots driving down the road together... and, to some extent, Blackout transforming and thrashing the base... still wish they'd incorporate the old Transforming sound into the new one... even just a quiet undertone of it). Given the emphasis on the humans and Bay's style in general, if I do go see this at first run, it'll be with little anticipation, but I'm definitely starting to come around to the whole 'if you try to ignore its relationship to Transformers past, it'll be okay' mindset.

Optimus Prime's 'right hand man' could easily describe three Autobots from among his initial team that came to Earth: 1) Although he got less screen time than the others in the cartoon, Prowl always struck me as Prime's second-in-command and I think both the toys and comics reflected that better. If nothing else, he was certainly Kong Ming head strategic advisor. 2) Ironhide is the trustworthy old friend... the guy who would step in front of a shot aimed for Prime without even processing why (he was the security officer per the toys too). He's the old, gruff gunny sergeant who for whatever reason isn't higher up in the ranks, but is indespensible in the trenches. He's the type to grumble up the chain of command without fear yet will never do so in a way that weakens the leadership. 3) Jazz also strikes me as a sergeant type... and he was definitely treated as either a first sergeant or even lieutenant type in the cartoon. He's not only the Autobot/non-Autobot liaison, but also comes across as sort of the more jovial grunt-leadership liaison. Still, as cube points out, I don't see them jumping to make a Prowl or Meister (in lieu of the Jazz name) MP when they have the Alternators/BTs unless they felt the character itself would sell twice (which, while both are popular, neither probably would). Ironhide, maybe, but he'd be better off as an Alternator/BT as well. Soundwave definitely strikes me as a perfect choice. He's a big guy, he could have a bunch of gimmicks (the various tapes alone), and he's one of those Transformers that is iconic. Devastator would make a really nice choice as a masterpiece. The first and most iconic of the gestalts, he'd be worth the price tag and even if he's only a little taller than Prime, he'd still look imposing to most of the other toys out there. Grimlock falls unfortunately into the category of 'done by the BTs/Alts'. Outside of articulation, his toy and cartoon appearance weren't too far off, so improving him would just result in a chunky dino alternative mode. Anyway, too much meaningless rambling from me....

So when does the Great Froating Head gets his crack at Megatron? Or when do they come along and decide he's either going to be in Galvatron colors or some sort of 'realistic' color scheme? As it stands, I can't at all fault the look. There's so little you can do to make a G-1 homage Megatron look much better without changing the transformation completely or picking a different weapon. The legs naturally will be thin, etc. At least he's not an obviously top-heavy, bow-legged alien-looking baddie like the original.

Nothing really new to someone who threw away their childhood and early adulthood to Star Wars, but still a fun little compilation. I don't think I've heard that audio snippet of Garrick Hagon talking about his role as Biggs. As much as I like the whole Biggs-Luke/Toshi Station gang sequence and enjoy it in the radio drama and a few other places (like the original comic adaptation), I'm glad it never made the movie. It's a long, drawn out sequence that's all exposition. Heck, if all the political and economic banter of the prequels killed you, this sequence has an early glimpse of it as Biggs talks about the Emperor taking over banks and such. Besides, the whole introduction of Luke as it currently stands is near perfect in tone, music, and pacing. One scene that I don't want put back in, but would like to see finished just for the kick of it is the whole C-3P0 door sign ripping sub-story. Basically, wampas attacked the Rebel base early in the movie and the rebels sealed off the portion of the base the snow creatures resided in. When the stormtroopers assault the base, Threepio walks over to the door with the warning on it and in a moment of pure evil that would make his maker proud, he tears off the warning. So, when the stormtroopers get there, they check it out and... ARGH! Crunch!!! Chomp!!! Eeeek!! Burp. I sort of still want to know what George was thinking in writing up that sequence... forget Asimov's laws of robotics, Threepio (at least once Tony Daniels changed him from used car dealer to English butler) always struck me as the type who would apologize before punching someone, much less send people to gory deaths....

<<<SPOILERS UNLESS YOU'VE SEEN THE TRAILER>>> I can live with changing canon and making Sandman the actual murderer. As an average criminal, it would've been well within the possibility of such happening and actually warps the mythos in order to provide a viable reason for the overally 'toying with the darkside' plot of the film. Looks like the Venom-symbiote not only forms Pete's black costume, but turns him all emo when he's Parker too (check out the darker hair and the almost 'covering one eye' lock he has both when attacks Brock at what appears to be the Bugle and when he seemingly throws one of the Goblin's bombs at Harry. Further proof of just how evil emo kids are. I very much like Peter tearing off Venom while the church bell rings... very nice nod to the original to have the symbiote be affected by sound.... I don't think I saw any Gwen though... we'll have to see how big her part is. There was early talk about a role-reversal of sorts between MJ and Gwen...

What worked for me and my old Marmit Boba Fett was to use warm water and/or a blow dryer (carefully with the latter) to warm up the PVC-like parts to make them more flexible and also expand a bit so pieces met together. Once you let it cool, they shrink back down and harden up again and usually everything stays together nicely. I don't know about this figure, but in Boba Fett's case, you basically applied the foam so it more or less filled out the helmet/hed with a little gap for the neck peg and then just pushed it down. The head never 'snaps in' or firmly stays put (you'd never want to grab it by the head), but it does stay put and the flexibility of the foam/peg combo allows for a lot of head positions and gestures that the average figure doesn't allow. Hopefully this figure's outfit and accessories are made from the same stuff. Try to avoid too much trimming unless you're talking obvious leftovers from the molding process... you want it to stay together when you're done. I know that wasn't specific instructions, nor may they be totally applicable to your figure, but hopefully it helps you along the path.

Ah... the old Transformers trainset. Given I was a train fan and a transfan (Graham's right, that DOES sound wrong), it was inevitable that I got one of those for Christmas the year it came out. Standard Tyco HO scale train that ran on a defined mat with buildings and such. The trains, not counting the caboose/spaceship barely transformed.. posing a G.I.Joe involved more movement of plastic. It also came with a whole bunch of 'Autobots' and 'Decepticons' which were really M.U.S.C.L.E. - like robots that didn't look anything REMOTELY like Transformers (although some DID sort of look like the generic Autobots and Decepticons featured on Cybertron in the Marvel comics). It would've been VERY cool had you instead had figured that looked like the decoys that eventually came packaged with their larger selves. All in all, you really got the feelingi it was a simply a repackaged generic robot product with Autobot symbols slapped on. But, then again, that's what Transformers were anyway. Still, it was fun to put Bumblebee (either mode) on the tracks going "Oh! I'm stuck here with a train coming!Wait! That's an Autobot signal on the engine! It's must a friend! Hey! Stop! Look It's transforming....umm....by raising a radar dish and that's about it.... I'm not sure this thing is sentient......."

Mine's fine, as are the ones from a number of friends. It definitely does seem like a good number of the problems are modded ones. Beyond that, anytime you upgrade firmware, it IS risky and can cause 'bricking' as they're calling this. Ask anyone who's updated the BIOS on tons of PC or other pieces of hardware. Beyond power/connection failures, you can still randomly toast devices. So I don't think it's any big deal. Also something to consider: Apparently some people have found that although you can select 1080p from the display properties, the component cables won't deliver it, so you'll get a blank screen without the ability to go back unless you switch to a VGA or S-Video/RCA connection so that it forces the 360 to use a different display setting. This may be the origin on some of the 'bricking' people are claiming.

Really don't know what to make of the smirk. Think my problem with it is the squinty eye. Yes, most smirking does make one eye smaller due to cheek movement and the image from the cartoon they were emulating DOES have the one eye squinting, but it looks off. The mouth makes it look devishly amused, but the eye almost makes him look like he's confused, in pain, or maybe just let loose a cyber-fart or something. Other personal observations after finally getting some time to play with him last night (some have been mentioned, but I'll only say them again if I have something to add or it really stuck out: - I swear I have 'what if Zartan was a Seeker?' toy. His coloring is very weird in that under certain incandescent lighting, he's decidely a dark blue/green while last night under my fluorescent desk lamp, he was definitely approaching Thundercracker-ish colors. As an amateur artist and photographer, I'm well aware of how much the lighting can affect perceived colors, but he just seems to vary greatly. Not a complaint (although I would prefer either a more 'real' grey or a more original toy/cartoon scheme), just a goofy observation - Like how the cockpit converts so that the pilot is facing forward in either mode (although that gives credence to what someone said earlier about this being more a 'Kawamori designed F-15 mecha'). Just be careful... the good Doctor (who REALLY need some paint besides his labcoat) just likes to jump out of his seat while in this position and he can get wedged up in the workings making it a bit difficult to go back to jet mode until you work him back down. - Stress marks can come easily. I think its coming down to both the gentleness of the owner and the stubborness of the parts. The first time I tried flipping the wings over onto the eventual back, one went as smoothly as one would suspect. The other I started to do the same thing and it was really stubborn and stress marks at the joint appeared immediately. In addiction, the second (more forward) joint of that double-joint actually had a hairline fracture when I got it up and over. Nothing really broken (the fracture is tiny and the part is now loose enough that no additional stress will probably befall it during transformations), but I think it's the first time I've ever had something break while transforming it for the first time... even going all the way back to my original Transformers as a kid. Even the dreaded VF1 and Alpha MPCs didn't). So, as someone said earlier, be very, VERY gentle and try to loosen up pieces a bit when first transforming it... even if a similar piece when smoothly. - No real QC issues on mine otherwise. - Like the tranformation process. Basically simple, but has a lot of intricate little parts that make most of the final robot form look clean. The infamous hip-pieces are the notable exception... look fine from the forward view, but hideous from the side unless you have a thing for that style of mecha design. Can't do much about them though (short removal), unless the stabilizers were designed to fold up, which would've make them weak in jet mode... perhaps in a 18" Ultra-Masterpiece Starscream someday... Have come to actually just letting armor hang vertically along legs... looks a little wrong front-on, but from most other angles it looks like some kind of armor to protect his hips and knee joints. - Would take some retooling in order to ever see the conehead trio (or at least, cartoon accurate ones... the original toy images had the standard cone-facing rear look). Not that anyone is holding their breath for Ramjet, Thrust, and Dirge, but just an observation.... I suppose the part of the cone covering the radar could be removed and placed on their heads... would look like a dunce cap, but that's what it always looked like anyway... - The mold will probably have a bunch of serious nerfing done to it if it somes stateside. If Prime's smokestacks posed a danger, I'd have to think what the points on Starscream's stabilizers would be considered, not to mention his classic null ray weapons. I wonder if we'll get the original 'short head' weapons that were the alternate missile heads on the original toy. Overall, I'm happy with my Starscream (bought two from BBTS... mainly out of concern about transforming him too much). I'm still hoping for a more 'authentic' color scheme (at which point these guys would make great generic Seekers, even if they're not any of the default Seeker 'red shirts' from the cartoon).

Actually, the things that have drawn me to the DOA series (not counting the 'Xtreme' sub-series) has been the expansive backdrops (since DOA2) and the fighting mechanic. It's definitely different from the standard VirtuaFighter/StreetFighter/MortalKombat styles and I really dug the rock/paper/scissors style including the countering. It's easy enough for a button masher to pick up, but because of the counter system, even cheap-fast move spammers could be stopped in their tracks. But the countering was too easy and people would often spam THAT, so they made it more difficult and the balance has gone the other way. Whether it be blurry-fast attacks in a melee fighter or putting the biggest, baddest battleship turret-sized guns on your lightweight giant robot, people are going to use whatever cheap thing they can to win... human nature.... ...yeah, obviously I've been playing a bit too much Chromehounds recently too...

As long as Leonidas doesn't shout, "Spartans! First wave.... DIVE!!!" I'm not entirely sold on the blue screen backgrounds... sometimes they work, sometimes they feel like some late 20th century computer game's live action cutscene... hard to get an epic feel of 300 Spartans facing thousands of Persian when it's obviously four guys in front of a screen that has the apparent depth of ten to fifteen feet behind them. From the trailers, the backdrops seem to work perhaps half the time... Although very familiar with Thermopylae, I've never read 300. Where does the big orcish characters (like the one on the confusing poster that makes you think this is a horror film or bad Lord of the Rings ripoff and the large one in the trailer) come in? Are they part of some fanciful dream/mythological-enchanced backstory or are they some kind of malformed Persian units? Anyone ever see 300 Spartans? VERY Cold War propaganda laced and typical 60's Hollywood. Gotta love how the Spartans 'fought for freedom of all civilized people'. Guess slaves (including fellow Greeks) didn't count...

I don't know. The top two I've defintiely felt like from time to time... although the opposite is true sometimes and you look at a modern toy and go 'Gee... I wish we had something that cool when I was a kid..' But the third panel is decidedly not me. I'm not only a 'toys deserve to be free!' advocate who will rarely keep something in a box unless it happens to look exceptional that way or just don't have the problem place to put them yet, but I'm also the type not to treat the displayed stuff like museum pieces. Don't have any kids of my own yet, but when friends have brought over little ones and they immediately dive for the toys, I let them. To me, seeing the toy played with does more to make me happy than having the display piece. And, yes, I've not only had things made lose with my philosophy, but also broken. Sometimes I'll try to fix it, sometimes buy a replacement, sometimes let it go... heck, I've even let one or two be taken home if the kid was truly enamored with it. To me, a toy lost to a child's fun is as noble an end as any a piece of plastic can have. Yeah.. perhaps I'm a little weird, but while I've gone to great lengths to recapture my childhood, I definitely like to let it run free from time to time. BTW, that comic is pretty funny... here's its commentary on our favorite lil' KISS Convoy... Hopefully it wasn't posted already back when we were talking about it... don't think so....

One of the reasons I liked the comic book run was because they kept up the whole 'needing a disguise' thing much longer than the cartoon. The cartoon obviously wanted to make the Autobots heroes and the best way was to have everyone be able to recognize them and cheer them whenever they showed up. The comic book was able to play with the slightly more mature concept that even though they were the 'good guys' humans still would consider them just as bad as the Decepticons. So the Autobots still had to fear getting attacked moving about. Heck, at one point Bumblebee transformed to save some kid and G.I.Joe blew him to pieces for it.

I can only remember a few things about the movie when it first came out. I remember being excited about it as a 12 year old could and I can still remember that there was a point where I DIDN'T want to shout, "Optimus, just shoot the punk in the head and then shoot Megatron." I also remember my mother's reactions to it. She thought it was senselessly loud in its music, but I think she actually felt worse about Optimus dying than my little brother or I did (I think she thought he was a good cartoon character and maybe had something of a crush on Cullen's voice). I probably was more annoyed about Prowl at the time. Prime went out in a big way whereas Prowl, who has always been a favorite of mine, went out in a painful way that was just a slight step away from being as simple as Brawn's. But, yes, the aftermath is probably more memorable. After that movie, you went home all excited... but over the next few months, you suddenly got a subpar cartoon (compared to the previous seasons, much less the movie) and just about any character you cared about disappearing even without so much as a shoulder-shot-death. The let-down of that season was probably made worse by the movie, which elevated your already-high enthusiasm. What kid didn't just lap up the whole 'Megatron must be stoppped...no matter the cost' Prime attack? Heck, I have a friend who never got into the Transformers, who hates that type of 80's music, and never saw the movie until his late twenties who will admit that the scene is pretty darn cool.

Really depends to whom you speak to. There's some strong camps either way, although most comic fans will admit to enjoying the cartoon even if they don't abide by some of it. Both the U.S. and U.K. Marvel comics (which both shared and had some contradictory continuity... don't ask) were originally good in their own right, but definitely had its ups and downs. It tended to be a bit more consistent at least a far as whether all the Autobots could fly, etc., but it did get really goofy at times too. The cartoon is probably used more just because it's much more popular. But even the Transformers own later writers would draw upon both. For example, G1 Ravage appears in Beast Wars and certain G1-related locations are cartoon-based, yet Ravage can actually speak like the comic. The only thing I'll say definitely is that THIS isn't canon, even if Ravage talks.

Who is Dr Archeville? 421662[/snapback] Stereotypical mad scientist with a metal saladbowl hat with eletrical gadgets sticking out of it and a propensity to show off an overbite whenever the animators of the cartoon got lazy. Was the prominent bad human in the second Transformers cartoon mini-series where Megatron brought Cybertron into orbit around Earth to produce energy from all the destruction. Paired with Starscream for a good chunk of time. Created 'hypno chips' that just needed to be applied like a nicotine patch to take control of people, including Sparkplug. Need you hear more?

Wow. That game looks much easier when you're not trying to actually shoot anything. I don't remember if I ever figured out transforming myself. Don't think I ever really put much effort into it anyway, given that it's a game where you play Ultra Magnus vs. a whole bunch of things that don't remotely resemble anything Transformer related. In retrospect, it should've been called 'Magnus' Daydream Adventures' as Ultra Magnus defeats the Decepticon's spaceship singlehandedly, then goes on to fight a Trypticon-sized Megatron, Trypticon himself, and a number of giant Decpticon logos! YUKE RODIMUS!

I must've missed getting the Jessica Biel loving gene when they handed them out. Oh, I won't say she's ugly by any stretch and to many guys' eyes she's probably hotter than the best that ever turned me down (or even refused to give me the time of day), but her facial features are almost a combination of all the things that just don't do anything for me personally. I would bid on that auction just to have her come back to Minnesota, go to someplace where women I'd be interested in might be having lunch/dinner, then ask her to act a bit and 'break up' with me... Y'know, the typical, "Look, you're a great guy... and INCREDIBLE in bed. But I'm an actress and need the freedom to be wherever, whenever. I know you'd make a spectacular dad, but I don't want to be tied down by a family...." sorta stuff. Would save her having to spend the hour or two with me and might help the interest level. Yep. I'm pathetic and proud to admit it.

Great points all-around, Poonman! For those of you with fast connections and a curiosity about the film and haven't seen it yet in its limited release, IGN has a preview of the first 24 or so minutes of the movie. Direct link: http://media.filmforce.ign.com/media/670/6...id_1578458.html If that doesn't work because of the age verification they want you to do before hand, here's a link to the selection page: http://media.filmforce.ign.com/media/670/670907/vids_1.html Robert Downey Jr. as a druggie is purely inspired. He brings an intelligent, introspective analysis that while full understanding the flaws of the lifestyle, is not entirely repentent or a crusader against it now. That makes him nearly perfect for the story and his James Barris feels very right by the book in the little I've seen.

Am probably getting it today or tomorrow. Been waiting for this for awhile and while reviews have been cringing about the online game feeling too 'slow', I sort of like the idea of a slower, more deliberate PC Mechwarrior over the frenzied nature of the Mechwarrior Assault stuff... and the customization is ridiculous... you can even design up your own paint jobs/logos on top of all the various parts. Any chance of a Macrossworld clan/squad starting up for this? Apparently to really participate online you need a squad of five or six to be effective in any engagement. I generally avoid clans because it often just becomes a bunch of immature clubs, but if I'm gonna breakdown and play with a bunch of immature people, it might as well be people from here. (j/k) The Euro-American faction (well, moreso European with some support from the isolated and unplayable Americans) is currently being torn to pieces online... be fun to help out such a desperate side...

Have to agree with most of the others here. The truck type doesn't bother me (in fact, havin the engine forward gives a lot more mass to help Optimus bulky in robot mode), but the flames.... Maybe with the fan outcry to get Cullen to play Optimus, Bay and others have decided they'll give the fans what they want, then kill off Optimus ten minutes in and replace him with a non-futuristic Rodimus voiced by some big star