Transformers: Age of Extinction - in theaters June 27, 2014

[Scyla]

Yes RotF Leader Class Prime was awesome. But it was a bit hindered by the (in my eyes) stupid flame deco and the dull finish. It had lots of molded detail for though. I wish I had the time/money/talent to make a Scourge repaint out of it but oh well....

This looks awful and is getting a pass but I might pick up the usual suspects for my collection as voyagers depending on the design.

[Twoducks]

The RotF Leader Prime was an awesome toys but the engineering really was a bit over complicated for kids. It takes a long time to transform and some parts are really difficult. Don’t find it weird that Hasbro decided to dumb down the designs since then. We should consider ourselves lucky to have gotten such a fantastic toy like RotF Leader Prime. It even puts recent "Masterpiece" toys to shame. And that is coming from a design that had to deal with the crippling limitation of having lighs ans sounds.

That said, as a first look into what the new movie design will be, I have to say a big “meh”. Incredibly generic looking and boring with that cybertronian “clothing”.

[areaseven]

For the longest time, I never needed to read the instruction sheet to transform any figure, regardless of class. Then I picked up ROTF Leader Prime. After 45 minutes of struggling with which part goes where, I cheated. And that was the last time I read a TF instruction sheet.

That being said, it still is the best transforming representation of movie Optimus Prime. This new one is not the worst Optimus Prime toy (Armada Prime holds that title), but an embarrassment in terms of engineering and design.

[TehPW]

http://www.today.com/entertainment/director-michael-bay-attacked-transformers-4-set-hong-kong-8C11409507 derp. I'm sure there is more to this but... its kinda weird that it happened at all.

Edited October 17, 2013 by TehPW

[azrael]

derp. I'm sure there is more to this but... its kinda weird that it happened at all.

Too bad it wasn't some rabid fanboys, just extortionists.

Michael Bay Explains The Transformers: Age Of Extinction Hong Kong Incident

[big F]

Bizzar indeed.

[ahiachris]

The crews are now shooting in Tokwawan this morning. It is near my work place

[TehPW]

with HK being an Chinesse holding now, will these guys enjoy a rediculously F-ed up jail deal or... will they disappear, never to be a threat to anyone again? is HK's justice system as good (or as harsh) as in Turkey, for exreme example of where NOT to do Chaotic Evil and get caught?

[ahiachris]

Hong Kong's legal system is different than the one in China. Not as extreme as in Turkey but not as lenient as in Canada.

[big F]

Hong Kong's legal system is different than the one in China. Not as extreme as in Turkey but not as lenient as in Canada.

Do Canada have prisons ?

Don't they just give a harsh talking to wrong doers.

[peter]

Haha, yeah, there are prisons here. I've heard that at some of the male institutions, corrections officers get into fights on a weekly basis with offenders, not so much at the female prisons.

There are a few nut-job canucks housed in these places:

Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka

Russell Williams

Clifford Olson

Mohammad Shafia and his son Hamed

Luka Magnotta

Robert Pickton

Plus there was that nutjob that sawed a guys head off on the Greyhound bus and a double beheading at a McDonald's near my place.....come to think of it, Canada's kind of phucked up (but technically, those two murderers were imported from China).

Edited October 18, 2013 by peter

[miles316]

Haha, yeah, there are prisons here. I've heard that at some of the male institutions, cottections officers get into fights on a weekly basis with offenders, not so much at the female prisons.

There are a few nut-job canucks housed in these places:

Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka

Russell Williams

Clifford Olson

Mohammad Shafia and his son Hamed

Luka Magnotta

Robert Pickton

Plus there was that nutjob that sawed a guys head off on the Greyhound bus and a double beheading at a McDonald's near my place.....come to think of it, Canada's kind of phucked up.....

So are Canadians as polite as they are portrayed on american produced television.

[TehPW]

wow... i had forgotten about some of those crimes (and they still are recent, too)...

trying to go back on topic, will this crime be forgotten by the film crew, for the most part? or will this discourage some films being made in HK by us makers?

Edited October 18, 2013 by TehPW

[peter]

I think HK police will have to step it up a bit if it wants US film makers to continue working there. Otherwise, it will just be a matter of security being beefed up by Bay's staff.

[areaseven]

Explosions Galore on Transformers 4 Set

[areaseven]

[GU-11]

Great, that's NEVER going to get a remotely screen-accurate fig.

[skullmilitia]

Gundimus Prime!

[Scyla]

Maybe the blade can extend into some soft of beam weaponry.

[taksraven]

Marky Mark looks confused.

[big F]

Great, that's NEVER going to get a remotely screen-accurate fig.

Who'd want a Marky Mark figure anyhow

[Twoducks]

The sword has more red than Gladiator Prime, leader of the Genericbots.

[GU-11]

Who'd want a Marky Mark figure anyhow

Bayverse fanboys; if you happen to have walked past the film set while a TF movie is shooting, they'll buy your sneakers for a thousand bucks off ebay.

Edited November 27, 2013 by GU-11

[areaseven]

New Transformers: Age of Extinction Images

[skullmilitia]

So it's either:

Grimlock is found, awakened, causing some new Decep villain to show up.

Or

Grimlock is the Antagonist.

Or

Earth is Unicron and yadda yadda.

[RD Blade]

What I found more entertaining than the pictures was the comment section. It's just a list of Bay hatemail.

[mikeszekely]

Great, that's NEVER going to get a remotely screen-accurate fig.

Looks like their solution is Shellformers.

[Kanedas Bike]

Honestly I'd be happy if Takara or Hasbro would decide to do a Bandai Gundam Metal Build style DMK model of the movie designs. I know it's blasphemy to have Transformers that don't transform, but I'd really like some screen accurate figures.

I haven't purchased one movie-based transformer besides the Optimus and Bumblebee DMK releases.

-b.

[GU-11]

Looks like their solution is Shellformers.

I thought as much.

Well, as long as it keeps the kids happy, I guess. After all, it IS Hasbro's primary market.

Honestly I'd be happy if Takara or Hasbro would decide to do a Bandai Gundam Metal Build style DMK model of the movie designs. I know it's blasphemy to have Transformers that don't transform, but I'd really like some screen accurate figures.

I haven't purchased one movie-based transformer besides the Optimus and Bumblebee DMK releases.

-b.

Ditto. They should have made DOTM Megatron and Shockwave DMK kits, too. Those 2 never got leader class figs (which might not have been such a bad thing, looking at Ironhide), and Shockwave never did transform in the movie anyways.

As for AOE, the designs are perfect for DMK kits, as they seem impossible to accurately transform from bot to alt mode.

[captain america]

I would have LOOOOOVED more DMK figures from Takara. If not Shockwave, then at the very least Sentinel and Megatron would have been no-brainers. That said, I don't know how well the kits sold in the first place. Maybe the market reception was lukewarm and so they couldn't justify other figures. Gotta remember that Transformers appeals to mostly toy-minded people and so "it doesn't even transform" can be a major psychological hurdle impeding the sale of what is otherwise a fantastic product.

[RedWolf]

I find it ironic that in the live action movies while Grimlock is a big mechanical alien lizard, Devastator is giant alien mechanical ape.

Given the Swoop/Strafe toy the Dinobots have a uniform bot motif. Also taking cues from TFP Beast Hunters Predacons origins it seems.

[GU-11]

I would have LOOOOOVED more DMK figures from Takara. If not Shockwave, then at the very least Sentinel and Megatron would have been no-brainers. That said, I don't know how well the kits sold in the first place. Maybe the market reception was lukewarm and so they couldn't justify other figures. Gotta remember that Transformers appeals to mostly toy-minded people and so "it doesn't even transform" can be a major psychological hurdle impeding the sale of what is otherwise a fantastic product.

Not sure if it means anything, but DMK Optimus got a reissue recenctly, so it couldn't have sold too badly.

Yeah, most TF collectors swear by the "transforming toys only" thing. I collect them strictly as display items, so I don't give a rat's ass about transform-ability. Frankly, if there should be any exception to the "transforming toys only" rule, it should be the movie characters.

[captain america]

Not sure if it means anything, but DMK Optimus got a reissue recenctly, so it couldn't have sold too badly.

Yeah, most TF collectors swear by the "transforming toys only" thing. I collect them strictly as display items, so I don't give a rat's ass about transform-ability. Frankly, if there should be any exception to the "transforming toys only" rule, it should be the movie characters.

I don't think that DMK Optimus did badly in sales, but there's a difference between "didn't sell too bad" and "holy crap we struck gold" which I'll try to explain.

Let's take the old 1980s Mospeada kits as an example of "didn't sell too bad." When they were first released, they were moderately abundant and would even warrant a re-issue every few years, maybe even a bit of re-packaging, but they never flew off the shelves. The biggest tell is that they never expanded the line, they just re-issued from the tooling they had already made.

As an example of a company hitting pay dirt, let's take Hasegawa and the Macross license. They started off with the film versions of the VF-1, which from what I'd heard through the grapevine, sold as well and possibly better than their F-16 line in 1/72. What are the tell-tale marks that it did well? They expanded the line, going into the TV variants, then the Battroids, then Macross Plus, and now Frontier. When they have confidence in the line, they will offer more skus.

Now Takara Tomy has the Transformers license, and DMK Bumblebee and particularly Optimus were fairly complex and intricate from a tooling standpoint, so it only makes sense for them to offer to re-issue the kits every so often to maximize the profitability of the tooling. Who knows, maybe it was just an experiment to test the market. I suspect that we'll find out if they have faith in the new film based on what they release next year.

[GU-11]

I don't think that DMK Optimus did badly in sales, but there's a difference between "didn't sell too bad" and "holy crap we struck gold" which I'll try to explain.

Let's take the old 1980s Mospeada kits as an example of "didn't sell too bad." When they were first released, they were moderately abundant and would even warrant a re-issue every few years, maybe even a bit of re-packaging, but they never flew off the shelves. The biggest tell is that they never expanded the line, they just re-issued from the tooling they had already made.

As an example of a company hitting pay dirt, let's take Hasegawa and the Macross license. They started off with the film versions of the VF-1, which from what I'd heard through the grapevine, sold as well and possibly better than their F-16 line in 1/72. What are the tell-tale marks that it did well? They expanded the line, going into the TV variants, then the Battroids, then Macross Plus, and now Frontier. When they have confidence in the line, they will offer more skus.

Now Takara Tomy has the Transformers license, and DMK Bumblebee and particularly Optimus were fairly complex and intricate from a tooling standpoint, so it only makes sense for them to offer to re-issue the kits every so often to maximize the profitability of the tooling. Who knows, maybe it was just an experiment to test the market. I suspect that we'll find out if they have faith in the new film based on what they release next year.

Good point.

I hope Takara willing to give the DMK kits a second chance in AoE, despite the odds. I mean, what with the kiddified toys they seem to be making for the movie characters, model kits are pretty much the only things for adult collectors. I wouldn't count on Hasbro to care, but TT does have a big enough adult collector market in Japan for such a line.

What with the direction the movie line is going, it's either model kits or nothing. I sure as hell am not buying shell-formers that look like TF cosplayers.

[Kanedas Bike]

Well my fingers are crossed and wallet open for the DMK line. I bought one of each Prime and Bumblebee for the first release and (2) of the re-releases of Prime.

For my money I think it's a great concept that I wish they'd expand and improve upon.

-b.