Transformers 4 - ongoing news thread

[griffin]

Reshooting has been taking place in the last couple days in America.
Either Bay has had some new ideas and wants to include them, or he's found something missing in making the plot work and needs to bridge a couple scenes with this new scene.
After doing some reshoots already a couple months ago in China, this is getting a bit late to be changing or fixing parts of the movie like this.


Also, an entertainment magazine has an article on the TF4 movie, with some plot details... so beware of spoilers.

[griffin]

More from that entertainment magazine talks about who Lockdown is, and who he works for. Plus, his ship looks to be a central element of this movie... or for the new trilogy.

[griffin]

A short video clip from some auto show in America, showing off the cars in the next movie.

[griffin]

A clearer clip of the one in the post above, from that auto show. (skip to 1 minute for the movie scenes)

A clearer look at the possible robot form of the Chevy Trax, which is on display at a GM somewhere in China.

And for all those people who remember when Michael Bay was lost for words while presenting the new Samsung curved TV and walked off stage... a display at some event in the UK has new footage from the TF4 movie on several of these TVs. It includes images from all four movies, with most of the fourth movie near the end (of the second video).

[griffin]

The music for TF4 has just been recorded, which means there must be a fairly complete rough cut of the film for the composer to pace out the music to (you can see the projection screen on one of the photos.

The car used for the character of Lockdown has also been shown off/reviewed to promote it.

Also being promoted is some sort of industrial Operations chair, which is apparently in the movie, but could be a spoiler, so don't check the link if you are trying to stay spoiler-free.

[griffin]

Promo images from the Australian Transformers Facebook page show off Optimus and Bumblebee (with the new "ninja stars"), and have been mirrored here.

[griffin]

Commentary from Michael Bay about how the car companies are now lining up to give him free cars to use in Transformers movies... as long as they are good guys.

However, the interview mentions that a certain villain truck was constructed and donated by Daimler Trucks, at a cost of US$1.5 million.

That's some investment in getting someone's product on the screen... it's no wonder random products are lining up to be included in this movie.

[reillyd]

Its only just occurred to me, but there seems a serious imbalance in the Wave 1 and Wave 2 Decepticons. We have Galvatron and Lockdown, and that's it.........
Are they saving the Decepticons for Wave 3, or is it a plot element?

[griffin]

According to the leaked Hasbro database listing, there was only 4 Decepticons... and all the rest were Autobots and Dinobots.

The Decepticons on the database listing were - Galvatron, Lockdown, Stinger, Rally Car (Vehicon).

But it isn't the first time that they are producing a lot more Autobots than Decepticon toys for the Movies.
For the third movie...
- mainline (Deluxe, Voyager, Leader), there were 25 Autobot toys verses 8 Decepticon toys. That's a ratio of 3 to 1, or 75% were Autobots.
- Human Alliance, there were 14 Autobot toys verses 3 Decepticon toys. That's almost 5 to 1.
- Cyberverse (Legion, CMDR, Action sets), there were 22 Autobot toys verses 11 Decepticon toys. A ratio of 2 to 1.
- Gimmick toys, there were 25 Autobot toys verses 9 Decepticon toys. Almost 4 to 1.
- Hasbro Exclusives, there were about 46 Autobot toys verses about 12 Decepticons. Again, almost 4 to 1.

That totals about 132 Autobot toys verses about 43 Decepticon toys in the 6-8 months of the TF3 toyline... about 75% are Autobots, 25% Decepticons.

A massive imbalance during TF3 despite having a bigger cast of Decepticons than TF1 & TF2... but perhaps retailers demanded more good-guy toys, if kids and parents were not buying/receiving villain toys as gifts.

I think this fourth movie is going to be even more out of balance, as we appear to only have 4 Decepticon characters, and very few toys so far known (or leaked).

[i_amtrunks]

but perhaps retailers demanded more good-guy toys, if kids and parents were not buying/receiving villain toys as gifts.

I think you've hit the nail right on the head there. I have some old donated/junker figures and other toys in my classroom (8 year olds) and the figures always left over are the Cons, bar an animated Leader Megatron and Energon Screamer!