I'm not going to place faith in this until there are 100% confirmed, stamped and notarized news reports coming from Michael Bay's desk. They could be using the Prime truck for a promotion somewhere.

 

I think he will get blown up or something, and need to get rebuilt or rescan an alt mode or something, as will most other returning characters. I mean, look at it from Hasbro's point of view: there's no way they're going to have this movie on their property without scores of new merchandise (yeah yeah, new characters, bla bla bla, but Prime and the other mainstays will need new molds as well).

It makes sense for them to start with their original forms, Hasbro can sell old molds prior to the release much the way they did with the Prime and Starscream protoforms, but they will need new alt modes/toy molds for these characters.

 

What He said.

 

Well let the Hype begin!! They must be doing this on purpose just to get The Fanbase talking about Transformers Again (even though I dont think any of us stopped) I mean they could of covered the Vehicles and No one would of known anything... It like a Cheap moving Billboard saying "Transformers 2 is coming!!!""

 

Makes me wonder if returning bots will keep the same exact alt modes/robot modes. You'd think updates to all that would be desirable so as to make a lot of new toys eh? I can't imagine them making whole slews of new toys based on old designs, but I guess we'll see

 

Proves nothing. Like Moon Man said, who wants a ton more repaints for this sequel. I haven't bought a TF since September and most of it has to do with the huge number of repaints for this line, most of which haven't even made it to my area yet. If this means filming is started, wonderful. If it's just them moving props, ok. But why are we getting so excited over seeing the same truck? No Prime has ever had the exact same body for two consecutive lines, unless you count Tatakae Cho Semiatai, 2010, and Headmasters as separate lines. Common sense and past history indicates all the characters will get new forms, and that most of the first cast will not be back, allowing for the introduction of new characters (likely Prime, BB, SS, and Megatron will be the only ones) Until something NEW pops up, this gets a big ole yawn from me.

 

i DEFINITELY disagree with you there. no offense

 

I said the same things in the toy discussion thread I started, we need the same characters but new modes, how about prime reformatting into a flat nose cab rather than the laser rod style, I wont buy anymore movie molds, I cant even be tempted by the premium stuff I really hope the TF movies dont go the way of Spiderman where you get the same stuff rolled out movie after movie with a new rocket launcher added

 

Also, I would have covered the truck to avoid damage to the finish.

 

None taken. But on which part do you disagree? The characters that will return, or that the cast will get new bodies? Because I really can't think of a time when the majority of a cast returned for a second or third series and wound up with the exact same body. Even in the Unicron Trilogy and the Beast Era characters who returned were given new forms. Whether Bay thinks so or not, it really is all about selling new toys.

Exactly my point. The Spiderman stuff is STILL around, and it's not because they're coming out with new toys, it's because those same toys released for SM3 were the same as the ones for the first two films. Who wants to buy the same thing over and over again?? My guess is that the characters will show up looking the same, but then they'll scan a new mode for some strange reason. Yeah, as a movie-goer it would make sense to me that the characters stay the same, but it doesn't make sense for a company trying to market fresh, new toys. I really think Hasbro would be at a disadvantage if they just trotted out the same molds with new weapons or color schemes.

 

Characters changing forms between series is fine and dandy when we're talking the cartoons but not with how expensive the movie CGI models are/were to create.
It simply won't be viable to re-do the surviving characters from scratch PLUS the new characters on top of that even with the larger budget that the second movie will obviously get.

There have been numerous ILM interviews since the movie came out with the people there stating how expensive these things were to create and animate and also how they had gotten used to them using them.

What will Hasbro do for toys? Don't know yet. New molds of the characters I'd presume.

 

so will they have the same car mode? It will be cool if it stayed the same, but different robot mode?

 

Hasbro will make plenty of money off the Transformers 2 Movie and the new character toys that they wont need to repaint any of the characters that were in the first movie. I think reformatting any of the bots from the first movie would really turn off a lot of people.

 

Yes. Want Mirage.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2082/1847042694_baf6fcad6d.jpg

 

 

Even if Prime looks the same in TF2, why are you so sure Hasbro won't produce a whole new toy out of it? Prime in particular ... who along with Bumblebee had the most different toys produced from the first movie.

Two words: Rhinox and Waspinator. (Unless you count Tankor and Thrust as their new bodies, of course)

Bingo! That's my guess as well.

P.S.: I'm surprised no one has said that Ultra Magnus is hauling Optimus Prime. What happened guys?!  

-airfox

 

This confirms that the barricade sighting was not a fake like many suggested.

I honestly hope and pray that old charcters don't get new forms, it was hard enough to characterize the transformers given the small screen time most of them were given, with new bodies it would happen again.

Hasbro probably will just use new molds with the existing designs for the toys.

 

Hopefully got prime trailer...

 

This is all fine and dandy cartoon logic (and at this point I'm not going to argue if the past characters will return as we just don't know), but I seriously doubt ILM is going to get behind redesigning these guys. Numerous statments have come out since the first movie stating how difficult and expensive these CGI models were to design and to get used to making do stuff in their computer programs. So, not only did they spend a lot of money designing them, but they spent a lot of money learning how to use their individual programs. Not to mention that, in an interview, Spielberg himself mentioned that Prime alone was so expensive to creat that they had to make this a trilogy of movies just to justify the costs. So, yeah, I just don't see the returning cast getting overhauled.

As for what they'll do with toys... I wouldn't be surprised if we got new molds for returning characters and possibly different price points. I mean, some of those guys could use redesigned toys. I mean, same alternate mode, but a different toy with a different transformation. I know that collectors may cry poo at that, but I'll bet the kids will eat it up. With Barricade they could just do what a lot of fans were clamoring for and give us a voyager version similar to an Alternators style with the movie asthetics and sense Starscream is going to be a major focus of the second movie (per an interview with Michael Bay) I wouldn't be surprised if he gets a leader class figure for the sequel.

Now, that's not to say that returning characters couldn't scan something new, I mean BB did it in the first movie, but going off of that I wouldn't say that we would see completely all new designs like you do with the cartoon series. What I think will happen if the characters change alt modes is that they will just have different 'armor' over their same body types. For example, when BB changes his alternate mode in the first movie his body stays basically the same... the only parts that change are the car kibble. Although, this might not be a viable option for ILM as I have no idea if they have to do a completly different CGI model for it or just switch parts out.

Overall, I'm sure Hasbro won't run into the problem that most of the superheroe movie toys have had with multiple versions of the main character that only come with different accessories... after all... even if the characters stay the same in the movie... Hasbro has deluxe, voyager and leader class to work with to give them different toys than they've had before or just give them a redesigned toy in the same class.

 

With the Barricade sighting last week, I'd say the vehicles are being moved to their workshops for maintenance and pre-filming prep work.

 

Nothing about that statement is "common sense". You seriously think they're investing this kind of money, time & technology in a sequel and *won't* bring back characters like Ratchet & Ironhide? Epic wrong on that one. Unlike Barricade, those two characters actually have some relevance to the overall story and are far more established thanks to their heavy roles in the first movie.

The jury is still out on whether or not the Autobots will get new forms, but I'll guarantee that all 4 of the survivors will indeed be back. Megatron & Starscream are pretty much givens for the Cons, but considering the way guys like Brawl, Blackout, Frenzy & Bonecrusher were killed, I don't think anyone should expect to see them come back (which they shouldn't anyway). I hope that if Barricade is in the sequel, it's only to be officially killed off within the first 5 minutes.