I've seen that publicity images, toys and games... have an incorrect Optimus design.Here is an image: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/blob/1445800/1414748827000/transformers-4-data.jpg Do you see it? Look at the legs, body and arms; they are not the same as the official design. Anyone know why?
Most things were based off of earlier concept art of Prime's new design, but it continued to change during production.
I can buy that. At TFCon, Aaron Archer commented about the production process of how they got the 2007 film going, and how crazy that was, which explained how much of the product didn't start looking 'movie-accurate' until the third wave of figures, explaining how early head-sculpts and such seemed a little wonky.
hell.. even some of the first movie prime merch had incorrect paint schemes. the movies are planned and promoted far in advance. and late, but not final designs are what a lot of promotional stuff, and even the toys are based off of. look at what happened in the first movie in regards to megatrons head.. the original toy had a different head, and that head even ended up on the packaging for leader megatron. and look at takara's remolded leader prime.. the original leader prime is based off of earlier concept art while the new remolded version is based off of the final design.
I like to think that that Prime design in the picture is meant to be a more styalized, more cartoony, version of Optimus but I see where your coming at.
Yeah, loads of promo material and toys use a design that was changed for the final film. See a comparison here: http://tfwiki.net/mediawiki/images2/0/04/AOEOptimusComparison.jpg
^ this. They did the same thing in TF 07, trying out different designs before they started with the productions
This is kinda what I hated about the merchandising/advertising for the movie. The movie was kept under wraps so much that Hasbro and Edge of Reality had to rely on promo art and that's what kind of annoyed me. It also confused me. I remember one time, just one time, when I first saw the CGI render of Bumblebee I got confused because in his final look , he has the headlights of his car mode on his chest, but in the promo art, the headlights are on his shoulders. This is one thing I'm hoping they wont do to the next one. It would be nice to have a game that follows (somewhat) the story line of the movie like the '07 and ROTF games did.
It has nothing to do with the movie being "under wraps." Hasbro etc. need to start production on the various merchendise before the models are finalised. When the toys and promo art is made, they're using the most up-to-date concepts available. But the models keep getting tweaked and altered to fit the fim as time goes on, retroactively rendering these things outdated, but the differences are not so... noticable. We notice them because we're conditioned to scrutinize every little detail, but (especially in the case of toys which already can't look completely accurate no matter what) most don't notice. At least not until after more finalised art appears.
