Chaos - I can see where you are coming from and, for the most part, I agree with what you are saying. My main problem with the design was that it was a pain to look at. There was so much in there that it was too busy. It was all shiny chrome, wires, and random cogs and gears. You couldn't really pin down where the chest stopped and the abdomen started. Or where the forearm stopped and the hand started. It was toooooo complex. And that was when they were standing still. Adding movement to it made it even more harder to follow. It became more of just know that the black thing is Ironhide, his head is somewhere here, and his legs are somewhere here. I think they took the agile thing too far to the point that if you were to slowly slide a wooden stick into a TF, it would come out the other side without actually having to go through anything. They were almost an amorphous pile of dangling wires and metal. The TFs transformation sequence was even worse. It was more magical than actual engineering. They just blew apart and the pieces came back together. The fact that they could change their ALT mode at will totally took away from a core aspect to TFs. Kinda reminded me of the Wonder Twins and their "Form of!" concept. The recognizability was also a let down for me. But I think Hasbro purposely wanted to go a diff route with that one. So its not as if they were trying in the first place to have the bots be recognizable.
Stylistic call. Coulda gone a hundred different ways, and many of 'em mighta worked just as well. This is the one they chose. And while the move had it's faults, I don't feel like the designs were one of them. And the filmmakers no doubt feel universally justified on account of their MASSIVE gross.
would more simple designs be better than the ones they went with? Maybe would we know that if we didn't have the designs they went with to go off of? hell naw.
What kind of a reply is that? To use your logic, here is an example: Does Iraq have WMDs? Maybe Would we have found that out had we not invaded Iraq? Hell naw Um, you can use other methods to determine if an idea is the best idea to be utilized before resorting to the trial and error method. And we all have learned that the hard way...
I'd be hesitant to bring politics into it, especially such controversial politics. it's much closer to broccoli. how do you know you don't like it if you don't taste it, and what grounds do you have for saying something is better than broccoli? if the movie never came out, none of the fanart produced that counters the movies "it has to be extra-detailed to work" viewpoint would matter, since there wouldn't be a movie to compare them to.
Iron Man is a human in a suit, Transformers are huge robots. The same design style will not work. Could you imagine Iron Man being the size of Optimus Prime?
Exactly. If the TFs used a third of the parts they had in the movie - not including eye and face details that brought the characters to life, it could be good enough to work.
Bah, I loved the movie designs, I had never seen robots that complex or cool looking, they were made to impress the audience with a sense of wonder,and they certainly did it. Not to satisfy every fan boy out there.
If you like them complicated that's totally fine, I am not challanging you or questioning your judgement, I am merely explaining my opinon of why I think a little bit simpler would have been better. Don't take it as a personal attack, that's silly. Some good points in this thread, a few useless responses that simply detere future conversation.. If you are tired of this topic, leave, and don't discuss it. Don't try to rain on our parade, it's ok to chat about the same things twice, people come and go. So you've seen it all? MOVE ON THEN. Anyways, I see the reasoning for both sides, but I still favor the more simplistic ideal... Simply because I want to see what it would have looked like. Let me try and explain some more what I was thinking. I wouldn't make a very good teacher I'm afraid, judging from this thread I must not explain my ideas very well. If you were to rate all the transformers from the movie on a scale of simplicity to a huge mess of wires and shit, you would find robots like blackout (although those nice simplistic shoulder pads (the cockpit)helped to bring him together ok. I liked him.) and bonecrusher on the wires and shit end, while bots like Jazz, and say, Ratchet, were much simpler in their design. Less stuff hanging off in all direction. The more simplistic ones, such as JAZZ and BUMBLEBEE and RATCHET were some of my and a large portion of the fandoms most liked designs early on. And I know there are a lot of Jazz fans still out there, to me, he was perfect. He was simple. He is how I imagine a fusion of Ironman robotic detailing and automobile into a robot that is reconizable as a transformer. (in terms of Ironman's **simplicity of design*** I am speaking of an attribute of his design, (the simplicity.) not the actual design itself where as it resembles a man..., The mechanical detailing, the contours, the car like sleekness, etc,etc..... not the man shape it embodies. What I wish, is that all of the designs could have been as solid and well rounded as his. I remember when the first images of Jazz came out, many cried out about how awesome he was, mainly because he looked the most like a Transformer out of all of them. He was also one of the most simplistic, with hardly if any at all, crap hanging off of him. Not to mention you could actually distinguish a large amount of the vehicle bits on him quite easily. For me, and I can only speak for myself, this is key. I think it should have caried through consistently throughout the other designs, or it least, these types of designs should have heavily out numbered the messy ones. And that is my point. Simplifying them, ala Jazz, ala Ironman, would make them actually look like Transformers to me. But like I said, I can only speak for me. Again... cause it's all over the thread now... no I do not mean ironman wearing car parts. Cut ironman out. Look at the simplicity of his design, the detailing etc etc. Not the suit as a whole! Albert Einstein said it best... "Things should be made as simple as possible, but not any simpler." Basically you can take that quote and apply it to this argument. Simple as possible, meaning simple as you can get them without them looking unrealistic. (unrealistic >> not too simple or >>> "not any simpler") It's really a fine line; design, and I think it was crossed way over in one direction. There is a happy medium somewhere and I don't feel it was met, I feel it went completely opposite from smiplicity to an all new extreme, which is over compensating with unnessessary details that distract from ture nature and familarity of the character it's based upon. Anyways, I've read these boards for a while, and I know no matter how much any one types, or how much someone tries to explain their point clearly; no one will ever change their opinions around here, so I'm gonna stop trying to translate my idea now... hopefully I've explained my core meaning well enough. ps - You could write "Fart." in a thread and nothing else and people here would debate it. =P Edit: And by the way... I'm the last person anyone should be calling a "fanboy" I'm simply an open minded person. I'm taking established loved Transformers designs, these loved movie designs, and suggesting we change them. I dont mean simple to resemble G1 more, I mean simple, to resemble clarity more. Screw G1, are you kidding? That would not have worked AT ALL, but that does not mean toning down the extremes A LITTLE would not have worked just fine. I felt the need to add that too. Mike.
My theory on why most of them seemed a blur at high speeds is based on the fact that, aside from Optimus Prime, most of them were one colour. This is an unfortunate side affect of realism. Unless every Autobot has a custom pain design that helps break them down in robot mode, we're stuck with that: Ironhide being a big offender for being the darkest shade of black I've ever seen. This is further complicated by characters like Blackout or Bonecrusher or Brawl who take alt modes from military vehicles: they don't want to stand out, they want to look as plain as day or even blend into their own environment. Though I thought in 06, and still think in 08, that Optimus's flame paint job is tacky and unworthy of him, it does assist in breaking down his robot mode a little. Also, yes, Jazz was an excellent design, let down only by a monochrome paint job.
you DO realize what you just said dont you? "im not challenging you or questioning your judgement blah blah...im just saying why my opinion is better" and im sure its been said before but yeah..its just your opinion. Just because YOU think something more streamlined would have been "better" doesnt mean others do. Nor does it mean that it IS in fact better The movie guys [AND HASBRO] wanted to go this route because well..they wanted to. I've heard a lot of people say because they want to distinguish [aka on PURPOSE set these bots and this continuity APART from the others] but yeah.. i mean we all can have opinions... and as far as i can tell all of this has been discussed more than it probably really should so you think it woulda been better? so what? why should i care? i like what they did. they like what they did. you dont..thats unfortunate for you but nothing you could say, no amount of opinions or "facts" you can dig up can re-make the movie the way you wanna see it could they have made the designs more "streamlined?" yeah. Could it have been just as much of a success? Of course it could have. But thats not the direction they wanted to go. So i say live with it i dunno..thats just me thinkin out loud [no offense meant of course ]
The torso doesn't look like it could move. The upper edge of the faceplate should be going up. Pretty much a nice design otherwise. I absolutely love the new interpretations of the characters, except Starscream's legs should be longer, Megatron needs to be simpler. All the others are fine to me. Funny they said they made different transformation sequences to save time (by not bothering with what cannot be seen) but they bothered with Ironhide's cannons having 10000 parts. Simpler designs for the future? Unless it still looks exactly the same style despite having less parts, no please, for continuity's sake.
