Chevrolet Volt to be Featured in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

I agree with everything you said. It would be awesome to see more "street racers" int he movies. I think having those Supras, Celicas, Evos, WRXs, Skylines, or even a few tricked out Civics or VWs would be awesome to see in the movie. I think the movie could really tap into all the young hot rodders out there driving these small fast cars. Right now, the TF movie is totally ignoring that section of the public - young males interested in cars. I mean, how many young males really drive Hummers and Pontiacs? No street racer would be caught dead in a Pontiac in this day and age.

But thats the other extreme. And I am not for that. I think diversity is the way to go. Right now, Hasbro has all the models that older guys go for- the big SUVs and Chevy muscle cars of yore. Thats fine. Lets not alienate them by not having those. But just make it more equally balanced. Throw in some younger rides like those Evos, Celicas, and Supras.

This is totally off topic, but does anyone know if they are going to bring back the Celica and Supra? Or even the Insight or del Sol? I think Honda and Toyota both have a lot of small speedsters they can bring back that would be instant hits with the younger crowd.

BTW, just so no one thinks I am digging at GM, I think the Volt is THE future of cars. Its almost a pure electric car with a Lithium Ion battery. Its a plug in. Its better than biofuels. Its better than hydrogen. Its better than diesel. I think Honda is going to lose a lot of ground by investing so much in hydrogen fuel cells. Only GM, Mitsubishi, and Nissan are making electrics their choice for the future. And I am looking forward to the Volt. They should make that BB's new ALT mode.

I see what you're saying Primus, but with all due respect, as much as Bay talks about wanting realism in these films, I have to repeat something someone else said: If the Autobots were real and came to earth, do you really think they would scan all Chevy cars - or would they scan something that was practical and convenient? And even still, how is it realistic that they'd scan CONCEPT cars only? That is one of my pet peeves with the films, even though I still like the movies.

As far as the Constructicons (if they even are in the movie), I don't recall Chevy making construction vehicles, unless Caterpillar is owned by Chevy. I hope that one of the combiners is in this film.

Ok. . .but the irony of that statement is:
a)If it wasn't for the Japanese coming up with the concept of transforming robots in the first place, there would be no Transformers;
b)There was even a line that alluded to this fact in the first film where Shia says something about, "It's one of those Japanese robots";
c)Going back to Bay's harping about realism, how real is it that the Autobots would come to earth and only scan ONE BRAND of car? I mean, come on!

My mistake - I thought that since Bay said on the DVD commentary, and in a Yahoo.com interview that he wanted to make Bumblebee a Camaro (which, let me make this straight - I actually thought there were some cool cars in the TF film) that the whole VW spiel was b.s. I stand corrected.

It's all good. I was just joking around anyway.

The VW story has been around since AT LEAST 2003, if not longer. That was when the movie was only just becoming more than just a possibility.

Besides, Bay never said anything negative about VW. He openly admitted that the only reason he didn't make Bumblebee a VW was because he didn't want people to think of Herbie the Love Bug.

Exactly, and people used to laugh at me for saying it. Actually, if these robots wanted to disguise themselves, turning into space-age 100 000$ concept cars that nobody sees anywhere is probably the worst possible disguise. Think about it, these cars get people's attention all the time, even when they're NOT giant robots in disguise...

While it doesn't affect me either way, what car companies they choose or what kind of cars they choose, I gotta agree here. If Bay really wanted realism we would have seen about 10 to 15 Camaro Concepts on the street with similar paint jobs. Unless we're gonna see Beats, Trax, and Volts up the wazoo on the streets in this movie, it won't support the realism Bay is yapping about.

Thanks, Skowl. By the way, I LOVE your signature. Reminds me of that, "Robot Chicken" episode where Soundwave is spending his current days as a Port-O-Let, ROFLMFAO!!!!

Jazz landed near on Pontiac dealer. Mass landing near a Chevy/GM dealer, perhaps. Can be explained easily.

Likely not concept cars in the movie world. I doubt the screenwriters were trying to insinuate that Bumblebee just happened to scan a concept car that just happened to be on the road and driving right near him. Rather, the Concept Camaro was likely just another car on the road that's available at retail in "Movie World". Just like with any fictional movie, you have to forget reality.

A lot of the producers arguments for the first movie don't hold water when really tested. Most are lame. There is a lot of hypocrisy - excellent case in point is the realism. Or that the color red is somehow unable to be shot well. I would love for someone to scientifically prove how the color red is somehow LESS able to be shot than any other color. I find it really quiet insulting when I hear such retarded arguments being fed to the public and the public quietly eating it up like cows eating cud. Is the frequency of red light somehow much slower than other colors to the point that a simple camera cannot pick up the color? Whats the reason? Other than "Bay said so"?

If they really were wanting to go with the "robots in disquise" angle they wouldn't have made Ratchet into a NEON GREEN truck. I'm sorry, I still have yet to see one ambulance or even a neon green search and rescue Hummer. However, I have seen numerous red Topkicks. I've lived in 3 big metropolis in the south and east coast and even lived in a small town in middle america, and have yet to see ONE neon green ambulance/search and rescue vehicle. Is there one SOMEWHERE in America? Sure, I am positive of that. But just because there are a few dozen in America doesn't make them the majority. Anyone claiming that a neon green search and rescue vehicle is common is misrepresenting the truth.

Whats worse is they are going EVEN MORE extreme with the idea. An ice cream truck? A purple ice cream truck...

I can handle it if they just drop the charade of being all for realism and just fess up. At least then they are being truthful.

WINWINWIN.

That's true, Tim, BUT you have to realize that part of the fantasy of Transformers is that ordinary things we see every day might turn into robots.

Honestly, that's one reason Beast Wars, Armada, Cybertron, etc. weren't as appealing as toys, in my opinion. When something fantastic turns into something also unusual, it can be interesting, but the novelty is reduced. "Cybertronian mode" vehicles just aren't as fun.

When they use cars that might as well be figments of my imagination for all the times I'll see 'em on the road, it's just plain not as cool. They're not turning into everyday objects for ME, even if they might be everyday for "movie world" people.

Ops being a Peterbilt was nice, because now when I see one out on the road, I know what it'd look like if it transformed.

For geeks only:
Construction of disbelief (there's no susch thing as suspension, cognitively speaking)relies on conforming to assumed rules of the world, except for the specific stipulations of the fiction.
For example, they didn't explain what the Army was doing in the Middle East in TF1 since, at the beginning of the movie, we are expected to assume that up until NOW, the world has progressed exactly as it has in reality. This makes the acceptance of new fantastic elements like giant robots more believable, and consequently, more entertaining.

Otherwise, the Transformers might as well turn into make-believe vehicles, just explaining that "They're real in the movie world!"

(I did my Master's Thesis on this... thanks for indulging)

is this movie for gearheads and car buffs or tf's fans? here's a thought:have a good plot and a decent script. if it has these two things does it really matter what kind of cars the bots are? well as long as they don't go too crazy and make them puke green hummers,ice cream trucks,and semi's covered with flames.....oops,bay already did all these things. actually,now that i think about it the plot is gonna suck and the script will be just like the first one which also sucks and of course the bots all will look hideous so the only cool things to watch are the flashy cars.

Nail on the head right there.

In the transformers universe, you should get the sense that anything could potentially be a disguised robot. It's one of things transformers has going for it.

Is this a rhetorical question? Because it shouldn't be.

The more likely answer is the former. They call it "making the property accessible," but it's really just ignoring the fanbase.

This is a ridicoulous debate, all the people whining because they can't stand that they are GM cars, I'm a car fan, and I hve absolutely no problem with it, they are not allchevy cars, they have different brands, and also, they bash Bay for everything they don't like.

And to the other half complaining how it doesn't make sense to have concept cars as transformers... Well yeah, having all boring and old cars would be much better

So as an advice, bite your tongue everytime you see a GM car in transformers.

It looks too much like a silver version of Bumblebee imo. Seems a little redundant for a new character.

LOVE that argument. So dropshot, what other car brand is there? Ford - Barricade? Ok. So 1 out of 5 is a non-chevy. Thats diversity right there. Lol. Its like a restaurant having one menu item that doesn't have meat in it and saying that the restaurant has vegeterian options too! Is it true. Technically. Is it a gross misrepresentation of the truth? Duh...

Look, it's the movie 1 haters all coming out of the woodwork again. Bay will ruin Transformers forever with this movie for sure! It may make more money than the first one, and the toys will sell like hotcakes again, but Transformers will never be the same again forevar!

In all honesty, I find the overall glut of Chevrolet cars a little annoying, but as long as they're all different colors, I can accept it. Just give us a few cars by other manufacturers, even if it's just other GM subsidiaries.

I also want to kindly point out that not EVERY transformer in the film is a GM product. The SR-71 was built by Lockheed.

Heh, thankfully the troll brigade are all on ignore.

Anyways as for this subject...

The hell..?

I'd actually like to know when there has ever been a TF series with "everyday" vehicles in it. And don't even attempt to say G1. They had an enormous amount of sports cars in the Autobots alone.

If I'm going to watch a live action Transformers movie then it had better have cool, flashy, eye candy cars in it, I don't need to see the Autobots or Decepticons turn into the boring ass vehicles I can see on the roads any other day.

That is not how it works.

They'll have to go through me, I think that's a nice alt mode for him & I really want him in TF2.

You know, I've been saying that for years but, uh, nobody is listening!! j/k

So you don't think that Dreamworks went with the best deal that was available to them? Of course other companies would want to do it, but GM offered them the most bang for the buck and the largest variety of vehicles under one umbrella, which is General Motors.

Wow, that's one of the worst cases of putting words in someones mouth I've seen in a while. Or maybe it was just misinterpretation.

What I'm saying is that GM gave them all the vehicles they needed at no cost. I'm not saying that Hasbro had to pay GM. That saved Dreamworks a ton of money by not having to pay for the vehicles.

I agree it would have been interpreted as less of a GM commercial, but then they would have had to negotiate with a bunch of separate car companies. As for it widening the target audience significantly, I think that's BS.

I agree with you about it being unrealistic that all the autobot sans Optimus are GM vehicles but seriously, they are giant robots from outer space.

I think the biggest misrepresentation of the truth here is that you don't know the difference between General Motors and Chevy.

what, so you don't think it'd be interesting to see TF car-modes that aren't brand new GMs? There's a world of possibilities out there. And who says old cars are boring? They add character and variety. The classic Camaro added a lot more to the movie than the brand new Solstice.

I read somewhere that the whole endorsement was worth something like $3 million out of the $145 million budget. That's probably enough to pay for Bay's private jet with enough left over for some of the film's more pointless scenes with hackers and such. I'm certain that a more resourceful director could've made a better, more focused film for less money and without such restrictive agreements.

But whatever. What they pick we'll just have to get used to. We all have our own preferences and it would be unusual if they coincided exactly with what Bay wants to do. But I don't see any harm in stating them.

Comments in red.

The only thing that annoys me about this "debate" is that we are even having it. All I am saying is that the movie would have been better had there been a wider range of brands. Is anyone here defending the fact that only GM is in the movie as a good idea? I don't think so.

I understand thats how things are. I understand the reasons why it is the way it is - $. But does that make the decision a good one? Its obviously a bad choice. Why can people not just state that? Why does everyone have to defend the movie even if the choices they make are poor?

Uh, because you said:
1 out of 5 is a non-Chevy? There was only one Chevy in the entire movie; Bumblebee. Hummer, GMC, Pontiac... remember those?
Because it's not a fact? There are plenty of people who believe that going with the GM deal was the perfect/most sensible choice. You may believe that it was a bad choice, but that doesn't mean it is one, nor does it mean everyone else feels the same way.

I love the complaint about the movie having an emphasis on more 'exotic' vehicles like concept cars, as if this is something new... Let's see now - how many Lancia Stratos cars were actually made? And when did you last see a Fire Department chief drive a Lamborghini with a light-bar on the roof? Porsche 935s? Just seems odd to me that people didn't complain back then.

what about an F-1 Ligier JS11 just driving down the street like it was a nomral car?

Oh I see those all the time. Usually followed by a yellow Lambo with huge intakes.

lol, wait until you guys see Devastator and Soundwave concepts...

A mis-type. Excuse me.

Here is how you see the choice:

The best choice for car brand in the TF movie is:
A) GM
B) Ford
C) Toyota
D) None of the above

I see the choice as below:

The TF movie should have:
A) One car brand only
B) Multiple car brands

You only come to the first question after dealing with the 2nd question. And with the 2nd quesiton, the answer is obvious...

Dude, this is simple business. It's easier to negotiate a deal with one company that employs many different and separate brands like GM then it would be to deal with 5 different car companies.

If Kup were to be in the movie, I'd like to see him as a weathered early 1970's Ranchero.

There's no TF continuity that gets everything right. To be honest, I always thought Red Alert was a dumb idea.

Just the same, such things aren't entirely without precident...



sometimes public servants and officialdom actually do get hot rides.

I just took a look at all the cars that were used in the Fast and the Furious. Lets just suffice to say that they all the big name brands in the movie. If the Fast and the Furious can have all those car brands, then why can't TF?

Does anyone even know how the licnensing issue works? It doesn't seem like the Fast and the Furious had any problems licensing their cars. Why couldn't the TF movie have done that?

^^^ Those are the coolest police I have ever seen.

I suppose we'll have to agree to disagree. I think Transformers are cooler when they turn into common objects, a la "Robots in Disguise." I think it helps the fantasy along, is all. Personally, I think it'd sell a lot more cars to boost something their target audience could afford in a million years.

Others are totally allowed to think Transformers are cooler when they turn into cars that look like the Starship Enterprise and cost over a hundred grand. Apparently, Hollywood agrees.

Kinda sucks, though, when people call those who are making a reasonable, if contrary, argument "trolling." It's not trolling, it's disagreeing. Or being told to "bite your tongue if you don't like GM cars."

I understand not everyone argues to actually make a case, but the least you can do is be civil.

yah, but they are robots from another planet. if you can become any vehicle you wanted...wtf would you chose to be a chevy?

I'd be a lamborghini with fireworks that shoot out of my exhaust.

yeah, the cop taking a picture kinda gives me the hunch that's not their real squad car.

Well, they just have the one. None the less it still exists.

And they aren't the only police force with fancy motors.



(I posted these images in a previous thread)

This argument requires an incredible amount of revisionism to fly. Transformers was no sure thing when it was being pitched. It could have easily been an epic failure. It could have crashed and burned hard. Does no one remember the reaction of general movie audiences when the first teaser trailer hit? Laughter. Sometimes HARD laughter.

What do you think your average auto-exec thought when being approached with an idea that his cars could turn into giant robots that beat each other up? If they were a fan, sure, that'd fly. If they weren't? They likely had the same immediate reaction as all those movie goers did. Sure, the movie made millions in the end, and it's easy to just see that and not see all the months and months of hard work that went into making that happen. But it wasn't a sure bet. In fact, it was nothing but a joke to most people until they saw the first real robot footage.

That footage would not have existed without a car company already signed on.

i think its been mentioned that the financial benifit of having GM sponsor the movie is partly why the end result of effects and shooting is as high as it is....imagine trying to go around and forkin out dollars to a shwack of brands to get the rights to there cars? sounds pricey to me at least

electric car....electric warfare? shrapnel ? nah...maybe not.....

Thats ok dude. Its the same argument everyone else uses. Ratchet is a neon green Hummer search and rescue vehicle. So long as there is one out there in the world like that, people will use that as a reason for the choice of his ALT mode.

Or like the poster in a previous thread who said that there are other car brands in the movie because one (1) other car was different from the rest. So people use misrepresentative arguments like that all the time to defend the movie.

Last time I checked Paramount didn't have amusement parks, tv networks, etc.. that rake in the cash compared to the Disney holdings

Search and Rescue vehicles are ALL gradually going to become puke green, depends on the funding of such departments in the area you live in (If you live in the Northern VA area, especially Fairfax County, this is already standard). The old red and whites are now being left strictly to certain Fire Department branches. Why the separation? Beats me; our American tax dollars at work, I suppose. But if you ask me, red and white is a much easier color to spot and respond to when driving. I hear the puke greens, but sometimes, I can't see them until they're right up on top of me!

Uh... UPN/CW Television network?
Every Star Trek TV show in the past 30 years?

And amusement parks....
Paramount has 14 theme parks just in the continental United States ALONE that serve 30 million patrons a year.

None of that matters, though. Where do you get the idea that money from television networks and amusement parks goes into making movies? It doesn't. Movie money comes from investors, sponsorships, and box office nets, same as it always has. Disney doesn't just feed it all into one account and give everyone a checkbook. Like any large corporation, including Disney, Paramount is compartmentalized. Theme park money and TV money go right back into the theme parks and TV show businesses, not into motion pictures.

Welp, I'll just point to my last post and quote "that rake in the cash compared to the Disney holdings" that's all I was trying to make a point of. If you are going to try and convince me that Paramount holdings rake in more than Disney holdings, I think that is inaccurate.

I get the feeling you think I am pushing something on you or trying to start a bickering fest, which could not be further from the truth...so there's my final

Pay close attention to other big movies with cars in them. Notice how they rarely feature more than two or three brands? I'm not talking about a volkswagen being in the background of the scene for a second, I'm saying that the hero falls out of a window, scrambles to his feet, and the first car that he finds is a shiny new Acura. Then, in the big climax, the hero leaps off a freeway overpass, right into the passenger seat of the bad guy's car, punches him and throws him out, and drives off into the sunset in his shiny new Acura.

it's hardly a new thing in movies, and not exclusive to Transformers. Sometimes I feel like people are discovering the practice of filmmaking entirely through Transformers leaks. "There are 2 Camaros on set, does that mean Bumblebee is cloned?"

The Wiki page for The Fast and Furious has more than 5 car brands listed (Toyota, Honda, Mitsubishi, Dodge, Chevy, Ford, Acura, VW, Nissan). You get the point. Now the budget for that movie was $38 million. The budget for TF1 was $151 million. So the TF movie has a budget that is 5 times as big. Of course, of course, there is the extra CGI to pay for. But I am SURE that somewhere in that 5x increase you can squeeze in whatever was done by Fast and Furious for use of their car brands.

http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do...ticleId=110205

According to the above article, the 3rd Fast and the Furious used over 200 cars for a cost of 7 million. Could the producers of the first movie not have used 7 million of the first movie to get some extra brands? Heck, they didn't even need to get 200 cars. That could have significantly reduced the amount.

Honestly, does anyone here understand law and how the licensing works for movies? How much did Fast and Furious have to pay for licensing issues?

agreed i hate the NEW mustangs 05-08, they're overrated and stupid