Well first off, Autobots and Decepticons are factions of the same species.

Second, I think both Autobots and Decepticons should have a variety of appearances. We now have fearsome Autobot warriors with Mesozoic beast modes and possibly dragon modes if Dragonstorm and Steelbane end up being Autobots.

Galvatron, Knight Megatron, and Barricade's new design are indeed very human-looking in many ways, but there are still more alien Decepticons like the Dread-like robots, and Onslaught reportedly has a ROTF-esque design.

Also, Lockdown may have had a human-like face, but his crew members were faceless, and he had a variety of alien workers and prisoners on his ships.

As for Barricade's unique features, I feel his new design has a lot of character. He still is a police car. He still has unique slogans on his alt mode. "To punish and enslave," and "Keep Calm and Hail Megatron," were both seen on his alt mode during filming. He has brass knuckles saying "SERVE" and "PROTECT." He has a baton and a pistol.

There really is room for a variety of designs in Transformers I think.

Finally, radical redesigns show how Transformers can survive damage and physically upgrade themselves in ways humans can not. It's actually another aspect of their alien, Transformium-based nature.

 

Just need to point out that Last Knight Megatron isn't actually that humanoid, he still has that monstrous face with razor sharp teeth from previous movies.

 

Actually he is pretty humanoid. He even has a human-like, projecting nose if you look closely. His teeth are sharp, but that in itself doesn't mean his general appearance isn't human-like.

 

What did I miss? Why the eye roll?

 

Back in TF1 they look different from each other. And they took so much time designing these alien robots. The vehicle parts and their placement are so daring and authentic. Every characters are distinct. Unlike the tadbit new design adjusted for those who can't recognise this robot from that. The uniqueness of Bayverse robot design has gone Tony Starkish sleek generic design. Some may not like TF1 design like Starscream for example because people are always craving the same thing over over again. Human looking robots in every movies.

 

So, Barricade is now an Autobot?! :confused

 

Given he has the Decepticon insignia on his chest, has "Keep Calm and Hail Megatron" on his Mustang, can be seen with other Decepticons during filming, and can be seen getting blasted by Bumblebee in the first trailer, I would say that the answer is a definitive, "No."

 

Someone has beat me to the punch, thanks Galvatross.

 

From the trailers and the theme of the marketing/movie, it indeed seems that Optimus will be the antagonist throughout some if not most of the film

 

He's basically doing it to really trick the TRF into trusting him since humans working with transformers in general is becoming a lot more harder, that's why during filming in london they're less focused on him and more focused on bumblebee.

 

Yeah, I definitely suspect there's some sort of thing going on with TRF and the Decepticons, especially Barricade. Did you notice how during the Arizona filming where Barricade and Onslaught were first spotted TRF is following the Autobots and Cade, and the Decepticons are following TRF?

 

Yeah, I also also remember some scenes where they're rolling out together with no TRF vehicles on their backs

 

Yeah, there was also this video posted by the official Transformers Instagram with the caption "Hunting for Autobots."

Instagram post by Transformers • Jul 27, 2016 at 4:16pm UTC

Also, I find it strange that the TFWiki.net set visit report specifically said that there was a prison for live captured Decepticons. Why live caught Decepticons? Are there no Autobots in this prison given TRF is reportedly hunting all Transformers? What if it's not really a prison, but a base of operations for the Decepticons under the disguise of a prison? I can't be certain, but it could be possible.

 

I think that also explains where Berserker came from, Santiago is secretly helping the decepticons by giving them a base of operations (like you said) and is letting megatron, barricade and the others roam free while they take care of the autobots which would also explain why barricade's the only one in London going after bumblebee, because onslaught and the others returned to their "prison cells".

 

Barricade got brass knuckles with "serve and protect". Nice! Also I realize it's just the lighting on the render but I like how Hound looks with a little bit of yellow on him.

 

They look great! And Prime has the right colors on his chest this time! In the other photos the red and blue were on the wrong places

 

Lol, I corrected it

 

wow this looks good 

 

So are we going to get a scene where Barricade punches some bot and it stamps "PROTECT" and "SERVE" in their metal? I don't see any other reason for those letters being backwards on his knuckles.

 

So are you thinking this is some extension of the human antagonists working FOR the decepticons who we seen In dotm? After all it was only 'mr inappropriate' who apparently died (or did he?) and the other quite possibly highly influential humans were already cooperating with and therefore very aware that decepticons existed, going off the soundwave scene at his mansion.

Just because Optimus won't give humanity cybertronian technology, has never meant that the decepticons won't, especially if it suits them. This could be how TRF is formed out of cemetery wind. Ultimately led by decepticons....'the enemy of my enemy is my friend' possibly a nice bit of foreshadowing there especially as prime goes loco!

So yes a base of operation or a barracks/ repair facility isn't out of the question at all.

Also regarding the transformers looks, you quite rightly pointed out that they are members of the same species. The question I have is....what defines their appearance or membership to the species? Their robot mode appearance? The alt modes that they transform into? (Beast/vehicle/combiner/pretender/headmaster) or even their size?

What about them in their protoform state? We seem to have lost sight of the importance that this plays in transformers history?! How is it going to be tied in with the new stuff? Because surely the history of both megs and prime won't be in their new bodies rather it's going to be both in protoform mode surely....by which standard means that they will all look very similar on cybertron as they had no need for disguises in bot mode.

Also going on this logic the insectoid look was only an earth based look and not their true appearance. Also I have a question was megs first trilogy appearance his protoform? I seem to recall it was....this also could explain his new appearance as he may have just gained it via the same way every other transformer gets an earth appearance....by scanning a new vehicle mode.