I don't think it has to be.
We saw him in TF'07 before Prime and the others arrived. Nothing in the films established when exactly or under what circumstances Bee arrived on Earth

 

Sorry, Peter Panic is a joke from Psych about a similar situation where I would ask you to calm down needlessly, because you would already be calm.

The rest though, I stand by.

 

I guess I'm in the minority, but it seems like a waste of time explaining inconsistencies based on promo material for a movie that has not even been released. I respect everyone's point of view, but give the movie a chance before stating so emphatically that the dots aren't connecting. Maybe everything will come together, and if it doesn't, I'll be in line to blast Bay, writers, etc. However, unlike
some, I'm at least hopeful.

 

Bumblebee was in WWII fight the Nazis

 

They\'re shoving WAY too much cra... stuff in this movie.  Too much for Bay\'s editors to handle. Going to be another fun mess.

 

New toys come on  

 

No no, you're not. People want to jump the gun and nitpick anything they can.

The "apologists" (their word, not ours) have been trying to explain to just wait and see what happens. Bay has thrown us curveballs and all sorts of misleading information throughout the years, it's quite possible that this is no different.

 

"we learned earth's languages through the world wide web."

 

They have never stated in canon that Bumblebee arrived soon before the first movie. The continuity of these films is screwed beyond belief, but this isn't contradicted by anything that's canon, i.e. the core five films. Pick your battles man. Also really digging that WWII Bumblebee design, I want more period transformers pieces, just done by people who aren't Michael Bay.

 

maybe Prime, Ironhide, Ratchet, and Jazz did.

BB didn't speak at all because Ratchet didn't fix him yet.

This

And very much this

 

Here's hoping

 

Bumblebee Killed Hitler

 

Eh, I still think it may be giving the new writers way more credit than they probably deserve (though given what they've been left to work with I can't fault them too much), but that could be a reason for him being able to play sound-clips that most certainly wouldn't be playing on modern radio stations. He just recorded them over the decades that he spent on Earth.

It does continue to bring up the all important question concerning the Allspark and Megatron though. Autobots and Decepticons already being on Earth as early as WWI, probably sooner, really makes both factions look hilariously incompetent if they couldn't find the magic macguffin that seemingly brought them to Earth in the first place. The best explanation I can think of that may be able to glue this messed up timeline together is that someone else (The Seekers, Cogman) deliberately went out of their way to hide the Allspark from both factions.

 

Then again, there really isn't any material that states how long Bee has been on Earth besides that one obscure movie prequel comic that vaguely suggests he was on Earth for a few years. But then this means we have to assume that for decades Soundwave either didn't notice Bee or did nothing about it.

Wild Mass Guessing: The Witwickys were in Europe during WW2, then when they moved to America Bee followed them.

 

Seeing only the former, I'd say it's a nice example of Bay's talent, outside a major franchise that's doing most of the work for him.  

Pain & Gain is seriously a great example of Bay's talent - a mostly forgettable movie that's worth watching only for morbid curiosity (or morbidness in general).

"Why does Michael Bay get to keep on making moooooooovies??? I guess Pearl Harbor sucked... just a little bit more than I miss yooooouuu!"  

 

Saw 13 hours, actually thought it was pretty good, which frightened me a bit at the time...but then a couple of friends said the same thing.

 

I'm just guessing that Michael Bay got handed Devil's Due GI Joe/TF comic and thought "cool"