That was his best look, and his most effective role.

 

Why pick a side? I appreciate a good design whether we are talking G1 Optimus, Bayformer Blackout, or Travisformer Blitzscream.

 

The Shockwave thing just... bugs me.

Like, imagine we finally find out that there's alien life out there. What looks more alien, movie Shockwave or G1/Knight Shockwave?

G1 Shockwave has it's place but... not in something like this. It's just so disjointed.

 

Well, that depends. Are these real alien organisms or were they originally alien robots built by an another Alien species (like the Quintessons)? If it's the latter, I'd say the Knight's Shockwave is more realistic.

 

Even assuming they were built by the Quintessons (which are even more alien), it's still at odds within the movie's own universe (namely Earth).

 

I don't like Travisformers in the context that this from all accounts is a prequel to the series so visually they just don't make sense. Even if it wasn't though I still think Bayformers Prime, Shockwave, Soundwave and Ravage looked a lot cooler.

I'll just think of the Cybertron stuff as a stylized visual flashback. I like the look of all the Bots on earth though. They look like Bayformers with about 30% less detail.

 

Speaking as a nineties kid with no real attachment to the G1 series, I find the new design aesthetic incredibly pleasing. Whilst I have enjoyed the complex Bay era designs and feel they were right for their time, after ten years and five films there is something so refreshing about bringing the Transformers back to their roots. Regardless of whether you grew up with the cartoon, I think there is a universal novelty in seeing these characters look like their original selves.

 

Bayformers wins with realistic things then knightformers

 

Designs are probably the only thing Bay can beat Travis at. I just don’t like the overly-G1 designs because they feel cartoonish and like some have mentioned, ripped straight from WFC.

Good thing the Earth designs maintain that Bay aesthetic. Both Dropkick and Shatter are easily my favourite Decepticon designs EVER.

 

Don't know what's with the giant head and thighs on that Shockwave, but they look super weird. The Travisformers look super weird. I think it's the blockiness mixed with the detail that's throwing me off, like they didn't quite hit the middle ground. Shockwave, Optimus and Soundwave especially feel that way. Blitzwing looks the best out of those pictured here.

I prefer some of the Bay Shockwave chest, but like the window of the Travis. The head and cannon are nicely done on Bay's, having a style of their own vs. the near straight repetition of Travis's.

I vastly prefer the head details on the AOE Optimus design compared to both Travisformers Optimus and the original trilogy one pictured here. The Bay Optimus is wiry, the Travis boxy. Kind of hard to pick one, body wise. The Travis one reminds me of IDW CW, so I guess that's nice. Could just have used less "BOX."

 

A lot of Bay's Transformers looked unfinished. Almost like the designers forgot about what they were working on, or had to move on so quickly because the director wanted 75 fucking robots in every scene.

Also, the slobbering and animal-like view of the Decepticons never sat well with me. They wouldn't have intestines... or saliva... or a digestive system.

 

So we've come done to comparing the new designs to the Marvel films as a bad thing. And fucking really? The Dark Knight Trilogy of all things? At least BATMAN and the JOKER look like BATMAN and JOKER in that trilogy. All I saw were scraps of metal and the movies made me claim that they were Soundwave and Starscream.

This really is TRUKK NOT MUNKY all over again...

 

Travisformers? That's a new one.

 

If this ends up being a reboot, Primus should their creator. The Transformers should have their own deity and he should be the one behind their designs, not a bunch of 5 headed octopuses.

 

That would actually be pretty neat. And then add the Thirteen thing to the big screen, so one of the biggest current pieces of lore will become far less "obscure." The movies kind of already had the Thirteen, but there were only seven for some reason and were some organically shaped things with giant large foreheads.

 

Such a hard choice. I like both!

 

I'm glad there's a topic discussing this.

For me, Bayformers will always hold a special place in my heart. The '07 movie came out when I was 9 and I've sort of lived with those designs as my definitive versions of the characters for a while. I respect people's opinions that some of the designs are kind of ugly or just random shapes and really pointy edges but to me it just looks cool.

I've watched G1 and respect it since it's why any of these exists but to me the boxy designs just seem really . . . Boring. There's just not a lot happening with them. That's why Bayformers make sense to me because these are robotic organisms who can take on any shape they really want to. They don't have to be a bunch of rectangles.

Do I think Travisformers look that much worse? No. I think Bee, Blitzwing, Shatter, and Dropkick all look really stellar. But I guess my reservations come in when we start looking at the robots on Cybertron. Prime, Shockwave, and Soundwave all look a little too slavishly G1. Again, it's not a bad thing but to me they're just not as interesting to look at.

I mentioned this on Twitter but when I first saw screenshots of Prime I was really excited because I thought we were going to finally get a film version of this Josb Nizzi design:


To me, this is a great blending of the G1 aesthetic while still integrating a unique movie spin on it. Travis tried to do this but he leaned a little harder into the G1 look.

And again, it's not that I hate G1, it's just that after recent years with Hasbro doing a big push for G1 it seems like that's really the only era of characters we care about. Yes, this film is set in the 80s so it's a retro throwback, cool, but I just wish we could see some more original takes on these characters that make them stand out like they did in '07.

 

I coined that months ago in a thread where peeps were talking about it but i guess whatever

 

I like the new designs better.

There is far more color now which really helps the designs. The Bay designs could be so boring with their lack of color.

I like the mix of old and new so it's a bit like how Marvel/Disney has been playing the inside joke of how 100% comic book wouldn't work but hey look you can get something cool for live action by changing a few bits. The Travis Knight designs for Cybertron seem to have followed that idea. It's kind of a mix of G1 with things you have to do to make that leap from cartoon to live action. I could tell who was who without having to Google who it is supposed to be but there are enough elements to go oh hey this is still a live action movie.

The best aspect might be these could be designs that Paramount could actually afford to use and that could be rendered in time. Perhaps we can get a lot more robot time in the movies if it's not breaking the bank and burning out computers for just a wee bit of robot time. I want the human time in the films to feel like it's important to the story and not just something to pad out the run time.

 

1,000,000,000,000% couldn't agree more