This is entirely unrelated to what you are saying that I said was spin. Lorenzo, two days ago, verified that BB was a "reboot" because of the River's mistranslated article going around. (I find it interesting that this newest twist comes from the same source as the first mistranslated article)
Literally go read his statements from the past few days and you can see why people are upset.

 

Exhibitor Relations Co. on Twitter

Paramount's BUMBLEBEE finally rolled out in Japan this weekend at #3 w/ $2.4M, $335M total internationally.

 

Interesting, smaller than I would have expected. Looks like it's run will finish around 465 million globally. 500m would have been nice, but Paramount and Hasbro are happy and that's all that matters.

 

Any updates on the total?

Japan hasn't been big on TF for years because imo Takara's mismanaging the series over there. If they had done non-parody-type dubs I don't think TF would be in the state it is in right now in Japan.

 

To be fair it's never been all that big of a deal over there.

 

True, but I think it'd be better if they didn't dub the shows so poorly, and consistently end shows before they've aired the last season.