As someone who freaking HATES the Bayformer designs... there are a select few that I actually do like which could easily be the best... because they're the only good designs in the entire movie franchise... Optimus Prime: The only version of him I really hated was the Protoform Prime from the first movie which is only on screen for a short time. Knight Optimus is kinda bad... mostly in the way the chest looks... he looks like he has boobs in the movie... The Evasion Mode Optimus in the movie also looked more like Ultra Magnus without armor than it did Optimus... they need to stop removing his paint cause it always makes him look like Magnus. Other than that though he's one of the only characters that actually looks like his name sake... most of the time... and toys have even made those Magnus looking ones in his proper colors. Barricade... Original design not so much the Last Knight version... except for that head which still looks awefull he's one of the few movie designs that actually looks some what solid and like it maybe could actually transform. I just wish he had a better head sculpt. Soundwave: Another one who actually looks like his name sake. The head design is instantly recognizable as Soundwave. I'm so glad they waited till the sequels to introduce him and did him some justice because Frenzy at one point was suppose to be Soundwave and that head design is gawd awful. Sideswipe: While he doesn't look like any other Sideswipe, I actually really like his sleek design. Shockwave: Another character with an instantly recognizable head sculpt. He also has that hose leading to a gun arm like the original Shockwave. The only part that I don't like is that rib cage chest. If he had a more solid chest similar to the original but in the movie style I would freaking love it. Sentinel Prime: He's kinda similar to Optimus and he also kinda weirdly resembles a robot Nimoy… I don't know why but I kinda like that design. TLK Megatron… the only Megatron in the entire movie franchise that is actually good... Well evil but good in the sense of his design being decent. The face is still ugly and I wish he had the battle mask on at all times because that looks far better. I have him displayed on my shelf with the battle mask on, and he hasn't had it off since I took him out of the package. His vehicle mode is even a lot better and this is really how he should of looked in the first movie. Cogman… I don't know why... the movie itself even makes fun of his design calling him a C-3P0 knock off in the movie. He also similar to Bumblebee doesn't really have a face. I shouldn't like this guy but for some reason I can't explain I kinda do. Any of the designs seen in the Cybertron scene in the Bumblebee movie... because none of them even look like Bayformers… except for Bumblebee still having that horrible head design. Also "Blitzwing" which really should of been the design for Starscream for the first three movies. Yeah I know Bumblebee technically isn't a Bay directed movie but he was still a producer and there are still Bayformer style Transformers in it so I'm counting it. I left out AoE because there really wasn't anything in that movie other than Optimus who I already talked about that I liked.
While I agree, I think Starscream proper appears in the opening Cybertron sequence (with the correct head and everything) and there is the fact Blitzwing dies. I don't think it would have been good for the first Decepticon offed in Bumblebee to be one of the cornerstones of the Decepticons in the franchise. Some random nameslap who looks like Starscream but isn't? That's far more acceptable.
What if it has no cannon, and the Devastator head is hidden away unprofessionally? The paint is already bad, but it's still profitable because "STUDIO SERIES"
I am honest, I hate most of the stuff Bay has done to TF, however I admit I have owned a Camaro TF, it was a flashy daily driver and I ended up getting a few BBs. That being said, Evasion Mode Prime is by far my favorite.
Movie 1: Ironhide, Scorponok Movie 2: Sideswipe, Ravage, Grindor (He's XL Blackout) Movie 3: Shockwave, The Dreads, Devcon. Movie 4: Lockdown, Hound Movie 5: Canopy, Megatron, Nitro Zeus Bumblebee: Arcee, Shatter, Blitzwing Unused Concept Art: Movie 1 Arcee, AOE Widow Maker (I think she ended up being remade into Stinger), ROTF Decepticon Leviathan, Scrapheap ROTF Figures: Bludgeon, Stratosphere, Mindwipe.
The thing is… there is BARELY anything that distinguishes B Starscream from Blitzwing. They use the same character model with almost the same color scheme. I had to stare at side by side stills of the two before I noticed the slight variation in the placement of their colors. Why just watching the movie no one would see those as two different characters. The movie also never calls him by name on screen so I doubt anyone would see it as some generic Decepticon or a random name slap when he so closely resembles Starscream. Also I really don't care that he dies... even though it makes no sense how he can die in the 80's and still be alive in 2007... but it also makes no sense why he has a more G1 design in the 80's and looks like Waspinator in 2007. I find it more annoying that the guy who resembles Starscream so much that everyone assumed it was Starscream is called the name of a totally different Decepticon who he has absolutely no resemblance to. In my opinion killing Starscream is far more acceptable than having this not be Starscream. It's not like the movies don't contradict themselves all over the place anyway. Like continuity really matters at this point. There's also an issue with Bumblebee even arriving on Earth in the movie despite the fact he should already be on Earth. There's apparently an alternate opening where instead of arriving on Earth in a Cybertronian mode and scanning the jeep he's already on Earth in the same WW2 design from TLK. So they literally made a change to the movie that blatantly ignores established continuity right off the bat. Might as well kill off Starscream too.
That's not true at all. The movie was always conceived as a prequel AND a soft reboot. This is why Megatron isn't in the movie. He was specifically left out of the film because he would of been frozen under the hoover damn already in this time period. The director wanted to use him in that opening scene on Cybertron but he couldn't because of the movie being a prequel. There was also a scene that would of shown him frozen under the hoover damn but with a more G1 design which also didn't make sense if this was going to be a prequel. So both scenes ended up getting cut. The movie was not changed last minute to make it a reboot, it always was a SOFT reboot... meaning it's still part of the same continuity but only loosely... not that there was ever much of a hard continuity to begin with. Anyway they also made changes like removing Bumblebee's TLK WW2 design and all mentions of Sector 7 existing for the same reason. The trouble with trying to do both... make a movie that works as prequel to the original films and also reboots the films at the same time is that it really doesn't work in either capacity. The changes made to the movie so that they could call it a reboot ignore continuity and the parts that actually follow the continuity make it not a true reboot. If they're going to reboot the franchise they need to follow through with a full reboot. That means no more of these fugly Bayformer designs. The Bumblebee movie had some G1 style designs that looked awesome but it also contained Bayformers and I felt like I was watching two entirely different movies. And ignore everything that happened in the original movies don't cheery pick things like keeping Megatron frozen. Let the director actually show Megatron!
It's not that hard to understand. Bumblebee, Shatter, and Dropkick still look like Bayformers. All the other Transformers in the movie have a completely different aesthetic which makes them seem out of place as if from a different movie. Honestly I wish all the characters looked like those Cybertron scenes.
Except the face - Blitzwing has a triangular face that looks like a pilot mask, Starscream straight up has the traditional block shaped head and a normal flat face. Small detail I know but given we're talking seekers here, it's still more significant than the usual differentiation which amounts to nothing but paint jobs.
They should've made him accurate. Even Animated could've been used as a reference. I don't know how you expect anyone to see this within that raging battle.
That is called "attention to detail" - I mean, just because you didnt make it out doesn't change the fact it's still there. Or the fact the blue arms are also a dead giveaway that's Starscream (original versions of this CGI from the trailers actually lacked blue arms and looked more like Blitzwing overall).
Again, just use the provided colors instead of trying to be unique. I know who is who, but there are people who don't. He doesn't even look that bad. And again AGAIN, how is anyone supposed to see that with that dark shading mixed with those flashing colors, plus the random Seekers all around?
Personally, I think calling the seeker guy Blitzwing was a mistake, but that was apparently Hasbro's call, most likely to just keep claim on the name trademark. My personal theory is that Blitzwing was part of the emergency retool of the film given he only appears during a sequence we know was not in the original cut.
IMO Blitzwing is one of those names that you can slap on whatever, even if it does have one or two famous characters associated with it. Sort of like Breakdown or Dreadwing and that kind of stuff. Generic enough but also cool enough. Besides, that guy being called Blitzwing doesn't mean the purple and tan guy can't show up later with another name.
I know that, but the issue is that he looks like a character whose name can't just be slapped around. Your solution, frankly, just adds to the whole problem.
Except its Starscream, dudes looking like him with slight variation has been the defining aspect of the Seekers since day one.
