I actually liked the Bayverse movie Bumblebee designs, but Bumblebee Bumblebee is special to me.

 

You don't have to imagine it...



It might be ugly but at least then he would actually HAVE a face and resemble the character instead of looking like Optimus ripped his face off. The design they ended up with looks like the inner mechanics of the robot face rather than the face itself. And the helmet design... while the over all look especially with the battle mask on is pretty cool, it's just not recognizable as the character. It just looks too generic while Bumblebee's original head design is instantly recognizable.

 

But there’s other ways to recognise who he is instead of just his face.. everyone KNOWS he’s Bumblebee, so I don’t really see the problem. And that BB doesn’t really look like a character that would appeal to kids.

 

Holy Primus! KILL IT WITH FIRE!!!!!!  

 

Like what? Being yellow? Cause that's essentially the only thing he has in common with his name sake. That's not enough to make him recognizable. He's not even the only yellow Transformer.

That's not even an argument. That's like saying everyone knows this is Optimus.



Just because we know this is an Optimus design doesn't make him instantly recognizable as the character.

A design being instantly recognizable as a character means that fans should already know who a character is without being told. The only reason we know that's Bumblebee is because we were told that was Bumblebee not because anyone actually recognized him as that character. The only reason we know that's Optimus is because we're told he's Optimus. If we weren't specifically told who that was there's no way anyone would come to the conclusion on their own that this was Optimus.

Then you must be blind.

And this monstrosity does?



WTF is appealing about that? That thing is nightmare fuel! At least the more G1 style head has an actual face!

Also the more G1 style head better fits the aesthetic of the movie than his actual movie design. Optimus, Jazz, Ironhide, Ratchet, and every other Autobot we've ever seen in the movies all have similar style faces. Bumblebee more resembles the battle damage of characters who have had their faces removed by Optimus Prime in the movies. Why does he look like this? How is this appealing TO ANYONE? It's not cute, it's not cool, it's just hideous.

He doesn't look so bad with his battle mask on as the battle mask design actually is kinda cool and it covers up this ugly mess. But most of the time we're seeing Bumblebee like this and it is just an eye sore. I have a few figures of Movie Bee and I always get ones where either the head is molded to have the battle mask pertinently on or it has an optional battle mask and then I just never display the figure with the mask off.

 

Lmfao, G1 BB literally looks like a rhino. You know what I find extremely funny? You keep criticising that BB, but guess what? I didn’t see any of the audiences complaining. In fact they went to go see an exclusive movie with that “ugly” character and that movie was met with praise for his design and praise for not using his UGLY G1 counterpart. Have you ever heard of different iterations of characters u G1 fanatic? Every kid, adult knows it’s Bumblebee, but JUST because it doesn’t suit YOUR G1 needs of having that ugly G1 character you don’t think he is lmfao. Bay BB has a baby face, you seriously think that G1 BB appeals to kids? Does that look FRIENDLY AT ALL to YOU? If you seriously think kids would watch a movie with that monstrosity in that looks like an animal, you’re seriously wrong. I find it funny how you act like Bay BB is “scary” or “bad” but clearly audiences disagree with that considering they go see him and LITERALLY NO CRITICISM ABOUT HIS DESIGN. Why am I not surprised the only people complaining are you G1 fanboys. Guess what? Get over it. Because you’ve seen him in 6 movies, and you’re going to see him for movies to come whether you like it or not  

 

Except that's increasingly unlikely because one of the core aspects of Bayverse Bumblebee: his radio voice, appears to FINALLY be on it's way out as he's going to speak properly again in Cyberverse S2. And if Hasbro is nixing the radio voice, then his Bayverse design is subject for being rendered obsolete as well.

Also, it's cute you act like BB's design is not liked because of pure G1 whining, but the reality is that the robot mode actually looks more like G1 JAZZ so dont act so high and mighty given the real issue is Bumblebee looking like he stole somebody else's body.

 

You got really critical of fan art when you know an actual "G1" movie Bumblebee would look nothing like that.

Also TF07 Bee looked like a monstrosity as well and kids still liked him. His gaunt, skeletal face and beady eyes should be terrifying but the design was rendered with such character it made it work. You seem to think anyone critical of the movies is a "G1 fanboy" but you have been proven incorrect on that claim time and time again.

 

Yes, and his core fucking aspect, HIS F A C E, is still there. We weren’t talking about his voice lmfao we was talking about his face, stop changing the topic. Also, like I said only G1 fanatics complain about his face. If there was enough people complaining about it they’d change it, but I’m pretty sure that a mere 1% of people, if that, complaining about his design won’t change how it is  

Except I haven’t. Kids love Bay BB, otherwise these movies and the character BB itself wouldn’t be a fan fucking favourite from the Bay movies. People cheer in the movie theatre when he comes on screen. And no, I haven’t been proven wrong with that only G1 fanatics don’t like him because that’s a fact, which you haven’t proven me wrong on. He was literally that liked they made a stand-alone movie about him that people LITERALLY WENT TO SEE with that “ugly” face on. And guess what, did people come out of there horrified? No, same with the Bay movies. You’re actually ridiculous lmfao

 

Except that litterally happened back in 2007. People didn't like the original Megatron head so it was tweaked slightly.

Plus, there's a flaw in your logic - Bumblebee's face is largely designed, movie wise, to not actually move his mouth much, if at all. If radio voice gets replaced with actual voice work, then they would need to change his face to have a more suitable mouth because the only time we ever really saw his mouth move was at the end of the first film (and maybe in TLK, I never saw that trash fire so I don't know how its "Martha" scene went down)

 

I’m not sure if you’re trolling or being serious. I said no one complained about BB’s design, then you go on to say people complained about Megatrons design. First of all, that has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that no one complained about BB’s design. Secondly, CLEARLY the AMOUNT of people COMPLAINING was no where near substantial enough to warrant a change lmao. Your argument is so flawed. You’re acting as if people hated BB’s design, when it’s literally quite the opposite lmao. And wtf u talking about? How is that a flaw in MY logic? Are you replying to the right comment here? You’ve just gone on a random ramble about his voice

 

Lol have you seriously not seen how many times people have been critical of the "ball gag" design?

 

Not until now. Like I said, only g1 fanatics hate it and I stand by that comment because it’s a fact.Thank fuck they didn’t use that ugly rhino looking G1 design

 

You've been here less than two months, after TLK already basically nuked any good will to the bay films. Dont act like you know the full story just from a glance in a post-TLK enviroment, claiming to know about how things were when in reality you were not around for the "golden age" of the bay films.

 

Lmfao, that warrants my argument even more. I’m coming from a general audience member from 2007-2019. And NO ONE complained about the designs except a minority of people on here. That’s my point. I’m not a general audience member anymore, and neither are you people on here. So no, that doesn’t warrant your argument at all. Saying that a couple G1 fanatics on here hated the designs doesn’t surprise me. But it’s clear that the general audience didn’t just like BB, but the designs themselves because like I said they wouldn’t have kept on going to watch them. It’s as simple as that. And it’s funng, because after the widespread distain after TLK, people were praying for a movie with Bays action but to be set on Cybertron. So, if people “hated” the designs so much why would they want a movie that features ONLY Bays designs in it LMFAOOO

 

Quite the contrary - a commonly cited reason why the general public did NOT see Bumblebee, as stated in various media editorials on the subject, was that the trailers didn't do enough to establish the film as simply being more than another bay film. After all, we're talking a franchise that had potential to make a billion dollars...but Bumblebee made EVEN LESS than TLK in raw box office ticket sales, but unlike TLK was only profitable due to the considerably lighter budget.

Additionally, it was confirmed by @SilverOptimus that Bumblebee only even happened because of sunk cost fallacy- Paramount quite litterally could not afford to kill the project as its pre-production was complete. Otherwise, TLK would have ensured Bumblebee would have been canceled, because that is how bad TLK hurt the franchise's bottom line.

 

YES, BECAUSE OF THE TRAIN WRECK THAT WAS TLK. You keep giving me reasons as to why TLK was bad which has no correlation to my points. I know it was bad?! But that doesn’t change the HUGE SUCCESS of the first four movies. It’s as if you pretend they never happened and only TLK exists in the Bayverse, seen as though you can’t stop talking about it

 

Just because the first four films were a success doesn't mean squat anymore. I mean, what relevance do those films have? They aren't making money for Paramount anymore. The fact is that tastes change, the age of the mindless effects driven blockbuster is over. What worked in 2014 no longer worked three years later. Why should Paramount stick to an aesthetic that no longer is popular as it once was?

Because TLK is the culmination of everything wrong that the bayverse became. The same processes that created those earlier films led to the TLK trainwreck, where the robots themselves were being modeled more as humans and less like beings made of mechanical components not designed to be part of a bipedal form.

 

Maybe, just maybe, that they had millions of fans who went to watch them? The fact of the matter is that you’re acting as if everyone hated all the movies. Only TLK was met with widespread hate. Why? Because it was marketed ALL wrong, spoiled every single thing in the trailers, wasn’t and after watching 4 movies didn’t offer anything new. Also, this has nothing to do with what I was talking about. You just went on a random rant about TLK rather than actually responding to my points

 

Didn't save the films in the end, though, because AOE still made less money than DOTM. You can't argue with the economics at play here, no matter how hard you try to ignore hard performance numbers. I mean, AOE barely made 100 million in its opening weekend, that is pretty bad for a franchise you claim has "millions" of fans.

Again, that just shows the films had no direction yet was trying to compete with Marvel of all things at the same time. Any attempt at market research would have shown it was a guaranteed disaster in the making.

And what were those points I failed to address? I'm sure you could tell me and get this discussion back on track, if they were related to the thread in the first place.