Ideally, the characters should be so good they could transform into a damn Prius and still sell like hotcakes. Of course, then people'd only buy the toys for the robot mode, but not everyone has to be an ugly SUV or a boring sedan. There's plenty of creativity to be had with everyday vehicles without jumping any sharks.

Absolutely this. I think one reason some people don't want civilian alt-modes is becaust they just don't put enough effort into making the vehicles unique while keeping realism. Imagine one of those '90s cars with wood pattern paint on the side as a TF, a Civic with rally car accessories, a car with some graffiti on it, one of those custom super Beetles you see everywhere in LA, or hell, Optimus Prime scanning a Pepsi truck with the only Pepsi logo on the trailer so he can have a logical explanation for how he gets his colors? He doesn't even have to keep the trailer, he can ditch it and get a plain silver one later. Plus we can get new Pepsi Convoy toys too, if they want. There's really a lot of unseen potential in everyday vehicle modes, as long as the concept artists are creative enough.

Also, that hippie van thing, how the f*** did TLK take such an awesome idea and make trash out of it?

 

I like your idea, it resonates with my previous thought:
"Why there's still no Transformers movies with a spy vibe, since they're literally robots in disguise with high tech gadgets?"

 

I'm ok with everyday cars as long as they're distinctive, like Bumblebee as a Beetle. So many regular cars look the same nowadays. Obviously if there were real life Transformers they'd chose the most mundane vehicles (though with Dinobots running around with them it would be kind of ineffective), but on the Hollywood big screen everything's bigger, slicker and sexier. In most big budget movies the lead actors are more attractive, slimmer and fitter than the average person, so I see using super cars as the equivalent, just to create a visual impact.

See, those vehicles together like that just reinforces why they used different colours; using G1 colours, the Autobots are overwhelmingly red and white, but not in a uniform way. Again I think it comes down to visual impact. Ratchet's movie colours don't bother me as it's quite a common colour scheme for an emergency vehicle, same woth Jazz. They could've just made Ironhide into Trailbreaker though.

 

While I don't hang around with a lot of kids the times little boys have wanted to show off their Hot Wheels or Match Box cars it seems like it's been a mix of different cars from the every day to the super cars. It seems like if little kids only wanted the exotic super cars then that would be all that Match Box or Hot Wheels made. But the last time I had to buy any little toy cars for someone it seemed like a mix of different types of cars on the shelves.

 

While I'm not sure how well it would sit with Hasbro or Paramount, I think its an interesting idea. I always thought it would be funny to have a Transformer film set in the suburbs, with the Autobots turning into minivans or Plymouth cars held together with duct tape and spare parts.

 

To think about it, I guess making TFs everyday cars isn’t such a bad idea as long as the cars actually look cool.

I mean retro and bedroom poster cars like the Viper, Corvette, Mustang (obviously the pre-90s generations), NSX, and MX-5 would be fucking awesome!

It would also help create a retro feel like what the Bee movie is attempting.

To capture that “everyday” feeling make them very beaten up and rusty a la ‘76 Bumblebee.

 

In G1 1984 - 85, the only Autobot vehicles that would stand out in a crowd were the Lambos and Wheeljack. And non-street legal Mirage.

The rest of the cast were pretty pedestrian. Even Jazz, Tracks and the Datsuns, while sporty, weren't cars you'd never see on the road and could be found in the garages of any middle to upper-middle income person. Ironhide, Ratchet, Skids, Hoist, Trailbreaker, Hound, Inferno and Grapple were all standard fare stuff for everyday (mostly) Japanese life. As for the minicars, do you know how many Dodge Chargers, Chevy Camaros and Ford Mustangs I see on the road everyday?

 

I don't mind the Camaro (even here in southwest Iowa we get'em) or even the occasional Solstice...but when you start getting to high-end imports like Ferraris and Bugattis or even concept cars which typically aren't even in production at that point (if ever), that's overdoing it.

 

Need to get that extra money for the film from the car manufacturers by advertising their new sexy cars lol.

 

I think the first film did it best. They were all above average yet not crazy.

Camaros are common.
The Solstice was a lower tier sports car.
The Topkick wasn't too out of the ordinary and since it was black it wasn't flashy.
Optimus was just a typical Peterbilt with a custom paint job.
The Hummer was slightly unusual, but to a random citizen it'd just be seen as some cool looking search and rescue vehicle.

The fourth movie always makes me chuckle during the part when a custom Camaro, race-version Corvette and Bugatti are all rolling down a small town street.

 

Sh**, Hound's alt-mode is a more credible disguise just rollin' down the highway than either Crosshairs's or Drift's - we've had military vehicles stop at our local big truck stop before and the closest installation we've got is over 30 miles away.

 

Well said, they had a half-arsed attempt at it for a few scenes in TF1 and we've never seen anything since.

 

Yeah, Concept cars should be the limit for alt. modes that are supposed to look cool but not be flippantly military or straight up intentionally out of place...so long as they intend to become production cars at the time.

Well, the problem with the AoE cars and on, Camaro aside, is that NONE of them are actually available for purchase - Hound is a military vehicle, Crosshairs is a track-spec only variant of the 'Vette which costs more money than people make in their lifetimes, Drift is a Bugati Veyron (which flat out costs maybe 1.2 million dollars for the BASE model) or a AMG Mercedes (which, like Crosshairs, is a track-spec only variant of a very expensive car to begin with), and Hot Rod was a Lamborghini Centarino or whatever which IIRC only has a production run of twenty five or so examples in the world.

Like, using production vehicles because they happen to also be available for sale at the local GMC retailer is okay, since that gives incentive for companies to provide vehicles for stunt sequences.

But beyond that? Why go for shiny stuff that honestly looks completely out of place when there's over 100 years worth of cool car designs to use? Who in their right mind would think that shitty Crosshairs design, already inferior in every way to ROTF Sideswipe, was a good option, when if they wanted an elongated race car with a spoiler, they could have easily gone for a Plymouth Superbird which legitimately existed purely as a production car purely to get it into NASCAR based on old rules where all NASCAR vehicles had to be modified versions of consumer-grade available cars.

 

I agree with the mixture of both.Though an occasional concept or original car design for a character like Hot Rod would be good as well. But you need more normal cars as they would blend in and be better spys. Then you have say Jazz, Tracks, or Hound as the alternate types. And specialists such as Warpath or Sea Spray. Then you have those such as Prowl or Ratchet who use human police and rescue modes since they typically go to incident scenes first and would have the most up to date information on emergencies that could be decepticon related. (Plus you could have fun with them almost blowing cover in some situations by taking over the driving at times)[Ratchet say to save a life, and Prowl because he gets too excited by a police chase and doesn't want to let the suspect go] It would also add more to their personalities and characters, something that has been lacking a lot in the bay movies. (also a neat way to get new human sidekicks that makes sense from a storytelling stand point)

 

Nooo thank you. Takes almost all of the fun out of it.

 

I've been a bit bummed that they haven't gone with more classic cars. When they said they were going to shoot parts of The Last Knight in Cuba I thought oh cool we are going to get to see some old classic cars transform, but nope we just see them in the robot modes. Even the World War II scene it's sort of crap that's it, not even Warpath as a Sherman?

 

If it were up to me...

Obviously a set of sedans and SUVs wouldn't fly in a blockbuster Hollywood movie, but I think Bumblebee as a Camaro is a good compromise between looking good and not drawing attention. Plus, he's now more iconic as a muscle car than a compact, VW Beetle-type vehicle, so I think a Camaro fits 'Bee just fine.

Take away the flame paint-job, and Optimus Prime's Peterbilt alt mode looks the part while not being too flashy.

Lambourghinis might be too high-end, so production Corvettes (ala ROTF Sideswipe) might be best for Sideswipe and Sunstreaker.

A red pickup truck works very well for Ironhide.

Ratchet as an ambulance is a no-brainer.

Arcee as a motorcycle helps break up the pattern of cars and trucks nicely. Blue or purple would work for her color scheme.

I like what @Cosbydaf has posted for Wheeljack's and Jazz's alt modes.

I also really want to see Grimlock with a fully organic (in appearance) Tyrannosaurus Rex alt mode. Since he would stand out, keeping him 40 or so feet long and 15-18 feet tall in beast mode (the same dimensions as a real T-Rex), and having him travel in Prime's trailer, would work well for transporting him inconspicuously. The other Dinobots would likewise be organic dinosaurs if they appeared, but maybe they'd have to find a different transport.

In terms of Decepticons, F-22s for Starscream, Thundercracker, and Skywarp work up until you realize they'd be 60+ foot jets against cars that generally measure up to 16 feet long at best. I'm no expert on military aircraft (in fact, all I know about cars comes from which ones Transformers turn into), but something smaller but still fast would work for the three.

 

F-5s, F-16s, F-35s, and AV-8s are all in the neighborhood of 50 feet - some of the models are older and scheduled to be replaced by F-35s anyway, but still active. Collapse the vehicle modes a bit when transforming and work some blades and/or capes out of the wings, and that might help make their robot size a little less awkward compared to the Autobots. I mean, if the Autobots are automobiles, of ANY kind, and the Decepticons are still largely aircraft, and mass-shifting's still off the board then there's gonna be some David-vs.-Goliathing going on no matter what.

As for the Autobots, one way to solve the size issue would be to do what Animated did and make most of them emergency/service vehicles. Not only would it allow them to respond faster to the scene of a Decepticon attack without being impeded, but some of the heavier, bulkier vehicle modes would help give the 'Bots some added size - and they'd STILL make more "everyday" disguises than Ferraris or Bugattis. Also, any outer equipment attachments could be made to double as weapons without just falling back on plain ol' arm-blasters again.

Failing that, just have Optimus "put on" his trailer again or have two of the Autobots at a time combine into a single larger robot a la the Unicron Trilogy.

 

I had a solution to the "jet size issue" that's a bit.....zany.

Basically my idea is that a Cybertronian can scan any vehicle, but it can only be slightly smaller/larger than their original Cybertronian mode. The result of this is Seekers that turn into jets that are much smaller than the real thing. To the casual observer seeing them flying overhead they wouldn't be able to notice, and they could have built in stealth tech to evade things like NORAD.

 

Barricade's the only con that wouldn't blend in, because in real life: you would get pulled over by actual police officers for impersonating them.