ok guys, im kind of a stickler for obscure trivia & stats & ive been trying to piece together when these movies take place...things kind of go to hell when we reach dotm... tlk appears to take place in may 2018, based off of the dates shown of the released decepticons which would place it 3 years after the events of aoe updated timeline: transformers 1-may-june 2007 transformers 2-september 2009 transformers 3-august 2010* transformers 4-june 2015 transformers 5-may 2018 *i know it makes no sense why tf3 takes place in 2010 but going by the dates provided for us in tf4, there's really nowhere else to place it...also....one thing i noticed....megatron's injuries...would he really be THAT messed up 3-4 years after the events of egypt? i don't think so, i firmly believe dotm takes place a relatively short time after the events of rotf. i just kind of pieced together this megatron bit...he's way too damaged for 3-4 years later...the wound still seems kind of fresh.. as for how sam graduated college in a year? idk, head canon is maybe touching the allspark made him kind of a quasi-genius as we saw a little of in rotf & maybe he didn't need the full 4 years to graduate? let's say dotm takes place in 2013 which would be 4 years for sam to graduate, that would place aoe in 2018? which is when tlk takes place so, there are contradictions everywhere...2010 is really the only 'logical' spot for it to take place im doing my best here but dotm really doesn't want to play along with the other films..
You are putting FAR more thought into this than Bay and Krueger ever did. It's a valiant effort to try and make sense of this, but ultimately you can't polish a turd.
Not that it means anything, but all of the cars in DOTM would fit with it being set in 2010. No later models are in the movie. As for Sam graduating early... Maybe he took concurrent classes in high school, got a year of credits, and only had a year to go for a associate's degree. This much thought shouldn't have to go into a movie timeline though.
I think this also depends on the cars used in these films. Anyone know when the Autobot cars in DOTM were released?
The first act of DOTM dealt with Sam struggling to get a job, and then getting one in a company's mail room. This would be a guy who finishes college faster than Sheldon Cooper, and the job he gets is lower rung than what someone spending 6 years to get a BS with a Communications major would get. I'm sorry, there's no making sense of this.