After seeing the trailer we all noticed Blackout in the duel in the forest. However, going through the Botcon product display, I noticed 2-3 different blackout repaints dubbed Grindor. I don't think a non-movie character would get so many repaints, so is this the new heli-bot?

 

Y-E-S

 

Blackout Prevails.

 

Actually, non-movie characters can get that many repaints. Smoksescreen, who is a Jazz repaint, got a FAB, and is getting a Deluxe class mold.

 

Grindor is a code-name for blackout used in the character listings and on toy packaging to hide that blackout is back and fully fuctninal. It's been conformed by 1 of the people who worked on the game.

 

Link?

 

this isn't true i think!

they said there is a reason that there are 2 sikorskys, and 2 exavacors, echt should be a single character

 

I don't mind if it's a separate character, I just really hate the name "Grindor". Sounds like a He-man villain who is so named because it likes to grind on guys at the club or something.

 

At the moment, I don't think that Grindor is Blackout.

Spoiler

The novel tells us that Megatron is resurrected using the Allspark shard kept by NEST. The shard is absorbed into him. The only other shard is in Sam and Mikaela's possession and is used to reactivate Jetfire. With both shards used, nothing can be used to revive Blackout.

If the Decepticons brought Megatron and Blackout back, why did they leave Brawl -- I'm sure he'd have come in handy -- decaying at the bottom of the sea? We also have the colour difference. I don't remember a character completely changing colour before. (Please, correct me if I am wrong.) Also, isn't there something about the head being different. Keeping Blackout's potential return a secret makes no sense to me. He is hardly a major player. (Keeping Megatron's resurrection a secret for as long as possible was understandable, but Blackout...?) I know he has become something of a fan-favourite, but he's nothing special in the grand scheme of things.

 

To be fair, the color change could be the result of spending 2 years rotting 7 miles below sea level in the salty depths of the ocean; I don't see why he'd worry too much about his paint job fading.
That being said, I'm pretty sure he'll be a different character based on what the writers have told us.

 

But the people in two separate game interviews referred to the helicopter as "Grindor". Plus the FAB and Voyager Grindors were seen. Idk, but I am going to think of him as Grindor until proven otherwise (they WOULD need two shards and they would need spark and parts for Blackout to come back). They could have had it where Scorpinok gives his spark to bring back Blackout and then you don't need to do the CGI for him and his interactions with the soldiers....

 

My guess is it's Grindor.
Though he won't be referred to by name in the movie.
He'll just show up and

Spoiler

grab Sam's car in chopper mode, take it to Megatron, then eventually get killed by Optimus when he shows up.

 

Thundercrackah is right, Breakaway-Rocks is wrong. Or rather,

THUNDERCRACKAH SUPERIOR, BREAKAWAY-ROCKS INFERIOR.

 

Maybe Blackout changed his color to grey and also changed his name to Grindor. What is funny is that the tiny Scorponok toy seems to have changed his color to black and grey for some reason. I am not even sure if the Scorponok with Grindor is the same Scorponok from TF1.

The real reason why the toy says Grindor is bec. many mothers will refuse to buy the same expensive Blackout toys again, so Blackout has been forced to have a new name Grindor just to sell more toys. Personally, I usually don't buy the exact same toy again if it is just minor repaints. I did decide to buy the Voyager Optimus with Chinese characters again and the Desert Tracker Ratchet. I usually don't buy repaints if the new colors are not related to the movie such as the blue Ironhide or red Ironhide. I usually will buy repaints if they pretend to be a different character.

It is also possible that Blackout was only critically injured in the first movie and later recovered.

 

Blackout was sent to the bottom of the sea along with the others, iamamachine. I think the military would notice one of them coming back up.

 

That sounds like something he would decide to do.

Why would Blackout get the new name treatment when Interrogator Barricade, Rescue Ratchet, Offroad Ironhide, Cannon Bumblebee, Desert Tracker Ratchet, Stalker Scorponok, and all the Primes and Megatrons didn't? What you suggest doesn't match with reality.

 

Whatever the outcome is with the Blackout/Grindor confusion, I just want the movie or Hasbro to give us a REASONABLE EXPLANATION for why they thought it was a good idea to change a character and or make a new one that is exactly the same as the other.

 

I think it will be Identity crisis to robots after movie. People will make a thread and start asking question,that Micheal Bay didn't gave answer about.

 

Hasbro basically does both about toys :
They do repaints of the same characters such as Voyager Optimus with chinese characters and Desert Tracker Ratchet. They do this mainly for the more popular names maybe. Some shapes are iconic and cannot be sold as a different character. For example, you cannot repaint an Optimus toy and sell him as a character named X. In the cartoons, Optimus had a lookalike Ultra Magnus and that was the only Optimus repaint that was successful before.

For less popular names like Blackout, they did both in the movie toys. They sold Premium Blackout. They also created repaints of Blackout as new characters such as Evac, Whirl, Grindor, etc. Many people like me buy repaints if they pretend to be a different character.

 

If you don't mind, I'm going to rephrase your comment with my own point of view:

"Whatever the outcome is with the Blackout/Grindor confusion, I just want the movie to rock and to be awesome!!! I don't mind double characters as long as they give them different names!  "