So...

Here's the thing.

Directors are gonna direct. Lorenzo is going to be Lorenzo.

Hasbro is not like DC Comics or Marvel Comics here, a beholden little subsidiary with no budget and no cashflow outside of big entertainment and licensing to other people. And Transformers is not a brand that needs a movie to justify its retail footprint.

Hasbro could say no. Hasbro could make demands. These demands don't have to be nostalgia-based. They could simply be rooted in characters from the last movie looking like characters from the last movie because this is a sequel.

And demands don't have to be dictatorial. You can have quid pro quo and play here.

Kevin Feige was brought in because James Gunn wanted Ego the Living Planet for Guardians 2. Ego's rights were with Fox. Fox wanted to change Negasonic Teenage Warhead's powers in Deadpool. They needed Feige's approval. He signed off but only in exchange for Ego's rights. "Give me this or I won't sign off."

Another time, Sony wanted to set Venom and Morbius in the same universe as their Spider-Man movies. Feige told them they couldn't have Marvel Studios characters appear in Spider-Man movies anymore if they did that. "You can do this but we won't cooperate."

Paramount had demands on every Star Trek movie. And the head of CBS Consumer Products brokered all kinds of deals between CBS and Paramount when Star Trek's rights were split. For all three Chris Pine movies, Paramount had rights to the past movies but not the shows. So every little cameo by a TV series-only character like one Admiral at the end of the 2009 movie or reference to Harry Mudd had to be approved by CBS Consumer Products. And he made demands in exchange for allowing those: how they were done, that they made sense, and if CBS wanted something as a tradeoff.

I guarantee you if Paramount signed off on Ninja Turtles or Star Trek characters showing up on Power Rangers that they'd have terms about how it's done and how they keep the tone right and how they all benefit beyond a check being cut. And Paramount would have a lifelong Trekkie in the room negotiating that stuff for them as a licensor dealing with a licensee.

So why doesn't Hasbro essentially have a Transformers forum poster on staff whose job it is to rein in Lorenzo and keep the brand consistent? Someone who can say, "Wheeljack can't look like that" or "You can have a character who looks like that and here's a list of names you can call him based on my research of the 900 characters in our portfolio."

I don't blame the director. Those guys can be finger painters when it comes to brand integrity. I don't blame the producer. He's doing what he's done for decades.

But Hasbro could say, "We're not going to sign off on this." The licensor's job is to me the grownup who makes rules for the kids during recess.

 

i think hes referring to beast machines rattrap

 

This is true... but at the same time, I feel like it's Paramount and Lorenzo's job (as the producer) is to bring in a director who knows his shit, and/or who is going to bring in other experts to make the best possible movie for the characters and the consumers (fans). I feel like that's what Marvel gets (generally speaking) and DC sometimes has luck with, but they do seem to be trying in earnest these days.

So yes, Hasbro should totally be a more agressive/wise IP-holder when it comes to TF's brand management, but I think Paramount should have already learned from absolute trash like The Last Knight--which came out at a time when Marvel Studios was already showing "hey, this is what comic book fans want"--that they need to be more strategic and more conservative going forward if they want a big "Hit". and I honestly thought that maybe they had learned that with "Bumblebee" (as I think most of us did)... but now we're all seeing this and Paramount is coming out from behind a tree, pulling a troll and saying "ahhhhhahaha! got you guys!!! hahaha!"

 

They got me once in Bumblbee, at the end of the movie he turned into Camero, that was Bay peeing on the Transformers franchise, like surprise haha still mine!

 

Wow!! That head is an unbelievably terrible looking design!
LOL That's why I had no confidence in this movie from the beginning.

As for the figures...
The alt mode on (not)Wheeljack seems pretty good.
If the scale is close enough to fit in with the rest of my car bots, it'll make a good base for my Bombus Prime project.

(not)Nightbird looks like a pretty nice fem bot mold.
She has potential as a base for a custom.

EDIT: Never mind. I just saw pics of the alt modes next to other SS and Legacy cars.
No good. Nightbird's alt mode is way under scale and I think Wheeljack probably is a bit small too.
Oh, well. Guess I'll wait and see if the SS versions are better.

I Totally thought of this when I saw the close up of the side of the head.
And, it really makes no difference.
It's still a shitty design for a Transformer's head.

 

Dude, Wheeljack looks terrible IMO, i think the design is great, but that head ruins it for me, it\'s like AOE Crosshairs\'s face he looks uncanny to me, i hope like a TF1 Megatron head thing will happen, where they\'ll change the head after fan\'s negative reaction.....

NightBird tho, looks soooo good, i love how it keeps the essences of the character, while making it fresh and new, and the addition of the gold to me looks amazing, the feet of this figure, seems like she\'ll struggle to stand, besides that.... the alt mode looks so great, i love the colors, i love how most of the robot mode\'s gold dissapear3d, leaving only outlines of gold, and front outline, looks great!

 

There's someone else that Wheeljack reminds of.

 

I am hoping that the glasses transform into the side panel things on Wheeljack's head. Now that I look at it again, it seems entirely possible with the joint type things sculpted in. And also Optimus's mouth plate is removable, so maybe Wheeljack has one as well. Idunno, here's hoping I guess.

 

I laughed way to hard reading this.

 

Maaaan..... the more I look at that NOT-"Wheeljack" head design, the more I absolutely hate it. What idiot decided it was a good idea to have a very human looking robot with fishlips and HUGE glasses? And then to add insult to injury, they call him Wheeljack..... because the Albert Einstein looking bot in the Michael Bay movie wasn't already offensive enough. At least they had the decency to rename him. And shoot him.

 

Could you point me to the bit in the post where I said "buy a ticket and watch the movie"? I mean another trailer, christ. The movie doesn't come out until spring. Bro really explaining what he does with his money to a complete stranger on the Internet  

 

The gold for Nightbird, and the general colors looks amazing-
Wheeljack\'s face on the otherhand, looks really uncanny man, atleast the face make good Tranformers memes online XD

 

When I get my Wheeljack I'll be customising him into Trailbreaker.

 

Marvel does that a fair few times actually.

 

It's undeniable that the design is terrible for Wheeljack but I will never not feel uncomfortable when people talk like this about a toy, of a fictional character no less. Sheesh.

 

Fake

 

Disclaimer: I am not on team-bashing-the-design. I just can't unsee this and it's genuinely funny to me. Just having some fun.

 

Truth

 

I still find it mental ILM aren't working on the films anymore, that's the biggest loss the Live Action series has had imo.

Feels like they consider the Transformers series secondary now, so they pass the work off to a secondary studio (not to downplay the new team, but ILM are some of the best in the business)