(Mostly) Complete gallery of Transformers 2007 cast

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2007-05-14 03:12am

The transformations I've seen in the trailers are pretty awesome...

And Starglider, but color coding was just about the ONLY thing that distinguished the original Transformers.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2007-05-14 03:36am

DPDarkPrimus wrote:The transformations I've seen in the trailers are pretty awesome...

Almost all the CGI I've seen in the trailers is awesome. I mean I know they picked the best parts to show off, but I'm impressed.

DPDarkPrimus wrote:And Starglider, but color coding was just about the ONLY thing that distinguished the original Transformers.

LOL Seekers LOL Ironhide?

Starglider · Post by **Starglider** » 2007-05-14 03:41am

DPDarkPrimus wrote:And Starglider, but color coding was just about the ONLY thing that distinguished the original Transformers.

Not true! All the toys came with different accessories!

Seriously, 'Transformers: The Movie' is one of my favourite films, and the characters in that were wonderfully simple yet distinguishable (even iconic). The later (transmetal) Beast Wars CGI was a decent example of how to keep it simple yet effective for CGI transformers (the early Beast Wars stuff was kinda rough and obviously not so applicable to vehicle-based transformers).

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2007-05-14 03:53am

You bring up TFtM, but you neglect the two seasons of the cartoon before it, which has all the characters everyone liked more in it.

You know, like the three jets that were different colored... or the three OTHER jets who were different colors... or the two vans who were different colors... or the two pick ups who were different colors... or the five or so cars who were different colors (and some had horns!). And who could forget the three sports cars who were different colors?

Starglider · Post by **Starglider** » 2007-05-14 04:05am

DPDarkPrimus wrote:You bring up TFtM

Which seems reasonable to me since this is a movie we're talking about with a decent budget, not a low-to-no budget saturday morning cartoon.

neglect the two seasons of the cartoon before it, which has all the characters everyone liked more in it.

'Everyone liked more'? What's your personal list of characters who should've made it to the movie but didn't, or did make it into the movie but shouldn't have? I thought it was a pretty good selection.

You know, like the three jets that were different colored... or the three OTHER jets who were different colors... or the two vans who were different colors... or the two pick ups who were different colors... or the five or so cars who were different colors (and some had horns!). And who could forget the three sports cars who were different colors?

Well, yeah, they had to reuse cels and make it easy for the toys to reuse moulds. I doubt the animators wanted it that way. No such excuses apply for the new designs.

JLTucker · Post by **JLTucker** » 2007-05-14 04:09am

Stark wrote:
DPDarkPrimus wrote:The transformations I've seen in the trailers are pretty awesome...
Almost all the CGI I've seen in the trailers is awesome. I mean I know they picked the best parts to show off, but I'm impressed.

Can someone post a link to trailers with the CGI? The official trailer doesn't show shit.

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2007-05-14 04:14am

Starglider wrote:
DPDarkPrimus wrote:
neglect the two seasons of the cartoon before it, which has all the characters everyone liked more in it.
'Everyone liked more'? What's your personal list of characters who should've made it to the movie but didn't, or did make it into the movie but shouldn't have? I thought it was a pretty good selection.

I'm not stating my personal opinion, I'm stating the widely-held opinion of the TF community.

Can you name me the Autobots from the first two seasons is left alive after the attack on Autobot City and Unicron's attack on Cybertron?

The Dinobots and Bumblebee, that's who.

None of the characters introduced in the films ever gained the kind of following that the original ones had. Getting rid of the entire cast was a big reason the third season did so poorly.

Post by **Vympel** » 2007-05-14 04:22am

I like the look of the Transformers in the movie- sure, there's an element of "over-design" but I'd like to see the transformation process in full to decide whether it really is over-design or whether it's just a natural consequence of them deciding that the cartoon's cheap-out "mass-shifting" was something they weren't going to use.

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2007-05-14 04:31am

JLTucker wrote:
Stark wrote:
DPDarkPrimus wrote:The transformations I've seen in the trailers are pretty awesome...
Almost all the CGI I've seen in the trailers is awesome. I mean I know they picked the best parts to show off, but I'm impressed.
Can someone post a link to trailers with the CGI? The official trailer doesn't show shit.

The TV trailers are what you need to see.

I think they're on Yahoo?

Old Plympto · Post by **Old Plympto** » 2007-05-14 07:50am

I dont really mind those designs. I think Michael Bay might put more thought into other aspects of their characteristics, such as how they walk and fight and such.

But, holy crap... This is my first look at Frenzy and he looks like shit. I understand the need to transform into a CD player with no mass-shifting and crap, but that is a horrible design. What's his gimmick? He uses his eyebrows to cut hair?

Also I think some of these pictures' colour is slightly desaturated. I'm pretty sure Blackout's alt-mode parts in the trailer is much darker than this.

So now I guess the only robot modes I haven't seen anywhere is Ratchet's and Scorponok's.

Manus Celer Dei · Post by **Manus Celer Dei** » 2007-05-14 08:22am

Ironhide and Blackout are probably my favourites. Very impressive.

Frenzy just looks...weird. Eh.

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:
ColonialAdmiral wrote:The only preview I saw was in a movie theater a few months back, that had a transformer trashing a mars rover.
The producers have since said that the content of that particular trailer (specifically, that was the teaser trailer) will have absolutely nothing to do with the actual final film.

There was a mention in the comic about that being Starscream and his crew making a brief stopover on Mars, IIRC.

Post by **Ghost Rider** » 2007-05-14 09:35am

Still ugly to me, and sadly that is the majority of my love of the Transformers. Not some deep characters, not any engrossing storyline...near pure eyecandy, and these are far too busy and unweildly. And as I've said before, I'll see it on some morning bargain matinee price.

McC · Post by **McC** » 2007-05-14 10:06am

Point to everyone commenting about desaturation:

These renders were evidently done in a standard all white global illumination environment. Since the surface shader on the plastic/metal/reflective elements of the cars is likely designed to reflect the environment in which the models are rendered (which looks fabulous when they're actually set in a real environment), the desaturation is likely just a product of being placed in the flat-white environment.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2007-05-14 10:16am

Yeah, in the trailers they look *retardedly* good, with everything reflected in their stupid 8-million surface shapes.

Big Orange · Post by **Big Orange** » 2007-05-14 12:20pm

I like the appearance of Optimus Prime and Jazz; they have cleaner lines and silhouettes in their design, but I don't think much of Starscream...

Anguirus · Post by **Anguirus** » 2007-05-14 01:35pm

The only one of these that just makes me go "WTF?" is Frenzy. How does his HEAD stay on?

Aside from that, I'm still reserving judgment. I could even get used to Starscream, provided that the right voice is attached to him.

Ford Prefect · Post by **Ford Prefect** » 2007-05-14 06:47pm

I'll be honest here - the only design I don't really like is Optimus Prime, simply because I've had a massive vested interest in him since I was three years old. Oh, and I don't like Frenzy. Everything else though is fine by me - I think Starscream looks rather awesome, actually.

rhoenix · Post by **rhoenix** » 2007-05-14 07:23pm

I just give a shrug to the designs - it's too early to adopt adoration or loathing, though preliminarily the many tiny parts moving looks...fragile.

As much as I absolutely loved Transformers: The Movie, and still own it on DVD, my favorite Transformers series was actually Beast Machines. The plot was often more convoluted than in most series before it, and most importantly, the beautiful CGI used (far better than in Beast Wars, in my opinion) was treated as a backdrop for what happened to the characters - not the animators making something cool and the script writers scrambling afterward.

However, I'll probably go see this movie. Maybe not in the theater, but I'll at least keep it in mind as a probable rental. There really aren't many movies out now that really give me the urge to see it in a theater.

Davis 51 · Post by **Davis 51** » 2007-05-14 07:45pm

DPDarkPrimus wrote:
JLTucker wrote:
Stark wrote: Almost all the CGI I've seen in the trailers is awesome. I mean I know they picked the best parts to show off, but I'm impressed.
Can someone post a link to trailers with the CGI? The official trailer doesn't show shit.
The TV trailers are what you need to see.

I think they're on Yahoo?

Also, lGN.

JME2 · Post by **JME2** » 2007-05-14 07:55pm

rhoenix wrote:As much as I absolutely loved Transformers: The Movie, and still own it on DVD, my favorite Transformers series was actually Beast Machines.

Blasphemy.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2007-05-14 08:02pm

I don't think we need to get into a big fight about it - this movie is almost certainly going to suck, and it's going to be mainly about the humans anyway. I hear Micheal Bay is directing? Yeah. It will be a miracle if it's anything other than an Island-like farce. The only pluses are the awesome CGI and the sandbox 360 game that also has G1 characters.

Clone Sergeant · Post by **Clone Sergeant** » 2007-05-14 08:20pm

I really don't care for the way they are posed. Prime looks like he's put his back out.

This is a much better picture of Movie Prime in my opinion.

Kojiro · Post by **Kojiro** » 2007-05-14 11:11pm

I really loathe their eyes (Jazz excepted) being turned into little dots of light Sure up close (as in on the jumbo wallpaper Bay released) they look rather complex and realistic but I like the old 'fleshy' faces. I want to see them conveying emotions, which with a rigid 'battle mode' plate over your face and eyes about as expressive as a camera lens seems difficult.

Honestly the faces/heads should have stayed as true as possible. There's been too much change here for the sake of change.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2007-05-14 11:17pm

It's not for the sake of change - it's 'realistic'.

I want to see what they look like when they get damaged, and if they built CGI models of damaged versions - the incredibly complex models have a lot of scope for damage effects, but they wouldn't be the first people to shy out of avoiding such things. Then again, they have arms of spindly metal skeleton covered in fibreglass that can somehow open up like a flower to be a gun - realism!

Davis 51 · Post by **Davis 51** » 2007-05-14 11:25pm

Ford Prefect wrote:I think Starscream looks rather awesome, actually.

That flip under the dam bridge was pure badass.

You know, out of all the people that I've shown the designs to, each and every one of them find that they like and hate different designs. Some love Jazz, and hate Optimus. Some love Optimus, and hate Ratchet. Some love Starscream, but most hate Frenzy, and, well, you get the idea.

Personally, I'm not a fan of Frenzy. He's the only one I can look at and say "to skinny." Getting rid of the extra arms, and adding a little bit of roundness to the head would go a long way to improving his design.

Other than that, hot damn.