Rollbar In Package Pictures

Below are new pictures of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Legends class Rollbar from TF08.net. At least it verified the rumored name for the toy. Not really much more to say since I doubt this character is one that makes an appearance in the upcoming sequel (but I could be wrong).

Transformers Related News

It will be awhile before Peter Cullen once again speaks as Optimus but in the meantime Knight Rider Online is reporting that he will reprise the role of KARR that he originally back in the 80s. KARR is basically an evil version 1.0 of KITT and based on the brief snippet below has had a few upgrades. The episode, "Knight to King's Pawn", will air on January 21st in the states. Thanks to Travis for the link.

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AwesomeOff.com is running a Transformers related poll until midnight EST December 31st. I think the contest is for "Most Awesome" thing and currently the contenders are Roller Derby vs Transformers Costumes. Click here to vote on the better thing.

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Based on the below news report it appears that the Chinese love Transformers too, even going so far as to build a Transformers like robot out of die-cast metal ("It's a lost art") that is 4.5 meters tall and weighs 1322 pounds. Click here for pictures.

Empire Magazine Spoilers

Empire Online, to promote their magazine, posted a few pictures from Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen set but sadly not their article. "Alienbot" provided a summary of some of the information in the article:

- Bay and LaBeouf confirm the Fallen is a separate character.
- Egyptian hieroglyphics ...turn out to be depictions of Transformers who visited Earth.
- Bay claims Megatron is not coming back and the tank is just a new toy.
- Around 40 robots.
- Budget is $200 million.
- Ramon Rodriguez is the one holding on for dear life to a pole while cars are flung.
- Devastator appears at the pyramid, he's probably 50 feet tall because that's the height of the camera crane they used on location.

It looks like Empire was able to get some good bits of info, likely because their reporter knew what questions to ask while the USA Today one was probably rather clueless on the whole thing.

Now I know people will want to say "misdirection!!" but as a general rule of thumb, lying to credentialed press (vs. a fan site) is just a bad idea and not something even Michael Bay is going to risk doing (just makes promoting the movie later harder).

Transformers visiting ancient Earth (and not conquering it?) should make for an interesting story line. Makes you wonder if the Fallen is found here and woken versus arriving and starting to do violent things. The Fallen as a separate character makes the most sense and personally I am relieved. Just returning a dead TF doesn't sound nearly as interesting. The idea that Megatron doesn't return actually surprises me a great deal but I do like the idea of just moving forward with new problems and new villains but that doesn't explain the leaked Megatron images.

As for 40 Transformers, my cheat sheet has around 28 TFs currently listed, the Decepticon list is probably missing half the cast so 40 sounds like a very plausible number at this point. Further confirmation of Devastator is always good but I will be glad when more details about him comes out (how many TFs, design, etc). I just hope the trailer (whenever it comes) teases at this and more.

Empire, USA Today TF2 Articles (Updated)

As promised, articles are now online from USA Today and Empire magazine about Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. USA Today's articles (here and here) have no pictures and provides less spoiler information and more confirmation of a few rumors that have leaked over the few months. Empire Online teases their magazine article while providing the dynamic but spoiler free images in this post. To summarize:

- As a picture below shows, confirmation that Shia's hand injury was written into the movie.
- Story plot is for the Decepticons to capture Sam due to information he "learned about the origins of the Transformers and their ancient history of Earth."
- To counter Decepticon goes, "the US military and an international coalition has united with the good-guy Autobots." (This explains Matthew Marsden's role in the movie).
- Decepticon Soundwave is the "fearsome communications expert." (Nothing about alt mode).
- "...Devastator, whose arms and legs are built out of other Transformers." (This appears to confirm the gestalt rumor, but no details on how many TFs it takes to form him)
- "...Jetfire, a villain whose age and broken-down physicality leads him to help the Autobots." (Verifies that he will follow the G1 arc of joining the good guys and that he will likely have a crutch of sorts).
- New Mexico filming was for a plot point about running from "ancient temple while villainous Decepticons stomp and crush their way through a village in pursuit" and into a "line of tanks and soldiers blasting guns at the giant robots above and behind them."
- "Not that we don't trust (special effects coordinator James D.) Schwalm and the boys," he adds. "But even an eyelash flying at you at 700 miles an hour will cut you. You're running past them, and your clearance is only about 10 feet. These dudes are moving, and if one trips or falls and we run into the muzzle of a blank, that could blow your chest open or burn you."
- "The U.S. Department of Defense gave its official stamp of approval to the Michael Bay-directed film, not only allowing production amid the pristine dunes of the Army's New Mexico [White Sands] missile range, but also letting filmmakers follow jets and fighter planes through the sky from nearby Holloman Air Force Base. More scenes were shot on the Navy's aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis, and Marines fill the ranks of the strike team battling the invading Transformers."
- "The film's Army liaison, Lt. Col. Gregory Bishop, notes: "As far as I know, this is the biggest joint military operation movie ever made, in terms of Army, Air Force, Navy and Marines. I can't think of one that's bigger."
- "Among the equipment the movie is using in this desert sequence alone: two A-10 Thunderbolt II "Warthog" tank-killing jets; six F-16 Fighting Falcons; 10 armored Humvees; the Army's Golden Knights parachute team; two Abrams tanks; two Bradley tanks; two missile-launcher vehicles; two armored personnel carriers; and a quarter-mile of the missile testing range, cleared of unexploded ordnance and built into an Egyptian town and temple. (Signs warn not to cross a perimeter just over the gypsum dunes, because live bombs could be hidden in the sand.)"
- Off-duty enlisted where used as pay extra for many scenes shot with the military's assistance.
- "The final battle the military is helping Bay create is supposed to be an enormous firefight in Egypt, but much of it is being shot in the White Sands dunes in a town built over the roughly quarter-mile cleared span."
- "After completing work in New Mexico, the cast and crew moved to Giza for scenes at the actual pyramids, getting first-time access to the 5,000-year-old site from the Egyptian government. "It plays a big plot point," Bay says, noting that they were allowed to shoot on the pyramids — not just around them."
- "The studio has to reimburse the U.S. Treasury for live munitions and other requests for troops or equipment that unit commanders don't consider to be valid battle simulation or part of military training, Bishop says."
- "During this shoot, an F-22 Raptor [Starscream] roars by like a mechanical arrowhead, blasting the earth with the banshee scream of its engines. It circles the set dozens of times before heading off to complete its scheduled training."

Overall not as much information as hoped. Hopefully once the Empire Magazine hits newsstands (not sure when) that will provide more details and context for the below pictures. Thanks to Rich and April for the links.



Update: USA Today has posted a six picture photo gallery (3 above, 3 new below) related to their articles. The Optimus Prime picture is the same as the Empire image just without all the text to covering it.

2009 Nissan 370Z

Click to Play

The new Z car from Nissan has more of the right stuff like power and braking. Bumper2bumpertv got into one recently with one of the Editors from Nissan Sport Magazine. See what they thought about this classic.

TF2 Official Photos Coming Monday?

Nelson, the site admin for Michael Bay's Shoot For The Edit site reports "Just a little heads up: Empire and USAToday might have the first official TF2 photos on 12/29/08. So keep your eyes open."

Earlier this month, Michael Bay had indicated that he was "going to release some set stills on this site in a few weeks" so Nelson's info may be accurate. Sure the info isn't coming first on Bay's site but I imagine Paramount's PR and Marketing departments would have had a heart attack if full advantage wasn't taken of the first official reveals of moments from the anticipating sequel. Paramount used Empire and USA Today I am not saying this is a build-up to a trailer, its just that the Star Trek campaign showed them that those two sources are a good way to hit a wide audience in the US and Europe and spread the information on the web.

Note that while Nelson has been a good source of information, he is not "official" so his information could be off or he out of the loop on any changes to the marketing plan. As always time will tell but on the bright side at least this time the wait is short. Pictures will pop up on Monday or they will not. Thanks to Gregory for the heads-up.

More Jetfire Legends Pictures

More pictures of the Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Legends class Jetfire toy have appeared online. These provide more close-up and details about the toy. More importantly, one reveals that yes Jetfire has a Decepticon symbol but its noticeable scratched out, possibly confirming that the character will change sides at some point during the movie. Thanks to Gregory for the info. Also, in pictures found by Phil (thanks!) is an argument for how the Legends class Optimus Prime merges with Jetfire.

Possible Pics, Hints of The Fallen? (Updated)

Merry Christmas! How about some possible hints and sightings relating to Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen for your holiday. LiningUpTV.com has posted the below pictures saying "found some pics from the Transformers 2 set. Looks like a new robot is discovered beyond a painted wall, Indiana Jones style. Is this the curled up remains of The Fallen?" From what I can tell there does appear to be robot like parts, a metallic skeleton like structure and maybe tentacles but really I am not sure what I am looking at. Thanks to Gregory and Mike for the heads-up.


In a related note, KevKev noted a rather significant similarity between the image that Megatron is bowing to (left) for the Defiance #1 cover and an image that appears on the various toy packages that were recently leaked (right). Specifically the eyes which look nearly identical. I don't think it’s a reach to assume those eyes and therefore the face is a representation of the Fallen character. Hasbro marketing isn't going to make that image central to their toy packaging otherwise. Also note that the background hieroglyphics in the packaging, indicating the far past and buried secrets, contains the Decepticon symbol. Maybe The Fallen is a secret buried on Earth and the above pictures are a part of that? Its all supposition and guesswork, but that is part of the fun.

Update: Thanks to Keith, below are some retouched photos that attempt to bring out a few more details from the images. I still can't really make heads or tails (or which is which) of what the pictures are supposedly showing.

Shia Good After Second Hand Surgery

It turns out that Shia LaBeouf underwent surgury a few weeks ago for the second time on his damaged hand after finishing filming on Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Apparently all is mostly well on the slow road to recovery for the actor.

From Yahoo News:

The second surgery focused on correcting damage around the area of the thumb that was not fixed during an emergency operation immediately following his July rollerover crash in Los Angeles.

"He's doing fine now," the source said.

The insider also smacked down a story in today's New York Daily News that claimed the injury was more serious than initially reported and that doctors had initially mulled the possiblity of a "partial amputation."

Legends Jetfire and Optimus Merged Pictures

Below are three images that show the Legends Jetfire and Optimus Prime merged together. This is supposedly related to the rumor that the toy line has the two combine much like they did for Armada and Energon toylines (I think). Frankly it looks like the person just strapped Jetfire onto Optimus' back. I doubt Hasbro would bother to engineer a merge solution for toys in the Legends line even if the merge rumors are true. More then likely the person is just hoping the images will spike the sale of the toy when it is put up on eBay.

Transformers 2 Prequel Comic Defiance (Update)

IDW Publishing has revealed the cover (that is as big as it gets) to the first issue of 4 issue mini-series Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Movie Prequel: Defiance #1. The solicitation description:

The second official prequel to next summer’s TRANSFORMERS movie begins here! In “DEFIANCE,” writer Chris Mowry and artist Dan Khanna tell a tale that delves back to the very origins of CYBERTRON and the beginnings of the war between AUTOBOTS and DECEPTICONS. This first issue introduces new threats and sets up the reasons for the conflict that leads directly into next summer’s sequel to the smash-hit film!

There is also Alliance, the first issue that came out last week that bridges the gap between the two movies. As for the image, not entirely sure who or what Megatron is possibly bowing too (AllSpark shard?) nor if he is looking at something in his hand. Pretty compelling image overall. I believe the first issue hits newsstands sometime in January. Thanks to Gregory for the link.

Update: Below is a much larger image of the Defiance #1 cover from Alex Milne's deviantArt page. If interested you can find other Transformers comic related artist work for Josh Perez (Alliance), Josh Burcham (Maximum Dinobot), and Guido Guidi (All Hail Megatron). Thanks to Tahnee for providing the info and source for a better cover image.

Many More Pics of FAB Jolt, Megatron

The-Arker.com has posted many pictures of the Fast Action Battler Megatron and Jolt
(the Volt). Below are a few pictures but rather then mirror them all, here is Megatron's gallery and Jolt's gallery.

Fast Action Megatron and Others

ACToys.net has posted more pictures from the Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Fast Action Battlers line. The line is geared towards young kids so that is why the overall lack of detail and simplified transformations.

The first few pics show Megatron and his cybertronian tank mode, further proof that the previous leaked pictures are true and further verifies he returns for the movie. It however does not verify that he is "The Fallen" that the film title may be referring to. After that we have Optimus Prime and Bumblebee that look essentially the same. Last is another picture of Jolt.

Epps Get A Promotion

Tyrese Gibson recently spoke with MovieWeb about his role in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen including that his character recieved a promotion.

Can you tell us a little bit about what Sgt. Epps is up to in this summer's Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen?
Tyrese Gibson: Yes, my character has been upgraded to Master Sergeant Epps. I am the top dog in the air force. I am a master sergeant. I am bringing on way more air strikes. Michael Bay really beefed up my presence in this sequel. I was really happy about that. Just being on the set with all of my cast members really made me feel like we'd created a family union. I think we created something that is really special. The fans out there really showed up and made us feel appreciated for what we did. It felt good to be working on something that the world is waiting to see.

Can you talk about any of the new Transformers that you are going up against?Tyrese Gibson: No. I can't. I'm sorry. It's all secrets. Its way more robots. There are a whole bunch of new robots that the world is going to be introduced to. There is going to be way more action sequences. All of the stuff that goes on is really insane. What I love the most? I can purposely say this. I have never done nothing in my life, or been a part of anything in my life, where I feel like ever man, woman, and child in the world is going to see something that I've been in. And it's a lot of pressure. It is something...I don't know. It's just a lot of pressure. It's like someone telling you that, while it might be a messed up comparison, a tsunami is going to hit in seven months. And you can see the tsunami before it comes. How do you prepare for that? That's how I look at Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. It is just so big, and just so gargantuan. It is just really amazing. I am glad to be a part of it. Michael Bay is amazing. Spielberg, Shia, Josh, Megan. Also, you guys should be looking out for Matthew Marsden. He is a British actor. He was the head of the UK forces that are tied into the film. It is going to be pretty crazy.

Thanks to Katie for the heads-up.

TF2 Chevy Volt Gets A Name

From TF08.net once again has provided the picture of a new toy that is probably part of the Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen line. The alt mode is the Chevy Volt and based on the description on the card, the character has the name of Jolt. Appropriate name considering the near all electric engine design of the vehicle and not based on any previous G1 character I am aware of.

The toy might seem for the Transformers: Animation line but the head and front detail is much greater then the animation line tends to be. Really there is nothing cartooney about the design, a hallmark of the animation line. It’s a simple Transformer but then that is part of the mandate of the Fast Action Battlers line.

Considering the car's multiple appearances on Transformers sets during the summer and Hasbro going through the trouble to create a toy for the car, I do believe this could be confirmation that the Volt is a Transformer character for the upcoming sequel. Thanks to Phil for sending this in.

More Images of Legends Jetfire

More images of the Legends version of Jetfire have appeared on TF08.net. The images show a better look at Blackbird alt mode. While the toy seems rather unimpressive, keep in mind that Legends line is about $4 retail, at most two inch tall toy designed mostly as an easy buy with very simple transformation. It is not something I would use to indicate what a larger toy would look like and almost nothing about how the character will transform in the movie. Thanks to Phil for the pictures.