Thursday, September 30, 2010

Tyrese Wrapped On Transformers 3?

If you are keeping an eye on the Detroit sets hoping to glimpse Tyrese forget about it as his tweets indicate he has wrapped on filming Transformers 3. It seems he has moved on to the Fast and Furious 5 set. The most recent photo shows him at a beach side home. On the bright side he did leave us with this sweet picture of Optimus Prime that he tweeted with message "Can you see me in the window?". The picture was later removed but thanks to Charlotte we still can get a look. I guess there is nothing stopping in from returning to TF3 at a later location (say Florida) but that seems unlikely as rare for films to allow their star schedules to overlap like that as can cause unintended schedule conflicts that cost money.

More Chicago Galleries

Filming continues in Detroit but pictures from Chicago still keep appearing online that are worth checking out. Chiphoto has posted two galleries from when filming occured at the Wabash Avenue and Lake Street parking deck around August 18th that involved cars being tossed of it, buses going boom and more. The pic to the left is just a little sample, click here and here for the rest of the sizable galleries that show the helicopters in action and a rooftop down look on the action.

IDW December Transformers Comics

IDW Publishing has released their publishing plans for December. The month will bring 3 Transformers comic books and 3 trades. If you are interested in the books, just let your local comic book store know. For the full details of IDW's TF and other books including GI Joe, Star Trek, Angel and more click here.

Transformers #14
Mike Costa (w) • Nick Roche (a) • Don Figueroa, Nick Roche (c)
Two Autobots felled in the past two issues and the punishment is only beginning! A shocking revelation and an unexpected attack begins the “REVENGE OF THE DECEPTICONS,” the storyline that leaves a lot more Autobots on the operating table, and their entire future on Earth in question—and also features the return of superstar artist DON FIGUEROA!
2 regular covers will be shipped in a 1-to-1 ratio • FC • 32 pages • $3.99USD

Transformers 3 Movie Prequel: Foundation #1 (of 4)
John Barber (w) • Andrew Griffith (a) • Brian Rood (c)
The first TRANSFORMERS 3 MOVIE PREQUEL begins here! The origin of the bitter rivalry between Optimus Prime and Megatron starts here! But what is the secret connection that will forever bind them? And how will it affect the future of all Transformers?!
FC • 32 pages • $3.99USD


Transformers: Sector 7 #4 (of 5)
John Barber (w) • Joe Suitor (a) • Brian Rood (c)
In the midst of the darkest days of World War II, Sector Seven's greatest fear has come true—the Nazis have captured a TRANSFORMER! The group's seven deadliest soldiers—a rag-tag group of screw-ups and cast-offs in any other context—go on what's surely a suicide mission into the heart of Nazi Germany!
FC • 32 pages • $3.99USD

Transformers, Vol. 2: International Incident
Mike Costa (w) • Don Figueroa, Javier Salteres, Guido Guidi (a) • Don Figueroa (c)
As the Autobots and Skywatch come together against a common enemy, the Decepticons choose to forge their own alliance. However, their involvement with a powerful leader could escalate two countries into war! Can the Autobots prevent an international incident, while avoiding exposure? TPB • FC • $19.99USD • 144 pages • ISBN: 978-1-60010-804-4


Transformers: Ironhide
Mike Costa (w) • Casey Coller (a & c)
During the Great War on CYBERTRON, one of the AUTOBOTS’ fallen heroes was OPTIMUS PRIME's best friend—IRONHIDE. Now, with CYBERTRON and IRONHIDE both fallen, their fates become intertwined in unexpected ways. IRONHIDE presents the tale of a hero's return that may bring new hope to their home planet.
TPB • FC • $17.99USD • 104 Pages • ISBN: 978-1-60010-806-8

Transformers: Best of Starscream
Bob Budiansky, Simon Furman (w) • Alex Milne, Don Figueroa, EJ SU, and more (a) • Klaus Scherwinski (c)
He's MEGATRON's second-in-command, but he's number one in his own mind. This is STARSCREAM, fierce DECEPTICON warrior and full-time schemer. When he's not doing the bidding of his leader, STARSCREAM is plotting his ascension to the DECEPTICON throne. These stories collect his darkest and most telling moments.
TPB • FC • $19.99USD • 144 Pages • ISBN: 978-1-60010-805-1

TF3 Detroit: Grand Circus Park, Central Station Pics

Transformers 3 production continues in various locations around the city. A Grand Circus Park building near Washington Street remains a likely location of a four story explosion according to info surge29 received. No details if it means the building will be actually demolished or just rigged to appear to have been. The first set of pics below are from the location along with the various set dressing that seems similar to debris seen in Chicago.

According to The Detroit Times blog filming also occured at the Falwell Building that was in 1915 and abandoned since 1984 but given it a face lift by TF3 production. Of note is the torn green awning matches the one at the Circus Park (6th pic) so either the two spots are related or the parking lot is serving as a convenient storage location for the large props.

It seems the next location on the schedule is a return visit to Michigan Central Station which was last used by Michael Bay for the first Transformers movie. Surge29 visited the site and provided pictures of the crew prepping the location (2nd set below) for filming. He learned the location will be part of a major action sequence were the building is used as shelter by Sam and Rosie with possible assist of Optimus Prime and Lennox. It was thought filming that would begin next week.

However, The Detroit Times reports that filming has wrapped there before moving on to the Lafayette and Howard at 6th Street location that was used for that big gun filming thing from Tuesday. It seems another filming spot is (or was) at Lafayette-Howard Street. Unlike Chicago with filming on busy city streets requiring advance notice, Michael Bay has been sticking to a mostly abandoned portion of Detroit so there isn't any free flow of information to nail down a specific schedule of locations. The blog also said that filming "should be wrapping up in Detroit sometime next week."









Building Go Boom At Grand Circus Park?

Two websites are reporting that Transformers 3 production may be prepping to blow up a local four-story building near Detroit's Grand Circus Park. Local station 104.3 WOMC posted "...rumored, a local four-story building will be blown up near Grand Circus Park." Apparently the TF3 crew has been filming in the park area for the last few days. The Detroit Times blog provides more details by identifying the possibly doomed building as the remaining structure on the Statler Hotel lot. However, they are reporting that "the deal to blow the building up has not been finalized."

However, surge29 who provided the links and pics below points out that production is dressing the area with concrete chunks made of foam and damaged cars along one side of the building indicating that they either have high hopes for approval or plan on filming something there anyway.

Megan Comments, Shia In Detroit

Megan Fox briefly commented about Transformers 3 while promoting "Passion Play" at the Toronto International Film Festival. She apparently harbors no ill feeling about what occurred, calling the adjustment weird.

"I will see it," Fox said while promoting "Passion Play" at the Toronto International Film Festival. "I'm gonna see it."The actress did admit that watching the battle of the 'bots continue on without her will be fairly odd. "I might be a little jealous when I see somebody kissing my Shia [LaBeouf], wearing my jeans that I ... already had been fit for," Fox conceded. "It's kind of weird, actually."

"[Rosie's] 6 feet tall also, so maybe they're not the exact same jeans," Fox quipped about the ad-campaign vet slated to play LaBeouf's love interest Carly. "But it will be strange."

On a somewhat related note, it seems that did return from promoting Wall Street 2 at that same festival in time to do some of his own stunts on that big gun thing on Tuesday. This is based on photos from Pop Sugar and Seibertron.com that clearly show his face. Those same pics make me think that the attractive blond filming with Shia is Rosie's stunt double as the face just doesn't match to me.

Transformers Linkfest

Things seem quiet in Detroit so time for another linkfest. Links include a look at Masterpiece Rodimus, more Hunt for Decepticon toys and give new reviews from Peaugh.

Masterpiece Rodimus Prime Price, Dated
The next actual new Masterpiece Transformer from Takara/Tomy has been given a release month of January 2011 and a bit of a whopper of a price of around $200USD. Official images show a pretty sweet looking toy that kind of the first MP triple-changer as it converts between Hot Rod, Rodimus Prime and their respective alt modes so in a weird way like getting two Transformers toys in one (and apparently priced accordingly). Based on pics, it seems the only difference between the two robot molds is the head. I am guessing it does the head spin like the MP Seekers which had a regular face and smirk expression.

Highbrow, Fallen in Package
Hit the link for pics of the next wave of Voyager toys for the Hunt for the Decepticons line. The Fallen is a repaint but Highbrow is a new mold with an alt mode of the Lockheed p-38 Lightning.

Battle Hooks Prime Gallery
Huge gallery that shows off yet another iteration of Leader class Optimus Prime. It seems that this toy is the same mold as Buster Optimus Prime but switched out the swords and added some battle damage.

Animated Wingblade Optimus Prime Video Review
Peaugh is back with more reviews. This one is for the Japan only release of Voyager class Animated Optimus Prime sporting some wings. Overall a pretty decent looking iteration of the figure that I would consider getting if ever makes it stateside. Basically this is yet another example of why Takara remains the superior to Hasbro in creating Transformers.

FansProject Crossfire Video Reviews - Swindle Blast Off Bruticus
More from Peaugh, this one of the FansProject Crossfire figures that forms a more detailed Bruticus combiner. The packaging is pretty good, designed to saving later rather than the destructive glue and twist tie fest that Hasbro sadly favors. I am not 100% clear but the idea is to take portions of the ROTF Bruticus set and combine it with Swindle and Blast Off to create a better Bruticus. If I remember right, the ROTF toy is actually a repaint of the Energon figure. At retail it was around $30USD but doubt find that cheap now. That combined with the $50USD each for Swindle and Blast Off means you might end up spending around $200USD to try and re-create the Bruticus Peaugh reviews.

G1 Menasor Review
A little walk down memory lane wit this knock-off version of the classic Generation One combiner. Now that the knock-offs are starting to hit a quality of build and replication of the classic toys, just might have to pay more attention to getting them in the figure. It is amusing just how simple the G1 toys are compared to today's toys.

TF3 Detroit: Dylan Is His Name-O

A little over a month ago a source informed me that the name of Patrick Dempsey's character in Transformers 3 was Dylan. Now, a source has provided proof from a call sheet page from Chicago labeled "Dylan's Penthouse" which was part of the reason for the filming that occurred at the Trump Hotel. The sheet showed a schematic of the home which did include a patio.

Photos and video from the Detroit set show "Sam" and "Carly" as they jump to (or from) a patio facade to Transformers-ish object. They also showed "Dylan" hanging around another building facade. Makes you wonder if part of the purpose of the blue screen isn't just for completing the CGI look of the probable Transformer but to also merge scenes filmed at the "penthouse" with the Detroit footage.

Also, below are more images from that day. They show more of the object and building facade filming along with a look at some of the TF vehicles. For the last pic, it is basically a screenshot from my email as for whatever reason the email format was determined to only show the pictures as thumbnails and I couldn't download the full images. Does make you wonder what goodies we have not seen yet.





TF3 Chicago: More Images The Windy City

After spending a few posts in Detroit, here are more pictures from Chicago from around July 23rd when filming was at the Old Post Office Building. Like the previous set, there are images of the building set as the United States Department of Health and Human Services but also some great close-up looks at the new Sideswipe, the Ferrari and Bumblebee.