Editing Transformers ROTF

MichaelBay.com has posted a new behind the scenes video that shows some of the editing process for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. I am not sure if this is related to the DVD/Blu-ray special features or separate from it. It shows how complicated it is to put together the film for editors (about nine of them)without the benefit of the CGI robots, reams of footage and a tight deadlines because ILM needs as much time as they can get to do their magic.

Transformers Gift Set Cover Art

For those that don't have the first Transformers movie or know someone that doesn't, you might be interested in getting the Transformers Gift set. The cover art is to the left (via TFormers). The set will include both Transformers and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. The DVD set will be the regular edition with one disc for each movie while the Blu-ray edition will have four discs total (two for each movie).

I am assuming that the extras are the same as if you bought the movies separately (1-disc DVD or 2-disc Blu-ray), this is just packaged together to make a convenient gift to yourself or others. Going by Amazon's listing, the DVD and Blu-ray sets are expected to be released on October 20th along with Revenge of the Fallen’s release. If ordering from Amazon feel free to use the links above for a little credit to the site.

Custom ROTF Galvatron

For your enjoyment, here is a video of a custom paintjob of Leader class Megatron into ROTF Galvatron as part of an eBay auction (click the link for the full gallery). The paint job is pretty slick and since Hasbro is big on the repaints something they might want to consider.

Paramount Nearly Tops Summer Box Office

Paramount pictures nearly took the domestic box office top spot from Warner Brothers this summer thanks to the strength of its tent pole movies of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and Star Trek according to Variety. Paramount earned $884 million in the US, much of that from Transformers 2 $400 million and Star Trek's $257.2 million domestic take. Warner Bros took the top spot with $1 billion due to Harry Potter 6 ($297.6M) and The Hangover ($272.2). 20th Century Fox is third ($610M), Disney ($620M) was fourth and Sony ($550M) was fifth.

Revenge Of The Repaints Continue

It seems that Hasbro's love of repaints will continue with the Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen toy line, at least based on possible toy leaks to various websites. Click the links below to view the galleries for each.

Voyager Optimus Prime
A possible repaint for Voyager class Optimus Prime with metallic blue paint, longer flames and gray front cab. Personally I don't see how it’s much of an improvement and worth a release of any kind.

Voyager Megatron
From an EBay auction it appears that Voyager Megatron got repainted in his Generation Two colors. This one strikes me as a likely custom job and not a potential Hasbro release but just in case posting about it.

NEST Deluxe Bumblebee
From TF08.net, below is a single image of Deluxe Bumblebee with NEST logo on the side door.

Robot Chicken - Wizard Of OZ With Prime

A new episode of Robot Chicken once again brings another Transformers reference, this time with Optimus Prime as the Tin Man from the Wizard of Oz. The basic story is a nerd adds his version of "cool" to the characters and goes to kick some Wicked Witch butt. (via Tformers)


Optimus Prime as the Tin Man in the Wizard of Oz @ Yahoo! Video

Tales Of The Fallen Covers, #2 Preview

IDW Editor-in-Chief Chris Ryall has released the various covers (minus usual cover tags) by Alex Milne for the Tales of the Fallen mini-series via his blog Ryall Time.

Each cover and issue focuses on a character from Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. The first issue was Bumblebee, second is Sideswipe, the third is Jetfire, four is The Fallen and I am guessing the last issue is Ravage and Arcee (that cover not posted).

In addition, click here for a five page preview of the second issue that will be released to comic stores this Thursday.

Transformers 2 Crosses $400 Million In US

It has been awhile since reported the box office results in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen but with Labor Day in the United States marking unofficial end of the Summer movie season it seemed like a good time to revisit the topic.

At this point the movie has left most theatres worldwide, moving to the discount theatres before the movie is released on DVD and Blu-ray in October but that didn't stop it from crossing a new threshold after this weekend. In its 75th day of release, the movie is now only the 9th movie to pass the $400 movie mark in the United States with a $400.4 million total. With an international total of $428.6M this brings the movies worldwide take to $829.0 million, an impressive amount for any movie but exceptional for the first sequel of a franchise.

With these totals, the movie is officially a lock as the top movie of the year in the United States followed by Harry Potter 6 ($294.3M), Up ($289.6M), The Hangover ($270.2M), and Star Trek ($256.7M) to round out the top five. The order shuffles a bit once you include worldwide totals with Harry Potter 6 ($898.6M) taking the top spot followed by Transformers 2 ($829.0M), Ice Age 3 ($807.8M), Angels and Demons ($484.4M) and The Hangover ($421.1M). What this proves to me is that how a movie is received by international audiences is key to a movie's financial success, something that wasn't the case even a few years ago.

Box Office Totals (in millions)

Date US Intl Worldwide

6/19-6/23 $0.0 $24.1 $24.1
6/24-6/28 $200.2 $166.2 $366.4
6/29-7/02 $50.9 $52.7 $103.6
7/03-7/05 $42.3 $55.0 $97.3
7/06-7/09 $21.6 $35.1 $56.7
7/10-7/12 $24.2 $31.4 $55.6
7/13-7/16 $10.9 $18.6 $29.5
7/17-7/19 $13.7 $13.5 $27.2
7/20-7/23 $7.3 $7.7 $15.0
7/24-7/26 $8.1 $6.3 $14.4
7/27-7/30 $4.3 $5.6 $9.9
7/31-8/02 $4.7 $3.8 $8.5
8/03-8/06 $2.5 $1.5 $4.0
8/07-8/09 $3.0 $1.9 $4.9
8/10-8/13 $1.5 $1.3 $2.8
8/14-8/16 $1.5 $0.8 $2.3
8/17-8/20 $0.8 $0.5 $1.3
8/21-8/23 $0.9 $0.3 $1.2
8/24-8/27 $0.4 $0.3 $0.7
8/28-8/30 $0.6 $0.0 $0.6
8/31-9/03 $0.2 $0.2 $0.4
9/04-9/07 $0.8* $0.8
Totals $400.4 $428.6 $829.0
*estimate of sales

Fox: Bay "...Like Hitler"

When Megan Fox opens her mouth, often interesting things come pouring out. The latest is her talking about Transformers director Michael Bay's personality when he is working on a movie and comparing it how he is off the set in an interview with Wonderland Magazine. The interview, part of Fox's promotion of Jennifer's Body, is available in print but the Big Picture has Bay specific part.

...as Fox puts it: "[Michael] wants to create this insane, infamous mad-man reputation. He wants to be like Hitler on his sets, and he is. So he's a nightmare to work for but when you get him away from set, and he's not in director mode, I kind of really enjoy his personality because he's so awkward, so hopelessly awkward. He has no social skills at all. It's endearing to watch him. He's so vulnerable and fragile in real life and then on set, he's a tyrant."

Feeling the love here.

Transformers #2 Covers

IDW Editor in Chief Chris Ryall has revealed the covers for the second issue of Transformers via his blog Ryall Time. Issue #1 is coming out in November. The write is Mike Costa, art provided by Don Figueroa. The Bumblebee variant cover is by Andrew Wildman. (via TFormers)

ROTF The Game Concept Designs

Head over to The Bad Flip blog for a huge volume of concept artwork for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen The Game. The blog is from Luxoflux's Ken Christiansen who was the character design artist on the game. He writes and posts images about the design work of many of the characters in the game including the Map & Character DLC pack that just came out. Posts cover design for G1 Starscream, movie Soundwave, the OmniBots, Stunicons, Aerialbots, and much more. It is interesting to read just how much thought that goes into many of these designs. From what I can tell the Transformers related posts go all the way back to January 2009 so there is a lot of material to look at so click here to get started.

Masterpiece Grimlock, Prime In Packaging

Two new Masterpiece line Transformers (well repaints anyway) are coming soon and now the packaging for them has been released. One is for Masterpiece MP-8x King Grimlock that has a crown and color scheme based upon his appearance in the Marvel comic book back in the 80s. The Japan exclusive toy is estimated to be released in December and will cost around $150. The other figure is Masterpiece MP-01B Black Convoy that is basically a black version of Prime (hence the all black look). That figure is also Japan only and will be out in January at a cost of around $110USD.

Transformers ROTF Nominated For Scream Awards

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen recieved six nominations for Spike TV's 2009 Scream Awards. The award ceremony will take place on Saturday, October 17th at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles. I guess the Transformers crew should feel honored but realistically the Spike Awards have no credibility to speak of as it is a popularity contest that attempts to mimic (poorly) the MTV Movie Awards.

The movie was nominated for "Ultimate Scream", "Best Science Fiction Movie, "Best Sequel", "Best Director", "Best Actor in a Science Fiction Movie or TV Show" (for Shia LaBeouf) and "Best Actress in a Science Fiction Movie or TV Show" (for Megan Fox). I am a bit suprised that the movie didn't get a nomination for "The Holy Sh#@ Scene of the Year" category for the forest battle or Devastator merge especially considering what was nominated (see below).

The nominations were decided by the awards "Advisory Board" that includes Tim Burton, Wes Craven, Roland Emmerich, Neil Gaiman, Frank Miller and Eli Rith. If you want to vote for your favorite movie, head to the Scream Award website.

The six categories to see the competition:

THE ULTIMATE SCREAM
-"Drag Me to Hell"
-"Let the Right One In"
-"Star Trek"
-"Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen"
-"Twilight"
-"Up"

BEST SCIENCE FICTION MOVIE
-"Knowing"
-"Moon"
-"Outlander"
-"Star Trek"
-"Terminator Salvation"
-"Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen"

BEST DIRECTOR
-J.J. Abrams; "Star Trek"
-Tomas Alfredson; "Let the Right One In"
-Michael Bay; "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen"
-Pete Doctor & Bob Peterson; "Up"
-Duncan Jones; "Moon"
-Sam Raimi; "Drag Me to Hell"

BEST ACTOR IN A SCIENCE FICTION MOVIE OR TV SHOW
-Nicolas Cage; "Knowing"
-Josh Holloway; "Lost"
-Shia LaBeouf; "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen"
-Chris Pine; "Star Trek"
-Zachary Quinto; "Star Trek"
-Sam Rockwell; "Moon"

BEST ACTRESS IN A SCIENCE FICTION MOVIE OR TV SHOW
-Moon Bloodgood; "Terminator Salvation"
-Eliza Dushku; "dollhouse"
-Megan Fox; "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen"
-Lena Headey; "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles"
-Katee Sackhoff; "Battlestar Galactica"
-Zoe Saldana; "Star Trek"

THE HOLY SHIT! SCENE OF THE YEAR
-The Death Eaters Attack London; "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince"
-The Destruction of Manhattan; "Watchmen"
-Space Dive onto Orbital Drill; "Star Trek"
-The Sance; "Drag Me to Hell"
-The Subway Crash; "Knowing"
-The Swimming Pool Scene; "Let the Right One In"

Play Luxoflux Developers In ROTF Game

Considering the lack of any real information, it seems the chance to play Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen The Game with Megan Fox fell flat. However, that hasn't stopped XBox Live from continuing this time for their "Game with Developers" program which will include more people and longer play time compared.

Ten Luxoflux developers who helped create the ROTF Game will be on XBox Live this Friday, September 4th from 5PM EST to 9PM EST for your buttkicking enjoyment. To participate you will need an XBox Live Gold account and the Map and Character Pack DLC that was released last week. The gamer tags to send invite to are LuxoDev01, LuxoDev02, etc all the way up to LuxoDev10. Good luck. (via TFormers)

Disney Label Donald Duck Images

New images of Disney Label Donald Duck have popped up online thanks to Hobby Search. The images show off the Japan only figure in his yellow painted glory. His alt mode a Bumblebee-like Voltswagon Beetle. The tentative release date is December for around $45.00USD. (via Tformers)

MP Skywarp And Fiery Fallen

Two more toy galleries of exclusive toys. One is for Masterpiece Skywarp, a Wal-Mart exclusive and the other is Fiery Fallen, a repaint for Target. About the only difference I can see between the Japan MP Skywarp and the US version's shade of purple is closer to the Generation One color for the character. Below are a few images or click the links above to see the full galleries. (via TFW2005)

Interview With ROTF Designer Hisashi Yuki

Takara-Tomy recently interviewed Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen product designer Hisashi Yuki about his work for the toy line and some of his past work on other Transformers. From the ROTF toy line he designed Sideways, Scapel, and The Fallen toys. Below are excerpts, but click here to read the entire interview that was translated by SydneyY.

What was your first impressions on "the Fallen", who is the key character in the story?
Yuki: When we first heard that the Fallen would appear in the movie, we thought of the American comic character with the same name right away and wondered if he would be in the story, but the robot design we were given was different from what we imagined. His design looked like something from an ancient civilization. I understand while he is a homage only hardcore fans would appreciate, his design is completely original for the movie.

With the Fallen design, which part did you have trouble with, or put the most thoughts into?
Yuki: For the most of the TFs who appeared first in the second movie, we were only given the images of the front and the back views of robot and vehicle modes. We had to develop (the toys) without any knowledge of what roles those characters would play.

As for his robot mode, I tried to re-create the images as closely as possible. When we started (with ROTF toy development), the rise of the crude oil price was at its worst. Also to make the re-creation of the robot mode easier, I was not able to allocate many parts to the vehicle mode. Those were the difficulties I had.

As for the characterization ideas, we hardly had any information as to how he would be featured in the story, which made it very difficult for me to come up with a character-based gimmicks. Among the small amount of information we had was a tidbit that there would be a scene in which the Fallen crushed a primitive man under his foot. That's how I came up with his toe gimmick, and it made me grin when I actually saw the scene in the movie.When developing his "Mech Alive" mechanism, I thought his could be different from other characters' since his body is made with more exoskeleton. We reached an agreement among the members of the staff, and I designed the protruding clear red parts, which is a homage to the flames the Fallen wears in American comics.

Tell us about Sideways.
Yuki: He was the first I designed from this line. He does resemble Barricade (from the first movie), but in the earlier stage his character sketch had a completely different look from Barricade. I was going along with it and had no regards (to Barricade design), and a prototype had already been built. Then we received a new robot design with some major changes. He had tires on his arms where he had none in the earlier design. I had to rush to alter the design to hide the arms inside the body while in vehicle mode.

Tell us about Scalpel.
Yuki: Perhaps the most intelligent of all (ROTF Transformers). (*laughs) Most of the scout class characters do not appear in the movie, but he has a role as "Doctor". I wasn't informed how his microscope mode looked like at all, so the toy's microscope mode is quite different from the one in the movie.... Well, he has a little hidden fun feature. His face looks as if he is wearing the glasses to begin with, and I made the glasses part detachable.

So he can do "Where are my glasses" gag?
Yuki: I had a little fun as a designer without an extra cost with this typical Japanese joke, "The glasses are meant to be dropped and desperately looked for". (*laughs)

Tell us about the development of Mixmaster.
Yuki: It took me a while to come up with the best way to store the arms inside the mixer drum. You can see it once you have the toy in hand that his level of complicity is rather high. In the movie robot mode design, the caterpillars separate, but unfortunately that couldn't be done with the toy because of the cost, the probability of even more intricate transformation and such. I could include the "Artillery" mode we were given the design sketch of, and I was glad to see it in the movie. It does make me happy to see the same features as the toys' gimmicks in the movie.

Which do you think is more difficult to develop, a Transformer with a futuristic car mode or one with a licensed actual car mode?
Yuki: There isn't much difference in futuristic and realistic designs when I think up the transformation. It is easy if I am just given a robot mode image to come up with a cool looking vehicle mode for it. As for the movie toys such as Sideways, both of their robot and vehicle modes had already been decided, and to make the figures true to both modes was a big struggle. I can see the movie designs do have some regards as to which part of the vehicle goes to which part of the robot, and I try to re-create them as closely as possible. Also, we always have to keep the product cost in mind. If it is a 1000 yen figure, it must have the 1000 yen class measurements and parts number. It is very difficult. Especially a car TF requires at least 4 parts just for the tires, and the challenge is to think of the best way to allocate other parts.

ROTF Wave Delayed, Another Cancelled In UK?

If you’re in the United Kingdom, some potential bad news for Transformer collectors regarding the Revenge of the Fallen toy line. According to Kapow Toys, via TFW2005, wave 4 Deluxe toys (Ice Cream Truck Twins, Dead End, Jolt, and Blaze Master) may be delayed and Wave 5 Voyagers (Long Haul and Grindor) maybe cancelled. The reason for the delay is meet increased demand in the United States for toys and no reason given for the cancellation. There are reports that wave 4 has shown up at some UK retail stores so likely it just means finding a toy you are after will be a little harder and possibly the entire wave 5 Voyagers are going to be allocated to the US.

Custom Chrome ROTF Megatron

The Toys R Evil blog has posted images of a custom chrome-finish leader class Megatron that looks pretty sweet. Below are sample images, click here for the full gallery. Over at the link is also a repaint of Iron Man Mark 3 toy in Iron Patriot colors who is Norman Osborn aka Green Goblin, part of Marvel's Dark Reign storyline.

Fast Action Battler Arcee Gallery

From HK-TF, click here for a gallery of Fast Action Battler Arcee images that isn't nearly as ugly as has been the norm for the motorcycle gang. The little pink cycle is Launchin' Arcee from Burger King Kid's Meal.