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Transformers Prime Blu-Ray and DVD Release

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Hasbro fights Transformers corner

Written by Darren 'Starscream' Jamieson on January 6, 2012 | Hasbro |

We are all grateful for Hasbro (even though we sometimes don’t like to admit it). Its toys and films have kept many of us amused for longer than we care to remember. A sizeable proportion of us were around the first Transformers came out, while many of us are ‘Johnny come latelys’ to the toys.

Whether we’re old hats to Transformers or new to the toys, one thing that has always been around is the ‘knock off’. While many knock offs are interesting at best, some forms of knock off are the worst kind – knocks offs of a name or brand. Asus Computer International has elected to use the great name for its tablet. We can understand why Hasbro has resorted to legal action in an effort to keep its trademark special.

Asus Computer International may not be the most creative company the world has ever seen. A tablet could be called by a diversity of names. They seem to feel that there would be no possibility that their tablet could clash with a mere toy. To potentially infringe the trademark of a company is clumsy; to appear contemptuous of the fine product of another company is careless. Regardless of the outcome of the case, Asus Computer International has not been very careful with its reputation management.

Fans of Transformers do not wish Asus Computer International any harm. However, it would be pleasant if they adopted a more conciliatory attitude towards Hasbro. Hasbro has worked hard to create brand recognition and Asus Computer International should appreciate that.

Paramount is a century old and Transformers are ‘afloat’

Written by Darren 'Starscream' Jamieson on January 4, 2012 | Paramount |

Paramount Studios is enjoying its hundredth birthday this year. It has a great history, having kept millions of people entertained throughout the last century. On a day in early January the studio celebrated with a large float in a Pasadena event. While crowds watched, the float took part in the Roses Parade. Transformers were present (of course), along with figures associated with other Paramount movies such as ‘Grease’, ‘Wings’ and ‘Star Trek’.

It was great to hear about the Transformers rubbing shoulders with such good company. However, at least one critic felt that ‘The Godfather’ movies should have got a look in. Most Transformer fans would have had no problem at all with Al Pacino sharing the float (it’s not like he would have taken up much space), but will feel that a case could be made for several other alternatives as well. As long as Transformers were included, we would not feel there was a problem there.

The Transformers movie of 2007 was not simply a box office smash as we all remember. Despite the odd mixed review by a snobbish critic, and the occasional Transformers fan throwing his non Transformers toys out of his pram, many reviews were really positive and the film deserved all the awards and nominations it collected for technical wizardry. It is only right that the Transformers were honoured by Paramount in Pasadena. In addition, the appearance of the Transformers made that float look quite breath-taking.

As for ‘Grease’, it just reminds us that taste is a subjective thing. It may have been a hugely successful film once upon a time. However, it is the case that cheese is a popular product in many countries. Although not everyone can endure the whole film, some of those who have done so assure me that it is a cheesy one and is worth watching.

You need to a flashplayer enabled browser to view this YouTube video

Human Transformer keeping New York City streets safe

Written by Darren 'Starscream' Jamieson on January 3, 2012 | News |

IronhideA man dressed in a self-made Transformers costume has been parading his creation on the streets of New York. Peter Kokis, a 49-year-old former military pilot, made ‘Brooklyn Ironhide’ out of household items.

The idea came to Peter when he received an invitation to a party in 2008 where the theme was sea-based fancy dress. From there he began creating the Transformers costume with a combined look of a squid and Optimus Prime.

After a positive reception for his work, he decided to take it one stage further and create the full-on Optimus Prime replica. The result took 675 hours of creation time and weighs in at 164lbs.

He went on to create four Transformers costumes in total, including the rather fetching ‘Brooklyn Ironhide’.

Peter doesn’t always know exactly what he’s going to do in the planning stages but takes inspiration from objects he sees around him.

“No single part of any of my exoskeletons is particularly expensive, but all those little parts add up, even though many come from cheap discount stores. Sometimes I see something – a paper towel holder, a soap dish, contact lens case, whatever – and I immediately know what I want to do with it. Other times I see something and am struck by its interesting shape, and I buy it for some future use, or the part doesn’t work out so I throw it away”.

It took him 13 months to create ‘Brooklyn Ironhide’ and he still was less than happy with what he had accomplished. So he worked an additional 75 hours on his creation with the positive feedback on the final result, offering some well-deserved validation of his efforts.

Michael Bay loves boom-boom!

Written by Darren 'Starscream' Jamieson on December 30, 2011 | Transformers 4 (2013),Transformers movie (2007),Transformers: Dark of the Moon,Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen |

Some film directors like to tell stories, whilst others are content with how much they can blow up during their career. Transformers director Michael Bay clearly lies in the latter category.

Someone took it upon themselves to count the explosions in Bay’s movies, which probably left them with a week’s long headache (but they evidently had nothing better to do, so tough).

Bay has, for a long time, had a reputation for being completely over the top when it comes to shooting action sequences, certainly when it comes to pyrotechnics and special effects.

transformers_2_explosion

We should also bear in mind that we are talking about how many times things blow up in his movies, and not how many times he personally blows up on set. Counting the Michael Bay explosions would be an even bigger task.

According to FrankenSpace.com, here are the numbers:

Let’s begin with the movie franchise he is most famous for, Transformers. There were 128 explosions in the first movie, 211 in the second, and 283 in the third. I can’t wait to find out how many there will be in the rumoured fourth movie, but it’s a fair bet he’ll increase his explosion count again.

His other movies don’t feature quite so many, but there is still a large amount, with the dire Pearl Harbour leading the way. There were 162 explosions in that movie (yet it was still incredibly dull). Armageddon had 121 and then, much further down the list, there is The Rock with 22 and Bad Boys 1 and 2 with 18 and 31 respectively.

We will unlikely see as many in Bay’s next project, Pain and Gain, a smaller, more serious movie than what we’re used to seeing from him. But I suspect we will see a return to form sooner rather than later.

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RC Optimus Prime from Tamiya

Written by Darren 'Starscream' Jamieson on December 29, 2011 | Toys |

‘lofty401′, a new member on our forum, posted the following video from YouTube showing a custom Optimus Prime made from a Tamiya RC truck. You can’t quite get the sheer scale of the Optimus Prime until the end of the video when they place an original G1 Prime on top of the trailer. Then you can appreciate just how big this bad boy really is.

I want one of these. Now.

You need to a flashplayer enabled browser to view this YouTube video

rc-prime

Digital art challenge for Transformers Dark of the Moon

Written by Darren 'Starscream' Jamieson on December 27, 2011 | Transformers: Dark of the Moon |

Whether you were enthralled by Transformers: Dark of the Moon with its stunning visuals and exciting action sequences, or whether you tutted your way through it at the misuse of Shockwave and the erratic pacing, there was a more interesting element to the movie, at least from a behind-the-scenes perspective.

For example, the work done on the movie by Industrial Light and Magic’s team of 156 digital artists saw close to half of the shots being filmed in Singapore. The special effect’s company’s lone satellite office is located in Singapore, despite the company itself being based in San Francisco.

Visual effects expert Brennan Doyle, who led the team in Sinagpore, says that expectations for visual effects and digital art are increasing all the time.

“Motion picture production is becoming an increasingly complex art and it is valid to say that almost every movie produced these days would have some form of visual effect. Digital artists must deliver increasingly immersive entertainment experiences for moviegoers, and this means creating more sophisticated and realistic visual sequences. For Dark Of The Moon, our artists created 19 out of the 36 sequences, which comes up to 24 minutes screen time”.

Doyle worked with the supervisors at ILM to make sure that the work was in line with the specifications set by megalomaniac Michael Bay. He began by reading the script and then breaking down the required effects.

transformers-dark-of-the-moon-movie-image-shockwave

The digital wizard says that the team had quite an experience working on the movie with the biggest challenge coming from working on stereoscopic 3D. Only 50 percent was shot on film, with the other 50 per cent being shot with digital stereoscopic camera equipment.

Paul Eiding to attend Auto Assembly 2012!

Written by Duh_Prez on December 24, 2011 | News |

To Metal Gear Solid fans, he is Colonel Roy Campbel.

To Ben 10 fans, he is Grandpa Max.

If you play Skyrim, he is an assortment of creepy voices.

… but… to Transformers fans, he is the Generation One voice actor behind the Autobot’s most verbose Scientist, Perceptor.  So cover your receptors convention fans, because in 2012 he’s headlining Auto Assembly, in Birmingham, England!

But don’t take my word for it, listen to the man himself here…

http://youtu.be/lD7dqWcUPxQ

Discuss in our forum here.

Seriously… Paul Eiding… Michael Bell… Townsend Coleman?  If you can only attend one convention in 2012, it needs to be Auto Assembly!  Visit www.autoassembly.org.uk for tickets – book before 2012 for a 20% discount on some ticket options. See site for details.

Optimus Prime is alive well in IDW latest

Written by Darren 'Starscream' Jamieson on | IDW Publishing |

Released recently in the US was the latest Transformers instalment from IDW. We get the wrap up of the events in ‘CHAOS’, as well as the beginning of two new stories in “More than Meets the Eye” and “Robots in Disguise”.

The storyline features no humans and there are no indications that there will be any human involvement in the near future. This is quite a change of pace considering, to many fans, there has been far too much of a human element in Transformers lately.

Even though it is a one-shot story, there is something to be gotten from it whether you are an old or new reader as it incorporates elements from previous stories and segways into the two series to come.

The story leaps forward a few weeks after the events of CHAOS have been wrapped up and shifts its focus on Cybertron. This is after Optimus Prime rushed the matrix in order to stop Dvoid sacking the galaxy, beginning with Cybertron’s dead husk. This worked, and Cyberton was granted a rebirth with no dead husk for Dvoid.

The good news is that Optimus Prime has survived (who’d have guessed that?). We find out more about his history, which is one of the strengths of this story. But it achieves this whilst also progressing towards the new series. The final choice that he makes may be a logical one but certainly not predictable and, although it feels like we have seen it before, there is a different feel associated with it. He somehow manages to appear more like Optimus Prime than we have ever seen him before. And that can only be a good thing for OP fans.

Hasbro workers toil in terrible conditions?

Written by Darren 'Starscream' Jamieson on December 22, 2011 | Hasbro |

When you’re opening and playing with your Transformers on Christmas morning perhaps you should spare a thought for the people who put them together, if a new report on the working conditions in one of Hasbro’s factories in China is anything to go by.

Hasbro-workersAccording to the report, published by GlobalLabourRights.org, the conditions in Hasbro’s factory leave a lot to be desired. The report is entitled ‘Holidays by Hasbro, Transformers from Hell’ and is 40 pages of condemning documentation and photographs about the conditions. The report states that workers are fed on food that is described as ‘pretty much like swine food’, they sleep in rat infested dorms, work 12 hour shifts at peak times and all for the equivalent of 92 Cents per hour.

The report also states that emergency exits are kept locked, and there are no fire drills.

Perhaps the worst of the highlights is that workers need to ask permission to use the bathroom, are not allowed to even look up and are searched three times a day (presumably in case they try to pinch Transformers).

Possibly the most worrying thing to come out of this news is that a lot of Transformers fan sites have refused to publish this story and, according to one source, IDW has refused to allow discussion of the news on its website. It seems that Hasbro has a lot of power, and to many this news is just too disturbing to mention.

The executive summary is below, and you can read the full report here.

Executive Summary

Jet Fair sweatshop in China produces Hasbro’s Transformers

  • Workers housed in filthy, over-crowded dorms, infested with rats and bed bugs. Workers report they cannot sleep at night from the bed bug bites.
  • Workers describe factory food as “Pretty much like swine food.”
  • Workers allowed less than 9 minutes to assemble each Hasbro Transformer, for which they are paid 17 cents.
  • “We are drenched in sweat,” workers say. Factory temperatures soar to 104 degrees F in summer.
  • During peak season, workers toil 12-hour shifts, seven days a week, while earning a take-home wage of just 92 cents an hour.
  • Workers undergo three body-searches each day, are not permitted to talk or lift their heads to look around, and need permission to use the bathroom.
  • Hasbro is open to the hiring of 14 and 15-year-olds on a “case-by-case basis.”
  • Workers in the spray paint department fear they are being exposed to dangerous solvents.
  • There are no fire drills and some emergency exits are locked.
  • During the slow season, hundreds of workers are fired under false charges so management does not have to pay their legal severance.
  • Workers are cheated of paid sick leave and maternity leave.
  • Workers describe their work as mindless, miserable, constantly monotonous, yet furious and exhausting.

Bay in final stages in fourth movie negotiations

Written by Darren 'Starscream' Jamieson on December 21, 2011 | Transformers 4 (2013) |

The rumour mill hasn’t paused for breath but there is more genuine cause for fans of the Transformers movie franchise to get excited. Michael Bay is now believed to be in the final stages of negotiations to direct a fourth Transformers movie.

Michael BayJust a couple of months ago, we knew that Paramount wished to render his services once again for not one, but two new movies. They obviously peaked the interest of the director as it is now close to being confirmed – despite Bay insisting that DOTM was to be his last foray into the Transformers world.

An insider, who has some familiarity with this situation, warned that although there is no closed deal in place between Paramount and Bay, the studio is close to closing one. We could expect an announcement as soon as next week. Details of the next instalment are being kept firmly under lock and key but we have already been told that it is definitely not a prequel. What we can expect is that it will show us some of the older characters and give us a more in-depth look at the history of the Transformers. Although average fans of the franchise may not be too concerned about some of these the characters that never really had a major role, they will offer a sentimental factor to fans of the original series.

Reports still suggest that Bay will be directing Pain & Gain before returning to his cash cow but should a contract be done and dusted, he will likely start working on the fourth movie at the end of 2012.

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