Hot off the press of Michael Bay’s Shoot for the Edit twitter account – the large military styled truck seen on the set of Transformers 4 has been confirmed to be Autobot Hound! Hound has bulked up a bit over his classic depiction as a military jeep, but he remains a suitably military design. Check out the picture tweeted along with this story showcasing the new vehicle mode and see what you think!
evac167
Looks pretty bad ass to me
Red Goblin
I've just came upon this. I'm sure it's fan art but might give as a few ideas about how he'll look like in the movie;
MindChamber
So if I want a real movie, a story with gravitas, Ill stick to indie films where the creators have some investment in their craft. Good suggestion thanks.
the movies are better written and more cohesieve than any of the TF movies combined, I have no problem with reinvention, and I stated that pretty clearly
right, they are basically doing the exact same thing the hero movies are doing, and yet, the hero movies are way more cohesive and interesting.. I wonder why.. Oh right, the writing is terrible and the story telling ability from the director is haphazard at best.
right a one dimensional toy commercial with over 20 years of comics, cartoon and lore… So Ill repeat this again, since it seems to be going over your head. I have zero problem with change, as long as the end result is an entertaining movie with a story that can hold its own. which 3 movies in, cant.
webz
No, money talks, and money says that movie-goers want big explosions, car chases, and robots tearing each other apart.
You want drama, hero's journey, etc, watch independent films. Blockbusters are about action. If there isn't enough action, add it in (aka The Hobbit).
Also, no arbitrary changes were made to the characters. Do not confuse Movie Soundwave with G1 Soundwave, or TF: Prime Soundwave. They are three totally different characters that share superficial similarities and a name. The characters from the movies exist in a totally different continuity, history, existance from anything in the comics of the 80's, cartoons, etc.
webz
A million times… it's a commercial to sell toys. The cartoons and fiction changes to suit the gimmick of the toys. It doesn't bother outsiders (or parents) at all, because to them, they are just chunks of plastic.
"All you can say about Transformers from one era to another is that "something turns into a robot". Almost everything else is apparently disposable." That is the core to the franchise. Nothing else matters to a 5 year old, which is (and SHOULD BE) the target audience.
DC re-invents it's universe repeatedly, and yet Batman and Superman survive and thrive, 70 years later. The movie versions of Marvel's heroes are quite different from the comic versions, yet fans love Ironman, and giggled like toddlers at The Avengers. The Transformers movies take the basic premise, "something ordinary turns into a robot," strips away most of the convoluted past, and rebuilds it as the writers and director sees will work best for a 2 hour movie, or part of a 6 hour saga. They put in a wink here, or a nod there, as a favor to the fans, but it's ultimately trying to bring a one dimensional toy commercial into a viable piece of entertainment for a worldwide audience.
More than likely, "Hound" is a placeholder name, and may or may not be finalized. Even if it's finalized, it's up to Hasbro and Bay to finalize names. Don't confuse the videogames with the actual movies. Just because Hound appears in a gameboy game doesn't mean that has any weight with what Paramount is doing.
Not really… There are TONS of villainous cons that could be villains. Megatron only becomes Galvatron in the cartoons. In the comics, they are seperate villains. We don't need Zombie-cons reanimated. Galvatron, Cyclonus, Scourge, Bludgeon, Ratbat, Bruticus, the Combaticons, etc are all possible badguys without re-using existing characters.
99.99999% of general audience members honestly CARED if it was Blackout or Grindor, or Vortex, or any other Copter con… They only giggled when Prime tore his head apart. THAT'S all that mattered. You are WAY overthinking a simple piece of summer entertainment. No one went over The Mummy with a fine-tooth comb, and this is no difference.
Bumblethumper
Oh yeah, completely forgot about the Superfund truck. It's neither here nor there, and completely off-topic, but I'd love to know what the story was there.
Maybe Driller just ate too much of the budget and they had to cut a few things out. I wonder if there's concept art for it somewhere.
Maybe it was just there to show that decepticons are everywhere. There was also speculation that perhaps it was intended to show humans allied with Decepticons rather than an actual decepticon.
It's the sort of thing they could've expanded on in the comics, but I don't think they ever did.
Did a google search, and apparently it was sold after the film, so they didn't use it and they're not going to. Would've been an interesting loose thread for them to pick up on for TF4, but they've probably long forgotten it by now.
RedAlert Rescue
OK Michael I'd love to know why you have an alt mode that is more like Animated Bulkhead and yet it's not Bulkhead it's Hound ( a quite scoutish name) and the vehicle in question is a Missile truck not something especially suited to scouting.
And yet in the same Movie Universe we have Sector 7/NEST Buggies and Hummer offshoots and modified pick-up trucks any of which are way more suited to being a scout like Character like Hound. and the Hummer derivative was even used as such in some Videogames already.
Perhaps it would have simply been easier to use the ideas they already abandoned and use the vehicles they have already shown *or mentioned by name* in the franchise but with Robot modes.
That Missile truck might work as a Triplechanger/Robot/Robot Dinosaur better even than it would as Hound. oh and another mode that might have worked (even for Megatron) is one of those semi-automatic self loading auto-cannon trucks or a one of those flashy semi-transforming Marine corp assault vehicles that turn into a boat. I'm surprised that they have not gone back and used Springer or Incinerator's design yet either.
They have really painted themselves into a corner perhaps they can be crafty and bring back the dead as their alternative version so Soundwave becomes Soundblaster, Megatron becomes Galvatron, Shockwave becomes Shockblast (or Laserwave or Shockfleet or Sixshot), Laserbeak becomes (or is replaced by) Buzzsaw and then you can have Recon Barricade and Rumble and Thundercracker.
Barricade still might not be dead mind as he was only injured and not actually killed on screen Some characters already have a pretty obvious upgrade ready and waiting Shockwave's Legion toy's trailer shows how he can be made even more intimidating as a vehicle – and perhaps wear his trailer like an eva pack to fly ?
There's still plenty of potential car and Construction vehicle Decepticons just hanging around too that simply might not have been found so you can simply throw in someone like Lockdown or or even Lugnut as needed.
I suspect that it might be hoping to much to see mass resurrections though. and it's not like they give any real merit to the way they treat characters such as how the Construction Decepticons (and Brawl Clones) are just thrown in as background cannon fodder. They never even explained the Garbage truck or the bank van they just disappeared (unless someone spotted them getting killed in the deep background in the BlueRay version ?).
I don't think I've even seen the robot mode design for the bank truck or know his name.
I pretty much expect the Michael Bay era to end with a list of unanswered Questions as long as Route 66.
Like is all 3 of the Arcee Sisters dead or just 1 or 2 – or were the ones we see shot even actually killed outright ?
If it was me I'd show a small cameo of 3 of them working with the "Wreckers" outside the normal plot and show them/her combined into a robot bigger than one of the Wreckers so they can't be pushed around or leched over by them but can slap them down into the gutter for not showing proper respect (i.e. like Prime Arcee would do).
However I actually expect that the movie will be full of inconsistencies as all the others were too. I have to wonder how many general audience members thought Blackout just was repaired himself and was also in Revenge of the Fallen. and not that it's another separate character even if he had been dumped in the Ocean in bits. The odd thing is that Brawl if anyone would have made sense to randomly not be dead as his body is not shown being dumped in the 1st Movie.
evac167
After further study Megatron is actually a Mack Granite Cv713. Not a Titan
evac167
Can a civilian actually purchase an Oshkosh defense FMTV? I do know Megatron was a Mack Titan. I work for a Mack dealership and we have a few on the lot. Gorgeous trucks
PlanckEpoch
When people use that term "military vehicle" the context is that they're talking about vehicles built for the purpose of the military in mind. Your father was driving F150s, but those aren't purpose built military vehicles. They're civilian vehicles pressed into service for the military….but they are still civilian trucks aimed at the civilian market.
People think stuff like Humvees, the Mack M915 LHRT(the truck Megatron was in DOTM), MRAPs and the Oshkosh FMTV that Hound is, just to name a few.
On the main discussion at hand, someone mentioned about how the movies do not respect the source material…and I couldn't agree wholeheartedly. I don't care about the designs, or anything. I mean, I don't like the skeletal alien designs much anymore, but that's secondary. The primary thing is that the characters, the story, the mythos is handled with so little respect that it's hard to like. Characters like Optimus being a psychotic killer rather than the noble leader, the robots almost relegated to a secondary role as humans save the day, among other things. There is a richness in the mythos that we as fans of ALL iterations of Transformers likes, and I just don't think Bay taps into that mythos well.
All he does… **ALL** he does is name drop. He says characters are "Optimus Prime" or "Megatron" or "Devastator" or "Shockwave," but they are hardly like any of the characters we know and love. He wants to try to win over fans, and if I may, it works for people who are new to the transformers fandom or never heard of it before, but it only serves to alienate fans like me, who have been in from the beginning. There is an acceptable level of change, but when you fundamentally rework the character into something unrecognizable as Bay has done, then it cannot be helped that Bay gets a lot of flak from fans about it.
I said it before…I don't think I'll watch TF4, at least not in the theaters. DOTM was pretty good in comparison, but the trilogy as a whole left a bad taste in my mouth, and I'm not sure if I'm willing to subject myself to that again. If someone pays for my ticket I'll go…I won't argue with a free movie but I'm not spending any money on it myself.
Ace Convoy
What Makes a Military vehicle…
When my dad was Deployed in Iraq he said his unit was driving generic Ford F150 pick up trucks…
Ironhide was more than enough truck for Military purpose.
goodness….
MindChamber
A million times this.
I just want a consistent story, that shows just a small iota of respect for not the franchise, but the story telling medium as a whole.
I have no problems with respecting and enjoying a different take on Transformers, if its handled properly.
I wasnt fond of beastwars, but the storytelling and the humor won me over, I thought robots in disguise was complete garbage, but I respected the show for trying to tell decent stories,. same with armada, and energon. Tranformers animated won me over with its humor and style, and I actually Prefer TF PRime over the orginal G1..
I think the movie universe warrants little to no respect due to the fact that the stories, and characters were handled so haphazardly. Theres zero respect for the franchise. and just story telling as a whole. So I can see how the annoyances of characters being changed for no other reason that to do it, can be a bit hard to overcome because there is no story, nor do the movies allow us to emphasize with the characters in anyway.
Also these are the movies. not a series, that takes the time build their characters and personalities. So the movies HAVE no choice but to lean heavily on a previous franchise for its character building, which is why changing them from what they were remembered as makes even less sense.
closetrat
"An eye-for-an-eye and tooth-for-a-tooth would lead to a world of the blind and toothless."
Totally agree.
Bumblethumper
I only have a very superficial knowledge of Star Trek, but isn't that all basically the one universe. There's a tone shift from the campy original to the blandness of TNG. It's still about space exploration, trekking across the stars in the starship Enterprise. They don't go around changing one character into a completely different character for no good reason with no explanation.
I can't see anything as dramatic and destructive there as some of the shifts in the Transformers brand. It's not like going from the original series to something like Beast Wars. There's nothing like the multiple conflicting origin stories.
All you can say about Transformers from one era to another is that "something turns into a robot". Almost everything else is apparently disposable.
My complaint about this isn't as a closeted G-wunner. I think it'd be a stronger franchise if it wasn't such a convoluted, contradictory mess. There can be a richness there when you get into it, but there's so much inconsistency and confusion involved that I think it can be off-putting to the outsider or casual fan.
LegendAntihero
I was hoping it was Bulkhead. If they were going to use Hound he should've been an RV but I do realize this is Michael Bay. He's willing to make Transformers who are based very loosely on any of their previous forms in the tv shows.
MindChamber
This generalizing, gives me a migraine. Maybe there are G1ners out there that are that specific,but I have yet to find them. At the end of the day, people simply want a good story with any kind of relevance to drama, impact, heroes' journey etc.
We get none of that in any of these movies. So when changes are made to characters that just seem arbitrary, its just a bit of salt to the wound.
Im a movie goer first and foremost, I want a good movie. everything else is secondary.
webz
The fandom really isn't all that fractured. The transformers concept is the same thru all the generations: something "normal" turns into big robot. It's the same no matter what generation.
It's not a fundamental shift such as what happened with Star Trek. TOS was VERY focused on the Captain, Spock, and McCoy, with Kirk being the main lead. TNG changed all that by making ALL the senior bridge crew important characters. There is a definite gap with Trekkies.
Any issues I see with TF fans is generally Gwhiners complaining about ANYTHING that came after season 1 of G1, or the Beast Wars purists who think the vehicle transformers are lame. That has nothing to do with the brand, just the fans dividing themselves over non-issues. The brand itself remains the same.
webz
Dino was Mirage and Que was Wheeljack up until a month or so before the film was released in theaters and they did some last minute audio changes.
So while he MAY be Hound now, by the time the film is released, don't be surprised if his name changes to Poopdeck or Sniffer, or something else totally lame.
Bumblethumper
He's probably too young now, but of course he'll be interested in classics. They're cool.
When I was a kid I was still interested in toys from decades earlier, like the Corgi 007 Aston Martin and 60s Batmobile. It didn't matter that there was a new Batman and a new James Bond. Kids had stuff like that that just got passed down, and cool is cool.
Of course there will be new shows for the kids, with new settings and characters, new looks and different approaches to animation. I don't begrudge them that. One test is whether it appeals to young as well as old. If there's enough of a connection there, you retain a portion of the older audience, and kids can still connect with the past and appreciate the history of the franchise.
If you take the etch-a-sketch approach, you create antipathy between generations. You create the fractured fandom we see today. It's not good business to alienate one generation after another.
that was never the point I was making. Changing altmodes can be perfectly reasonable, but that doesn't mean that any altmode is appropriate for any character.
In the case of Hound, the main objection I had is that if you turn him into a hulking bruiser it ceases to be the same character. It also muddies the waters, making the character of Bulkhead less unique. It isn't the most heinous example of change being foisted upon us, but that doesn't mean I have to think it's a good idea.