Yea I know theres a paper thin plot about robots from space. I've seen the movies and I had the toys when i was little. But really its about the cars.

Also is it concidence that the star of the movie is like a teenager who is just the right age to get his first car. Hmmm.

It's also a toy advertisement.

The star of the movie is 23.

Nope, but your the first to start another TF2 thread. Maybe now we can reach TDK numbers

Not the only one but maybe the last one to realize it ...

The original cartoon was made to sell toys, and toys it sold. The movies are a logical extension of that.

Your right that changes everything.

I suppose it's always been a glorified car/toy commercial.

I guess now it's just cars you could actually buy. Or at least, want to buy.

Yeah not really.

It changes half of your initial statement.

Yes, you're the only one.

Really? I don't think so...I mean...they've got to use cars..so it's only understandable that they'd use real cars to play Car Robots. It's mostly a toy phenomenon, which also goes to Video Games, shirts, more toys, hats, etc..oh wait. IT'S A TOY FRANCHISE. It's influence on car sells are probably not as high as the games and toys that it will sell like crazy

Considering that the original car modes were changed to get all of them under the same brand, I thought it was obvious that it was nothing but a car commercial.

Welcome to summer 2007.

No... your not. And it's a commercial for many things -- not just cars. But yes, it is a Car commercial. I have a friend that really likes watching these movies because he had the opportunity to see the new Camaro's in them.

It depends on what company you are. Hasbro wants to sell toys, GM wants to sell cars, Paramount wants to sell tickets & dvds.

The original cartoon was a giant promotion for a toy line that originated in Japan, so...

All us folks who grew up watching the original toon care about is that nostalgia factor we get from seeing our giant alien robot hero Optimus Prime beating the shit out of other giant alien robots on the big screen ...well, I do.

Didn't they originally approach Volkswagen for Bumblebee and were refused the rights?

That was the story that was told, but I think it has more to do with VW not wanting to pay for the "advertisement"

I think you're right.

Of course it's a car commerical.

What's dissapointing to me is the exclusive deal the filmmakers made with GM. It's really limiting to have the Autobots only transform into GM products. This leads the filmmakers to have the robots turn into things other than cars (construction equipment, tanks, etc) and makes something that might be fun like Autobot Ferrari's or BMW's impossible.

Then again, since we all own GM now, maybe supporting this film is our patriotic duty.

Why, pray tell, did the toys suck?

If they really wanted it to be an effective car commercial, they would have released the new Camaro to coincide with the first one.

Depends on who tells the story. Supposedly Volkswagen refused because they do not want to be associated with war. Michael Bay, on the other hand, said they were never approached because he'd never use a car like a VW Beetle as a Transformer as long as he's directing.

Yeah, GM was pretty stupid for not having that out with the movie.

I had a movie buff co-worker tell me the same "its like a big car commercial" and I told him the original cartoon was nothing more than a commercial for toys.

It seems the commercial aspect remains, but the "toys" got bigger and more expensive.

Note that Hasbro had a line (called Alternators) where they licensed real cars, and they couldn't get a VW for Bumblebee for that either, presumably due to the anti-war thing (they also had a tough time with some car manufacturers, who didn't want ugly seams along the hoods of their cars on the toy).

So how many people, after the first movie, bought an Optimus Prime cab truck? As people have stated, the concept camaro wasn't even out long after the movie came out. And the bad guys were a tank, a helicopter, a jet, a police cruiser, some weird construction vehicle, etc. It's a toy commercial.