Wasn't he attached to the US Military satellite through the entire movie? And I didn't mean his Alt mode, he has these Cassette things that pop in and out of his chest and they transform and it's AWESOME.

Yes, he was. However, we have evidence that he will indeed finally come down to Earth in the new movie. And I actually didn't know that about his alt mode... I thought his alt mode was a cassette player, but I don't know too much about the G1 stuff. We don't know what his alt mode will look like, so we can't say if they have cassette things that pop in and out of his chest or not.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon Super Bowl ad will supposedly air in the second quarter of the game tonight, so be on the lookout for that!

EDIT: HOLY SMOKES THAT WAS AWESOME! Watch it here: http://www.michaelbay.com/. I'll analyze it and post all the details later tonight.

My analysis of the Super Bowl TV Spot:
0:06 - We see the city in ruins, and Decepticon ships are attacking.
0:08 - Sam is in the passenger seat of a car driving in the ruins of the city, looking at the devastation.
0:10 - A helicopter going down and some military soldiers jumping out of another.
0:13 - Ironhide slams into two of the Decepticon Dreads (Chevy Suburban SUV's), and they transform in mid-air.
0:17 - Bumblebee clutches his head and looks sad, and we see a Decepticon ship up above in the sky.
0:19 - Decepticon ships shooting missiles at buildings.
0:21 - Tentacles of some Transformer destroying the city. One possible guess is that those tentacles could belong to Soundwave, but we can't say for sure.
0:23 - A dragon/bird looking Transformer flies down onto a car. Recent toy leaks suggest a Transformer named Laserbeak (or is it Lazerbeak?) or Buzzsaw will be getting a toy, so it's possible that is this Transformer.
0:24 - Sam and Master Sergeant Epps on the ground looking forward, and we see Optimus Prime's legs behind them.
0:26 - Carly looks scared and we see a truck get destroyed behind her.
0:27 - Optimus Prime with tons of armor and jets on his back flies in to a battle scene. We see Bumblebee, Ratchet, Sideswipe, and possibly another Autobot on the left, and some Decepticons (clone of Brawl, some Decepticon protoforms, and the new big villain Shockwave in the back) on the right and in the back. When Optimus is on the ground, he blasts a clone of Long Haul, and then sticks his sword into the clone of Sideways and flips him over and onto the ground. Lots of explosions. While he does this, his armor/jets fall off.
0:31 - Optimus Prime uses his sword to cut a Decepticon in half. More explosions.

I'll update this with any more things I notice, but that's pretty much what I and others have been able to gather.

UPDATE: Yea, the bot in the background of that big battle scene is definitely Shockwave...

We have images and details on the Dark of the Moon Optimus Prime toy...







I like the look of the vehicle mode... but the combined robot mode looks terrible IMO. It looks nothing like in the Super Bowl TV Spot that we saw, and that looked awesome.

We have new information! First up... Sentinel Prime has been CONFIRMED!

Michael Bay confirmed he is in the movie saying, "Sentinel Prime is great. He's great. I can't tell you anything else, other than he's great." And so Sentinel Prime is in the movie as the Transformer on the moon from the teaser trailer and the fire truck seen in filming at Chicago. How do we know that? Well, there was a leaked list of toys that said there would be a Leader-class toy of Sentinel Prime... and there are leaked pictures of a Leader-class toy of the fire truck, so it's only logical to put two and two together and figure that out. As for the bot on the moon, he had a Prime symbol on him. One of the security guards during filming was the first to leak out the "Sentinel Prime" name and mentioned he is Optimus Prime's father. While that may not necessarily be true (he could be more of a father figure or something of the sort)... the bot on the moon does have similarities to Optimus Prime. So again... Sentinel Prime is seen on the moon in the teaser trailer, and will have an alt-mode of a fire truck. There's a chance I could be wrong... but there's so much evidence that I really don't think I am.

Next bit of news is from Peter Cullen, the voice of Optimus Prime. He says, "In the feature film coming out this Summer, they have Neil Armstrong, a former astronaut, and Buzz Aldrin -- Optimus has a scene with Buzz Aldrin, and this is where it all started to come together in my mind. I thought, wow I really got to get these guys and Optimus together after the movie. Maybe we can do a series of some kind." So that tells us there will be a scene between Optimus Prime and Buzz Aldrin. That'll be interesting to see.

And finally, some vague comments from Michael Bay. About the villain Shockwave, he said, "He's bad," adding that compared to Megatron, "He's got a much bigger gun [and is] a little bit more vicious." He also maintained that "Dark of the Moon" will be his final "Transformers" film. "It does have an end, yes," he said. "Because I am finished doing this."

Great news! We have our first official look at Sentinel Prime's bot mode from the toys! Check it out:



So yea, I was right! Sentinel Prime IS the confirmed name and he IS the firetruck and he IS the one from the teaser trailer. I must say... that toy looks pretty awesome, I'm definitely getting that. The other information revealed about Sentinel Prime is that he is Optimus Prime's predecessor, apparently lost in space for eons. He crash-landed on Earth's moon, as we know from the teaser.

Next up... picture of the toy of The Ark! Here's a picture from the teaser:


And here's the toy:


Next up is an official image of the Megatron toy that we have all seen:


Apparently, Megatron starts the movie hiding in the jungles of Africa, recovering, and plotting his revenge.

The EW article mentions the other Transformers in the Super Bowl ad and mentions "Laserbeak" by name... it's unclear whether that is their guess, or whether they are confirming that Laserbeak is indeed his name.

And that's not all! Next up we have details on the Dark of the Moon videogame... it's actually going to be a prequel to the movie! High Moon Studios is developing the game (they developed War for Cyberton). The game will release on PS3 and 360 (sucks cause this was the one Transformers game I was actually going to buy since it was a prequel... makes me angry). You can see some screenshots of the game here: http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/114/1149231p1.html. IGN mentions the teaser trailer for the game will debut tomorrow at the New York Toy Fair, and IGN will have it online tomorrow afternoon.

And finally, Hasbro CEO Brian Goldner mentioned this at the end of Hasbro's New York Toy Fair Investor Event...
"In our own brands, we have Transformers: Dark of the Moon in July 1st. (G. I. Joe 2 coming in 2013)" he continued. "In Transformers if you stick with us on Monday night, we are going to show you much more of the movie and Michael is going to be here with you. But I thought to share with you a commercial you may have missed on the Superbowl. [trailer playing] Imagine what that’s going to look like in 3D."

So sounds like we're going to see more of the movie on Monday night! Awesome! Not sure if this will be something open to the public or not, or if we'll be able to see this footage at all... but at least we can probably expect impressions or something. Anyways, stay tuned for more info cause there's going to be an onslaught of news this weekend from the New York Toy Fair as we get to see the new toys and we get confirmation and new info on a lot of things. Can't wait!

Lots of Transformers news coming this weekend and it has begun! First up, let me recap all the Transformers that we know will be in Dark of the Moon, and I put "new" next to the ones new to the movie...



So that's a nice, general list for those that haven't been following the news/rumors. Now for just the new info from the Toy Fair...


Now, there are other toys... but there are always other toys made that don't appear in the movies. We can't say with 100% certainty whether any of the other ones will appear or not, but the ones I've listed and pictured above we have seen on set and are confirmed in the movie. Also note that these are not the only toys we are getting for Dark of the Moon... there are a lot of notable Transformers missing, like Mudflap, Soundwave, and the new Ferrari and Mercedes, among others. Shockwave's toy also wasn't shown at the Toy Fair, at least not from what I've seen. The Ferrari and Mercedes are the ones I'm most interested in... I hope we find out about them soon!

UPDATE: Some promo shots of the new toys found here and here.

A few more bits of Dark of the Moon news...

First up is that Michael Bay and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley appeared at the Toy Fair in New York last night. Michael Bay showed off about 20 minutes of footage from Dark of the Moon, but nobody is allowed to tell us what was shown, so we got no news from that... just one or two general remarks that the footage was awesome. Rosie mentioned that her character Carly is "English and is working for the British embassy" but couldn't say anymore than that.

And the second bit of news is that we have an image of Shockwave, the new villain, from the Dark of the Moon game (which is a prequel to the movie). Considering they probably got the model from ILM, it's safe to say that this is what he'll look like in the movie as well. It matches up with the toy and very brief glimpse in the Super Bowl ad as well. Here is Shockwave...





Looks pretty freaking awesome!

Oh snap, lots to discuss! The Daytona 500 went on recently and thanks to it, we got a bunch of new Dark of the Moon stuff. First off, we got confirmation on stuff that we pretty much knew was true but now it's 200% official... the NASCAR vehicles with weapons seen on set (pictured below) are Autobots known as The Wreckers. The red Wrecker is Leadfoot, the blue Wrecker is Top Spin and the green Wrecker is Roadbuster.





They did a little role call for the Wreckers and mentioned some of their weapons...



Next up... we have a NEW TV SPOT!!! It's a mix of old footage from the Super Bowl TV Spot, and new footage. Check it out:


Here's a break-down of all the new things shown (I'm skipping the old stuff)...
0:01 - New voice-over from Simmons saying, "Years from now, they're gonna ask us... where were you when they took over the planet?"
0:05 - Starscream jumps down next to Sam and Carly
0:09 - Sam comforting Carly and saying, "You're gonna be fine, I promise."
0:12 - Sam and Carly running from something (previous shot were the tentacles, but we don't know if that's really what they're running from)
0:14 - Bumblebee transforms a bit and brings out some weapons like a cannon on his top; you see a space shuttle or something in the background
0:21 - Optimus walks up to Sam and Epps and you see a bullet shell fly towards the screen from Optimus' blaster
0:22 - Epps yells "RUN!" with other soldiers behind him
0:23 - The Wreckers zoom through the ruins in the streets... first LeadFoot, then Roadbuster, and finally Top Spin

And that's all the new stuff! Best parts IMO were Bumblebee's weapons and the Wreckers for me. I like that they're going with the whole "Stealth Force"/"Mechtech" stuff, and the Wreckers just looked beast. Apparently, Tyrese tweeted that there is a new TV Spot during the All-Stars game tonight, but we don't know if it's this one shown during the Daytona 500 or if it's another new one. I'm betting it's this one we saw, but if there is anything else new, I'll let you guys know.

All right folks, take this with a MASSIVE grain of salt. So there's this guy named Nelson on Michael Bay's forums. He's an admin there, and has access to inside information. So if he says something or hints at it, it's probably true. But recently he said something that is really odd. Here's what he said...



He's referring to Skids and Mudflap, the Twins from Revenge of the Fallen. Now, why would he say that? We've seen them on set with brand new paintjobs...



We then saw their toys at the New York Toy Fair...


And they were seen on set in Chicago actually being filmed, so there's proof that they have footage of them to use in the movie. Yes, they could cut them, but why? Here's some footage of them being filmed...


So why continue to deny they are in the movie? People continued to hound Nelson about it saying that Skids and Mudflap have to be in Dark of the Moon. Nelson replied with this...


He also later said this...


So it seems that, if he is to be believed, that the Twins are NOT in Dark of the Moon. Apparently their scenes were cut. I'm actually kind of disappointed. I would have liked to see them with their new paintjobs, but just have them be background characters. Other people asked about about if Wheelie is returning and more, and he responded with this...






The "Einstein" bot is very likely the blue Mercedes, and widely speculated to be the character Wheeljack. But I'm getting confused now. He's saying there are two "new" buddy characters and he won't reveal their alt modes... didn't he already say it's Wheelie and the Einstein bot? We already know Wheelie's alt mode from Revenge of the Fallen, unless he changed it. And it's very likely the Einstein bot is the blue Mercedes. I don't know, I'm getting a headache trying to understand all this.

---------------------

But I guess to summarize it all, here's what you need to know: The Autobot Twins from Revenge of the Fallen, Skids and Mudflap, will NOT be returning in Dark of the Moon. They were filmed, but their scenes were apparently cut.

Here's the Daytona 500 ad for Dark of the Moon in HD:


Looks even better in HD of course!

Check out the Wreckers race a lap at the Daytona 500:


They definitely look pretty awesome! The next bit of news is that the Dark of the Moon prequel comics are coming soon, but someone already has them! There's "Foundation" and "Rising Storm", and issue 1 for both prequels are what he has. Here are their covers:


As you can see, the cover for issue 1 of "Rising Storm" features the new villain Shockwave, and he looks pretty awesome. Now keep in mind that the comics are not canon... but they can help to fill in blanks whenever they arise, and in the case of a new movie, the prequel comics can give us a taste of what to expect. Here's a summary of what happens in the two issues...

"Rising Storm" opens with Longarm and Salvage in China saving humans, only to be utterly destroyed by Shockwave and Astrotrain. Optimus Prime is seen at NEST headquarters talking to Auotbot "refugees" a.k.a. Armorhide and his team. Armorhide mistakenly calls him Sentinel Prime. Meanwhile, Galloway helps NEST in a sting operation agaisnt Fearswoop, Skystalker, and Divebomb (they're attempting to sell cybertronian tech and weapons to humans under Starscreams orders). Astrotrain is busy working on a project for Shockwave with a little bot called the "Brain Unit". Its a tiny robot that Astrotrain says it not supposed to have sentience and it's possible that it is the character that will grow into the Einstein-bot in Dark of the Moon. It begins to develop a sort of New York Bronx accent as well as a fear for its life and runs away to a Philidelphia where it happens to run into Bumblebee and Sam.

"Foundation" is represented mainly through flashbacks. Shows Sentinel Prime being a master and teacher to Optimus, Megatron, and many other major characters including Wheeljack, Shockwave, and Elita-1. Under Sentinel Prime's leadership, Optimus and the others wage a war against a race known as Thetacons. Ironhide happens to be one of these creatures. Sentinel Prime has discovered the All Spark and determines that it is powered by star energy so they must go find a star. But without the ability for space travel (lost to the Primes they say) they instead 'warp' reality so that they may bring a star to Cybertron and their planet can orbit around it. With the new star in place, the All Spark's power grows due to its proximity to the star. Peace is made with the Thetacons and Megatron puts his hostility towards them aside as well. Optimus talks with Elita-1 about going to see her two sisters (Arcee and Chromia). Instead, Sentinel Prime recruits him for a trip to the city Trypticon to help form the new Cybertronian government. Optimus assumes Sentinel Prime will lead, only to be informed by Sentinel Prime that he will be the next Prime. Sentinel Prime says that the only word to describe their new way of life is "freedom", a word of the Primes that was once lost. Also in this issue, we are told that Sentinel Prime is a direct descendant of Primus, the first Cybertronian. The main story after these flashbacks of what's going on is a battle that Optimus Prime and his team are waging against Megatron and his army, which takes place an undetermined amount of time after peace is made with the Thetacons. After Sentinel Prime's disappearance, Optimus Prime has made it his sworn duty to kill Megatron.

This is a picture from "Foundation" that shows Megatron, Sentinel Prime, Optimus, Shockwave, Elita-1, and Thetacon Ironhide...


The above summaries are just what I could gather from someone else who had the issue already, so a bunch of it is confusing to me. Unfortunately, these issues aren't officially out yet... though there's a chance they could be releasing tomorrow (or rather, today since it's already Wednesday). I'll head to my local comic book store tomorrow and see what they got.

Well, I think it's pretty much a safe bet that Linkin Park will be doing the song for Dark of the Moon. Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park previously said they haven't been developing a song exclusively for Transformers 3... but that doesn't mean they can't use a song they've already completed (like "What I've Done" for the first movie). Well, in a recent interview with Chester Bennington of Linkin Park, they were asked if they were working on the soundtrack for Dark of the Moon, and the response was, "I don’t know if I’m at liberty to tell you yet [winks]. But it looks promising. I think we go hand in hand with those films. A lot of our younger fans call us the Transformers band."

Sounds pretty much like a confirmation to me. There were also rumors that "Burning in the Skies" from their latest album would be used for Dark of the Moon. Well, Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park posted the official "International" music video for that song on his website. You can watch it below...



No clips related to Dark of the Moon, but we do see a city attacked by something and people in the vicinity, injured by the explosion. Is this a hint? Who knows. But he does mention there will be a US version of the music video released in the future, so it's possible that will have clips of Dark of the Moon.

So basically... it's very likely that Linkin Park will return for Dark of the Moon, and rumors point to "Burning in the Skies" being their song for the movie. Ever since the rumors, I've been listening to that song and it's pretty good. I think it's a good fit, and I hope that's what they use.

I don't know. I haven't really liked any of the Linkin Park songs chosen for the movies. They are boring, at least in my opinion. One song from the Transformers soundtrack I really enjoyed was "Retina and the Sky" by Idiot Pilot.

OMG CHECK THIS OUT!!! The latest issue of Empire Magazine has a shot of Sentinel Prime and Optimus Prime on the cover, straight from the movie... and they look FANTASTIC. Here they are:








Some of the things it says...



The biggest surprise is that the Ferrari is a Decepticon! Woah! So yea, this is some big, unexpected stuff. And it looks fantastic!

--------------

UPDATE: So the Ferrari might not be a Decepticon. Long story short, there could have been some confusion and there is some evidence pointing towards that mix-up.

Also, here are some high quality scans of Optimus Prime and Sentinel Prime: http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/transform ... azine.html.

So, the Dark of the Moon game is a prequel to the Dark of the Moon movie. There are some hands-on impressions and so they confirm a few small tidbits for the movie as well.

- Soundwave's earth form is shown and he's an SUV apparently.
- The bird thing seen in the commercial is indeed Laserbeak. You can see him below:


I wonder what SUV Soundwave will be, I don't remember any aside from the Chevy Suburbans on set, but those are the Decepticon Dreads (known as "Crankcase" in the toyline).

GOOD SIR, THIS IS A UNICRON REFERENCE; MY HOPE HAS BEEN RESTORED.
Plus there was a mention about size or some such of one of the transformers.

And about Skids and Mudflap, they were terrible characters anyways. I read somewhere that they were cut because they felt they would be considered stale. On a completely related note, Simmons is still in this movie.

Interesting... I did read something about the scale of one of the Transformers. I was kind of thinking it would be the thing with tentacles seen in the commercial. But... it's possible it could be Unicron. I don't know, I guess I'm very skeptical since we already know pretty much most of the new Transformers and I would think Unicron would be such a big thing that it would be hard to keep secret. So I'm still thinking Unicron will not be in the movie, but there is no evidence against that so there's always a chance.

UPDATE: Apparently there was another image from Entertainment Weekly (the one with Optimus and Sentinel Prime on the cover) that somehow nobody posted until now...

So thanks to the prequel comics, we have some new details on Shockwave's backstory (involves an actual event in history) if anyone is interested...



Some of this stuff was leaked out before but we couldn't confirm it, but now we can. And so because of that, we only have confirmation on this spoiler, whatever it means...



UPDATE: We have our first official stills from the movie! Check them out:







Pretty cool, but I wish they showed off some Transformers instead. These are basically just teasing us.

Leonard Nimoy will be voicing Sentinel Prime! That's awesome, I can totally picture Sentinel Prime having that kind of voice. Very cool!

So, I didn't post this earlier because it wasn't set in stone but now it's confirmed. The prequel comics had some Autobots in it that were ones that many people predicted to be the names of the Ferrari and Mercedes Autobots. However, it was just hinted at and not confirmed. Now, we have our final confirmation on one of them (which probably means the other one is right too).

I present to you, the red Ferrari 458 Italia, the Autobot named "Mirage"...



So the prequel comics showed two Autobots together: Mirage and Wheeljack. So now it seems very likely that the blue Mercedes with the Einstein head that we've seen is Wheeljack, and that's the most widely speculated name for it as well, so it makes perfect sense. So much so that I'm going to believe it's Wheeljack and would be very, very surprised if it wasn't.

There are other toy listings as well and the packaging shows some clearer images of some of the heads of the Transformers as well. Here is Topspin, one of the NASCAR Autobots...



Now, it's theory time regarding Mirage (SPOILERS!)...


All in all, looking good. I like the names Mirage and Wheeljack, so I'm happy that's what they're called.

So it's been rumored that Linkin Park would return to do a single for Transformers: Dark of the Moon... which considering they did the last two movies, is no surprise. But until now we had no official confirmation and we didn't know which song. It was rumored that they would use "Burning in the Skies" from their "A Thousand Suns" album, but turns out that's probably not the case.

Well, the Linkin Park website has been updated. They confirm they are providing a single for Dark of the Moon with a moon icon that when clicked brings you to a larger moon image that turns into a multi-colored Autobot logo while a few chords of a song plays. It sounds very much like "Iridescent", also from the "A Thousand Suns" album. However, it seems to be a bit different, like there's an extra drum track in there, so it could be a remix of that song. You can listen to the song on YouTube here. Sounds like a cool song, I like it. And I think it fits well with the movie. I think a remix could sound really neat too for the movie.

We also know they're working on the music video for the movie. Linkin Park's Joe Hahn tweeted "weather is good. Might be a good week to shoot a music video" followed a day later by "Do robots and leather look good together?"

On a separate note, I picked up the issue of Empire Magazine with Sentinel Prime and Optimus Prime on the cover. Our Barnes and Noble imports magazines and since it's from the UK, it took them a few weeks but they finally got it in. Pretty interesting article. Nothing really new that I hadn't read about already, but still interesting.

UPDATE: I THINK this might be the official remix. Don't know where they got this from though, so I can't say for sure. But it sounds like the few seconds heard on the website:
http://www.somekindofawesome.com/journa ... remix.html

LOTS of new info!!!

First up is some stuff about the Dark of the Moon game, which is a prequel to the movie. Here are some details that reveal stuff about the movie and hint at things as well:


Now for new details on the movie itself (be warned of some big spoilers):


We also have word on when the trailer will be released! Michael Bay said it "comes out next week on Fast [referring to "Fast Five"] and a bunch of other stuff. 3D trailer comes out on the next 3D movie which is Pirates." However, there's still a bit of confusion. Fast Five releases on April 29th, which is not next week... but it does release in the UK and Australia on April 21st which is next week. ComingSoon.net also claims it'll release April 28th. Regardless, in the next week or so we're getting a trailer. And then the trailer in 3D will be shown with Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides on May 20th.

And finally, we have a new amazing banner of Optimus Prime and a new image of Sentinel Prime. Both look fantastic! Check them out:

A few new tidbits...

First is a picture of Soundwave in robot mode from the video game. No idea on if this will be his robot mode in the movie or not, but the game is a prequel so it could give us an indication of what he looks like. Check it out:


Most people seem to think it's this car seen on set:


Apparently, that is going to be Carly's car and it's been denied that Soundwave is that car, but there are quite a bit of similarities. If the denial is misinformation, then Soundwave disguising himself as Carly's car could be an interesting plotline, so I hope that happens.

The next thing is we have an official Dark of the Moon banner of Optimus Prime (which I posted previously) and also Bumblebee... but I thought it was worth posting the newest one we got: the new villain of the movie, Shockwave. Check it out:


Looks pretty awesome to me! And finally, apparently I missed this earlier. Here are some books for the new movie that reveal pictures of Sentinel Prime, Shockwave, and others...