Movie reviews: The Transformers (2007) – Part 44
December 1, 2009 by Megatron
Filed under Transformers : Decepticons
BIG ROBOTS; LITTLE CHANGE!
TRANSFORMERS
(12A, general release)
*
I know I’m not going to be very popular for saying this (even if it does mean that I’ll have to pay 8.50 euro the next time I go to the cinemathanks Mags!) but I was distinctly unimpressed & un-entertained by yet this modern day reincarnation of the rubix-cube like robotic cars & their adventures. Now before you get on my case let me say this: I had got caught up in the whole hype surrounding the Transformers and I was very much looking forward to what I hoped would be one of the films of the summer. As a result I’d made a real effort to get into the film & gave it every chance to entertain but it just didn’t work.
Sam Witwicky (Shia Lebouf) is the central character in this testosterone-fuelled Michael Bay film. He’s a typically awkward; geeky 11th grader who really wants the car and the girl. He succeeds in part one of this mission when his father takes him along to a garage to buy him a car for his graduation. The car he chooses or should I say that “chooses him” is a strange; beat up yellow camero which lot owner Bobby Bolivia (Bernie Mack) hasn’t seen before. Initially however, phase 2 of that mission doesn’t really go to plan when in Sam’s attempt to impress cool girl Mikaela (Megan Fox), the car starts randomly playing appropriate songs such as “Sexual Healing” & “Baby Come Back”. Yikes, talk about awkward moments. To cap it all off, the car drives away one night & Sam tracks it down to a place where the car has transformed into a giant robot communicating with a UFO via a light beam!
Meanwhile, over in Qatar, U.S. Soldiers have just been attacked by a helicopter that manages to morph itself into one vicious robot, annihilating everything in its sight while yet another one downloads top-secret files from the countries computers. And so in steps (does it remind you of Donald Rumsfield), Secretary of Defense John Keller (Jon Voigt) to call an emergency conference of experts to analyze the hidden data. However while all this is happening, one of the smaller robots manages to hack into the computer of Air-Force One.
The malevolent robots called the Decepticons are on a mission of their own and that is to reclaim the all-powerful cube: The Allspark. In doing so they (along with the good robots: the Autobots) discover that the evil Megatron (voiced by Hugo Weaving) crashed
Letterman – Optimus Prime Top Ten List
November 5, 2009 by Megatron
Filed under Transformers : The Autobots
The “Transformer” star presents the “Top Ten Things That Sound Cool When Spoken By A Giant Robot.”
Transformers Optimus Prime and Megatron Costumes
May 2, 2009 by Megatron
Filed under Transformers : The Autobots
In 2001, I built an 8ft G1 Transformers Optimus Prime Costume using the 2000 Timehouse Metalforce Optimus Prime figurine as my pattern and built from extruded polystyrene. He even carried his 3ft Blaster rifle. I was unhappy with the final product and decided to try it again. The costume was boxed up and sent him to the Autobot Mausoleum (my basement).
In 2004, I redesigned the Optimus Prime costume from the ground up. Instead of building this costume to actually transform into a semi-truck, I opted to take a different direction. Up. It ended up being 10ft tall with my feet 37 inches off the ground. I noticed that when people wearing tranforming costumes and in fact transformer when in a crowd, only the first few rows of people get to see the costume. For the most part, not everyone gets to see and appreciate the time that it takes to build costumes. With my costume being 10ft tall, Optimus can be seen over the crowd across a crowded convention hall with no problem. And usually spectators say something along the lines of “what the hell is that?!” or “no way!” when they do see it. The general idea is to dwarf spectators and try to hold true to the idea of ‘giant robot’ when someone stands next to Optimus.
Optimus also has fully articulated fingers/ wrists, jointed toes to aid walking, working lights, opening chest and matrix cover, light up removable Autobot Matrix of Leadership, and a 4 1/2 foot Megatron in Gun Mode that he can carry. He is even rigged with a headset walkie-talkie to communiciate with the ground crew.
In 2005, using the Hard Hero full-sized statue as my pattern I built a 10ft G1 Tranformers Megatron to compliment Optimus. Megatron also sports articulated fingers/ wrists, jointed toes, and working lights. Megatron is still a work in progress. He will have his Cannon soon along with a few more surprises.
The music used in this video is by ‘Lazer’. I dont have any other information than that.
The biggest problems with these costumes is space. Whether it be storage or production, they take up a lot of room. I recently bought a house with an 800 sq ft studio addition so more costumes are sure to follow…