Weaving Confirms Return

While promoting his latest movie Last Ride in Australia, Hugo Weaving, according to AdelaideNow revealed that he has signed on to return as the voice of Megatron for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Thanks to gameon91 and Ty for the link.

``I’ve already done it,’’ Weaving says, adding Bay had told him to keep the news hush-hush. ``He’s over in LA and we were working on the video split sort of thing and I had this strange conversation where he seemed to imply it was all a big secret. So there you go. I’ve given you the secret scoop.’’

So how is Megatron resurrected?

`I think in the last one, doesn’t Optimus Prime pick up a little bit of, a little shard of the cube, or the thing that’s left, and he takes it with him. Maybe there’s something there… but I don’t know,’’ he laughs.

Leader Class Optimus Prime Video Review

Peaugh and co have posted another review video of the Transformers 2 toyline. This time of the winner of most improved Transformer of the line with Leader class Optimus Prime. It is an expensive toy but it looks like this one might be worth it. Thanks to Bruno for the link.

Slow News Day: Change You Can Believe In

Another slow news week, so more random Transformer stuff people have found on the web.
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First up is change you can believe in regardless of political viewpoint. The image to the right, from Slashfilm, plays off the Obama poster that made the rounds last year. Thanks to Mark and Dan.
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Weekly World News reports that Megan Fox is a man. Yep, your fantasy girl is secretly a dude in disguise. The full story can be found here. Thanks to Mark for the link.
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Off to the right is an image supplied by Elis (thanks!) from the Massive Black art book that involves a mystery project from Hasbro around 2005. The top left page looks like Megatron art, the bottom left might be Arcee, then Bumblebee work and below that is Optimus sketches. Not sure but don't think the right page is Transformer related.
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Last, here is the ranking of the top 100 animated television shows of all time. Transformers came in 23rd place. The full list can be found here. The top five is 5) Beavis and Butthead, 4) South Park, 3) Looney Tunes, 2) Batman: The Animated Series 1) The Simpsons. Thanks to Lucas for the link.

Deluxe Wheelie Toy Pictures

Yep, back to toy news. On the bright side, it’s a new toy with a good look at the Deluxe class of Wheelie, the RC truck. He is about as ugly as Frenzy was in the first movie. Below are a few pictures but the full gallery is here.

More Ask Orci Stuff

Roberto Orci continues his dedication to the transfans by occasionally dropping in the Don Murphy forums and answering questions. For those, like me, just a little tired of the same toy news, here are the latest that seemed worth posting about. As usual, my comments in parenthesis.

Is Ravage the only minion palling around with Soundwave this time around?
not exactly...
(Perhaps he is referring to the robot thing seen on the Princeton campus set)

Any truth to the rumor that Starscream is an independent player in ROTF?
no
(I think this is in reference to the Reign of Starscream comic where he did try to take over the Decepticons briefly.)

Any chance of another full trailer which might reveal more to the story than it's tone? It did a great job of showing off the frantic pace and darker vibes, but very little by way of story. Any revelations coming?
Yeah, I'm sure another trailer is in the works that shows more of the story. Don't know when it'll be out. Maybe in front of Trek?
(Honestly I will be absolutely dumb-founded at the stupidity of the decision makers if a new trailer doesn't debut with Star Trek considering both are Paramount projects and summer tent pole movies.)

Hey Roberto, an admittedly long-winded question here. When I watch TF1 now, it always feels like it's split into 2 movies, the first half being more grounded in day to day reality, and the second being a little more high concept sci fi. I would call the Autobot arrival scene the transition between the 2 halves.
My question is do you think that TF2 will have a similar transition? Because from what I've seen so far, I think it might, but you just might know better than me.
Interesting question. In a sense, yes, because both movies have a structure where the world changes at the midpoint. In the first movie, that meant the full arrival of the autobots. In this movie, there is also a mid point that changes the movie. Very perceptive.

So when was the last bit of writing done for TF2 or are you still doing bot dialogue and such?
Oh yeah. Last bit was last week! We'll be working on it until the bitter end.

Having fun?
Yes. Except when we fight with Bay. But in retrospect, that's also part of the fun.

Haha fighting with Bay? that must be intense... Does it happen a lot?
Every time!

Who wins?
50/50. But only because there's three of us against 1!
(I posted the bit about the fighting as found it amusing. That there can be fights at all means that Bay is receptive to ideas. After all he has the position to simply say "I don't want to hear it, just do as I say" like most bosses tend to do.)

Leader Optimus Prime and Wheelie Pics

The toy pics and info keeps coming. Below are links of pictures of the latest.

First up is huge gallery of Leader Class Optimus Prime that is new and improved with huge amount of poseability and close resembles his CGI movie counterpart. The full gallery is from The Arker and mirrored at TFW2005. Thanks to wickedweeezl and Cenjor for the links.

While information remains light, Wheelie makes a brief appearance incorrectly transformed vehicle mode from Seibertron.com. Nothing special really, just a close-up of what we already saw from his toy card.

Finally, a little information on what the assortment cases for the toys may be from GoldenAgeToys via TFW2005. The descriptions from them is awkward so I put in parenthesis what character they were probably referring to when I could figure it out. In some cases not sure if they refer to new characters, re-releases or the person just didn't know what it was. Thanks to Cenjor for the links.

DELUXES:
Case 1: Green Eco Car (Skids), Desert Brawl, Truck Bot (Wheelie?), Street Motorcycle (Arcee?) and Smoke Screen (???)
Case 2: Cannon Bumblebee, Barricade, Wolf (???) and Eco Car Orange (Mudflap)
Case 3: Satellite (Soundwave) and Bumblebee
Case 4: Bumblebee, European Sports Car (Sideways), American Sports Car (Sideswipe), Bulldozer (Rampage) and New Jet (Breakaway)

VOYAGERS:
Case 1: Optimus Prime, Starscream, Red Excavator (Demolisher) and Ironhide
Case 2: Optimus Prime, Ironhide, Voyager Alien Form (The Fallen) and Autobot Ratchet

LEADERS:
Optimus Prime and Megatron

Leader Class Megatron Video Review

Mike offers another video review, this time of the Leader class version of Megatron for Transformers 2 toy line. In addition, TFW2005 has posted a huge gallery of pictures of the toy that offer a good comparison between the first movie version of the toy and this one. That can be found here. Thanks to Cenjor for the link. Overall, Megatron is a huge improvement over the first movie but probably one I will pass on with my limited funds.