Amazing stuff here. I am actually interested in seeing Animated now. With all that's in your report, the animation is going to bother me very little if it's going to be this good. I actually like the idea that when the Decepticons do show up, it raises the threat level tremendously. I like that we get to see pre-Earth forms.

And yay for more Classics, I haven't actually bought any of the classics line, but I'd like to (Jetfire mainly).

OP's trailer turns into his axe? That's either a small trailer or a really big axe (which wouldn't bother me).

Human supervillains are a terrible idea. That alone is enough to keep me away from this series. It just won't feel like Transformers to me. A better idea would be making the Autobots have to deal with Earth's military which deep down really believes that these invaders are a threat to the population. More realistic and gives the Autobots the struggle of deciding whether to truly fight back or not. And what if one Autobot was willing to do it?
OF course, being a Decepticon fan, I appreciate how their intention is to make the Decepticons a bigger threat but I just feel that they are going about it wrong. They seem to think that the Autobots HAVE to triumph every bloody time. It doesn't matter how tough the Decepticons look if you know that the Autobots will win every time. There's no suspense there. But if the Decepticons showed up frequently and won just as many battles as they lost then they will be a real threat. You won't know if the Autobots will triumph or not. THAT'S suspense.

Thanks for the commentary on this guys. It's good to know someone's reading through all of that. There's a lot there, but wow, packed full of interesting tidbits and perspective!

Just gave myself a pat on the back. yay for me!

I like how the figures are staying in the deluxe-voyager range because there is just no point in Optimus and Megatron being Gigantic. I DON'T like the unrealistic style of the alt modes and Starscream's backwards wings REALLY bug me. I DO like that the transformations appear to be on the complex side, and I like the fact that posability is a priority. If the vehicles were on the realistic side then I would get these but alas, the alt modes look like playschool.
And I hope that Prime just has a big axe rather than a small trailer. Prime with a giant axe would be quite nice. But someday I'd like to see the axe come out of Prime's arm for once rather than being a separate piece. I'm sure they could do it.

I agree with you Chaos Bringer, I like it when the Alt Modes are patterned after real vehicles because they do a better job of blending in real life. I was disillusioned with Armada through Cybertron because they were all futuristic, and I tend to like the jets more than the cars, those are harder to make realistic with undercarriage junk and such. Futuristic jets can work in the show though since it is supposed to be set in some sort of near future, but still I see where you are coming from Chaos.

As for Starscream's backwards wings, there are some prototype jets that are using that wing design (it's referred to sometimes as a switchblade concept, but only on swing wing aircraft which face backward, otherwise just a forward swept wing) and it does work in flight (though practically no mass produced craft are using it right now), and I'm an Aerospace Engineering student so I can look at that alt mode and find it interesting. However from the realistic standpoint, it is less realistic. (Update: Here is a link to an air force page showing a real jet design that Animated Starscream is supposedly modeled after: http://www.airforce-technology.com/projects/s37/ , source:Teletraan 1 the Transformers Wiki)

I did like how movie Prime has his axe/sword spring out of his arm, I wish the leader Prime could do that.

Woa! Thanks for the information Master Dex! I can appreciate the Starscream design now. Too bad he still has a 50 foot chin. Of all the circuit-glitched, diode blowing dimwittery, that has to be the dumbest thing the designers have done. A normal head would do wonders for Starscream. Optimus Prime's vehicle mode is not exactly pretty either. It is basically Energon Prime's vehicle mode but sleek. I seriously doubt that any trucks look anything like that. And I doubt that they ever will. Listen guys, if you buy these things then you are telling Hasbro that it is ok for Transformers to have garbage alt modes and that you don't mind and that there is no need for them to spend their time and money making lines like Alternators.

Yeah I agree, cars and trucks will redesign over the years, but I can't imagine they will look like that anytime soon for any good reason. I also have trouble with Starscream's Jay Leno chin, but I'll have to look beyond that, if it is possible to see beyond his chin.

No problem, hyper/supersonic jets and spacecraft are my specialty and the kind of things I dream of developing as real life things. As an aspiring engineer, I am one of those people that wants to go frame by frame on the movie to see how their complex transformations really work. I even have an idea in my head on what I want a movie Jetfire to look like, too bad I can't draw very good or in three dimensions or I'd try to put it on paper (He's kind of an amalgam of the F-14 and Macross Valkyrie much like all of his incarnations, most people wouldn't notice it as standing out).

today i went to tformers.com and they got the date the transformers will be relesded on dvd it will be in stores november 2007.

wait... Didn't Hasbro promise us a trailer? So why do I not see a trailer in those pics. Don't tell me that that IS Prime with a trailer. You know what, ditch the stupid trailer/axe gimmick right now and give us a proper trailer/base like what used to be standard for ANY Prime.