People can say what they want about the first two Transformers films and director Michael Bay, but the man knows how to take an iconic toy from the ’80s and turn it into an over-the-top action film.
I’m not saying the film’s dialogue or story were always top notch, nor was the inclusion of robots no one has ever heard of (or cares to see on the screen again *cough twins cough*) but you can’t tell me the IMAX version of the forest fight scene between Optimus Prime and the Decepticons wasn’t one of the coolest fight scenes in the past 10 years.
Even though it’s probably going to be full of inappropriate robot-on-human scenes and the dialogue and “humor” will sound like it came from a direct-to-DVD B-film, there is little doubt that Transformers 3 will dominate at the box office next summer.
I know it’s hard to believe that; even with Megan Fox leaving the cast and being replaced by Rosie Huntington-Whiteley the film still has a chance of success, but for some reason fans care more about the robots than they do the humans – go figure!
Ever since Transformers 3 began shooting in the very public financial district of Chicago, amateur videographers and photographers have been flooding the Internet with every little thing they see – even if it’s just a couple of cars driving off down the street.
Paramount and Viacom tried to have some of these videos pulled from YouTube claiming copyright infringement, they even flagged us incorrectly, but as YouTube investigates each occurrence they are reposting the videos as appropriate. Score one for the little guy I suppose.
Recently a gentleman walking along the streets grabbed a neat little video of a security “protecting” a parking lot where a few of the mighty robots are being stored during the shoot. This is apparently something that can be done with your shirt partially un-tucked…but I digress.
In the video below, the security guard points to the blue and red flamed semi-truck and says “Optimus Prime,” then points behind him and to the back at a black-fronted military transport and says “Sentinel Prime.” Watch for yourself:
Everyone knows the semi-truck is Optimus Prime with his trailer attached, but the name of the military transport vehicle has many people scratching their heads. The Transformers Live Action Movie Blog seems to think the unnamed vehicle is Rodimus Prime, while the security guard is under the impression it is Sentinel Prime. Our own Mike Eisenberg just happens to reside in Chicago and has seen this vehicle up close and says it’s black on the front and red on the sides and has all the necessary equipment to function as a fire truck.
Here is a better look at the vehicle in question:
The vehicle is actually a Rosenbauer Panther 6×6 and it’s an impressive looking machine to say the least. Check it out in action below:
After we put all that information together it still begs the question: who could this mysterious Autobot be? I have my own opinions on who the big fella is (and I’m going to discuss those) but first let’s talk about the other two names being thrown around.
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Continue to predictions about which new Autobot is in Transformers 3…
Rodimus Prime
![Who is This New Autobot on the Set of Transformers 3?](https://static1.srcdn.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/transformers-3-rodimus-prime-570x334.jpg)
Rodimus was the young, arrogant leader of the Autobots after he after accidentally got Optimus Prime killed during a fight with Megatron (see that epic battle HERE). Seeing Optimus and Rodimus in a film together wouldn’t make much sense in Bay’s Transformers continuity, since Jetfire gave up his parts so that the Fallen could be defeated (in 45 seconds) by Optimus, who was the LAST surviving Prime. To introduce another Prime at this stage would make the story from Transformers 2 inconsequential (even more so than it already is).
That’s not to say that Bay and writer Ehren Kruger wouldn’t do it just for the sake of doing it. Heck, Bay renamed “Prowl” as “Barricade” and made him a Deception in the first film, then added a slew of unknown characters to the second film – so adding a new Prime to the story would not be shocking.
Couple all this with the fact that Rodimus’ vehicle form is a ridiculous looking car carrier/RV thing and the likelihood of Rodimus showing up in the Transformers 3 seems pretty slim to me.
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Sentinel Prime
![Transformers 3 Sentinel Prime Toy](https://static1.srcdn.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/transformers-3-sentinel-prime.jpg)
This would seem like a no-brainer – a security guard “in the know” is telling the world the name of the Autobot sitting in his parking lot. Yeah, that seems like a very reliable source for information. Let’s ignore him for the moment and break down who Sentinel Prime is – he’s dead! Basically, he died during the Civil War on Cybertron, supposedly at the hand of Megatron and he preceded Optimus Prime. Did you catch that? He came BEFORE Optimus.
Forget the fact that Sentinel’s Earth form is a snow plow for a second – the very fact that he is dead years before the Autobots and Decepticons bring their war to Earth automatically reduces his chances of appearing in Transformers 3 to near zero. Of course, Bay gave us a Transformer heaven in the last film; so hey, what do I know?
Now that I’ve given you some pretty solid reasons why the unidentified vehicle can’t be Rodimus Prime or Sentinel Prime, let’s discuss my three choices on who it is.
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Ultra Magnus
![Transformers 3 Ultra Magnus Toy](https://static1.srcdn.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/transformers-3-ultra-magnus.jpg)
The first and most important reason I think this vehicle is Ultra Magnus – he was Optimus Prime’s brother but he wasn’t a Prime. Second, he has been portrayed as both a car transport in the ’80s, similar to Optimus, and more recently a military transport with a big hammer for a weapon. It would make sense that after Optimus Prime sent a message to all surviving Autobots to head to Earth for refuge in Transformers 1, that his brother would eventually make his way to our planet; and let’s not forget that he now transforms into a military transport vehicle as well.
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Inferno
![Transformers 3 Inferno toy](https://static1.srcdn.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/transformers-3-inferno.jpg)
Inferno is an easy sell because as Mike told us earlier, this mysterious set vehicle is designed to look like a fire truck of some sort and since Inferno was one of the only fire trucks on the Autobot team, it’s not a hard stretch of the imagination to think this is him. Since he was a large fire truck, it wouldn’t be too hard to picture him as a large military transport vehicle. Inferno likes to save lives and extinguish fires (hence his name) and with the mighty robots fighting in the downtown district of Chicago, I think he’ll have plenty to keep him busy.
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No One
As bloggers and movie fans tend to do, we’re probably just over-thinking the whole situation. We may be looking for something that isn’t really there and this 6 wheeled massive fire truck may be just that – a massive fire truck. It may not transform into anything and could be nothing more than a high-tech, well-armored fire truck designed to carry personnel deep into the fray while protecting them from all the destructive robot fighting. After all, it’s not like a battle between huge metal robots wouldn’t cause a couple of fires here and there.
After looking at the five options laid out before you, which Autobot do you think is being represented by the vehicle above or do you have a better suggestion?
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