Ryan Church has updated his website with some concept artwork that he produced for Transformers Revenge of the Fallen.  Ryan has also produced concept art for various other films of which you can view several examples on his website which is well worth as look.

Marketwatch have published a report on the state of Hasbro shares, toy sales and the fact that Revenge of the Fallen has already grossed over $600 million worldwide.

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Hasbro Inc. is revving up for bigger sales in the toy aisle thanks to the blockbuster Transformers movie sequel, with merchandise sales topping the 2007 product lineup by up to 25%, analysts say.  "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" is No. 1 at the box office so far this year. Since its June 24 release, the movie has racked up $607.6 million in global ticket sales through July 6, according to reporting service Box Office Mojo.Industry analysts forecast that Transformers toy-related sales, including licensing fees, could be as high as $600 million by year's end. If sales hit that mark, this would be 25% above the $482 million in sales the first Transformers movie-toy line racked up two years ago.Retailers started to sell merchandise for the second Transformers movie on May 30. The toys, celebrating their 25th anniversary, include robot action figures, helmets and lunch bags. "The toys are doing exceptionally well," said Lutz Muller, a toy-marketing analyst who runs Vermont-based Klosters Trading Corp.In an emailed statement, Toys "R" Us said the new Transformers "have surpassed sales of the toys based on the first Transformers movie." The major retailer helped support Hasbro's launch of the product line with print and Internet ads.

Shares of Hasbro's stock hastraded flat at $23.04 in midday trading Wednesday.Analysts' estimates vary on Transformer product sales for this year. Drew Crum at Stifel Nicolaus expects Hasbro to generate $550 million in sales from the toy line this year, while Sterne Agee's Margaret Whitfield estimates Transformers toy sales can easily exceed $500 million.  Sean McGowan at Needham & Co. projects Hasbro will sell $595 million worth of new and old Transformers merchandise in 2009, or 14% of total company sales.

There is less competition among movie-themed toys on retailer shelves this year. In 2008, kids had plenty to choose from, when Hasbro and Mattel Inc.  made numerous toys tied to action movies featuring Indiana Jones as well as comic-book characters Batman, Iron Man and the Hulk. Gerrick Johnson, analyst at BMO Capital Markets, estimates Transformers sales could provide a lift to Hasbro's second-quarter earnings due to the strength of orders ahead of the sequel's release. The toys have wider distribution compared with 2007, he added.

But Johnson expects 2009 Transformers sales to be on par with those of 2007. He cited cautious consumer spending and competition from popular Bakugan action figures that sell for less. Toronto-based SpinMaster sells Bakugan.

Hasbro could not be reached for comment on how the sales have gone so far.  The company reports second-quarter earnings July 20. Analysts expect the toy maker to earn 24 cents a share, compared with 25 cents a share earned in the year-earlier quarter, according to FactSet. Sales are pegged to rise to $797 million from $784 million.Hasbro is looking to generate more action-figure sales from the Aug. 7 movie release of "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra." Muller of Klosters Trading estimates G.I. Joe movie-related toys will generate sales between $150 million to $180 million in 2009.Yet Muller warned that G.I. Joe toy sales could be undercut by Transformers and toys tied to the July 15 release of the latest Harry Potter film.

Hasbro shares have fallen 21% for the year to date, compared with a 2% loss for the S&P 500 Index and a 5% loss for Mattel. Investors have become wary of Hasbro since the company announced a kids' TV joint venture with Discovery in late April. McGowan rates Hasbro shares overweight; Crum has a hold on them, Whitfield a buy and Johnson a sell.  The mean target price on the stock is $27.91, down 12% since the start of the year, according to FactSet data.

Our thanks go to The Last Allosaur for sending in some Transformers sightings for the John Lewis store in Edinburgh which had the following new Revenge of the Fallen figures in stock:

Wheelie, Chromia, Desert Brawl, Smokescreen, Desert Tracker Ratchet.

In a post on his own message board, Michael Bay urges fans to go see the iMax version of Transformers Revenge of the Fallen

Back from Moscow. Fresh from a visit to the former KGB, with second in command. He told me in his office I'm one of 10 American's, one being a President, to ever be allowed inside what is now called the FSB. The only reason was he heard I was in town and he is a fan of my films.


Last night with my crew I saw the IMAX version. Once you get used to the giant format and your eyes adjust, it's an awesome experience. I have been waiting until the film was final to judge, and I'm really pleased. You have to make a point to see it this way - It could be the very best way to see Transformers.

C'mon guys critics? Give me a break. Do you all have short term memory? They killed the first one, and it still became a world-wide smash. I made this for the you, the audience!

Michael

Transformers Director Michael Bay sent a scathing email to studio Paramount Pictures on the 4th May, reports gossip site TMZ.­ ­"... I have been waiting, and waiting for the anticipation of an 'event movie' to make it into the 'public zeitgeist,' they quote Mr Bay as writing as well as pointing out that he calls the print campaign for the film an "abject failure," with a "pathetic presence" in the L.A. Times. Here refers to the profile of the movie on the MTV Video Awards as "so lame." referring to the fact that the first Transformers in 2007 had a 30-minute segment at the MTV Movie Awards, but this year the sequel's only support was in the form of lead actors Shia LeBeouf and Megan Fox presenting an award.

Bay makes a attack on Paramount head Sumner with his comment of "You all talk so glowingly about Transformers being the movie of the summer but unfortunately this has not gotten to the public.  I still run into so many people even this weekend with kids that ask "is that movie coming out this year?".  Your owner Sumner, went on air in wall street last week talking how Paramount was going to claim the summer with Star Trek and G.I Joe. I guess he didn't even know it was coming out either." which points out that the film was being poorly advertised.

Bay goes on to name drop Jerry Bruckheimer in the email with "Over the years Jerry Bruckheimer mentored me on event movies - he had a mantra - "A studio that does not make it an event, will it into an event, thinks the audience will just show up, will always be bittin in the ass".  Besides my good friend Steven, Jerry has made a lot more successful movies ten all of us".

Its not all bad news though as on the 6th June Michael sent Paramount Pictures an email praising them and saying that "Paramount is like family. Thank you all for busting your butts and bringing your 'A game' for the release of Transformers".

You can read the full emails here and here.

Well its official, Transformers Revenge of the Fallen is big news within the UK and Japan.  In the UK the sequal out grossed the first movie by a whopping 71% at $14.1 million from 517 locations.Here's a quote from Michael Bay's own website

Transformers 2 opened spectacularly in their world debuts in the UK and Japan, grossing a total of $20 mil from 846 locations. The Michael Bay directed film was a clear #1 in both territories, with the UK’s opening total of $14.1 mil from 517 locations outperforming rival comic book sequel Spider-Man 2 by 18%, the original Transformers movie by 71% and coming within 3% of the Dark Knight weekend total. In Japan, the film’s gross of $5.8mn from 329 locations was 64% ahead of The Dark Knight, and only 13% behind Transformers which had the advantage of opening in summer school holidays.

The franchise’s eagerly awaited second instalment opens across most of the rest of the world next week on Wednesday June 24th."

MichaelBay.com has posted some Transformers Revenge of the Fallen Fun Facts.

Robots

• 14 robots last time, 46 robots this time (ILM only)
• If you had all the gold ever mined in the history of man, you could build a little more than half of Devastator.
• Optimus Prime will be life size on IMAX screens in many forest fight shots.
• Devastator’s hand is traveling 390 miles per hour when he punches the pyramid.
• The pyramid destruction simulation was 8 times bigger than the old rigid simulation all-time record holder at ILM.
• All robot parts laid out end to end would stretch from one side of California to the other, about 180 miles
• Devastator’s parts stacked tip to tip would be as tall as 58 empire state buildings.
• If all the texture maps on the show were printed on 1 square yard sheets, they would cover 13 football fields.

• TF1 took 20 Terabytes of disk space. Trans2 took 145 Terabytes. Seven times bigger!
• 145 terabytes would fill 35,000 DVDs. Stacked one on top of the other without storage cases, they would be 145 feet tall.

• If you rendered the entire movie on a modern home PC, you would have had to start the renders 16,000 years ago (when cave paintings like the Hall of Bulls were being made) to finish for this year’s premiere!
• A single imax shot in the movie (df250) would have taken almost 3 years to render on a top of the line home PC running nonstop.
• IMAX frame render times: As high as 72 hours per frame!

• Optimus Prime will be life size on IMAX screens in many forest fight shots.
• Imax frames take about 6 times longer than anamorphic to render.
• IMAX frame render times: As high as 72 hours per frame!

• Devastator is as tall as a 10 story building.
• Devastator has more than 10 times the number of individual parts found in an average car.
• Laid out end to end, Devastator’s parts would be almost 14 miles long.

• Number of geom pieces: 52632
• The total number of polygons: 11,716,127
• The total length of all pieces: 73090 feet
• The total length of all pieces: 13.84 miles

On Friday 12th June were were invited to attend the FDA screening of Transformers Revenge of the Fallen at the Oden in Leicester Square, London.  The event was an invitational only affair with over a thousand people in the audience form all types of media forms.

Before the film began it was announced that we were the first audience to see the final edit of the film despite the world premier in Japan a few days before hand which showed a pre-finished edit of the movie.

The review will contain spoilers though we will try to limit them as much as possible.  As with most press events their has been an embargo on reviews which was lifted today.

The film takes place a few years after the end of the first movie an opens with a flashback scene showing the Transformers first arrival on Earth thousands of years ago.  These Transformers were the original Primes including one who would later be cast out and forever dubbed as The Fallen.  The film jumps to modern day China and the first action scene with narration from Optimus Prime explaining how more Autobots have now arrived on Earth and how they have teamed with the humans to protect Earth and round up the last remaining Decepticons.  The first thing you notice with the Transformers Revenge of the Fallen is the improvement on the visuals during action sequences.

The film then jumps back to the human side of the story of which the premise is Sam moving away to go to college, trying to cope with a long distance relationship with Mikaela and return to a normal life.  After discovering a shard of The Allspark in his old jacket Sam starts to see Cyber-glyphs which is soon followed up by a small action sequence involving various home applicances coming to life.  There are various comedic scenes involving Sam and his parents both at their house and on campus which helps to keep the mood light-hearted and is clearly designed to give his parents more screen time in the second film.  For those with small children their are various seuxal and drug references throughout these scenes.  Bumblebee is back not being able to speak again which is explained with a throw away line commenting that he has been "having trouble with his vocal processor again". Whilst at college Sam meets two new human characters in Alice and Leo.  Leo is another comedy relief character who is often teams with Mudflap, Skids or the returning Agent Simmons with Alice being a rival love-interest with a secret.  During this time Soundwave (one of three characters voiced by Frank Wellker), a Decepticon satellite, track down another Allspark fragment which is being held on a military base.  He sends down Ravage (who is never named) to retrieve the fragment in order to resurrect Megatron.

The pace of the movie picks up again as it builds towards one of the major points of the movie which takes place within a forest including one of the better fight sequences with Optimus Prime taking on three Decepticons.  Prime is even more bad-ass than in the first movie and now has two blades and two guns whilst the Decepticons seem some what weaker.

From this, which is feels like the mid-point of the film, the pace then slows down dramatically with heavy focus on the Humans.  Some more characters are introduced, as are more plot holes, with the story progressing slowly.  Its this part of the movie which will no doubt  come into criticism from reviewers for its pacing.

The locations change as the film starts to set itself up for the finale.  The build up is a little slow, contains a mix of comedic and serious scenes as well as explaining some more of the back story and introducing The Matrix of Leadership.

The pace picks up again for the finale which visually is much clearer than the first film with the full cast on show.  There is a lot of Transformers in the end sequence, although some of the models are reused.  Devastator appears towards the end of the movie though we ended being a little let down with the use of the character.  The visuals were certainly impressive and no doubt the combination sequence in the Imax version should be extremely impressive.

Overall Transformers Revenge of the Fallen is more of the same.  Its bigger and louder than the first, visually its still stunning with vast improvements in the fight sequences although it is let down by the pacing in the middle of the film, some plot holes and once again lack of characters for many of the Transformers.

There are several new Decepticon characters in the movie, 99% of which are never named, very few speak, even less have characters and several towards the end are just generic CG renders.   The Fallen is introduced as a sort of Emperor to Megatron's Darth Vader and is used to explain more of the Cybertronian history.  Like the first movie a lot of the Decepticons are killed (many very easily), Megatron seemed like a watered down version of his character from the first film.  Devastator felt, unfortunately, rather week and although not in the film massively Starscream certainly gains the most from the movie with some nice lines showing his character.

Plot Holes
The first movie contained a lot of minor plot holes with the sequel continuing this theme.  Timing once again is a problem for the film with an examples being when Mikela flies out to college and Jordan being suddenly a lot closer to Cario than it actually is.  Geographically speaking the location of some of the temples in Egypt are wrong.  Jetfire's alternative mode doesn't make any sense.  He's suppose to have have been off-line for a very long time and yet his spark is inside a SR-71 Blackbird which is from the 1960s.

In the final scene "the Constructicons" appear in both combined (Devastator) and individual modes at the same time.

Some little nods
There are once again some nods for the fans.  Mentions include Engeron the Matrix of Leadership, a line from Epps "if god created us in his image then you have to wonder who created him" which is to tease thoughts of Primus and Unicron amongst others.

Overall
Overall we both enjoyed the film and will certainly be seeing it again.  It fits in nicely with the first, should certainly sell well.  Die-hard fans may be a little disappointed with the amount of screen time that some of the new characters receive as well as the lack of dialogue for many of the cast.

The movie opens first within the UK and Ireland and then is released worldwide.  Whether it will out gross the first movie will be interested to see.  I expect it will perform better at the UK box office this time around as it has less competition and is opening much earlier.

The UK Transformers site has been updated by Paramount Pictures to include a CGI render of Soundwave in satellite mode. Looking from the flash files using an extractor we've grabbed out two of the images­

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­­It is with great pleasure that we are pleased to bring you some images from the world premier of Transformers Revenge of the Fallen which took place yesterday in Japan. The images can be viewed below (click for the full size images).

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Thanks to Images.net for the images.­

GenZhao has posted some images over on KOToys.com of the upcoming Transformers Revenge of the Fallen Wave four deluxe figure Stealth Scorponok. The images include several comparisons with other Transformers Movie and Transformers Revenge of the Fallen figures.

GenZhao has posted some images over on KOToys.com of the upcoming Transformers Revenge of the Fallen Wave four deluxe figure Jolt. The images include several comparisons with other Transformers Movie and Transformers Revenge of the Fallen figures.

We want your Transformers Revenge of the Fallen toy images!

Since the Revenge of the Fallen toys and merchandising is now hitting the globe we thought that now would be the perfect time to ask if people could help us update the image gallery sections of this website with images of the RotF line. We have created a thread on our message board with more information for those who are interested.