"that Optimus Prime will combine with Jetfire, which sounds an appropriately Michael Bay-ian level of disdain for the source material."
I'm pretty sure that's already happened in one of the Japanese shows, iirc...

I believe it happened in Armada, but that doesn't mean it should happen again.

Armada, blugh!

Best bet for Ratner to tank this? Get Ahnold to reprise his role, and if at all possible, Brigitte Nielsen for set dressing.

I love watching people get bent out of shape over Transformers new. It's like how angry they get is inverse to how much they actually know about the franchise. "OMG! It's not exactly like a cartoon I hardly remember from 25 years ago!!!!1" Show me on the doll what Michael Bay did you your childhood.

How would Optimus combining with Jetfire show disdain for the source material? Do us a favor and use a resource like the TF wiki before you make an ass out of yourself by whining about Bay using stuff STRAIGHT FROM AN EPISODE OF ARMADA.
Seriously,bashing Bay for stuff that has a history in the franchise is getting old. Oh Noes! Optimus has flames! Just like G2!! OMG,Optimus haz mouth!!1! Just like Cybertron!!!

Optimus also combined with Wing Saver in Cybertron (the TV show from after Armada.) Also, he had a Targetmaster companion at the end of the G1 show and Leader-1 from Gobots was his Targetmaster in the Armada show. Not to mention Roller the blue six-wheeled creature that lives in his trailer. Optimus combined with Ultra Magnus in the Car Robots show from 2000. God Ginrai who looks just like Optimus combined with Godbomber to make God Ginrai in Headmasters, the Japanese show which immediately followed the G1 US show. So actually there are more examples of Optimus combining with stuff than not if you look at the shows. I think another Transformer supplementing Prime is a fun idea as long as it's executed well.

TF nerd here, go me!

Cybertron/Galaxy Force is the second after Armada/Micron Legend, actually; Energon/Superlink was between the two, but people are usually forgiven for not remembering, as it was dull enough to only be worth watching once, if that (YMMV).

But, yes, Jetfire and Optimus had that going on in Armada, and Jetfire kept it for Energon and now in Animated (with partner Jetstorm). Optimus has combined with other robots in in Robots in Disguise (bro-bot Ultra Magnus), Energon (4 modules, Wing Saber, and Omega Supreme/Sentinel), and Cybertron (LeoBreaker and Wing Saber).

So, there's definitely some precedence, even if the actual combination in question only came during one series (two if you count Energon's toyline, where they released a smaller Optimus that could combine with Jetfire and the rest). Unless we nitpick and say that Generation 1 Optimus and Jetfire never combined. But since the producers of the movie have quit calling it a G1 movie, I'll cut them that much slack.

Hey, I said I was a TF nerd. I'm not the mightiest, but I know my way around.

Soundwave isn't so bad. He's been a tape deck, a car, an unreleased Laser Cycle, a missile tank (twice), a stealth bomber, and a Scion-looking truck. He's a robot of variety, and at least a satellite works as a good throwback to his original form and function: Communications and spying.

Gold5> Sorry, man, you're way off on some of that.

--LBD "Nytetrayn"

Jeeze buddy, they way you go on about Micheal Bay it makes me start wondering if he wronged you some time in the past (and don't say "Yeah! He made Bad Boys 2! Dur hur hur" I will find where you live and punch you in the face.) Unless he burnt down your house and ravaged your women-folk, I say get the fuck over it.

have you ever seen the animated version of STAR TREK? we get to see a SALOT its sort of a fat teddybear with six inch fangs and a LAMACHA a sort of scaly mountian lion with a scream like GODZILLA and BIRD ALIENS,and BUG ALIENS and LIZARD ALIENS and CAT ALIENS and LT AREX HE HAD THREE ARMS AND THREE LEGS and LT MARESS she was a cat type

Noooo, not Rattner as director for Conan!

"OMG,Optimus haz mouth!!1! Just like Cybertron!!!"
Or like Beast Wars (which was the first to give an Optimus a mouth, I believe)

Well,I stand corrected. But the point is,why bitch at Dreamworks for stuff that's been in Transformers for YEARS?

MY BEST ACIVMENTS IS AT MACH 8

Devonian> He also had a mouth in Energon (the toy, anyway, which got a running change), Machine Wars, G2 (as a GoBot), and even in a G1 storybook which scares man-children to this day:

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b87/LBDNytetrayn/autobots.gif

--LBD "Nytetrayn"

And I thought Bay couldn't find a way to shaft Optimus Prime any more than he already has with the flames, the mouth, the robot mode design and the long nose truck...

Even if all of these bad ideas were in any of the obscure spin-offs after G1, it doesn't mean I want to see them on the big screen. Especially if it means watching Prime mounting another Autobot.

And finally, I seriously doubt any of these things are homages by Bay to other Transformers series, he's just a talentless hack who thought things like flames would look cool.

Michael Bay-splosions!!!

i want to see transformers 2.. first movie was not so bad.

The TERRORCONS AND PREDICONS GO BOOGIE WOOGIE WITH THE SHARKICONS AND INSECTICONS AND CUTHROAT EATS KICKBACK AND HUN-GAR GETS BOTH HEADS CUAGHT IN HOLE AND PREIKING RIDES A REALY LARGE SKATEBOARD AND SKYLYNX SEES TO IT NO ONE CHEATS

Photoboy> Or maybe someone showed him some of this stuff, and he thought "that looks cool, I want ours to do something like that." Who knows?

--LBD "Nytetrayn"

Wouldn't an "obscure spinoff" be something like the Animorphs line or something? All the stuff I mentioned came right out of the mainstream TF line.
As an earlier poster pointed out,the less people know/care about Transformers,the more they bitch that Bay "changed" it.