TRANSFORMERS Invade Detroit!

That sounds right that Transfomers have as party in Detroit since all the Autobots are American cars and Detroit is the motor city. Talk about product placement. I wonder how much GM and Chevy had to pay for their cars to become Transformers. It explains why Bumblebee is not a Volkswagon like he was in the original animated series.

Animatics began in April 2005,[25] and designing began two months later, with Hasbro heavily collaborating on the live action interpretations of their characters.[1] In keeping with Michael Bay's desire to make a film about a robot alien invasion of Earth, the characters were also made to look less humanoid.[35] There is no morphing in the film, as with in the cartoon, and every character stays the same size despite changing to and from modes, providing an explanation for the Earth forms they choose to take.[3] For example, Optimus Prime's original cab over truck form was rejected as it would make Prime would only 20-25 feet tall, so Bay decided to use the Peterbilt, the largest truck avaliable.[36] Bay also added flame artwork to accentuate Prime's ribs,[33] and had his faceplate made retractable.[6] Bumblebee was also changed: Don Murphy wanted to retain his Volkswagen Beetle form,[37] but Bay rejected it to avoid comparisons with Herbie the Love Bug.[38] Bay went for the Chevrolet Camaro as he felt the car had a friendliness befitting Bumblebee,[3] and as a result the other Autobots also became GM-owned vehicle lines, in order to save money with product placement.[34] Ratchet's alternate mode was changed from an ambulance to a Search & Rescue vehicle on Hasbro's advice.[25]

In contrast, Megatron's alternate mode was changed from a Walther P38 as the writers felt, "It’s like Darth Vader turning into his own lightsaber and having someone else swing him around."[27] His face was redesigned to be more menacing and hideous.[13] The numerous animatic tests conducted also made Bay realize Starscream would require bird-like legs due to his actions throughout the film.[39] Bay admitted most of the Decepticons had their appearances chosen before their characterization as Hasbro needed to get started on the toys.[40] Hasbro wanted to have a musical character that relied on mass shifting, but Don Murphy felt such a role compromised the character of Soundwave,[21] so the Decepticon spy was renamed Soundbyte,[41] and finally Frenzy, Soundwave's minion.[12] Other characters given temporary names were Brawl, who was known as "Devastator"[42] and "Demolisher",[43] and Blackout, known as Vortex[44] and Incinerator.[45] These were their on-set names,[46] and the official names were only confirmed during filming.[12]