Is this the Fallen?

The Fallen in Dreamwave's War Within comics

Love it or hate it, there is no doubt about it; Transformers:  Revenge of the Fallen will be a big hit this summer.  Despite the first film’s large box office take, there seems to be a large number of people out there who were not impressed.  Because of those feelings, they are equally unimpressed with what they’ve seen so far from the sequel.  For those of you who loved the film, fear not!  I am a big time fan, and I will be “all over” covering the sequel.  We have had numerous leaks of information.  A favorite tactic for Michael Bay to keep his film’s plot under wraps is the classic “false leak.”  Whether or not you believe it, Bay claims to leak false information about Transformers onto the web in an effort to ensure that the true plot of his film stays under wraps for as long as possible.  So everything we’ve heard so far needs to be taken with a grain of salt.  

So far, we know the title of the film… We’ve seen a teaser poster!… We saw a wicked awesome teaser trailer for the film that has me super pumped for this film.  We’ve read a couple of brief interviews with the films writers, which really didn’t reveal too much.  And we got lots of concept art.  That’s about the extent of our knowledge.  So in an effort to quench our undying thirst for knowledge on all things Transformers related, we’ve resorted to checking out pictures of Transformers toys to try and guess what characters may or may not be in the film, and how these characters may or may not look like.  In continuing this trend, I submit to you a cool looking little pic that I believe sheds some new light on this summer’s sure fire epic hit.  Check out this picture of a new toy that appears to be the infamous “Fallen” from the new film.  Check it out below.

Is this the Fallen?

For you skeptics out there, you can find more pictures of the toy, including what appears to be the transformation instructions for the toy, by checking out TF08 – Toys for Transformers.   Now, this could all be just an elaborate attempt at misleading us all.  And if it is, all I can say is “Fine job Michael Bay.  But don’t you have better things to do?  Like, hmmm… how about making a kick ass Transformers film?  Yeah…”  That said, I don’t think this is the case.  This looks like it’s way too much work to be just an attempt to mislead the public.  I’m buying it.  Now, if this is the fallen that I’m looking at, I just got even more excited about this film.  I know it’s just a toy, but it looks pretty cool.  Look at the face, it looks like the face from the poster.  I have no idea how big this character will be.  I don’t have anything to base a size comparison on.  But I’d imagine that the namesake character would have to be one big, bad M.F.  I’ll also admit that while I’ve always enjoyed the transformers in their many incarnations, I do not know much about “the Fallen.”  So, as much for me as it is for you, here is a bit of the wikki entry on the character:

“Although the Fallen’s origins are only suggested in his comic book appearance, they would be fully explained in Dorling Kindersley’s Transformers: The Ultimate Guide. One of the original thirteen Transformers created by Primus, the robot who would become the Fallen betrayed his creator by siding with Primus’s dark twin, the malevolent planet-eater, Unicron. In the final battle between Primus and Unicron, the Fallen fell victim to the same fate as his master, sucked through a black hole into another dimension. However, while Unicron emerged into another universe, the Fallen was not so fortunate, finding himself trapped in the “underspace” between dimensions.”

Maybe I’m just over-reacting, but I can just close my eyes and imagine Prime throwing down with this thing.  I may be the only one, but I say screw the “epic group fight scene.”  I want to see the leader of the auto-bots, Optimus Prime, throwing down with the baddest transformer in the film, mono a mono.  Not that I don’t like the other auto-bots.  Quite the contrary, Bumblebee is my favorite transformer.  I thought his character stole the scenes he was in.  That sequence where he exposes himself and introduces himself to “the beef”, that was real cool.  Very well done, well developed character.  But there is something dramatic about seeing the emotional and physical leader of the heroes throwing down in an epic battle royal with the baddest bot in the film.  I can’t envision a better final battle.  What do you think?  Does anyone else think this is the infamous “Fallen?”    And what are your thoughts on the sequel?