Contents of blog: Optimus Prime, Devastator - all rigs that compose the monster + photos of a couple of the 4-wheelers
(Photos: All photos of Optimus, Bumblebee, Ironhide and Sideswipe were taken by me. If anybody wants to use them for non-commercial web sites, that's ok with me but it would be nice to get the credit for the photos, as I really try to give people credit myself when I borrow their pictures :))
Displayed outside the Arclight Theater this weekend was none other than Optimus Prime, along with Bumblebee, Sideswipe and Ironhide. This exhibit was a must-see for me. The Arclight is a phenomenal theater to watch movies in, so although we didn't have to see the movie in order to view the cars on display, we of course opted to see the it while we were there. (Yeah, I fell for the advertising ;-)) I liked the movie a lot, apart from the "love scene" episodes in the movie, which I felt were redundant and just plain annoying. But for truck lovers, there was a lot of eyecandy.
Anyway, forget the movie. Let's get to the fun stuff... the TRUCKS!!!! MORE Specifically, Optimus Prime, who was on display outside the theater! Optimus had me fooled! I was certain that it was a Kenworth W900, but further research shows that Optimus Prime (at least the modern version of Optimus) is in fact a Peterbilt 379 EX! What a sweeeet ride! Absolutely gorgeous. I did go a little crazy with the camera, of course. The beauty of digital cameras is you can snap all you want without having to pay for development of the pictures.
In this blog I will mainly focus on Optimus, however further down I also have the rigs that make up the Devastator as well as a few shots of Bumblebee, Ironhide and SideSwipe, despite the fact that under normal circumstances, they are about 14 wheels short of making it into my blog ;-)
The original Optimus Prime was a Cabover Freighliner FL-86. Below is a photo of a blue/white COE freightliner, the original optimus was red. (All I could find was miniature models & toy versions of the freightliner so I opted for a differently colored Freightliner instead so I could post a pic of a real truck! So...just picture the truck below in red....
I know that fans of the original transformers were disappointed when they changed Optimus Prime from a flatnosed COE to a Peterbilt 379, but as a fan of big rigs, I must say I am happy they went with the Peterbilt.
From what I've read, the reason they went with the Peterbilt was so that Optimus Prime as a robot would be bigger and badder! :) Optimus Prime's height as a robot is 28 feet and all the mechanics of the CGI model would not have been possible if they had stuck with the cabover. Sticking with the cabover in this case would have dropped his height to 20 feet. (For you metric fanatics, that's a drop from 10 meters to 7 meters).Here are some of the photos I took of Optimus in truck form, while he was displayed outside the Arctern Theater. Sweet ride!!
Optimus Prime - Grill
Optimus - Hood ornament / emblem
Optimus - Sideview of cab
Optimus Prime - Front Left Side
Mining trucks are becoming a favorite of mine. Until I started writing this blog, I had no clue about their existance at all. Yesterday while watching the Transformer, I was undeniably excited to see this baby roll on to the scene.
Long Haul - a yellow cousin of the truck in the movie.
Scavenger - O&K/Terex RH400 Hydraulic Mining Excavator
Here is Scavenger dwarfing a Chevy SUV!
Scavenger - a white version I included to show you how huge it is compared to a person.Overload is a red Komatsu HD465-7, it's a big boy as well! Empty weight is 95,000 lbs and it's about 30 feet wide and 15 feet wide.
Overload - Red Komatsu HD465-7 (I think this is a model only)
Scrapper - Caterpillar 992G Front Loader
Scavenger - Caterpillar D9L BulldozerMIX MASTER - Devastator's head
BUMBLEBEE - 2010 Chevy Camaro
