SCI FI Wire provides some less than inspiring news about the vehicle modes that will be used in the live-action Transformers movie:

Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, writers of the upcoming Transformers movie, told fans that the movie will take a real-world approach to its depictions of the robots that can change from everyday objects such as cars into futuristic fighting machines. “In translating this thing to live action, … all of these Transformers are being designed in the movie such that, when they transform, there’s no cheating,” Orci said in a a live video Q&A on Yahoo! on Aug. 18. He added: “It’s very much what it would realistically look like if a Transformer was sitting right there as a car, and it turned into the character that you know.”

As a consequence, some of the everyday incarnations of well-known characters may change for the movie: Bumblebee, for example, is now a Camaro instead of a Volkswagen. “All the vehicle decisions were made based on literally sitting and staring at the actual vehicles and seeing how they would actually transform and deciding based on what is going to be the coolest version of seeing this live,” Orci said.

Great, so Bumblebee goes from being an awkward but lovable beetle to a complete loser-sports car. Admittedly, the alternate mode is somewhat in character, Bumblebee is pretty unreliable and a wannabe, but a Camaro still seems an odd choice.

The son of a reporter from Ain’t It Cool News calls Bumblebee’s new look pimpin’. Maybe he’s right, but Bumblebee is the last autobot who should probably be described as pimpin’. Jazz is pimpin’. Even Tracks or Sideswipe could be considered pimpin’. But Bumblebee? Bumblebee is the little freckle-faced autobot with a leaky tailpipe that’s more putz than pimp.

You don’t know how afraid I am that some twit will change Ironhide’s vehicle mode to a Hummer (according to Wikipedia it’s currently a GMC Topkick pickup truck). Oh look, they’ve already made Ratchet a Humvee… Sigh.