Well I know Transformers: The Movie (1986) was a hit. Then Michael Bay came out with Transformers (2006) and there was debate that it followed none of the story line from 1986 and that many of the characters were either wrong or missing (Such as Bumblebee being a Camaro). Even with these complaints, it was still a hit, so Michael Bay made Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.
In Revenge of the Fallen, Jazz, of course, was not there, and there were a whole new bunch of Autobots with no names what so ever. And this time Sam is after the Matrix of Leadership to revive Optimus Prime. Okay, more along the story line of 1986.
Transformers: The Dark of the Moon, is about a discovery made by Neil Armstrong and Buzz (Forget his Last Name), a giant space ship with a giant robot in it. Not sure if Decepticon or Autobot, or Unicron. Not much has really been released from it and there is only one trailer so far. But it definitely is coming!
Trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3H8bnKdf654
1. Aldrin
2. GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA no!
Transformers gets retconned every 2 to 3 years in comics, cartoons (and now) live-action films, trying to sort out the plot is pretty hopeless at this point so just enjoy big robots beating each other up (though still no Robot Jox reboot LOL).
Also, you'd think Cmdr Michael Collins would have spotted a big ol' spaceship from the Apollo 11 Command Module.
If one were a moon-landing-faked conspiracist, one would say Collins didn't spot it because he never circled the moon.
Robot Jox sucked. A lot. And it had that stupid Americans-beat-the-Russians theme.
Of course there's another Transformers movie. They made money at the box office, and then a crap-load more money on Transformers-themed toys and clothing. Most movies these days seem to only be about how much merchandise they can sell. Too bad, because there are still plenty of weird, interesting movie concepts out there (watch the animated movie "9" (not "Nine", that's a different one) sometime, which has no merchandising as far as I know).
Hahaha :D thought you'd like that :) hey I think that Robot Jox was fairly pro USSR (given they thought the Soviets would still be around in the giant-fighting-robot future)
Transformers, like many properties from the 80s, were from inception planned as a multimedia vector for selling toys n' stuff. We can blame that evil form of thought back to George Lucas and Mattel who cashed in on Star Wars in a similar way, but oddly the Transformers cartoon and animated film gained a fairly significant cult following spinning off the franchise in ways Takara didn't expect (conventions, collectors market, etc). In fact it's scary how many people out there in nerd land are hardcore Transformers fans (they call themselves "Trannies" but I'm not going there...).
For the record 9 did in fact produce toys but they were fairly limited given the nich popularity that film attracted.
Like Thorin says, I can't say I'm surprised that there's another Transformers film coming out, but I can say that I won't be watching it (well, not unless I have a lot to drink first and I'm getting in for free).
Believe me there's still great sci-fi being made (if you haven't yet check out Moon (2009)), it's just, like don't expect much if Michael Bay or his ilk are behind it.