First look at the new Bumblebee in 'Transformers 4'

Monument Valley, on the outskirts of the Navajo Nation reservation, has been the setting for a number of films, and was a particular favorite of the great John Ford who used it as the setting for many of his Westerns. But now it's where Michael Bay is shooting Transformers 4, and he's been releasing on a daily basis images of his newly-designed Autobot cast. We've already seen two new Autobots who may be Drift and Slingshot, and Optimus Prime's new look in truck form. Now today brings the first look at his sidekick pal, Bumblebee, and he's sporting a much sleeker, darker design.

A quick scan of some Transformers fan sites will show that some aren't too happy with the inverted black/yellow color scheme, but maybe there's a reason for the change other than Hasbro's desire to sell more toys? Eh, maybe not. It's not as if we haven't seen other iconic Transformers undergo radical redesigns for the sake of the films (Soundwave was a friggin' Mercedes Benz, people!), so complaining about a minor color change seems silly to me.

A handful of other set photos were captured by Instagram, but the one that is most intriguing features an old rusty track cab. He looks a little bit like the Decepticon Motormaster, leader of the combiner group known as the Stunticons. Or he could be Optimus Prime in disguise or something. Transformers 4 is shooting now for release on June 27th 2014. How long before we start seeing Mark Wahlberg behind the wheel of one of these bad boys?[below photos via BleedingCool]