"Ratchet," an emergency vehicle and Autobot Transformer (C.W. Spaulding)

Last weekend, The Leader World columnist C.W. Spaulding was with her husband, Andrew, visiting Chicago. While there, they saw filming for the upcoming American movie, “Transformers 3,” set for release July 1, 2011.

A brief history of “Transformers”

For anyone unfamiliar with the franchise, “Transformers,” with its tagline “Robots In Disguise,” pits a group of heroic robots, the Autobots, against their recurring enemies, the Decepticons.

"Bumblebee," a Chevy Camaro and Autobot Transformer (C.W. Spaulding)

“Transformers” started out as a line of action figures developed by American company Hasbro and inspired by products from Japanese company Takara Tomy. In the 1980’s, the franchise spun off into an extremely popular cartoon series, an animated movie and numerous comic books.

Different versions of “Transformers” continued on into the 1990’s, but its overall popularity declined entering the 2000’s. Then, the franchise made a major comeback.

A staged explosion as part of a battle scene (C.W. Spaulding)

The first “Transformers” movie was wildly successful, making $707 million worldwide. Its sequel, “Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen,” was released in 2009, making $836 million worldwide.

Director Michael Bay (with megaphone) works with actors on set, including film series star Josh Duhamel (far right) (C.W. Spaulding)

 “Transformers 3” has the same setting as the previous two films.

A paratrooper flies into filming in downtown Chicago (Andrew Spaulding)

More of C.W. and Andrew's photos can be found here: Transformers 3 Set Photos

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