Detroit-- Hundreds of adults and children milled about the Grand Circus Park area downtown Friday afternoon to watch the last day of �Transformers 4� filming.
As a special treat, nearby Optimus Prime, the 2014 Bumble Bee concept Camaro and three other Autobots were on public display.
�It�s so cool,� said 12-year-old Colt Griest after looking at the five brightly painted vehicles in a gated lot at the corner of Clifford and Adams. �The shininess of the cars, I don�t know how they got them this clean.�
Colt and his parents, Mike and Angela Griest of South Lyon, made a day of their trip into downtown Detroit. They had lunch at Niki�s Pizza before heading over to the Transformers set on Washington Blvd. near Clifford.
�It�s nice they let people get this close,� Angela Griest said.
Mike Griest said he was impressed with the set created to look like a destroyed Hong Kong with crumbled buildings and Chinese billboards.
�The way they could transform a block into another country, it�s crazy,� he said.
The blockbuster movie, which stars Mark Wahlberg, began shooting in the Grand Circus Park area July 31. Filming now moves Chicago.
Most of the filming has taken place in Michigan, said Gabriela Gutentag, publicist for Bay Films. Filming, which also took place at the nearby Rosa Parks Transit Center, has drawn moderate-sized crowds each day, Gutentag said. Some spectators Friday inquired about the whereabouts of Wahlberg, hoping to see the actor on set.
Gutentag said having the Autobots on display for three hours Friday keeps in line with the desire of producers Michael Bay and Ian Bryce to do things for the communities where they film.
�It�s a way of saying thank you,� she said.
Transformers fan Stevan Bojicic brought his Optimus Prime action figure with him to the movie set. The youngster�s uncle Vojo Bojicic told him about the filming and they headed down Friday with Stevan�s mom Ljudmila Bojicic.
�I mostly like Optimus Prime,� he said. �He�s better than he used to look. Transformers is a great show. I love when they transform into robots.�
�Transformers 4� is the follow-up to �Transformers: Dark of the Moon� released in 2011.
cwilliams@detroitnews.com
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