I used the Notchback early game because it has a better blaster and is faster. It's easier to find helicopters by flying back to the village during Decoy. There's a glitch with Ironhide where he won't do damage if you go to where he jumped from. You can also just lead Optimus into water to beat him. For Final Showdown it was heaps easier to fight Starscream as the Notchback and accelerate behind him. I reckon this run could have been sub 49min because my gameplay was shoddy at times but I'm still happy