Transform.forward is always (0,0,1)

Okay, so I (thinK) I've partially nailed down the issue. For one, I was doing my cube rotation incorrectly. Rather then using Transform.LookAt() I was calculating the angle between the mouse and cube manually using the arc tangent of the delta Y over delta X. But this actually was only rotating my cube 180 degrees, and then flipping it to go another 180. I hadn't noticed this issue because I had a solid color material on the cube, so any flipping wasn't visibly noticeable.

So I rewrote my rotate script to use LookAt() here it is:

// Update is called once per frame void Update () {

 Vector3 mouseScreenPos = Input.mousePosition;
 Vector3 mouseWorldPos = Camera.main.ScreenToWorldPoint(mouseScreenPos);

 mouseWorldPos.z = transform.position.z;

 transform.LookAt(mouseWorldPos,Vector3.forward);            

}

And, the cube seems to be rotating a full 360 without flipping around in between.

So the Transform.forward variable seems to be working correctly, because if I instantiate like so:

Transform tempBullet;
Vector3 inFront = transform.rotation * (Vector3.forward * 1);           
tempBullet = (Transform)Instantiate
             (bulletBody,inFront + transform.position, new Quaternion(0,0,0,0) );

The bullet prefab correctly spawns in front of the player! So that's half of the issue now, my other issue is getting the bullet to actually move forward in the direction the player was facing when the bullet was fired.

I tried setting the forward vector of the bullet manually, like so:

Vector3 bulletForward = transform.rotation * (Vector3.right);   
tempBullet.forward = bulletForward;

But this produces inconsistent behavior depending on the direction of the player.

Can anyone point me in the right direction for my next hurdle, which is: How do a get a newly instantiated prefab to move in the direction of the player from the moment of instantiation?

Thanks.

EDIT:

So I fixed it by changing the bulletForward to be as so:

Vector3 bulletForward = transform.localRotation * new Vector3(0,1,1);