Awful uses of existing TF's names

[BigTransformerTrev]

What do you think are the worst reuses of a TF’s name?

Though they seem to have gotten better in recent times, it seemed for a few years Hasbro would arbitrarily use any old name they had copyright for for any new toy they made. What do you think are some of the worst ways they enacted this?


Note: I’m discounting Beast Wars as there were many characters who had G1 names but were intended to be completely different characters – not reimaginings of old ones. Examples: Rampage, Scorponok, Inferno, Megatron etc. I’m also discounting Mini-Cons as they seemed to randomly use any old name for those little fellas (Swindle, Ironhide etc) so weren’t really reimaginings of old characters or particularly significant arbitrary use of an existing name.


I’ve listed 5 examples that come to mind:
(trying to reference different toylines and where there is still some similarity)


RID(2001) Grimlock
An Autobot with a shovel with teeth (kinda) and part of the command structure, but a big departure from the Dinobot commander. Colour scheme has been revived for the new RID Grimlock.

Armada Smokescreen
Still a ground based Autobot but Smokescreen is suddenly an orange crane-truck now? Weird!

Energon Ironhide
He’s got a bit of red, turns into a ground-based vehicle and he’s an Autobot. Besides that he bares no resemblance – a young, inexperienced and rather annoying rookie rather than a grizzly old veteran.

Cybertron Scattorshot
Gone from the Leader of the Technobots and a big outer-space jet to a little tank dude. Lots of guns in alt-mode but that’s the only similarity.

Movieverse Scorponok
Yeah he is a Decepticon and he is a Scorpion. That’s where the similarities end. Instead of a gigantic Con who makes plays for leadership he’s a little dirt digger.



So what else has been a horrible use of a name that already belonged to an existing character?

[DELTAprime]

Does RID15 Grimlock count? I mean we seem to have two different Grimlock's in the Aligned continuity now. One a Autobot Dinobot created by Shockwave the other a Decepticon turned Autobot Dinobot.

[Deonasis]

Was it Smokescreen that was part of that G2 green bomber 2pk?

I try and let each new series do its thing but some alternators and movie figures i wish had better suited names.

[Paulbot]

Sky High the Micromaster. First time an existing name was used for a new character, and started this confusion.

But both are obscure so few people try to say Micromaster Sky High is meant to be, or meant to be based on, Pretender Sky High. (Like people saying Movie Barricade is a new version of Micromaster Barricade, or many of the other examples).

I don't mind that Magnaboss is made up of Prowl, Silverbolt and Ironhide. I think it's pretty stupid that it's extended universe canon that Magnaboss is made up of reformatted versions of G1 Prowl, Silverbolt and Ironhide.

[BigTransformerTrev]

Was it Smokescreen that was part of that G2 green bomber 2pk?



Yep. When they rereleased the toys for RID they renamed him 'Smokejumper' which is the version I have :) I think the G2 version was blue though, not sure. The RID version is definetly green.

[GoktimusPrime]

Worst (that hasn't already been covered)

* Any sub group/faction name reassigned as individual names; e.g. Dinobot, Insecticon, Predacon etc.
* Wheeljack (Armada); all because Hasbro said that it sounds like an 'evil' name because it shares the same suffix as carjack and hijack... despite being the name of a tool that you use to change your car tyres. Guh. And as a result, poor Super Link Wheeljack suffered from being called "Downshift" in Energon, and likewise his Cybertron counterpart (although at least Hasbro gave him a different colour scheme)
* Devastator (TF1); really should've been called Brawl. Then things got even more confusing when another Devastator appeared in ROTF. They could've easily changed the subtitles to say "Brawl" for the DVD release.

IMO one of the best name reuses would have to be Beast Wars Inferno. :)


Does RID15 Grimlock count? I mean we seem to have two different Grimlock's in the Aligned continuity now. One a Autobot Dinobot created by Shockwave the other a Decepticon turned Autobot Dinobot.
Yeah but at least he's still a Dinobot. Different continuity = different origin story; remember that Aligned is a Continuity Family, not a continuity. e.g. G1 is a continuity family that has different continuities in it; G1 comics Grimlock was created on Cybertron and travelled to Earth aboard the Ark with the other Autobots, but G1 cartoon Grimlock was created on Earth by the Autobots -- two different origin stories from two different continuities within the same continuity family.

RiD 2001 Grimlock was a steam shovel. He was nothing remotely like Grimlock, he wasn't even a Dinobot, he was a Buildmaster. Hasbro was just maintaining the trademark.

[Tetsuwan Convoy]

With RID Grimlock, I kind of justified it like this:
He has grabby claws, therefore he has a grim lock (of his hands). I though it was a pretty stupid reuse TBH.

Agreed on group names becoming actual character names, Sharkticon, etc. Blah, use some imagination.

On the otherhand, some reuses are pretty good. BW Ironhide from Magnaboss for example, he was an elephant, who have pretty tough skins.

Scattorshot makes a bit of sense when he's a guy with lotsa guns and spekking errors.

[UltimateGalvatron]

Rid 2015 Grimlock- nothing like his previously portrayed FoC/Prime Beast Hunters Self

Armada Smokescreen- why couldn't he have just been Hoist from the beginning???

Energon Megatron- he should have just kept being Galvatron after his rebirth

Movie Mirage/Dino- he is an awesome character, but not anything like G1 or other incarnations of Mirage

The Movie Constructicons- ALL OF THEM - There names and characters and personality are completely uncoherent/existent other the Demolisher (or Scavenger or whatever)

[Handsprime]

Movie Jazz is a stupid name. I've never seen him listen to Jazz, just hip hop and whatever


Energon Megatron- he should have just kept being Galvatron after his rebirth

Then what would've cybertron Megatron be known as? Ultratron?

[UltimateGalvatron]

Then what would've cybertron Megatron be known as? Ultratron?

.............


.............



Golden Megatron

[Zommael]

Then what would've cybertron Megatron be known as? Ultratron?

Master Megatron.

I always preferred the way Takara handled that. Armada Megatron upgraded to Super Megatron; then to Superlink Galvatron, who upgraded to Galvatron General; then Galaxy Force Master Megatron into Master Galvatron. I like the use of "Master" as the prefix for their names, implying that they are the perfected or mastered forms of the characters.

Speaking of, while Energon was an okay use of the term as a series name given that the substance did play a decent part, and Cybertron wasn't a terrible choice given that reviving Cybertron/Primus was the goal of the story, Micron Legend, Superlink, and Galaxy Force give you a much better idea of what's going on. Hasbro could have easily translated the title to Transformers: Powerlinx for Energon, which would have been better. I guess that with the number of G1 homages in that series, they wanted a name that would call back to the series.

[GoktimusPrime]

Scattorshot makes a bit of sense when he's a guy with lotsa guns and spekking errors.
That's not a true reuse. The G1 character was called Scattershot, not Scattorshot. I know that Hasbro modified the spelling to circumvent trademark issues, but it's had a rather... unfortunate result.

'Scatter' is originally a Germanic/Anglo word, however "Scattor" is Greek for faeces. Modern Greek's Σκατά and English words such as scatology (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scatology), scatological (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/scatological) and scat (dung, excrement, droppings; esp. of carnivorous animals) etc. are all derived from this word. The Scatophagus argus (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scatophagus_argus) fish's name is Greek for "spotted poo eater."

So 'Scattorshot' literally means 'to shoot poo.' And if you think that's bad, Hasbro even made a character called Scattorbrain (http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Scattorbrain). :eek:
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/Transformers/Photocomic%20Scattorshot/photocomic_scattorshot4.jpg

[Ode to a Grasshopper]

Poor Scatman Crothers...

[GoktimusPrime]

Poor Scatman Crothers...
His real name was Benjamin Sherman Crothers. Scatman was a stage name referring to his ability for scat singing. And scat singing gets its name because it's literally just singing 'made up crap' (i.e. improvised nonsensical wordless syllables). A-skeep-beep de bop-bop beep bop bo-dope skeetle-at-de-op-de-day! ;)

[Sinnertwin]

Poor Scatman Crothers...

hee hee hee
:D

[DELTAprime]

I really like the Cybertron Defence Scattorshot, except for the unfortunate name.

[BigTransformerTrev]

The use of 'Menasor' for one of the Cons from giant planet in Cybertron was pretty crap. Besides size and alliegence the weird tunnelling figure had nothing remotely to do with the Stunticon gestalt

[Trent]

The use of 'Menasor' for one of the Cons from giant planet in Cybertron was pretty crap. Besides size and alliegence the weird tunnelling figure had nothing remotely to do with the Stunticon gestalt

And lets not forget the black repainted of Titanium Rodimus.

[BigTransformerTrev]

Wonder if 'Clampdown' counts as reuse of a name? :confused:

After all, the original toy was a Diaclone so not really a TF. However now we have out at the same time a Masterpiece figure who is an humanoid Autobot Police Officerand a RID(15) Decepticon Criminal Crab-slash-hatchback squealer by the same name. The characters are on the opposite sides of the fence in pretty much every single respect (allegiance, side-of-the-law, toy quality etc) except their name.

[Jaxius._]

Prime megatron was reincarnated and reformatted by Unicron yet he is still Megatron. He was even tortured by unicron (like g1 galvatron) so why not call him Galvatron.

The Japanese primes that are called Optimus in the west... Have some originality. E.G call RID 2000 Prime, Magmis Prime (Magmis is a play on Magma, this is because he is called Fire Convoy in Japan)

[Polursine]

AoE Hound was clearly Bulkhead.
And whats with Steeljaw all of a sudden becoming an evil name?
And Swoop is Strafe? Yeaaah I dunno...
I will get cranky at AoE Hotshot aka not-Tracks as well

[Handsprime]

Air Raid in the movie universe probably should count.
He is:
A member of Cybertron's Science Division
A component of Superion
A member of another Aerialbot team
An ancient Star Seeker (who according to TakaraTomy is not the same as the rest)
And a retool of Breakaway, who isn't any of the above.

[Handsprime]

Also Mudflap. Before TF2 he was a decepticon crane. Even after TF2 however, he still managed to be a shelfwarmer

[prjkt]

Wonder if 'Clampdown' counts as reuse of a name? :confused:

After all, the original toy was a Diaclone so not really a TF. However now we have out at the same time a Masterpiece figure who is an humanoid Autobot Police Officerand a RID(15) Decepticon Criminal Crab-slash-hatchback squealer by the same name. The characters are on the opposite sides of the fence in pretty much every single respect (allegiance, side-of-the-law, toy quality etc) except their name.

On that RiD15- note, Slipstream - from female Decepticon Seeker to make Autobot Minicon

[Polursine]

On that RiD15- note, Slipstream - from female Decepticon Seeker to make Autobot Minicon

All the goddamn minicons really

[BigTransformerTrev]

All the goddamn minicons really

True - though Beastbox could have been good if he had just been a Decepticon