Switched at Birth.

[Sky Shadow]

Over the years, we know Transformers have been mixed up. That is, the character of Sunstreaker (then called Spin-out) was meant to be a yellow Sideswipe mould, while Sideswipe was supposed to be a red Sunstreaker mould. But there are others I've always been suspicious of.

Windsweeper and Dogfight seem like their parents may have mixed them up at the hospital. Windsweeper has chrome, fast-deploying missiles like the Autobots Backstreet and Override, while Dogfight's are slow and matte like Ruckus and Crankcase. Also I've always thought Windsweeper's colours and altmode were more 'Autobotty' than Dogfight's, who in turn would fit in better (colour-wise) with the Triggercons.

Longtooth and Stranglehold - totally mixed up in their cribs. Switch them around and the Decepticon Pretender Juniors would be led by a skull-faced monster and have an octopus and walrus with skull belt buckles as his cronies. The Autobot Pretender Juniors in turn would all be human, as is consistent with every single other bipedal Autobot Pretender. Longtooth was totally meant to be a Decepticon.

Anyone else? It doesn't have to be switched moulds, it can be names that seem mixed up too like... perhaps Battletrap and Flywheels. (Their names were the opposite to usual in their first Japanese cartoon appearance, which is kind of logical since the tank/fighter jet is more suited for battle and the ute actually has wheels. See the video here.)

[SharkyMcShark]

Sunstreaker and Sideswipe's abilities in their bios seem to have been mixed up at some point.

[Sky Shadow]

Sunstreaker and Sideswipe's abilities in their bios seem to have been mixed up at some point.

Yeah, that's what I suggested at the beginning - Budiansky definitely wrote the bios with Sideswipe supposed to be the red Diaclone Lamborghini with an exposed engine supercharger, shoulder mounted missiles, jetpack and piledriver fists, while Sunstreaker was supposed to be the sleek yellow Diaclone car with a single shoulder-mounted missile launcher. In some of the early comics the vehicle modes were switched that way, resulting in this:



And yes, they seem to share the same robot mode other than the jetpack, while Sunstreaker has a Decepticon insignia.

[Verno]

BW Armordillo was totally meant to be Ironhide. Probably changed because of the upcoming Combiner at that point. His Bio is full of hints for him being Ironhide.

[Paulbot]

Back in 1984, the jet's tech spec stats got a bit confused.

Skywarp's don't match the bio; he's got an intelligence and rank of 9 despite being "not too smart" and useless without Megatron". Thundercracker stat's say he's the dumbest of the seekers. Starscream is the fastest flyer and air commander but Skywarp is faster and more highly ranked.

I've wondered if perhaps the stats and the matching picture were originally correct, but they changed the names and bios. Perhaps the fast and high ranked black jet was supposed to be Starscream (you see stars in a black sky), the dumb blue jet was supposed to be Skywap (the sky is blue), and the grey jet was supposed to be Thundercracker (you get Thunder with grey cloudy skies).

[Hursticon]

I've wondered if perhaps the stats and the matching picture were originally correct, but they changed the names and bios. Perhaps the fast and high ranked black jet was supposed to be Starscream (you see stars in a black sky), the dumb blue jet was supposed to be Skywap (the sky is blue), and the grey jet was supposed to be Thundercracker (you get Thunder with grey cloudy skies).

I very much like the rationale you've put behind that Paulbot, it's highly sensical and could be very likely IMO.
Like Budiansky was up really bloody late that night working on the 3 and made slight hiccups, or Hasbro lost the paper-clips binding the various facets together and completely confused the lot of paperwork.

[GoktimusPrime]

When I first got the Air Strike Patrol I thought that the name Nightflight would have been better assigned to Whisper (the black stealth fighter) instead of the grey F-14 Tomcat. <shrug>

[Sky Shadow]

Perhaps the fast and high ranked black jet was supposed to be Starscream (you see stars in a black sky), the dumb blue jet was supposed to be Skywap (the sky is blue), and the grey jet was supposed to be Thundercracker (you get Thunder with grey cloudy skies).

That makes so much sense. It coherently explains how they managed to mix up all three characters' Tech Specs statistics and makes sense of the 1984 Seekers' names. Ingenious.

[Slag]

Perhaps the fast and high ranked black jet was supposed to be Starscream (you see stars in a black sky), the dumb blue jet was supposed to be Skywap (the sky is blue), and the grey jet was supposed to be Thundercracker (you get Thunder with grey cloudy skies).

How long have you thought known this.
love it!

[Slag]

When I first got the Air Strike Patrol I thought that the name Nightflight would have been better assigned to Whisper (the black stealth fighter) instead of the grey F-14 Tomcat. <shrug>

that would make more sense too.