Awful uses of existing TF's names

[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.

[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?

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Golden Megatron

[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)

[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, scatological and scat (dung, excrement, droppings; esp. of carnivorous animals) etc. are all derived from this word. The 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.