Let's play "spot the references"!I'm sure we've spotted most of them, but I'd like to centralise them here on a single thread.
So here's what I can recall thus far...
Characters: Mudflap and Skids
Reference: Twins
Details: We had Autobot twin brothers Sideswipe and Sunstreaker in G1.
Characters: Mudflap and Skids (ice-cream truck)
Reference: Combiners
Details: G1 combiners consisted of two Transformers who would combine to form a single vehicle, such as Blackout and Spaceshot who merged to form a jet. In RotF Mudflap and Skids combine to form an ice cream truck.
Characters: Devastator/Constructicons
Reference #1: Gestalt
Details: As in G1 Devastator is a gestalt comprising of individual Constructicons.
Reference #2: Gumbies-gestalt
Details: In Masterforce, the Targetmaster Seacons were and endless army of gumbies who could merge with Turtler to form King Poseidon.
Character: Alice
Reference #1: Pretender
Details: In G1 Pretenders were able to disguise themselves as organic life forms such as humans. In Masterforce, they were even able to mass-shift themselves down to human-size and integrate with human society, allowing them to better interact with humans and even have relationships (re: Lander).
Reference #2: Organic beast mode
Details: Alice's human mode is fundamentally an organic beast mode, much like those seen in Beast Wars, Beast Wars II and Beast Wars Neo. Alice actually bears a closer resemblance to a BW Transformer than she does to a Pretender, because with Pretenders, the organic form is just an outer shell. On the inside they're just regular Transformers, able to transform from robot to vehicle. Alice's human form is not a shell and she doesn't transform into a vehicular or mechanical alt mode - her human form _is_ her alt mode, just as Optimus Primal's alt mode is a gorilla.
Plot Device: Matrix of Leadership
Reference: Autobot Matrix of Leadership/Creation Matrix
Details: A cosmic MacGuffin originating from G1 which has spanned across many Transformers universes, including the movie!
Characters: Drone released by Ravage into shard chamber
Reference: Scraplets
Details: In G1 Scraplets were known to be one of the most deadliest diseases known to mechanical life - up there with cosmic rust. Hundreds and thousands of tiny little mechanoids who are able to merge together to form a larger mechanoid (that isn't a 'Transformer'). Unlike Scraplets, Ravage's drone isn't parasitic nor deadly to Transformers (though very deadly to humans). They probably aren't killed by dihydrogen monoxide either.
Characters: Insect drone
Reference: Insecticons
Details: In G1 we had the Insecticons - Decepticons that could transform into robotic insects. In the G1 comics they could mass-shift to shrink down to the size of real insects. In the movie Sam finds a robotic insect drone.
Character: The Fallen
Reference: The War Within
Details: As we all know, the War Within introduced us to a character known as The Fallen. One of the original 13 Transformers created by Primus who became evil. Eeeeeevil!
Characters: The Dynasty of Primes
Reference: The original 13 Transformers
Details: Primus created 13 Transformers and this is a multiversal singularity, which means that this fact exists in _every_ Transformers universe. RotF states that there were 7 original Primes, which would simply mean that the other 6 original Transformers were not members of this dynasty. Other RotF literature mentions 13 Transformers in the movie universe.
Characters: Optimus Prime + Jetfire
Reference: Super combined robot mode
Details: In G1 (Masterforce) Super Ginrai was able to merge with Godbomber to power himself up. In Victory, Star Sabre was able to merge with Victory Leo into Victory Sabre. There are several examples of Transformers being able to power themselves up by uniting with another one into a super combined robot mode. However unlike RotF, the secondary Transformers were able to survive the unification process!
Plot Device: the AllSpark in Sam Witwicky's mind
Reference: the power of Cybertron in a child's mind
Details: In G1, Optimus Prime placed the energies of the Creation Matrix into Buster Witwicky's brain. Unlike Sam and the AllSpark, it didn't make Buster go nutty and start writing in some archaic alien language - but it did give Buster complete psycho-kinetic control over anything mechanical... he could even disassemble and re-assemble an entire Transformer just by thinking it!
Organisation: NEST
Reference: International human military and Autobot alliance
Details: In G1, G2 and other series, G.I. Joe have been known to ally themselves with the Autobots to combat the Decepticons (who themselves have been known to ally themselves with COBRA; indeed it was COBRA who helped rebuild Megatron into his G2 tank form and his rail cannon was based on COBRA science). NEST is also similar to G1's RAAT in terms of being a special division of the military specifically formed to combat Transformers; but with the key difference being that NEST only targets Decepticons whereas RAAT targets all Transformers indiscriminately.
Character: Mixmaster
Reference: Intermediate weapon mode
Details: In G1 we had the Seacons' "Targetmaster" mode - and later we had several Transformers with intermediate weapon modes, like B'Boom/Apache's battle platform mode. I know some people (including Hasbro) are calling Mixmaster a "triple changer"... um... no. A more widely accepted consensus on what is a triple changer would be a Transformer with two distinctly different alt modes (e.g.: tank and jet); intermediate modes don't really count. It's not as if most fans consider the Transmetals and Ultra Transmetal IIs to be Triple-Changers.
Characters: Seymour Simmons & William Lennox
Reference: Human antagonists-cum-allies of the Autobots
Details: These guys are similar to Walter Barnett in G1. Barnett was, like Simmons, initially tasked by the US government to battle against all Transformers, at a time when the government did not know about Autobots and Decepticons and saw all Transformers as a menace. He was later enlightened by the Throttlebots and then, like Lennox, "defied" orders to assist the Autobots.
Device: Star Harvester (Earth)
Reference: energy collector
Details: In Beast Machines, Megatron had some kind of energy "antennae" which I guess helped to boost his ability to quickly absorb every Spark on Cybertron. It was hidden inside the apex of a pyramid... sound familiar?
Moment: Sideways' demise
Reference: Being laterally cleft in twain by a sword
Details: In RotF Sideswipe kills Sideways by laterally cleaving him in half with his blade. In G1 (Zone) Dai Atlas kills Predaking by doing the same with his sword (only somewhat more dramatically considering that he threw his sword like a boomerang and still managed to pull it off!)
Moment: Soundwave ejecting Ravage
Reference: Soundwave ejecting cassettes
Details: 'cos ya can't eject an MP3!
Plot device: Starscream's EMP blast
Reference: Null rays
Details: In G1, Starscream had null-rays which could render electrical devices inoperable. In RotF he similarly uses an EMP burst to neutralise the humans' communications.
Plot device: Ratchet & Jolt attaching Jetfire's parts to Prime
Reference: surgical electromagnetic fields
Details: In Transformers Animated, Ratchet frequently used electromagnetic fields, initially intended for his primary function as a medic.
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That's all I can think of for now - feel free to add more.![]()