Quote Originally Posted by Autocon
those two are meant to be the g1 characters carried over. And prowl transmetal i heard is meant to be prowl II which is a clone or something? it is in the comics
Kind of.

Prowl II was created as a shell for Wheeljack to transplant Prowl's dying Spark into. The procedure was unsuccessful, so they transferred the original data-tracks of Prowl into the shell along with the mind of Chip Chase. The combined entity is known as Prowl II. Prowl II first appeared in the G1 cartoon (image) - and has also appeared in the IDW Beast Wars and Timelines comics (as you said). His origin was explained in The Story of Binaltech.

Reference