I never pretended one Transformer was another, but I often made excuses. For example, since I got Huffer long before Optimus Prime, I just made the excuse that Optimus Prime was busy on other missions so left Huffer in charge.

It was tough growing up without Megatron though... had to keep making excuses for his constant absence. (-_-) Things got easier after I got Shackwave; then I ran with the story that ShackwaveShockwave had overthrown Megatron and became the new leader. So yeah, I grew up with "Shockwave" as my Decepticons' leader rather than Megatron.