Awful uses of existing TF's names

[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.

[Ode to a Grasshopper]

Poor Scatman Crothers...

[GoktimusPrime]

Poor Scatman Crothers...

His real name was Benjamin Sherman Crothers. Scatman was a stage name referring to his ability for scat singing. And scat singing gets its name because it's literally just singing 'made up crap' (i.e. improvised nonsensical wordless syllables). A-skeep-beep de bop-bop beep bop bo-dope skeetle-at-de-op-de-day!

[Sinnertwin]

Poor Scatman Crothers...

hee hee hee

[DELTAprime]

I really like the Cybertron Defence Scattorshot, except for the unfortunate name.

[BigTransformerTrev]

The use of 'Menasor' for one of the Cons from giant planet in Cybertron was pretty crap. Besides size and alliegence the weird tunnelling figure had nothing remotely to do with the Stunticon gestalt

[Trent]

The use of 'Menasor' for one of the Cons from giant planet in Cybertron was pretty crap. Besides size and alliegence the weird tunnelling figure had nothing remotely to do with the Stunticon gestalt

And lets not forget the black repainted of Titanium Rodimus.

[BigTransformerTrev]

Wonder if 'Clampdown' counts as reuse of a name?

After all, the original toy was a Diaclone so not really a TF. However now we have out at the same time a Masterpiece figure who is an humanoid Autobot Police Officerand a RID(15) Decepticon Criminal Crab-slash-hatchback squealer by the same name. The characters are on the opposite sides of the fence in pretty much every single respect (allegiance, side-of-the-law, toy quality etc) except their name.

[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)