The Random Transformers Thoughts Thread

[FatalityPitt]

Speaking of Beast Wars, I hope they do a BW Megatron during or immediately after PotP. The upcoming Leader Class Optimus Primal would be a lot cooler displayed next to a Megatron of the same scale. It feels like a while since we've seen a new BW Megatron.

[griffin]

Maybe they could resurrect their planned BW Megatron from WFC Grimlock toy... which we saw a prototype leaked a few years back.

[FatalityPitt]

Maybe they could resurrect their planned BW Megatron from WFC Grimlock toy... which we saw a prototype leaked a few years back.

Ideally it'd be Leader class to scale with the PotP Optimus Primal, but voyager is good too. I'd buy that BW Megatron redeco of Grimlock if it ever gets released.

[GoktimusPrime]

Cogman is such a laaame name for a Transformer.
If a Transformer came out with this name 30 years ago we would all be laughing at it, just as we laughed at the Machine Men's names in comparison with the Transformers.
F15 Man
Motorcycle Man
Tank Man
Buggy Man
Helicopter Man
Police Man
Submarine Man

But even those names are arguably better than Cogman because they describe what they transform into. Cogman doesn't transform into a cog! Even Tonka realised how lame these names were and assigned new names to compete with the Transformers.
F15 Man → Leader-1
Motorcycle Man → Cy-Kill
Tank Man → Tank Man
Buggy Man → Buggy Man
Helicopter Man → Cop-Tur
Police Man → Hans Cuff
Submarine Man → Dive Dive
etc. (I love how they didn't bother changing some of them )

You know a name is pretty lame when ever "Scooter" sounds better than it.

P.S.: I may have gotten some of the Machine Men/Gobot names wrong cos uh... I don't really give a skit about Gobots.

[Paulbot]

Presumably the name is what the humans called this alien because he was a man made of cogs (and the name Man of Iron was already taken).

I was thinking about names the other day, and wondered what sort of names the Trainbots would have got had Hasbro released them as an Autobot counterpart team to the Constructicons in 1985?

[FatalityPitt]

When I was a kid, I thought Insecticon was a pretty bad name for a Transformer. It made the toy seem so generic that I lost interest in it as soon as I read the name. Sure, there's Dinobot, but the lack of a 'real' name was compensated for by the character's starting role in the BW cartoons.

[griffin]

This was something I thought about back when we first heard the name of Cogman... as in, it sounds soooo lame. But then, put yourself in the shoes of someone from the middle ages, before there was science - what would you call an alien made of machinery and cogs?
To be honest, it would have probably made more sense to be called Metal Man, as that would have been the only component humans at that time would have been familiar with (cogs would have been more from the industrial era anyway).

Unfortunately, the flaw of all this is saying that the humans gave him his name... when obviously he should have had his own name before he came to earth. Or if he was built here, the Cybertronians who built him would have given him a more Cybertronian name.
In other words, when and how did he come to Earth, and why would the humans name him... unless it was like a nickname, and he adopted it as his own name because he liked it.
This is the sort of unexplained element that an IDW comic would have explained, if they had kept doing movie comics.

[GoktimusPrime]

Unfortunately, the flaw of all this is saying that the humans gave him his name... when obviously he should have had his own name before he came to earth. Or if he was built here, the Cybertronians who built him would have given him a more Cybertronian name.
In other words, when and how did he come to Earth, and why would the humans name him... unless it was like a nickname, and he adopted it as his own name because he liked it.

↑This!

Also, "cog" just means 'tooth,' so in the context of Medieval language I'm not sure if the word "cog" would have an immediate connection with gears. :/ While gears have been around for at least 2500 years (in China), it was until the late fourteenth century that people in Western Europe devised mechanical gears with the advent of cathedral clocks. Although Islam did develop geared machines during the early thirteenth century and I suppose if there were any members of the Order of the Witwiccans who either went on the Crusades or had contact with a Crusader, that they may have had contact with Muslim technology. Gah... this is creating more questions than it's answering.

When I was a kid, I thought Insecticon was a pretty bad name for a Transformer. It made the toy seem so generic that I lost interest in it as soon as I read the name. Sure, there's Dinobot, but the lack of a 'real' name was compensated for by the character's starting role in the BW cartoons.

I was in uni when BW came out and I gotta tell ya...

...I agree. I also thought that the use of sub-group names was incredibly lame. I still think it's lame. One thing that Beast Wars generally wasn't great for (at first) was names. They were pretty Gobot-esque in just describing their beast modes.
Cheetah Man → Cheetor
Rhinoceros Man → Rhinox
Dinosaur Man → Dinobot
Insect Man → Insecticon
Tarantula Man → Tarantulas (that's not a name, it's a plural!)
Tiger Man → Tigatron (they couldn't even call him "Tigertron"?)
Baboon Man → B'Boom
Mosquito Man → Transquito
Wolf Man → Wolfang
Wasp Man → Waspinator
etc.

But these names were devised by Kenner toy staff, just as the Machine Men names were created by Tonka staff (not sure if it was Tonka or Hanna Barbera who created the Gobot names - but Hanna Barbera characters often didn't have very creative names either... look at the Smurfs ). G1 TFs had better names because they were created by Marvel writers like Bob Budiansky etc. I think Beast Wars names started getting better when Mainframe Entertainment writers (Larry DiTillio, Bob Forward) started getting involved. Because we know that it was their idea to introduce female Transformers and they asked Kenner/Hasbro if Blackarachnia and Airazor could be female and they agreed (hence why their tech specs bios use female pronouns). And of course, Airazor and Blackarachnia are arguably better names than most of the others. Hasbro did start making an effort here and there to create better names - Quickstrike, Air Hammer, Noctorro, Sonar, Scarem, Nightglider, Jawbreaker etc. It was hit and miss as there were certainly still some shoddy names too (e.g. Injector, Spittor, K-9 etc.).

I'm discounting reuse of G1/G2 names like Buzz Saw, Inferno, Jetstorm, Sky Shadow etc. for obvious reasons. I personally think that the best new name to come from Beast Wars was Depth Charge. Inferno would be the best reuse of an existing name.

But yeah, as incredibly awesome as Dinobot is as a toy and character, it's a pretty underwhelming name. It feels so... PlaySkool. Reminds me of the Go-Bots (aka Transformers Big Adventures) from PlaySkool.
Buzzerbot
Gorillabot
Beastbot
Dinobot
.....etc.

[SuspectimusPrime]

Cogman's a pretty weak name for a robot. My first thought was surname Cogman, from watching too much Game of Thrones

As a name for a Transformer, it doesn't suck as much as Abel and Jack, but those were created by Japanese scriptwriters in the 80's.

On the topic of names, Dreadbot and Skullitron annoys me. It doesn't make sense for Decepticon to use the suffice "-bot" and an Autobot to use the suffice "-tron", unless both have compelling (or at least a faint residue resembling) backstories filled with intrigue, betrayal and/or friendship (maybe) to support an allegiance change from Autobot to Decepticon and vice versa.

[FatalityPitt]

It doesn't make sense for Decepticon to use the suffice "-bot" and an Autobot to use the suffice "-tron", unless both have compelling (or at least a faint residue resembling) backstories filled with intrigue, betrayal and/or friendship (maybe) to support an allegiance change from Autobot to Decepticon and vice versa.

Computron : Feel sad

(better than 'Compu-bot' I suppose)