We usually tend to think all characters come from G1 and they have been on several incarnations and shows, but some other characters are now really important and got toys, new interpretations and more and they didn't came from G1.

So far I can think of:

*IDW Drift, started as an IDW character and now he even got really cool new figures.

*Animated Lockdown from Animated, even made the transition to IDW and then part of the movieverse as the main villian in AOE.

*Animated Bulkhead who became really popular in Transformers Prime.

I was not sure to include Sentinel Prime since both characters are so different both in design and personality that I think they don't fit here.

ANy other character??

 

Movie - Barricade and Blackout

Beast Wars characters

Armada - Tidal Wave seems be be brought up a decent amount

 

Most non-G1 characters have turned out pretty well remembered, and a lot of them have shown up now and then in later series.

Pretty much everyone from Beast Wars is "famous" in the franchise, or at least remembered well. Even if someone like Tigatron wasn't all that prominent in the show, I feel he's still memorable and makes people go, "Oh yeah, Tigatron!" Plus he's still around in the IDW comics as a supporting cast-member, so that's cool.

Sky-Byte is also pretty fondly remembered, and has been making small appearances here and there since Animated. I wish he'd be properly depicted one day-- preferably where he doesn't only spout haikus, but whatever. It's nice to know he's still showing up due to his popularity.

Animated has a ton. Lugnut, Lockdown, Bulkhead-- pretty much every new character has been remembered and has shown up again in another continuity in some capacity. I don't remember Swindle getting nearly as much attention as his own character until Animated either. We still see Animated Blitzwing's facial swap gimmick bleed into his later toy and fiction appearances here and there (as a different character in the background in Spotlight Trailcutter, I think). Probably since it was such a distinctive trait and gave a new aspect to Blitzwing that he kind of needed.

The 07 movie cons are weirdly still remembered despite their lack of screentime/character. Like, we still see Blackout just showing up in background shots-- and Barricade has made small cameos in things like WFC and IDW. I can't say I'm surprised they've continued to live on in different mediums of the franchise, since they are all so cool in concept. In a way they're remembered for the same reasons characters like Sideswipe, Sunstreaker, and Prowl are remembered from G1-- because they are just cool transforming robot concepts, even if they didn't really do anything of note.

As for Unicron Trilogy... eh. Tidal Wave showed up in Sins of the Wreckers and was AMAZING. I can only really think of Demolishor and Leobreaker being the only other UT characters to show up in crowd-shots and the like. I do wish they'd appear in more tbh. I stand vigorously by the idea that you could pluck any of the Armada Decepticons out of their show, plop them in Beast Wars with a beast-mode, and they would fit in delightfully with the rest of the Predacon cast. So I WISH we'd see more of them, but I doubt we will since their show wasn't great.

Drift, Rung, Nautica, Pharma, and the DJD have all become EXTREMELY popular in the fandom. Because we're still reading their continuity it's unlikely we'll see some of these guys (aside from Drift) in a new one for some kind, but that's fine.

 

IDW Drift is quite the elephant of the room.

Also, along that,
Animated Bulkhead
Animated Lockdown
Animated Lugnut
Tidal wave
Blackout (Movie, although he did exist in G1)
Same issue with Barricade.
Brakedown (Prime)

 

There are g1 characters by those names

 

Barricade
Bulkhead
Lugnut
Drift
Lockdown

Sadly Windblade has for the wrong reasons  

 

Popularity is mostly seen in the IDW comics but every now an then, they pop their heads out in other forms of media.

Why Windblade? She's been a great character both in IDW and Robots in Disguise. I'm very curious to your reasoning and fine if you disagree with me.

 

Who don't have anything in common with their G1 selves other than the names.

By your logic, Bulkhead is a character originally from Transformers: Energon.

 

Can you say something is "famous" if no one outside of the fandom has any idea what it is?

You could show a picture of IDW Drift to 1000 people on the street, and almost certainly all 1000 of them will have zero idea who it's a picture of.

Movie Drift? Maaaaaaybe. You might get a few hits out of the 1000 people. IDW Drift? No way. In fact, there's no IDW character any person on the street could identify, unless it looked very much like its actually famous cartoon counterpart.

 

Curious case, since even the Energon name is not G1 but the Japanese Superlink name is Sprung, the G1 Japanese name of Springer and the design of the first Bulkhead is a total nod to the G1 character.

 

"Really famous" (as the thread title suggests)? As Southtownkid says, that would imply recognition outside the franchise and I don't think there has been any that have achieved this since G1.

Inside the franchise (and if we revise "really famous" to "having some sort of legacy/impact on future franchise iterations") then the likes of Bulkhead, Drift and others that have been mentioned would seem to be reasonable suggestions.

 

Every Beast Wars character ever

Sky-Byte

Demolishor, Hot Shot, Sideways

Barricade, Blackout, Sentinel Prime

Bulkhead, Lockdown, Lugnut

Knock Out, Dreadwing

 

I'm going to say Optimus Prime. Ever since Peter Cullen reprised the role, charismatic gung-ho has been replaced with a wise veteran in every form of media. Now, this is the Optimus we live with and see everywhere. I don't mind it but it really shows.

 

Scourge/Nemesis Prime.

And this really ^, in this side of the Globe old people who havent watched the series at all, call red trucks Optimus so....

 

Vector Prime (he was in g2 but got more development from galaxy force/Cybertron onwards)

 

Outside the franchise? TF is rarely brought up in other franchises, no matter which incarnation you're talking about. If you mean outside of the hardcore fandom, I'd say quite a few kids of the 90s somewhat remember BW characters. If you mean outside of any level of fandom, people who've never watched a TF show or movie, read a TF comic, played a TF game or touched TF merch, then I'd say it runs into that first problem, again. TF in general simply rarely gets brought up. At least in my experience. Then again, I don't know many people who haven't at least seen some of the Bay films.

 

Excuse me?

Where was vector prime in G2?
G2 had no cartoon and there was no character by that name in The Marvel G2 comics

 

Doesn't Armada Hot Shot have a following of sorts?

Jhiaxus is from G2 but didn't get a toy until RiD. One could say he is at least a known pan-generational character, if not a REALLY famous one.

Nemesis Prime/Scourge really got going with Car Robots/RiD and became a pan-generational mainstay of sorts, although each continuity takes on the character in different ways...TLK being the first one to have Optimus Prime actually be the character, rather than a clone (which, in a sense, AoE Galvatron was the REAL Nemesis Prime).

 

In the toyline Vector Prime - Transformers Wiki but it wasn’t officially called Vector Prime until an ask Vector Prime entry where it was one of his old forms. I’m not sure if that counts or not.

 

I wouldn't counted but if you do that's cool everybody's entitled to their own opinion either way thanks for the info