Transformers Animated has a number of homages and references to past Transformers series. I was wandering what are your favorites?

For me because I'm a huge fan of the Beast Erra Transformers of course my favorites are these guys.

Botanica's character model was made for season 3 but I don't think she actually appeared. She was seen in a promotional image which also included Rodimus Prime's vehicle mode and much more.

Cheetor is of course a BotCon exclusive based on the unreleased Transtech Cheetor.

Depth Charge appeared in the BotCon comic with Cheetor.

Aside from being a homage to Blackarachnia she also manages to be a homage to both Elita-1 and Ariel.

Jetfire is not really much of a homage at all to his name sake or to his "twin" but Jetstorm's helmet looks very much like the Vehicon of the same name.

Would add to the homage if Blackarachnia and Jetstorm developed a love relationship sense the original Jetstorm was Silverbolt.

I'm guessing the 3rd Megatron known as Marauder Megatron would of appeared had there been a season 4. I've included it because the helmet he's wearing reminds me of the helmet worn by the Beast Erra Megatron in Beast Machines.

Primal Major as the Wiki says he's called is a clear homage to the original Optimus Primal. He would of appeared in season 4 as a technorganic clone of Optimus Prime created by Blackarachnia.

Rattletrap is a homeage to the Dawn of the Future's past Rattrap which itself is a retool of Cybertron Ransack.

Strika, yet another Vehicon and even in Animated she is the least female looking fembot ever.

Wasp/Waspinator of course is a homage to BW Waspinator. Too bad he is neither a jet or a motorcycle. And I was really hopping for his spark to be transferred into a Starscream clone to both homage a reverse possession and the fact that movie Starscream looks like him.

There's also Stampy, Longrack, and Spittor who I didn't count because none of them are in the American cartoon. Sky-Byte and Slapper are in R.I.D. but that isn't technically part of the beast erra. They make nice runners up though. So what are your favorite fan nods in Animated?

 

I just love animated period

 

I was amused to see Hydra and Cancer appear alongside Marty Isenberg in the Burger Bot (his sons, perhaps?).

 

Strika and Blackarachnia. Also, seeing that triple changer Megatron is driving me mad that season four was never made.

Edit: While I don't think it's noted on TFWiki but I'm sure I saw Botanica in This Is Why I Hate Machines.

 

I just like looking at the random crowd scenes on Cybertron.

 

i thought animated was nothing BUT a fan nod?  

 

Damn i just though of posting this  

 

I think it's great they loved the franchise enough to add in all those nods. They could have easily decided to just lazily chuck generics around to fill the extra slots.

 

Huffer and Pipes homaging Mario Mario and Luigi Mario. Would love an Animated Pipes toy!

 

I wanna give a shout out to the Autotroopers, if only 'cause who'd expect a Kiss-Players homage?

 

look a wild peaugh has appeared.

 

Ratchet driving backwards

 

I liked the Spike and Carly nods, and the BW one as well.

 

All of them were awesome, but I got a kick out of seeing G1 Spike, Carly and Daniel.

 

I loved how Animated's designs were so homage heavy, and yet they are still a unique design to add to the mythology of each character. Even rather walking references like Team Charr (Prime is mostly failing in this regard, minus a few notable exceptions).

I loved the Seekers' helmets, "I DARE to be stupid!", Rattrap's cameo, all the little BW nods in Predacons Rising, Megatron's eye twitching at Lugnut's ass-kissing like BW Megatron with Inferno, and so much more.

 

I like that we got our first symmetrical dockers (gaogaigar influence) in the TF line through Animated.

I know Derrick J. Wyatt has said that it's not an actual reference or homage, but Sari's upgrade transformation is almost exactly the same as Gurren Lagann's combination. The camera focuses on each arm and leg as they burst into larger forms.

Then we have the end result, which is an admitted homage to Kicker's battle suit from Energon (see the helmet).

Judd Nelson voicing Rodimus was awesome.

Corey Burton. God damn. Having him back as Shockwave (and my second favorite Megatron voice after BW Megs) was my absolute favorite voice casting decision in the show. He's still got Shockwave's voice down, and it hasn't changed a bit.

I know there are people who complain that all the references make animated derivative and unoriginal, but they don't get it. Animated was a love letter from all of it's creators to the entire Transformers franchise and fans. It's not fanwank, it's reminding us "this is what makes transformers awesome", all the while re-inventing characters and bringing plenty of it's own original ideas. It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy thinking back on it.

 

These

 

Animated *is* a big fan nod.
"Garbage-In, Garbage-Out" episode is the must for me. Weird Al doing the Wreck-Gar's voice, the TV head reference, "I DARE to be Stupid"...

But we have the crowd scenes with a lot of characters, I guess we all spend some time looking the guys on those scenes. Who doesn't like to see Team Athenia and Team Chaar characters? Rodimus and Cyclonus, many BW guys...

I don't know why some people hates Animated. It have an original story (Optimus Prime as a "nobody", Autobots controlling Cybertron, many of the Great War related events like Project Omega, etc) with many many many references to other series. So, you can be a new guy and watch the main story and can be a fan, enjoying the main story and the references.

If we go to printed material we got much more homages. This is one of the great things about AllSpark Almanac Books... a lot Animated Universe backstory and references to other Transformers and popular culture series.

Nice that, at least, we still have Allspark Almanac Addendums being published by TCC.

 

As a fellow TFA fanboy I salute you

 

Derrick J. Wyatt: Understands when a fan nod is more than just "One shall stand, one shall fall" during a Optimus Prime/Megatron fight, or "Soundwave Superior"