So, despite the fact that it's obvious now that I've seen it, I've only just noticed that Lugnut's crazy head design is a homage to G1's Whirl.

In an attempt to turn this into a thread instead of a statement, have any of you lot noticed any not-so-obvious homages to earlier series?

 

Well considering that the only characters that arent direct homages are Bulkhead, Lugnut, Lockdown and Sentinel Prime there really isnt alot of material for obscure homages sure I can definatly now that you have pointed it out that there are similarites between Whirl and Lugnuts heads, but apart from minor stuff like BUlky essentially having Hounds colours (and stars) there isnt much left since Frankenstien was the inspiration for Lockdown and the Tick for Sentinel Prime.

 

Don't forget Captain America was also a big inspiration for Sentinel, and not just because of his shield, but also the v-shape on his chest and the tailpipes as wings on his head  .

Seeing as Animated is pretty much a superhero cartoon with robots, there's bound to be other inspirations next to old Transformers homages..for example: maybe it's just me, but doesn't Optimus kind of resemble an animated Batman in some way? (the gadgets, the points of his helmet wings, the posture and stance)

 

Actually, it was the Tick that inspired the pipes on his head. As for Lugnut's head looking similar to Whirl's, I can see it, but Shockwave still comes to mind (the purple helps that).

 

What? I thought Lockdown was a homage to Death's Head from the Marvel comics. Am I the only one who notices a similarity?

 

And Megatron is a homage to Battlestars Megatron.

 

Lugnut isn't a homage, it's something called COINCIDENCE.

Would be the same thing as saying Bumblebee is a Pikachu homage because both are yellow with electric attacks.

 

Actually, it was Grimlock that was inspired from Frankenstein.

'FIRE BAD!!!'

 

Based on 6 months worth of threads, I think it's clear that certain hardcore fans are seeing a LOT more supposed 'homages' than there actually are in this series.

 

No, Grimlock was inspired by Grimlock. Lockdown's first concept was very Frankenstein. Now he's more based off an undertaker; he even has coatails to complete the suit look, though he still has some elements of Frankenstein in his mismatched body parts design.

I doubt it's intentional that Lugnut looks like whirl, considering that there are other cycloptic bots in TF. And after the single eye there isn't a lot that resembles Whirl.

And I don't see the Batman/Optimus design, since Optimus is, like Grimlock, based on himself. Besides, Batman stands different: hunched slightly with his cape around him.


While there are deffinate nods to super heroes and parodies of such (Sentinel = Tick, Bulkhead's the Thing to Lugnut's Hulk) a lot of the homages are little more than fans digging to deep looking for more in a show jammed pack full of enough homage.

 

I dunno, for a character that has a completely unique head design, it looks awfully like a homage to me.



Of course, it could just be that I'm less discerning in my ability to compare things than you are.

 

Good call, didn't even think of that. I was thinking that the spikes on the cybertronian helmet design are a nod to RID.

Edit: Wow, there's been a lot of replies in the time it's taken me to write that...

 

It looks like the "FIRE BAD" joke went right over your head.


And to be fair to the OP, Whirl has a kind of a jutting chin that, with his cyclopian eye, gives his face a striking similarity to Lugnut's, albeit lacking an actual mouth, and that's about where any similarities end. But once you see it, you can kinda understand where he's coming from, whether the similarity is intentional or not.

tl;dr, they share vaguely similar faces.

 

The only similarity I see is the chin-thing, plus if it was a homage the design team would've said it in one of the botcon panels, they basically told us everything about their inspirations and if it was really such a cleverly chosen obscure character homage I'm sure they would've at least mentioned it.

As I said, it's more like a coincidence than anything, however if Lugnut had something like the eye-hat or antenna Whirl got, then it would be whole different story than weird-chin.

 

Animated Prowl= Perfect Batman TF counterpart
Animated Starscream= Joker+ Green Goblin's counterpart
Animated Optimus reminds me of Cyclops from X-Men Evolution
Animated Megatron is like Magneto (Considers not to be labelled a villain, yet is one)
Will think of more later.

 

Its not a TF homage, but in 'Along Came a Spider' there's a five note sequence and stupid little dance that Bumblebee does that reminds me every time of the 'Where There's a Whip, There's a Way' sequence from Rankin/Bass's version of Return of the King.

--Moony

 

And with that, I hereby declare this the "obscure homage/reference thread"!

 

I can SO see that though!

 

I think that considering the subject of the thread I am perfectly within my limits to miss that joke and misunderstand you comment as serious.

Besides, I've never seen Frankenstein.

My point, Reflector.

I don't see anything that could be considered homage past the one red eye. Shockwave looks more like Whirl than Lugnut. (Because he has the "cap" over his eye that wraps around his head) Maybe because they're both sorta shades of kinda the same colour. (like blue and turquoise being so close in colour, that could count)

 

Am I the only one that thought Lugnut looked like Shockwave when he was introduced?

 

No. Lots of people took his undying loyalty, the eye and purple in as a nod to Shockwave's position. But since Shock's is in the show now it's not as talked about.