This now gives me hope. Now we just need Onslaught.

 

Yup. And Ratchet looked awful, and Ironhide looked like Trailbreaker.
And those two designs Haven't returned yet in other series.

 

My point is that, for the most part, characters are going to look different in different continuities. Animated Ironhide, had we actually gotten a 4th season, would have looked like this:



Kinda a hybrid of G1 Ironhide and Movie Ironhide.

Transformers Prime Ironhide (toy only character) also had nods to the Movie Ironhide:



And really, every Ironhide since... what... RID2001 has been a pickup truck instread of a van? Even the Combiner Wars Ironhide was a truck.

So Movie Hot Rod being completely different than any other Hot Rod isn't a shock or unexpected, since most other characters are completely changed as well...

 

And that Ironhide is rad as hell. They got the right face and right color. Brand recognition.

 

And Hound looks like Bulkhead.

 

Yup. Might as well have name him that. One of my big complaints with the Bayformers series is their random name grab bag system that they have.

 

Kind of like what the BW,RID01,and the Unicron trilogy did before the movies? I know I keep sounding like a broken record but the movies are NOT the first to do that sort of thing. So if you're going to bash the movies for doing name slaps then you might as well do the same to every other series that came after G1.

Also even if Hound was named Bulkhead people will still get mad cause personality wise Bulkhead has nothing in common with movie Hound.

 

Wait, are people really noticing the different continuity characters now?

 

Well, people have definitely kept trying to identify vehicles spotted on the sets of the movies as G1 characters based on the vehicle mode even though all the previous movies have repeatedly proven how futile such attempts are...

So yeah, for some people there's no learning curve, only a mental reset button.

 

I already did  

 

Okay, well hold on.
A lot of the names of Beast Wars were appropriate to their beast forms; Rhinox-rhino, Inferno-fireant, Tigatron-tiger, I mean that was an awful point you tried to make.
Even with Armada a lot of the names made sense to the characters, Hotshot was a fusion of Bumblebee and Hotrod (he even had a Hotrod deco in the latter half of the series), Inferno was a fire truck and red, Cyclonus....actually made more sense as a helocopter, heck even Scavenger at least had Constructicon colors, he was just Auto-swapped for whatever reason.
Sure Sideswipe was just awful, though; not sure what they were thinking there. But most of those names weren't random grab bag; it made sense on some level, you could see where the inspiration was.

My point this entire time has been brand recognition; what works, what's familiar, what's memorable, what will last.

That's why Optimus Prime has so many familiar elements recycled in just about every TF series including the movies. Brand recognition.

Bayformers Ratchet: We will probably never see that design again, Ratchet has defaulted back to white and red ambulance with the chevron on his head; that has worked best for ratchet.

Bayformers Ironhide's design probably has one more hurray left in another TF series, before that's retired eventually. He may still be a pick up truck, but from this point out he'll probably almost always be red with the gladiator forehead thing, be that's what's recognizable.

It's ironic if you think about it. Some people complained about Optimus Prime having flames, and then here comes movie Hotrod, the character people expect to see flames, and Bayformers drops the ball on that one. LOL!

Also I'm calling this; Hasbro will eventually release a G1 deco movie Hotrod.

 

The point what I'm trying to make here it's that it really comes across as hypocritical that the other Non G1 series never get ripped a new one when they get to do characters that have little to nothing in common with their G1 selves when most of it doesn't make sense but when the movies do it that's suddenly a horrible thing even if for most of them it fits perfectly for them then even G1 like how we have people comment on how it makes more sense for Ironhide to be a pick up truck then a van or that Sideswipe's feet have wheels to further live up to the name.

If there's one thing I do agree with that post about what works and what'll last it's how characters are done but that doesn't always apply to G1 because other series including the movies have made certain characters be more famous then their G1 selves like Beast Wars Rampage,Movie Barricade and Crosshairs,RID01 Scourge,RId15 Steeljaw,etc. As for your post about Movie Ratchet and Ironhide never being homaged? Well given that the brand has pulled some out of left field homages every now and I wouldn't say that they won't eventually be touched upon.

 

That's an easy answer. Many of us have waited our entire lives to see live action Transformers movies, imagine what a kick in the balls it is not to see your favorite characters represented well.

Take Ironhide for example. If he was just red with a yellow stripe and a gladiator helmet, I think most of us would have been really happy to see that. And hell, by DOTM if he changed colors to a black and white cow deco, I don't think too many ppl would have objected by that point.
Etc, etc for some of the other poorly represented characters.

And mind you, I pick on Ironhide I do kind of like him. I mean I have two of the voyagers toys of him. But I also see him as a good example of what I'm talking about.

 

In AEC they SOMETIMES did homages, but usually were just name slaps. I was fine with that. Different continuity and all. Armada had many name slaps (usually with good reason). Blurr, Sideswipe, Red Alert, Jetfire, Wheeljack, Smokescreen, Hoist, Cyclonus, Squidhea-- err Thrust (though at least he was still a cone head jet). Energon had quite a few too, such as Ironhide, Mirage, Landmine, Cliffjumper, and Downshift (though they said they regretted using Wheeljack's name in Armada).

 

Throughout the years G1 names have been given to other Transformers in other continuities. Some are name slapped, and are completly different characters then other with the same name. Others are that universe's version of that Character. Armada Thrust is the UT version of the Thrust. He's that universe version of the same character that is G1 Thrust. This is evident by their similarities, whether they physical or an aspect of their personality. Blurr was Blurr, Smokescreen was a new character with the same name.

The movies have a knack for doing both of those. Characters like Ironhide are indeed the live-action continuity's version of the same character as G1 Ironhide, and a lot of characters are intended to be the same despite their designs. The name Crosshairs has been used throughout the franchise for many different bots. Theres G1 Crosshairs, and then theres a bunch of characters who are arguably nameslaps and not intended to be a new version of the G1 character. Movie Crosshairs might as well be same. While Drift is definetly a take on the same Drift from IDW. Not every character who has the same name has to be a certain character thats held the name previously, nor do they have to look like it.

I partially agree with @Chaos Prime in that some characters need to have similar iconic features. They are iconic and important characters that have persisted throughout the franchise. However, change is good, and just because a character might have the same name as a previous character doesn't mean they have to be a new version, nor physically identical to be new or interesting. I think perhaps the issues with the movies is that they tend to completly redesign iconic characters into something that would otherwise be unrecognizable(I think this is good to add to later version of that character however.) Because of this it feels like some of the characters who are supposed to be new versions of their G1(or other) selves have been nameslapped. I think a lot of fans would have been okay with the movie asethetic as long as it included similar cues to past iterations of characters. Like if Ratchet was red and white and have a more distintual and familiar head design. Though as I and some have stated, redesigns for a new version of a pre-existing character aren't anything new, nor is giving a pre-exhisting named to a new character. The movies just took this to the extreme.