Happened before the movies

Some really weird stuff popped up in my mind concerning the robot characters. I was basically comparing everyone's counterparts one day by using TFwiki.......... And I come across this.....

This isn't the first time there was a black Ironhide that turns into a pickup truck right?


Apologies about the image size.......

Also I found out that Megatron actually has previously been a jet before, but not Cybrotanian.......(Yeah I know his name was Megaplex).........


And last but not least, Optimus Prime's mouth. Which we saw from TFC.......


So does anyone have anything to comment about? Do the movies actually give reference to other TF universes besides G1?

Megaplex is a clone of Megatron, which utilized the same mold in a different color scheme. Also, there was a unreleased version of Megatron that would have turned into a stealth bomber in G2.

Yep, that black Ironhide was from 2004's Universe Spychangers line. I'm guessing back then it was to homage the diaclone line.

As for the movie in 2007, since most of the characters were grey and/or black, it was a coincidence or easy for the cgi renderers. I doubt it was done on a conscious level to homage anything from the past other than in name.

Optimus having a mouth? G2 Go-Bot, Machine Wars and Beast Wars/Machines (even though that's not Optimus Prime), had mouths.

The mention of sparks and the Allspark was introduced from Beast Wars.

Well Energon Blackout (Destruction Team Member) was a helicopter before The Movies.

The Amazing Spider-Mario and The Incredible Luigi HULK

^
The G1 Blackout was half of a Micromaster jet, or ARM-Blackout was a tank thingy.

Neither were memorable. Though if G1 cartoon had made it to include Micromasters...who knows?

So easy name reuse for Hasbro or writers' discretion?

The movies draw from a number of TF sources, showing the writers at least did some sort of homework, though it doesn't show a narrative link between the universes.

The lion's share of these references and callbacks can be traced back to G1, but there are other examples. The idea of an Allspark (the term and it as a connection to all cybertronians, not so much a cube) can be traced back to Beast Wars/Beast Machines, and Arcee as a motorcycle first appeared in TF:Energon. Megatron as a cybertronian jet aircraft probably relates back to Battlestars (Super Megatron), though that didn't get a toy, but Megatron has also been a cybertronian jet in TF: Energon... and technically Cybertron I suppose. He's also been a tank (as in ROTF) in The War Within, Armada, and first, G2. The Fallen also comes from the Dreamwave War Within series, though I guess you could argue that it was a G1-side universe.

You could go on and on. And let's do so.

^Aernaroth wins the thread.

Eh, this is the kind of thing that varies on a fan-by-fan basis. If you want certain things to be a reference or homage, then they will be. If you don't want them to be, then they aren't.

For example, if you want to think of the Driller as a reference to the Dweller from G1, go for it, but there are some who don't think it is.

Yeah, I really doubt that Ironhide's design in the movies was to reference that Universe Spychangers Ironhide. But it was definitely a conscious decision that Bay and the design team came up with regardless of influence.

Originally Posted by The Fanbase Oh, look! It's that thing that I hate and am not looking forward to. I better comment about how I hate it and am not looking forward to it.

It's also worth mentioning that that black spychanger Ironhide was a Target exclusive part of a 2-pack with Ultra Magnus, one of a long line of repaints of the mold. It was part of a line tha tried to reuse the spychanger molds (and boy howdy did they get a ton of use out of them) to represent g1 characters, some of whom ended up being adapted more faithfully (jazz, prowl) than others (ironhide, wheeljack). It's also worth noting that the ironhide who appeared in Car Robots/RID wasn't the black truck, he was patterned like a dairy cow and had a bull-head on his hood, and also was repainted in numerous colors. And then there's the "go-bots" the molds originally were used as, meaning even more colors and repaints and characters who share the same mold.

But who knows, maybe that was a conscious choice (Optimus is already a mostly-red truck Autobot), and when the movie came around, maybe the designers looked at the most recent adaptations of the characters (including that figure), or deliberately decided to use that after consultation with Hasbro.

That Spychanger Ironhide's alt mode deco is also a dead ringer for Trailbreaker, whose name hasn't been available to Hasbro in a long time.

These days, they'd just call him "Trailcutter". Back then, they went for "Ironhide".

In the original trailer for the 86 movie Ultra Magnus's color was different from the movie.

The first DOTM trailer had Sentinel Prime colored gold and silver while in the film he was prominently red and those colors. It's codename in paper? Ultra Magnus