I think the Prowl prickishness started with Furman. In Marvel 76, he and Grimlock got into it because Prime chose Grimlock to succeed him instead of Prowl. IDW just magnified it times a thousand.

 

You know, I WAS going to go with sibylbots for the team, then it hit me.

Optimus' lady, Elita-1 and the Elite Guard

Megatron's lady, Megaempress and the Four Guard

It's rivalry at its finest!!!

 

I mean, Prowl didn’t have a personality in G1. Say what you will about IDW, but it actually fleshed him out pretty well. I dig IDW Prowl aka Prick Prowl. He never had any regrets.

 

You're crossing Animated with IDW with G1 with ....

 

Any word on a US Preorder?

 

I certainly don't dispute that (although that was mild compared to what came later, as you note). It's one area where, my respect for early-Furman notwithstanding, I always disagreed with him.

Indeed, my response to making Grimlock leader at the time was "Again? Don't they remember how badly that went the first time?" As it was, Grimlock's previous tenure was never even mentioned.

 

With his logic and as per his G1 Bio:

Keeping track of an enormous amount of variables in a short time? I am more than ready for Prowl as a Sherlock Holmes-type (prickish-style Moffat-style if you must).

 

Who is Watson, then?

 

I struggle here because what we need is a Medical TF with veteran combat experience, ready to be amazed by his deductions so Ratchet's too curmudgeonly Doctor with party dude side. Wheeljack's the mad inventor so no. What about Hoist as he's the equivalent to a Cybertronian MD(, and a bit naturally portly in the Nigel Bruce mould)?
"GADS, Prowl! How DO you do it?"
"Simply a matter of cataloguing all the variables and predicting their outcome, my dear Hoist."
"Zounds!"
"Did somebody call?"
"Sorry, Hound, I was merely exclaiming on Prowl's brilliance!"
"Again."

 

In IDW, Chromia and Firestar were from Caminus, Moonracer was from Velocitron, Greenlight and Lancer were from Carcer with Elita 1. They never interacted with each other. Chromia mostly interacted with Windblade and Ironhide, Firestar ended up on the Lost Light far away from Cybertron, Moonracer was one of the Velocitron delegates to the Council of Worlds, and Greenlight and Lancer were low-level guards of Carcer's spacebridge whose only other appearance was at Blurr's bar.
So, other than Chromia, they had about as much development as they did in the G1 cartoon - barely any. No development as a group.

I'm cautiously hopeful new IDW gives them more development, but if not, I can always give my team headcannon development. That's the great part about toys and collecting.

Elite Guard is a very fitting name, I think I'll use that group name too. Great suggestion.

 

I really like how they portrayed Nightbeat in IDW as the Sherlock type. Now I just can't see any Autobot besides him as Sherlock.
I agree it can't be Ratchet, he comes across more as Bones McCoy from Star Trek TOS.

But the better question is, which Decepticon fits for Moriarty? The obvious, Shockwave? I feel his portrayal of coldly logical is at odds with Moriarty, who was more emotional but still brilliant. Marvel Scorpinok might fit.

 

Agreed, IDW Nightbeat is a nice Sherlock analogue. And Ratchet is Bones too!

 

Wait, are you saying that makes Ratchet a "no"?

And, remember, "curmudgeon" is a pretty recent interpretation of Ratchet's character. Give me Marvel Ratchet any day!

 

Nope. Closest I've seen is a dead Amazon listing in my wishlist.

 

Yeah, because Sherlock is the curmudgeon, not Watson. At least for me.

 

That's fine, but I don't think of Ratchet as a curmudgeon. Like I said, that came more recently.

 

Marvel Ratchet is most definitely “my” Ratchet, that’s for sure. It was Animated that made him grumpy, and Prime continued it a bit. Movie Ratchet barely did anything. IDW was most definitely grumpy.

But yeah, Marvel Ratchet should be the inspiration for all Ratchets. I’ll never forget getting a pack of comics with issues 6-8 when I was 10 or 11 and seeing how awesome Ratchet is.

Forgot which thread I was in.  

Anywho, I still have Greenlight in my amazon wish list... and Hasbro has yet to officially announce her. I hope we get something soon. You’d think Hasbro Pulse would be all up in the preorders, seeing how we have things out til Sept or later...

 

In a just world:
Prowl and Ratchet = Holmes and Watson
Nightbeat = Columbo

 

Who is Jessica Fletcher?

 

Given the dearth of female candidates (assuming we maintain the gender, of course), and the limited number of those who have done anything like solving a mystery, I nominate Windblade.