I'd be down for an updated Armada Jetfire figure, but I'm not too keen on the idea of him being a triple-changer.

 

Yeah, I think Armada Jetfire redone with modern techniques could be very interesting. He had a very "puffy" alt and robot modes and I can imagine HasTak keeping the "puffy" shuttle design but doing some really interesting engineering/redesigning of the robot mode. Just imagine a puffy shuttle turning into a slimmer robot mode with extra boosters, rockets, shoulder weapons, etc.

If Armada Jetfire even got renamed and inserted into "Siege" continuity, I would even be okay with that.

Having said all of this, the idea of a Astrotrain retooled into Armada Jetfire does not excite me. And this is NOT a case of wanting a new version of an old character by any means necessary. I'd rather wait five years for a new Armada Jetfire then getting a retool of Astrotrain.

Ya'll remember "Spacewarp"! Hoo boy. Yeah, that was a monstrosity. We wanted G1 characters so badly back then, just about any idea was on the table. Yikes...

 

I honestly don't understand this obsession with having the Armada characters have the exact same names as the original toys, but with 'Armada' slapped on front. Are you guys forgetting how many times Hasbro has had to slap some permutation of the original names on a character for copyright reasons? How about the Bayverse just slapping random names on 90% of the bots and cons? If you don't like the name, call it whatever you want.

I just want them to put in more former Gobots, ala Fractal .  

 

I think they could retool him from Astrotrain to the point where he’s not a triple changer anymore. They could instead make him combine with the new Armada Prime.

And be careful about suggesting new names for Armada characters. I got lynched a while back for suggesting Armada Wheeljack get a new name if he was in Siege.

On a side note, we definitely have a few potential AEC repaints or remolds from the Siege figures. I hope they go somewhere with it.

 

Yeah, the Armada crowd are WAY too obsessed with the names.

 

It’s not about being obsessed with names, it’s about the precedent that has been set with unicron trilogy updates removing the necessity for new names

Thrilling 30 ARMADA starscream
Combiner wars ARMADA megatron
Siege GALAXY (as a reference to galaxy force) upgrade Optimus prime

There is zero necessity for a new name because they have already established a method of distinguishing them from the g1 versions

 

Armada had access to 'modern techniques', Hasbro just chose not to use them. Yes, I realize that advances have been made in the last 17 years, but Armada was a case of designers choosing to forego design techniques that had been status quo for 7 years by that point. As hard as it is to believe, RID (the first one) predated Armada. Armada (including Jetfire) was a decision to go simple.

 

Oh I have no problems with the names within the context of AEC. It works both ways. I would never call Energon Shockblast “Shockwave” because the character isn’t named that. Shockwave is the Japanese name for Tidalwave. It’s when you try to transplant a character from one continuity family to another, I feel that a new name is needed. I’ve revised my initial feelings on this. This would really only work for characters that look radically different from their G1 incarnations. So Prime, Megatron, Starscream, Bumblebee, etc would be exempt, but if you wanted to bring Animated Prowl in a G1 body, I would say he’d need a new name as much as Armada Wheeljack, Energon Ironhide, or Cybertron Metroplex.

But... Hasbro will just call them Armada ________ or whatever, which is fine. They just don’t have a good chance of being in the fiction. (It’s not logical for Armada Wheeljack to be a new body for G1 Wheeljack like you can do with Prime or Megatron or Starscream or Bee).

 

Or, you know, you can just acknowledge that they are two separate characters that have the same name.

RID Scourge, G1 Scourge, and Cybertron Scourge all share the same name, but they are three completely separate dudes. I don’t understand where this fandoms obsession with every characters that shares a name having to all be the exact same character comes from.

Energon Ironhide may have originally been intended to be a different version of Ironhide, or he may have just been the name Hasbro decided to use(a lot of the time for Trademark reasons.) Whether or not he is a different version of the same character as G1 Ironhide, or a different character altogether that simply shares a name(and with other characters sometimes traits) is completely up to the interpretation of the viewer. There are no set rules when it comes to characters, lookalikes, and different versions of characters within the Transformers Multiverse or lore.

Obvious examples are obvious, but beyond that there is no definitive answer. So I say let them just be separate characters with the same name. Despite what some(geewun)would believe, it’s not a cardinal sin and doesn’t rob others who originally held the name of their identity, which is what you would be doing if you changed a character like Energon Ironhide’s name to something else.

 

When’s the last time we had a movie, animated series or comic book that included characters with the same name?

The whole “prefix naming system” works fine when it’s just a toys that don’t have any media attached to them. If Armada Jetfire is included in the Netflix series or the comics, it would be preferable (at least to me) if he got renamed.

It’s not necessary but it just makes things smoother. I’m a UT fanboy, so I’m not being dismissive because I don’t care.

Just my opinion on the matter and I only bring it up because I think a hypothetical Armada Jetfire would be interesting in Siege media.

I guess. I just want to see what HasTak would make today with some of the Armada designs as the starting point.

 

I don’t think that it's a case of 'geewun' people having an issue. (That's such a stupid term, BTW; should we come up with an equally dumb name for the AEC crowd? 'Unicriers'? 'Armoaners'? ) Some of us just think that a few of the AEC characters were interesting in their own right, and suggested using alternative names as a way to keep them as reoccurring characters and not just repaints / alternative forms of existing characters.

Besides, outside of Game of Thrones, media has an unwritten rule of one use of a name per movie, show, book, etc.

 

Once again, "Geewun" and "Geewunner" are not catch-all terms for people who like G1. They refer to the narrow-minded, aggressive "G1 rulezorz, everything else suxxorz and if you like anything else, so do you" folks.

It's a stupid term that describes stupid people.

If there are no comparable terms for other incarnations of the brand, it's because there aren't that many other incarnations of the brand with fans who are nearly as rabid as the Geewunners.

Seriously, does anyone remember 1984forever?

 

That media for normal people. We are nerds. We can tell the difference between Energon Ironhide and G1 Ironhide. And I mean, it’s not hard.

Plus, I mean, people share names in the real world. At one point I had three Grandfathers all named Steve. Keep their names, or perhaps just use a pre-fix like with CW Armada Megatron or Galaxy Upgrade Optimus.

 

I have no idea who 1984forever is, because I am not someone who obsesses over those who disagree with them. As for 'geewun' I see that thrown out any time someone who is a big fan of some other incarnation disagrees with a person, even if it has nothing to do with the situation, like here. There's more bitching and moaning about 'geewun' than actual 'Geewunners.' Hell, I find IDW hardcore fans far more annoying and prominent than 'Geewunners' but I don't go around something like 'IDWiots' or something similar, because I am not five.

Yeah, that's fine, but if they do that the chance of the characters showing up in the show or comic book is practically zero. People aren't suggesting different names because they have an issue with the characters or are G1 purists; they're suggesting different names because they want these guys to be in everything.

Honestly, I don’t care if they have the same name for five characters. Hasbro, however, is going to want some sort of attention from normies when it comes to the Netflix series, just like the Castlevania show. Also , fiction must always be more rational than reality, or else you end up with TLJ, GoT S8, etc.

 

They also all exist in totally separate continuities. I was suggesting name changes if they want to put all of these characters into the same fiction.

Energon Ironhide, as well as many RID/AEC/Movie characters, is just a nameslap to retain the trademark. But if G1, RID, Energon, Movie, Animated, and Prime Ironhides were all to be in the same continuity, a couple would be merged together (G1, Animated, and Prime) and others would just need new names. Outside of the Tankor thing in IDW (which was an in-joke), when have characters of the same name interacted in the same continuity outside of time travel or dimension hops?

Again, that's not what I'm saying. As separate continuities, that's fine. I agree. They should retain their names. But when they're being reimagined and merged with a G1 continuity, and someone else already has that name, especially someone prominent, I feel the name should be changed. Even US G1 had two names that were shared (Sky High and Barrage) but they were both fictional nobodies so the powers that be probably didn't even notice.

 

And to that I immensely disagree. If they are intended to be separate characters and not different versions of G1 characters, they should keep their name if they are introduced into G1 continuity, otherwise is robs them.. of their character.

I said that besides the notable exceptions that are intended to be same versions of the same character. No where did I mention Movie, Animated, or Prime Ironhide as being a different character then G1 Ironhide, because they aren’t. If you were insinuating that, then we have been on different pages of the same chapter.

Then I guess we’ll have to agree to disagree. Unless your trying to force Armada Jetfire into G1 and have it not be a new body of G1 Jetfire, I suppose it makes sense. But again I was never talking about that. I was referring only to characters like Energon Ironhide or Cybertron Scourge.

 

I'd love to see some sketches

 

And as such, it’s a term that would be better off retired. Using those kinds of derogatory terms for segments of our fandom does more damage than good and perpetuates aggression and division.

I’ve also seen it carelessly applied to fans of G1 who aren’t closed-minded toward other parts of the franchise yet hold G1 as their primary interest.

“Baytards” is the only other comparable term in use that I comes to mind at the moment, and it’s much worse in my opinion than “Geewunner”.

Regardless of how segments of the fandom treat each other, I’m curious to see what this Siege Astrotrain looks like! Even though I’m not collecting the Siege line, there’s been some super awesome designs and I’m enjoying seeing them revealed. A couple have even ended up sneaking into my collection.  

 

Like I said, Armada fans seem really hung up on the names. I think that it was you who mentioned that Tidal Wave was Shockwave in Japan, but the way the Unicron Trilogy was made really makes it a moot point when it comes to Shock blast. Tidal Wave was obviously meant to be an original character by Hasbro, and the Japanese basically name slapped the character and added his Cybertronian mode as an easter egg joke since in Japan the G1 character is named laser wave. This never became a problem with Energon introducing Shockwave, who was renamed for copyright reasons, as the character was just called Laser Wave. Heck, the character Mirage from later on wasn't even supposed to be Tidal Wave, but the cartoon writers retroactively made the two the same guy.

All that being said, I am perfectly fine with RID or Unicron Trilogy characters being added to the line. If they do change the names, and you guys throw a fit over it, all you'll be doing is cutting off your nose to spite your face.

 

The whole point I was trying to make is that if they tried to force Armada Jetfire or Armada Wheeljack or Energon Ironhide into the current fiction, they should change their names to prevent having two characters in a comic or cartoon having the same name. That’s all.