The idea here is to find to interpretations of the same original source material that couldn’t be more different. I got this idea from a picture I saw of one of the new Diaclone Reboot figures. There was a comment that said, “Keep in mind that this evolved from the same original toy as Optimus Prime.” I’ll do some examples just like on the BEST and WORST Designs thread. Most of mine will just have G1 as a source and not as an actual pick.

G1 Optimus Prime
-Red and Blue Leobreaker
-Prime Cyberverse Armor Base

G1 Cliffjumper
-Prime Cliffjumper
-Energon Cliffjumper (one of them)

G1 Bumblebee
-RTS Bumblebee
-AOE Bumblebee

G1 Megatron
-Beast Megatron
-DotM Megatron

G1 Thundercracker
-Cybertron Thundercracker
-DotM Thundercracker

G1 Starscream
-Cybertron Starscream
-Prime Starscream

 

Cheetor

• Season 1 design
• Transtech design

Starscream

• Bayverse design
• Prime design

 

Optimus prime:
Bayverse
Literally every other version

Starscream:
Armada
Bayverse
And literally almost every other version

soundwave:
Prime
Animated

 

Anything from Prime looks nothing like variations of a TF

 

Their Shattered Glass version and their G1 version. EZ PZ

 

Wheeljack
-Armada Wheeljack

 

Other than Prime (Ninjago extra) and Cyberverse, (Neighborhood grilling expert and handyman) Wheeljack really does have a lot of variation:

Armada Wheeljack, a black repaint of Sideswipe who is actually a new character named Rampage

DotM Wheeljack, a new character named Que who is based off of Albert Einstein and a foreign Prime Minister’s car.

Super Link Wheeljack, a Unicron Trilogy interpretation of the original Wheeljack who is officially called Downshift in the states, but is usually referred to as Cliffjumper in the show.

Shattered Glass Wheeljack, G1 Slicer with the personality of some versions of Shockwave.

Chrysler Scissor Jack circa 2007, an unreliable piece of garbage that you should never use to prop up anything that you intend to work under.

 

IDW Prowl and every other Prowl

Animated and Prime Bulkhead

G1 and Prime Breakdown

G1 Chromedome and Headmasters Chromedome

86 Movie Galvatron and Season 3 Galvatron

G1 Hound and Siege/AOE Hound

G1 and Siege/Bayverse Ironhide

Marvel and IDW Spinister

Marvel and IDW Scorponok

Marvel and IDW Thunderwing

G1 and Siege Mirage

Marvel UK and Season 3 Cyclonus

G1 and Last Knight Hot Rod

G1 and Bayverse Wheelie

Siege and Movie Jetfire

G1 and Movie Skids

G1 and Car Robots Ultra Magnus

G1 and Universe Ramjet

Dreamwave and G1/IDW Sunstreaker

G2 and IDW Jhiaxus

IDW and every other Arcee

 

I'll do you one better: IDW Prowl when written by Roche and IDW Prowl when written by literally anyone else.

 

G1 cartoon Shockwave and G1 comic Shockwave.

 

G1 and RID2001 Scourge

 

G1 Smokescreen, G2 Smokescreen and Armada Smokescreen.

 

Agreed. Roche did a fantastic job with Prowl in a few pages as did Mike Costa with Thundercracker and Swindle. Then along came Barber and undid their fine work.

In the Japanese manga, G1 and G2 Smokescreen are the same guy having defected from the Autobots.

 

Energon Bulkhead and Animated Bulkhead.

 

Any character in any IDW comic and it's G1 namesake.

 

I have to give it to G1 Steeljaw & RID2015 Steeljaw. I dunno how ya get more different from each other than that.

 

And on the other side: G1 cartoon Optimus and G1 comic Optimus.

 

Prowl :
G1
Animated

 

bw and g1 inferno

 

Probably the entirety of the characters in Armada. Although IMO I'd consider Armada Wheeljack to be the most different Sideswipe, since that's who he was modeled off of and who SG Sideswipe was based off of.