Oh, believe me, decisions like this are constantly debated on behind the scenes, and sometimes repeatedly changed back and forth because people disagree on them.

That's the problem with collaborative projects such as TFWiki: Sometimes you disagree with the result of a majority decision.

Contrary to what some people believe, not everything on TFWiki is micromanaged by David Willis who gets to decide what does and what doesn't get a separate article. A lot of these decisions are made by other people, in some cases by majority vote, and chances are that Willis, once he actually becomes aware of certain disputes, might even agree with whatever position you have regarding the matter.

 

So, DOTM movie Dino and DOTM game Mirage are twins or something?

 

He's not Wheeljack.

 

It's a bit difficult to determine what is and what isn't to be considered the "definitive final official" name of many of the movie characters, especially if you try to come up with consistent rules. If the rule is "whatever is in the final cut of the film", then we have both a green tank named "Devastator", and a larger "Devastator" who's comprised of multiple construction vehicles.

 

It's easier to separate Dino and Mirage because the credits only call him Dino, compared to Que and Wheeljack.

Somewhat related to this disinformation thing, but I heard a claim Michael Bay stated that Que and Dino weren't Wheeljack or Mirage and are new characters, something along those lines, and it was obviously proven wrong via tie-in media names. I don't know if this actually happened, or if it did but isn't a lie (cause they do seem to be new characters).

 

The problem is, if we're going to take the credits as confirmation for anything, than we have the next problem with Rampage/Skipjack.

Yellow bulldozer that is never seen in individual robot mode forms Devastator's left leg. Red bulldozer guy appears in robot mode while Devastator is busy elsewhere. Starscream calls red bulldozer guy "Rampage" in a subtitle. The credits instead call him "Skipjack", the name used in all the concept art.

Hasbro and Takara's toys of the bulldozer, some of them with an individual robot mode while others form Devastator's leg, are initially all yellow, and named "Rampage".

Later, both Takara and Hasbro release red redecos of some of the toys intended to represent the individual robot, and those toys are also named "Rampage" (sometimes "Rampage Desert Combat").

Then Hasbro releases a new Legends Class toy of Rampage whose first iteration is red from the get-go. Takara then releases a yellow redeco of said toy, and calls it "Skipjack", using the name from the concept art/credits.

Years later, Hasbro and Takara release a Studio Series toy of Rampage, in red, based on the individual robot mode guy who was called "Rampage" in the film. Later, they release a yellow redeco and name him "Skipjack", following the precedent created by Takara.


Is this accurate to the film? The film isn't even agreeing with itself.

 

Nevermore, I actually believe any TF script is fake if the Autobots have more than one non-Optimus Heavy Vehicle (Ratchet's a grey zone) due to jadedness.

That uh, TF3? TF4? one that involved time travel and had the Protectobots show up for no reason was a fun read, but utter crap since no way would those guys show up

 

These names are confusing. I'm putting some of this on Hasbro since they are more inclined to give classic names out.

The only time travel thing I can remember was an early Transformers 4 pitch that was Optimus and Megatron becoming Beast Wars characters and meeting Dinobots along the way but that's just a pitch not a script.

 

The Shockwave/Soundwave thing is an exception, that part represents separate characters. We know the others aren't like this simply because there isn't some Decepticon protoform named Wheeljack voiced by Que's VA. And I swear if there actually is t-

The core problem with the wiki thing is they officially haven't fully distanced themselves despite clearly wanting to. So the wiki follows suit on technicalities unfortunately. I don't know why they aren't doing outright saying it's a full reboot, and there's little benefit. Though I would laugh if Rise of the Beasts ends with Mirage turning into a Ferrari.

For some strange reason Shockwave's concept art lists him as Blitzwing.....is this a half hearted attempt at disinformation planned in advanced?

 

No, that's just an example of movie designs being assigned one character name as a working name before someone decides the final name.

2007 Blackout started out as Soundwave (with Ravage instead of Scorponok), then became "Vortex", "Grimlock", "Devastator", "Incinerator" and then finally "Blackout". Barricade and Frenzy initially started out as one and the same character, who was also supposed to be Soundwave (that was when the helicopter was no longer supposed to be Soundwave) and transform into a Humvee (among other things). By the time he was conceived as a police car, he was named "Brawl" before finally becoming "Barricade".

Supposedly, the reason Hasbro picked these names in the first place was because they had used both "Blackout" and "Barricade" only recently by that point (in the Energon line), and thus still had the toy trademarks.

 

The amount of hate TFWiki gets here is hilarious, yet sad.

Exactly this.

Also, I fully support them keeping all the different versions of one incarnation of a character together. I feel it's more organized. It's not like the different continuities are mixed up. If you want a specific continuity, look for it's section on the page's content list. If there's enough info, it'll even get a separate page that's linked to the main one.

TF Wiki does include the original alligator Megatron and bat Primal, along with the comic that came with them, in G1 Megatron and Prime's respective articles, with notes explaining that the toys were .

So the Wiki should just disregard the Wheeljack and Mirage from DOTM's tie-in material altogether? Just not include them anywhere on the wiki?

Exactly this.

People need to understand that TFWiki is thorough. It doesn't pick and choose what it acknowledges based upon what people like the most. If there's ever been any suggestion that two things are connected, it has to acknowledge it. If a character's been given two different names, it acknowledges it. If you don't like something it includes, too bad. TFWiki doesn't exist to please fans, it exists to document the franchise. That means Que is also Wheeljack, Dino is also Mirage, TF Prime is tenuously connected to WFC, etc.

 

Well, yeah. I'm sure that will happen, once we get clarification on the issue. For now, with no further information, the wiki has to treat newer films' characters as the same as, or different interpretations of, their Bayformer counterparts. As there's so much material referring to Dino as Mirage, it has to acknowledge that Dino is Bayformers Mirage and that, until definitively proven otherwise, any upcoming movie Mirage is presumably linked to him.

 

Yes, but I hate TFWiki's decisions because they are inconsistent. Although Energon Wing Saber and Cybertron Wing Saber are totally different (the same applies with Armada Sideways and Cybertron Sideways), TFWiki says they are the same because Hasbro says Cybertron is continuation of Energon, but although Hasbro says WFC and RID2015 are the same continuity, they say WFC Sideswipe and RID2015 Sideswipe are different.

 

Not necessarily. Various G1 characters have drastically different personalities, depending on which version of G1 you're talking about. Hopefully we'll eventually get enough official word on it being a reboot for them to be separated. Of course, that's assuming the Studio execs are ever willing commit to this being a reboot.

Huh, you're right. That is extremely weird. If they're willing to distinguish between those characters, then surely we've gotten enough evidence to make it clear that, for instance, TF1 Dropkick and BB Dropkick aren't the same character, which should in turn set precedent that ROTB characters can be presumed to be separate entities, until proven otherwise.

 

There is no Dropkick in TF1

 

In its tie-in media, yes.

 

Gotta give the guy credit at least he was battling leaks and tried to keep everyone in suspense for the movies.

 

At the same time, he was also spewing nonsense, contradicting himself and msking messy movies.

 

Never said his movies were good. Don't misconstrue what I am saying.

 

It's actually kind of funny because all that happened was he ended up having a reputation for his statements being untrustworthy.

It's like he wanted to play the Intel game but didn't know how and instead just shot himself in the foot.

He managed to LARP a disinformation campaign where he turned out to be the single most unreliable source.