Yeah it does.

Prowling the streets for crime? Casing a joint, prowling a joint? Cop cars totally prowl.

That doesn't refer to his alt mode, it refers to his personality. "Talking a blue streak" refers to someone who talks a lot and very quickly.

But it fits his personality perfectly.

He's a lug, and he's a nut. He's a lugnut in every way. Even his plane mode is beefy and big. Names don't have to refer to alt modes. Considering TFs can change their alt modes all the time, that seems like a very short-sighted move. It makes for more sense to base a name off of who they are, not what they're dressed as.

Seriously?

He builds, i.e. he erects buildings.

No. He has six modes. One is made up and not part of his original toy's intent.

 

Thanks split. if ever I wanted to just post "this", now would be that time.

 

Sorry Split Lip! I didn't know that the word erect existed.

 

Learn something new everyday.

 

Never liked the name Midnight Express for that Autobot train.

 

"Bomb-Burst".

Now what do you think that is? A bomb expert? Just another big Decepticon goon?

Wrong, vampire.

 

In old timey times such as the 1960's it was common for a police car to be called a Prowl-car.
The term "Bulkhead" I believe has something to do with boats.. not fitting for his character.

 

Bulkhead doesn't just apply to boats in this context. In TFA, Sentinel outright names him Bulkhead purely because he's "all bulk and no brains.". Basically, it's a play on how he's more brawn than brain.

 

Shrapnel and Bombshell: both words evoke imagery of explosions, not giant bugs.
Starscream: Not a spacecraft, where does the star in his name come from?
Roadbuster: hes an offroad vehicle. how does he bust roads?
Hound: hes a jeep, not a hunting dog
Tailgate: he turns into a car, and outside of el Caminos, not too many cars have tailgates

 

Unicron. I mean, what is that based off of? Unicorn?

Actually he has treads... which technically have wheels, I guess...

...why? An express train is something that goes fast, like a bullet train.

 

I don't see the problem with Prowl's name, police cars are stealthy a lot of the time

 

He was called Bluestreak for 2 reasons:
His original coloring had blue sides
His character bios said he talked endlessly. Aka talking a blue streak!

 

Yes it does exist, look it up.

 

Not in GTA! lol

 

I think you're taking this too literally. Many Transformers don't have names that describe their alternate mode; they could easily describe their personality.

Tailgate can also refer to following another too closely.

 

Dino!

 

Starscream could've flown through space before he came to Earth, "screaming through the stars". Actually he DID fly through the stars, with Jetfire, in the G1 cartoon.
Roadbuster busts up roads, whether asphalt or off-road. Sounds fitting.
Hound's a scout, and a lot of hounds are sent ahead to scout things out, like hunting dogs. It could also apply to any kind of tracking he has to do.
Tailgate's a generic car part that probably sounded cool to the PTB.

 

Yeah, it's literally bulk-head. A head full of bulk.

It also means a big, tough, impassable door, which fits with the Animated personality specifically.

I have no idea how it fits his Energon persona.

GTAV cops are fucking psychos.

Yup. It's a play on his original bio where he believed all machines sentient, and would often tailgate cars believing them to be friends.

A lot of TF names are based off how many clinical headcases there were in the line.

What do you think he was before he was an Earth plane?

Hell, even when he had an Earth mdoe he could still fly into space. At the end of TF07 he's flying to the stars, screaming.

Kinda answered your own question. He busts out of roads to go off-road.

He's a tracker. He even got to do a bit of tracking in the G1 cartoon.

Anything that tracks or searches can be considered "hounding."

Or, by consuming all the galaxy, he "unites" it. "Cron" is just because he's a big horrible thing.

Badabing.

That name has real world meaning.

And fictionally, he may have chosen that to be his spoken Earth name upon researching his vehicle mode.

I notice a great many of these supposed ill-fititng names are actually just misunderstandings or lack of knowledge about the words themselves, and actually fit quite well.

 

Slug
I don't remember him or the other dinobots ever using slugs but rather lasers

 

There are a lot of Transformer names out there that feel awkward or out-of-place... bad fits for a particular character, or perhaps a thoughtless nameslap. For the most part, most of the early names seemed to be reasonably well considered, but things definitely got more random as time went on. I think people here mention quite a few of my personal peeves in this thread.

I agree. It seems as if he was named primarily for his tank alt-mode, but that really seems like the least relevant part of his character, compared to the mystical undead martial-arts warrior whose bio suggests he uses superstition, fear and smoke effects to undermine his foes. Meh.

GutCRUNCHER actually. But yeah... it's kind of a generic heavy thug sounding name, which I guess fits what appears to be his tank alt-mode (at least as far as Actionmasters only -appeared- to have altmodes).

Either a tank, or some kind of exercise gear.  

As a kid, I always wondered if they got Ransack and Chopshop's names mixed up, because at the time I didn't know that a "chop shop" was a place where stolen merchandise (cars) was 'processed'.

However, 'Ransack' does actually fit his character, in the sense that he appears to be the marauding barbarian of the Insecticons... basically a rape/pillage/burn equivalent to the viking or mongol archetype.

What names do you guys know of that that just don't fit the Transformers it's on?[/QUOTE]

Yeah, but treads don't typically evoke wheels. It seems like a mismatch. Of course a flywheel is a mechanical device designed to store rotational energy (or whatever... I just remember them from all those toy cars), so more than anything it just seems like an easy pun (fly+wheels, as you say).

This always mildly irked me. I mean, I guess it's a cool name, although I was never so big on the latin-ized or space-age names... and it's a bit weird for a jet who doesn't spin or create windstorms or whatnot.

Yup, there are a lot of those names that have been thrown around in recent years that have so little bearing on the character's physical form. Hasbro has been particularly lazy in the last 10 years, seemingly throwing any old name on any character.

Bulkhead is another one of those, since bulkheads are reinforcing structures in ships. I mean, yeah, yeah... so he's bulky and whatever... BUT... that doesn't change the fact that he was probably named by somebody who didn't actually know what a "bulkhead" really was, and was just picking out of a list of names that Hasbro was retaining the rights for. That name probably should have been saved for a nautical themed character... or a spaceship at least. For a truck it's still awkward. That goes for Lugnut too.

I'm sure there are Animated fans who will defend those names up and down, but the fact of the matter is that they aren't particularly great names, and if they had been named differently, the fans would have liked the characters just as much anyway. So yeah, just admit it, okay?  

As others have pointed out, "prowling" is definitely evocative of police activities, stalking around, watching, waiting for an opportunity to strike. It fits for the Autobots' most canny strategist. And yes, "prowl cars" are also an old nickname for undercover vehicles... though I didn't know that when I was a kid.

Bluestreak's original concept reference images were of the blue Diaclone version... it refers not only to his status as one of the fastest 1984 Autobots, but also his tendency to talk incessantly. "Bluestreak" was a term that referred to something that moves or speaks extremely quickly.

What actually bothers me more is that the 1984 line-up had both a "Bluestreak" and a "Sunstreaker" in it. Seems a bit too repetitive. They should have kept Sunstreaker's original name Spinout, or gone with something else.

I always wondered about that. Is that a confirmed fact, or just fan speculation?

I agree, but there is this part from his G1 bio:
"In his vehicle mode, Afterburner uses solid rocket fuel packs to boost his speed up to 450 mph for several minutes at a time."

He literally DOES have afterburners. But I agree that the Technobot names are a bit odd. Lightspeed as a car also, though that one is explained in his bio as well. It's almost as if the names were all pre-selected for jets or spaceships, and then Budiansky had to write a bio based on that name allocation.

I feel the same way, but in that case it just feels like it's too long. I have a knee-jerk dislike for Transformer names that are hyphenated or made out of two separate words, or complete phrases.

YES! This one bugs me a lot. Somehow the name is really the primary impediment for me summoning up any goodwill towards this character. His name is just... random.

Seriously? So you never noticed that black '84 Insecticons all had munitions-themed names? Or that each one of them has a special ability that is directly tied to that name?  

Besides just being a bit on the lyrical side, it is actually a reference to his preferred tactic of climbing to sub-orbital altitudes and then nose-diving out of the heavens to strike his foes on the ground. It's in his bio. You should read this stuff.

It means that he makes roads where there are none, or where they are otherwise blocked. "Trailbreaker" has a similar meaning, by the way.

There's a long tradition of associating infantry with dogs (ever heard soldiers referred to as "dogfaces" before?), so that ties in to his military alt mode. The other side refers to his function. As a loyal scout, it's his job to sniff around in the wilderness, dig up enemy positions, and lead the troops to the action. He's basically the Autobot point-man.

Apparently you don't know what "tailgate" means, nor have you read his bio. Tailgating is when somebody drives behind you very closely. It's actually illegal because it's unsafe. In Tailgate's case, as a long range scout he can conserve fuel by secretly magnetically locking on to cars in front of him, allowing them to pull him along the highway.

That's not quite what 'bulkhead' means, but you're close. You're probably thinking of 'bulwark', which actually wouldn't be a bad name for Animated or Prime Bulkhead.

Good question. I suspect it's a clueless name slap by a Hasbro exec.

Not really. See above. Unless the Dreamwave guide book added that little tidbit... but it's not from his original bio.

Yeah, this.  

This is certainly true in some cases (many of them above)... but not all. Sometimes you have to stretch a little to justify a name... ideally that shouldn't be the case.

zmog