Symbiote - Transformers Wiki The classification term loosely fits, but when I think of an alien symbiote I think of Todd McFarlane's organic costumes.
I'm not sure how well this fits because some of them seem a lot more autonomous than others. Sure Scorpie seemed just attack attack attack, but Laserbeak had to put some thought into being that damn evil. Personally I like the old term minions even if that might cause a bit of confusion with the little yellow guys.
Are people really associating Transformer minions with Gru's yellow dudes? I'll just maybe call them cassette-bots or deployers from now on.
No, the term "minions" has been used for the mini Transformers way before Gru and "his" minions came to be.
You mean you didn't know about that? I have TONS of spare time so I read a lot on tfwiki. Symbiotes: Transformers that spend their time on another Transformer. Like minicons but more clingy.
