I'm beyond happy for green light looking to be a mass release.

Now all we need is lancer... Which was teased in the codes , right?

 

I mean Convoy was literally the name of nearly every Optimus Prime in Takara canon until the 2007 movie, that's just them being true to his original name instead of retconning it back into Optimus Prime like they did with G1 OP.

 

And Optimus prime is literally the name of every Optimus prime in the states, what’s your point? The easiest way to distinguish alt universe characters that share the same name is to use the series name as an identifier. Hell as a fandom we already do that

 

My point is that changing Wheeljack/Rampage to Carjack or some other new name that has no history with the character is totally different from adding the series name a character was in as a prefex, and that calling him Armada Convoy isn't even a name change, just as much as calling a US release of that figure Armada Optimus Prime or calling a repaint of Sideswipe into Armada Wheeljack as that aren't name changes. It's just a descriptor. No one said Armada Starscream got his name changed to 'Armada Starscream' when his 2014 Generations figure was labeled as such either.

 

I’m in favor of NOT renaming them, seems you are the same

 

Everyone here is debating over what to call Armada Wheeljack since he isn’t “really” Wheeljack. Me though, I’ve been wondering for 17 years why Armada Wheeljack looks like G1 Sideswipe but is named Wheeljack,



and Armada Sideswipe who looks and acts like G1 Wheeljack but is named Sideswipe.



But does anybody ever talk about this? Nope.

 

Just call him Bumperjack, and call it a day.

 

Armada Sideswipe has nothing to do with Wheeljack, doesn't resemble or act like him at all. Not sure where you are getting that idea.

Basically everything you question is simply the result of poor planning and a poor understanding of the brand and it's fans. TF names aren't like human names - they function fictionally more like code names - you don't see multiple Wolverines running around at once, multiple Darth Vaders, etc. That's not necessary in a fiction you control, it's confusing, and makes things less accessible to outsiders. Hence why most of the TF fans to this day are G1 fans above all else. Care and thought were put in back in 1984, since then the only other time we had standout fiction was Beast Wars - also arguably the most creative the brand has been since 1984.

It's always been a very simple proposition - if you want something to look like said character, it should be named and act like said character. If you want to go in a new direction, the name and characterization should as well. Mixing the two is not only stupid, it's incredibly careless and lazy. Why would I respect someone that all at once is both unable to be creative enough to do their own thing and unable to respect what we love? I don't respect that at all. As a fandom we should strongly reject such things with our wallet (like the movies).

 

The reason why I'm in the have them retain their name camp is because it's both acknowledging that there's more to the brand then just G1 but it'll help bring nostalgia to those who grew up with that particular version of the character. Trying to change that just to have the G1 character be the only one to have the name just feels wrong. How is that different from trying to change the G1 characters greatly? It comes across as a double standard.

 

The first part is literally exactly what everyone else has been saying.

Sideswipe was meant to be Nightbeat, not Wheeljack. He looks like Nightbeat. His character acted like neither.

 

It's not exactly every day you get to discuss something about Armada without forcing it into a conversation, but now that you've brought it up; according to Aaron Archer, Wheeljack wasn't necessarily meant to be an homage to G1 Sideswipe, and he was surprised when he saw how similar they were. As for Side Swipe, (TFWiki says the toy labeled his name as two words so that's what I'm going with) and his Mini-Con almost certainly had their names mixed up, given that the Mini-Con's name was Nightbeat.

Where do you see G1 Wheeljack in him, though? I can sort of see it with the voice, but nothing about his body or vehicle mode are even close to G1 Wheeljack. If his design is an homage to anything, it'd probably be Jazz. His transformation only really has one big deviation with the hood folding down and the rest of the front ending up on the arms, and his head is a dead ringer for Jazz. And character wise, he analyzed codes from Starscream once. That isn't even close to him being an inventor, not even an unreliable one like Wheeljack was. His main character trait was that he's a loser who's trying to improve himself, and later that he was good friends with Hot Shot. I can't think of any G1 character who you could really compare to him.

 

True, Armada Sideswipe's character is kinda an interesting case to say the least. What's odd is that he, along with Wheeljack didn't return in the later parts of the Unicron Trilogy.

 

And Armada Cyclonus looks nothing like G1 Cyclonus, Armada Megatron looks nothing like G1 Megatron, Armada Scavenger looks nothing like G1 Scavenger...

They don’t have to. Armada Wheeljack having a loose homage to G1 Sideswipe is just that. Name reuses for unrelated characters are common in Transformers. And loose homages don’t always have to have the same name as someone from G1.

 

Non-G1 characters deserve to keep their names, so put me down for keeping the name and adding the series prefix. I mean, if you really want to get 'metafictional', Hasbro can start identifying some of these characters with Cybertronian cities. You have "Wheeljack from Iacon" and "Wheeljack from Altihex" or whatever.

I swear there was a thread or post on TFW or the TFWIKI explaining the mess Hasbro created in AEC with names and homages. But this was something we talked about back in the day...

Tangent: During Armada, I was not as familiar with post Season 4 G1, so I never caught that Armada Sideswipe really was an homage to Nightbeat. That's a very refreshing revelation. Now I want HasTak to start cranking out Armada and Energon carbot repaints/retools!

 

I have really been impressed with the siege line of toys. I have collected all but the micromasters and the Battle Masters. But I will be getting those. I also can't wait for the new stuff coming out. I know they can't do every G1 figure but I'd also love to see the Dinobots and Insecticons in the Siege line.

 

IDW did, kinda. Domitius Major Was based on Armada Power Linx Optimus Prime's colors on Big Convoy's body.

 

who then later had big convoys colors as well

 

Yeah I've read through his TFWiki entry, weird stuff.

 

definitely, especially since he basically became an alternate optimus prime too haha

 

All this Armada Wheeljack talk has made me wonder if somebody has already made a digibash of Siege Sideswipe in those colours.