I'm thinking Armada - only Optimus Prime, Starscream and Unicron were homages to G1 characters of the same name but even then, Optimus Prime and Starscream looked completely different despite being in the same colors and loosely a similar vehicle mode. Everybody else was a completely unconnected name reuse.

 

I think I'd have to go RiD.

 

Animated had a lot of good homages.

 

he's asking for the opposite of homages  


And yeah, Armada was my first thought as well. Though, off the top of my head, it seems Cybertron had even less homages (and even more completely new characters, such as Flame Convoy) than Armada. Energon had a lot of homages though, so it's out

 

Probably Machine Wars.

 

first off: love your female women picture. she's hot.

second: My vote goes towards armada

 

Kiss Players

 

actually; i think bw and bm had a lot of g1 homages, at least in the names.

scoponok, optimus, megatron, dinobot, grimlock, rampage, heck, even lio convoy and big convoy even LOOKED like their name sakes *some what*

so i don't know why you were singling them out, as they are clearly full of name sakes. and the tv series was full of homages.  


but i'd have to go with RID or armada too, as both main casts, with the exceptions of megatron and optimus prime, were completely new. even if the RID line did have a few g1's in it,  

but then again it was a mix of mulitple toylines huh?

so maybe that's not a good one to say the "least" after all it had g1's, g2's, bw, bm, but the Universe line, *original* might have the least g1 homages.  

 

I'm actually going to have to go with RiD as well. When you think about it, Armada actually had quite a few G1 homages:

powerlinx Hot Shot--> Hot Rod

Thrust--> Cone heads (with the powerlinx version homaging G1 Thrust)

Scavenger--> Constructicons

Sparkplug--> Bumblebee (and of course, named after everyone's favorite hardhat-wearing human)

Laserbeak--> G1 Laserbeak (in robot mode)

Thundercracker and Skywarp--> respective G1 seekers

Sideways--> Headmasters

 

RID had brave max and ultra magnus so the homage was actually pretty decent.

 

It's a female woman too! That's like, double feminine.

But staying on topic, i'd say RiD or.. huh, Power Core Combiners (sans Huffer)? (actually it's full of homages, but with pseudo-original names)

 

Animorphs (it said Transformers on the package so it counts)

 

Well, I guess crossover transformers (marvel, SW) would count too, but I guess the OP wanted toylines based in the main TF universe.

 

Every series has a lot of G1 in it. You'd have to make a comprehensive list of all the homages in each series to tell which one had the least. Then there is the question as to what really constitutes a homage? Can it be the reuse of a name? Some-what similar look? or does it have to scream that character it is refrencing?

Is Super Fire Convoy a homage... or a really original new Optimus Prime/Convoy?

Mold reuse? Should they really be considered homages? Like Fortress or the Combaticons in RID.

 

Well, Hot Shot was vaguely a Bumblebee homage. Then again, the only thing the have in common is that they're yellow, cars, and child-appeal characters.

I just thought of that because my brother looked at one episode of Armada and thought Hot Shot was Bumblebee.

 

Both of these were IN the G1 continuity and were nothing BUT G1 characters (aside from Megaplex, Hoist 2, and the new cassettes and whatnot from KP)  

 

Umm... All the RiD repaints were done as G1 homages. Same goes for Armada. Hell, Hot Shot got a Hot Rodimus deco out of every figure (minus Cyb. Defense).

Machine Wars doesn't count as it was still part of the G1 universe. And technically (as much as I hate it), Beast Wars is part of the G1 universe as well.

The simple answer here is a clear "None." Every Transformers line since G1 has homaged it greatly.

 

oooh i know i know! diaclone, microman, and the other lines that transformers originated, THOSE are the least homaged lines. as g1 didn't even exist when they were new!

  do i win?

 

gobots. (the TF ones, really.)

i also want to point out G2.
Butterscotch bots, Fruit Stripes gum style decepticons, Joel Schumacher inspired styles...imo, that wasn't a homage to G1, that was mockery.