It's not a mistranslation. Hasbro did it intentionally just so they could keep the Trade Marks on both names. In Japan they don't really need to reuse names to keep their trade marks going but in America Hasbro has to keep using the name every few years or risk loosing the Trade Mark.

Also the names in Japan are actually...

Micron: Megatron, Megatron Super Mode, and Armada Megatron

One of those I believe is the name used for his combined mode with Tidal Wave but I'm not sure which. It's also kind of ironic that one of the Japanese names for him is Armada Megatron despite the fact the series isn't even called Armada in Japan.

Super Link: Galvatron and Galvatron General.

I also thought it was kind of interesting that the original version is based on the coloring of the G1 toy and the repaint is based on the coloring of the G1 animation model. In most cases the toys come first before the animation models so it's kind of cool that they used the coloring for both and in the same order. I still don't really like repaints but in this one instance there's at least an interesting reason why they did it that way.

Galaxy Force: Master Megatron and Master Galvatron.

While A/E/C Megatron/Galvatron are all suppose to be the same character in the same universe. The original Japanese versions actually had M/SL Megatron/Galvatron and GF Megatron/Galvatron as separate characters from entirely different continuities. GF was suppose to be a stand alone series but Hasbro shoehorned it in as a sequel when they dubbed it as Cybertron.

I'm not sure why Japan has a specific name for the Tidal Wave combined mode in Micron but not for Nemesis Breaker combined mode in Galaxy Force.

 

sorry but you are a bit misinformed.

G1 comic book Gavatron was once Megatron

 

Really? Cause according to this Galvatron II - Transformers Wiki Galvatron was an entirely different character from Megatron.

 

first....thats Galvatron 2....not the first Galvatron

second....did you even read the first sentence on that page?
here it is

"When Megatron was defeated, betrayed, and cast helplessly adrift in deep space, Unicron reshaped his remains into Galvatron. In one possible timeline, the Chaos-Bringer succeeded in consuming Cybertron and granted his faithful herald freedom and the rule of Earth. But Galvatron has found, to his great chagrin, that his servitude would not end there. Unicron reached through time itself and plucked his creation away from his triumphant reward, forcing him to repeat his old mission. Rebellious and scheming, his mind slowly being eaten by madness, this "Galvatron II" is a rogue danger to all."

 

That page is a bit confusing because they include the stuff where they are the same character on the same page as the stuff where they're different characters. They really should create a different page for each version of G1 Galvatron. Everything is kind of muddled together which makes it really hard to keep everything straight.

Anyway, as I understand it he's called Galvatron II only really to differentiate him from Megatron/Galvatron. That's a fan given title as he's never actually called that. I think a reference to the actual Galvatron II from Beast Wars who is also a separate character from Megatron.

The basic gist of it is G1 Cartoon continuity = Galvatron is a upgraded Megatron. G1 Comic continuity = Galvatron is a totally different character.

The same thing is true of Bumblebee/Goldbug by the way. In the cartoon they're the same character in the comics they're two different characters.

 

Question for the op:
In wich aligned novel does Galvatron appear?

 

no it's really not that confusing .... it's just that you have to read more closely... Please don't take that as an insult

The reason why it seems to you like they're two different characters is because Galvatron 2 is from an alternate universe where in the year 2005, Unicron destroyed Cybertron and Galvatron kills Rodimus Prime...

That Galvatron is then taken from his universe and brought to the main comic book G1 universe in which where Unicron is attacking Cybertron in the late 1980s instead of 2005...... so the comics then had both Megatron and Galvatron running around at the same time

it may have started that way but it has since become used officially to differentiate him

again you're wrong .... the original g1 Comics had Galvatron as an upgrade of Megatron

It's the recent IDW "so called" G1 Comics that have him as a separate character

again you are misinformed....

In the original G1 comics Goldbug was an upgrade from Bumblebee..... in the U.S. comics he was upgraded by members of GI Joe
In the UK comics he was upgraded by a time-traveling Wreckgar

It's in the recent IDW G1 comics that Bumblebee and Goldbug are separate characters

 

No, not really.

There's no doubt that Galvatron in the Marvel US comics once was Megatron. He was Megatron who was turned into Galvatron by Unicron as shown in the movie. However, in one possible reality, events changed and Galvatron succeeded in killing Rodimus Prime and Unicron destroyed Cybertron. Galvatron and his Decepticons were then given Earth to rule. However, in the reality of the current comic run, Primus was awoken and Unicron discovered Cybertron's location ten years earlier. Being in need of a herald to disrupt the Autobots and Decepticons, he searched all possible realities, found the one in which he was victorious, and subsequently plucked Galvatron from that reality (and the near future). That Galvatron, who was Megatron at one time, then featured in the US Marvel comics. But he very clearly was Megatron.

However, the UK Marvel comics (which does and does not fit with the US Marvel run), they had already used Galvatron previously. And after Megatron dissapeared from the US run, they kept using a Megatron fighting alongside Galvatron and that Galvatron remembered things from the time when he was that Megatron. But then the US run revealed that Megatron had been on Cybertron all the time and thus couldn't be the Megatron the UK had used since. It was thus retconned that this UK Megatron was actually a clone body occupied by Straxus. And thus this Galvatron wasn't once Megatron but Straxus. The Galvatron we see in Time Wars and the like this was never Megatron but a seperate character (Straxus) and thus is referred to as Galvatron II.

So:
- cartoon: Megatron becomes Galvatron
- Marvel US: Megatron becomes Galvatron, and Galvatron is send back in time by Unicron resulting in Megatron and Galvatron existing at the same time (and even fighting each other shortly, before Galvatron realises that killing Megatron (to purge the madness that haunts him) will result in his own death).
- Marvel UK: Straxus creates a clone Megatron, that clone becomes in one reality Galvatron and that Galvatron travels back in time on his own.

 

cutting this a bit short just to get at a few points I feel there might be some debate on.

However, in the reality of the current comic run, Primus was awoken and Unicron discovered Cybertron's location ten years earlier

I believe it was closer 18 years

- Marvel UK: Straxus creates a clone Megatron, that clone becomes in one reality Galvatron and that Galvatron travels back in time on his own

The way I read it there are two different Galvatron in the UK continuity if not more because of the time Wars

The first traveled back in the story Target 2006 and Fallen Angel.....I'm not sure when II Galvatron in the UK books first showed up but that would be the one that was a clone Megatron with straxus mind

Tfwiki has this on the issue....
It is possible that in the original un-altered pre-Time Wars timeline, the Straxus-Megatron clone may have been the Megatron transformed into Galvatron, but the shifting nature of the timelines makes this open to debate at best

 

Intentionally or not it's a mistranslation caused by lack of forward planning. Armada galvatron probably would have simply been powerlinx megatron if they had considered using galvatron from the beginning of energon like was supposed to happen

 

Whenever someone says Armada and Galvatron, I remember the end of the Dreamwave Armada comics, which to me were more interesting than the cartoon

 

I have the recent IDW comics... some of them anyway, the ones that were printed with variant covers and packaged with the thrilling 30 figures. (There's a list in my my signature of the ones I'm still missing.) He's called Goldfire not Goldbug and actually is the same character as Bumblebee... They can't call him Goldbug anymore because he's not a bug. and I'm kind of confused about that as well because he starts out as Bumblebee, turns into Goldfire for a while and then switches back to Bumblebee again? I might be reading these comics in the wrong order. Some of them don't tell me what the issue number is so I haven't got a clue about the proper order the events are suppose to be happening in. I do know that they're the same character though because even when he's in the Goldfire body people still refer to him as Bumblebee most of the time. Kind of like how in Armada people kept referring to Galvatron and Thundercracker as Megatron and Starscream.

Not planning ahead is not the same as mistranslating. A mistranslation is the result of words in one language that don't really have direct translations in another. Like the word aloha which means both hello and goodbye. If someone says hello when leaving a room that would be a mistranslation.

Hasbro was never trying to translate the Japanese names into English. Technically the names I gave earlier are the English translations of the Japanese names. In actual Japanese the names look like this.

Japanese characters/English Alphabet

メガトロン Megatoron

メガトロンS Megatoron Sūpā Mōdo

アルマダメガトロン Arumada Megatoron

ガルバトロン Garubatoron

ガルバトロンG Garubatoron Jeneraru

マスターメガトロン Masutā Megatoron

マスターガルバトロン Masutā Garubatoron

If Hasbro wanted to just translate the Japanese names we would of ended up with the names that I said before were the Japanese names instead of what we actually got.

Anyway, the reason Hasbro didn't think ahead is because they didn't know Galvatron was going to be in Energon. It's the same reason why Rampage ended up being called Wheeljack in the U.S instead of the character that was actually meant to be Wheeljack. They ended up calling Wheeljack Downshift or Cliffjumper depending on of you're looking at the toy or the cartoon in order to not confuse kids who saw Wheeljack die in Armada... which is weird because their inconstant naming of characters in the UT confused kids anyway.

Optimus kept calling Sparkplug, Leader-1. Grindor and Shureshot were constantly swapping names. Jetstorm and Runway's names got switched around in the toy line. Front of the packaging, back of the packaging, instructions, the little bio cards they had at the time, nothing could agree on which one was Jetstorm and which one was Runway. Sonar was the only one of the Star Saber team who's name was actually consistent. As I said above the toy line lists Energon Wheeljack as Downshift but the cartoon calls him Cliffjumber. And then in Cybertron that Wheeljack in the cartoon actually gets to be called Downshift. Oh and there's a point in Armada where Optimus and Jetfire's combined mode is actually referred to by the Japanese name. Oh and they also included Sideways in Cybertron despite also being dead. Armada Inferno was Thrust's Mini-con partner but in Energon Inferno is an Autobot fire truck which I bet made G1 fans happy but confused the hell out kids that thought Inferno was a Mini-con.

Whoever was in charge at Hasbro around that time just really didn't give a darn. They were just slapping names into characters just to hold onto Trade Marks weather or not it actually made sense.

I remember seeing those comics years ago. I never picked one up because that comic book shop is 200 miles away from where I live. I only go there once a year when I'm visiting my grandparents. I don't have a local comic book store which makes it hard to keep up with comics so I just didn't bother with them for a long time. That being said from the little bit I read it looked like the Mini-con Over-Run was actually from the G1 universe as he explains he left his universe to get away from Galvatron and that design despite appear in an Armada comic book and the fact that he's said to be from a different universe, it looks like G1 Galvatron crossed over into the UT universe for a while.

I've talked about this comic online before but no one knew what I was talking about and I've never been able to find any info about it online so where did you find these pictures?

 

In idw bumblebee and goldbug are two different characters. Goldbug appears in stormbringer while bumblebee is on earth."goldfire" is an upgrade for bumblebee during dark cybertron, essentially coating his body with "goldfire" plating/armor. Is goldfire a classics homage to goldbug? Yes, but in idw they are two different characters so far.

And my point about the unicron trilogy uses of galvatron is that the repaint in armada was never supposed to be galvatron, the name was supposed to be used for his unicron upgraded body in energon

 

I typed "armada comics galvatron" into google image search.

And yes this Galvatron is from a different universe. They say as much in the issues. I picked them up when they came out. Reading the comic that came out before the show, you'd think the show would turn out to be much better than it really was. The armada and energon comics put their show counterparts to shame.

I really enjoyed the dreamwave tales, it's a pity Pat Lee had to loot the company and cause it to collapse. At times the g1 tales felt like it was filling in the gaps between seasons 2 and 3. Wish the stories could have continued without Pat Lee.

 

I loved the DW Armada-Energon comics. They seemed to get better with each issue . the DW G1 comics where a waste of the money Pat Lee looted though, the real crime is they actually started to show some promise just before Dreamwave folded.

 

Megatron and Tidal Wave's combine form was known as Burning Megatron in Japan.

The version of the character that was called Armada Megatron in Japan was the Generations version, released only at the Tokyo Toy Fair.

Hasbro didn't shoehorn GF to be a sequel. The three shows where originally conceived to be part of the same continuity. However, when it came to making the third series, it was decided to make Galaxy Force a stand alone series while Hasbro stuck to the original plan for Cybertron. Later on, Takara would retcon it, and now considers Galaxy Force to be part of the same continuity as ML/SL, as it was originally supposed to be.

 

and again you are misinformed....that's three for three. .... bumblebee/gold fire is one character........goldbug is another he's a throttlebot. Goldbug (IDW) - Transformers Wiki

 

Well this is confusing... considering both Goldbug and Goldfire are both based on the same design and share the same coloring. I just assumed you were talking about Goldfire and I've yet to see them appear at the same time I just assumed from the Goldfire stuff that they were the same character.

From the little I read the biggest difference in the character seems to be the fact that the Mini-con's in the Armada comics can actually talk. The reason they don't talk in the series is because they're so many of them it would cost too much to have actors actually voice them

Also Overload is a lot better in the comics considering in the cartoon he's more like a prop than a character. Optimus combines with him once, he never talks, and that's it. No explination of where he came from and you never see him again. The comic had this weird thing where Overload and Rollout would talk in unison, I think because Overload's head is part of Rollout's body.

I was never really quite clear if Overload and Rollout were two characters or just a Mini-con with a power suit to make him as big as a normal Transformer.

Everyone else I don't really remember that well in the Comics.

 

The minicons not talking in the show is also a throwback to the targetmasters in the headmasters anime where they spoke in beeps

 

One more slight correction...."A" g1 universe not the g1 universe