Kid-appeal character

Cue the hijinks.

Transformers is mostly a kid-oriented franchise. While pretty much all the characters in the franchise are designed to be marketed to kids, many franchises feature one or more kid-appeal characters, characters specifically notable for their interactions with the show's cast of human protagonists. They might be specifically coded as "younger" then the rest of the cast, or possess a specific alternate mode that makes it easier for their human friend to catch a ride. Many of their adventures end with them completely failing to learn their lesson, and then doing it again. And again, and again and...

This isn't another one of those "Bumblebee makes a friend" stories, is it?Nightbeat on the concept, "The Hunting Party"

List of kid-appeal characters

Finally, a kid-imitable weapon.

Generation 1

The Transformers cartoon

• Hound spent a good deal of time with Spike Witwicky in the cartoon's first three episodes, but was soon supplanted by...
• Bumblebee, who stayed with Spike for most of the series.
• Hot Rod was Daniel Witwicky's closest friend at the beginning of The Transformers: The Movie. This lasted for all of eighty minutes, as Hot Rod's upgrade into Rodimus Prime made him no longer "hip" enough, and he was replaced.
• Wheelie took over for the show's third season. Wheelie and Daniel went off on adventures like stealing a ship to figure out when Ultra Magnus's birthday was and nearly getting killed repeatedly in the process. Exactly the sort of thing we want kids identifying with.
• Arcee, the girl, filled in for the Daniel's Best Friend part in the final three episodes.

The Headmasters

• Wheelie was still a companion to Daniel, even though they spent most of their time insulting each other.

Super-God Masterforce

• The Headmaster Juniors were unique in that they served both as the token young humans and the kid-appeal Transformer characters.

Victory

• Holi was Jan Minakaze's pal.

Beast Era

Actual popularity with kids optional.

Beast Wars

• Cheetor was not only yellow, he had the impulsiveness and disregard for authority every kid-appeal bot needs. The only thing he lacked was a human friend, until Chak and Una showed up in the show's third season. Except for the Transmetal 2 upgrade, and the whole of Beast Machines, he was a pretty friendly guy, annoying the others with his childish enthusiasm.

Beast Wars II

• Tasmania Kid was the yo-yo-playing youngster and impulsive go-getter of the Lio Convoy Unit, notably being the only aside from Lio Convoy to have interaction with the animal he scanned his beast mode from.
• Scissor Boy was the youngster among the Insectrons and pointedly got matched with Tasmania Kid in "Danger! Scissor Boy".
• Lio Junior became the new youngster starting "Enter Lio Junior", effectively with Tasmania Kid's blessing. Lio Junior's arc was largely about earning the acknowledgement and approval of his father, Lio Convoy.

Beast Wars Neo

• Stampy was the youngest member of Big Convoy's team. In the comic, he even was a cultural descendant of Tasmania Kid.

Beast Machines

• Nightscream replaced Cheetor as the youngster of the Maximals since Cheetor had matured. Hasbro had such high hopes for this kid appeal character, that they made his toy a giant Ultra class figure! Unfortunately, his character was angry and bitter, so he didn't get much love. He never had a human friend either, since Beast Machines had no humans at all. He hung out with Noble, though, so that's something.

Robots in Disguise (2001)

• Wedge was the young, excitable hero who was hotheaded and naive, but was being primed for leadership.
• However, it was Side Burn, the other naive, excitable young hero, who had the special friendship with a human.

Unicron Trilogy

Hot Shot passes the kid-appeal torch.

• Hot Shot was the token kid-appeal character of Armada, hot-headed, unwilling to listen to his superiors, and suddenly thrust into a leadership role that lasted all of three episodes. Unfortunately, he grew up, something no kid-appeal character should ever have to do, and was shortly replaced.
• Ironhide took over once Energon rolled around. His tenure was mostly spent getting kicked by... uh... Kicker. They got along eventually, though.
• Hot Shot was young and goofy again in Cybertron, but the series' kids spent more time with the Recon Mini-Con Team, particularly Jolt (the only one who could speak English).

Live-action film series

• Bumblebee was the first Autobot to arrive on Earth. His mission to search for the AllSpark led him to Sam Witwicky, a boy whom he befriended over the course of his mission, and stayed with once it was over. Sam repaid him by making out with Mikaela on top of him. Huh.
• Skids and Mudflap provide the kid appeal in scenes with the older, more serious, Autobots and NEST soldiers since Bumblebee is with Sam, and subsequently tag along on the main adventure and even get an action sequence with Devastator to themselves - all while being foul-mouthed.
• For The Last Knight, Izabella and Sqweeks were hyped up as the main kid-friendly characters on the block, as well as the baby Dinobots. While this did hold true for the first hour of the film, the plot pretty much forgets about them for the next hour of the film, leaving them without an appearance until the climax in which they don't do too much. Poor Sqweeks ended up being a complete shelf-warmer with his signature large-scale RC toy still clogging toy shelves until the end of the 2018 holidays!
• In Bumblebee, the kid-appeal character is... well, we're going to let you figure this one out.
• Rise of the Beasts sees Bumblebee take more of a backseat, with Mirage being the new primary Autobot and kid-appeal character, usually seen as a nuisance by his more serious comrades, and also forming a bond with both Noah Díaz and his young brother Kris Díaz.

Animated

• Bumblebee (detecting a pattern yet?) is Sari Sumdac's closest friend, human and bot alike. Once again, he is irrational and impulsive, which has only helped endear him to his small, fleshy friend (assuming, of course, she is fleshy...). Bumblebee was also originally supposed to be named Hot Shot, another yellow kid-appeal bot.

Aligned continuity family

• Bumblebee returns, though this time he's not the only character with a guardian robot dynamic, as Arcee and Bulkhead are tasked with taking care of the older children. Regardless, as Bumblebee's friend is 12-year old Raf Esquivel, he is the Autobot his age group are meant to relate to.
• Smokescreen is the eager new recruit that joined Team Prime in late season two. While he didn't have a human friend, he was occasionally lent one. He replaced Bumblebee as the youngest member of the group.
• Our favorite yellow bot returns yet again for the sequel, but this time he's all grown up and the leader of a team. He still acts like a kid sometimes. Furthermore, Bumblebee seems to pass the mantle, though this time it seems to be arguably shared by his teammates: Grimlock, Strongarm and Sideswipe, the latter two of which never seem to get along.
• All five of the protagonists from Rescue Bots Academy (Hot Shot, Whirl, Hoist, Medix, and Wedge) could count as this, as they all learn basic morals aimed at young children, and generally act younger than the other Cybertronians in this continuity. They're even scaled like children to the other bots!

Cyberverse

• Bumblebee *sigh* yet again regains his position as the king of kid-appeal characters. Bonus points for Season 2 managing to add both Hot Rod and Cheetor into the mix. Hot Rod even takes center stage for most of Season 3, becoming the show's main star by that point.
• The show's distinct lack of human characters (despite spending a lot of time on Earth in the first season) means no human sidekick kid-appeal characters happened.

EarthSpark

• Virtually all the Terrans, who form an adopted sibling relationship with human protagonists Robby and Mo Malto. Bumblebee himself is cast in the role of a slightly older sibling.

Notes

• They have an overwhelming tendency to be yellow.
• Since 2007, they also have an overwhelming tendency to be named Bumblebee. We're not sure why.
• Had trademark issues not gotten in the way at the time, Armada Hot Shot would have also been named "Bumblebee". After the 2007 movie had made "Bumblebee" an A-lister again (following a changed trademark situation enabling Hasbro to use the name again), this resulted in a reverse situation with the kid-appeal character from Animated having his name changed from "Hot Shot" (as that name had been established by the Unicron Trilogy) into "Bumblebee" (although Hot Shot later appears as a separate character in Animated, with more similarities to his UT predecessor).
• Animated Bumblebee was once transported into the TransTech universe, where he was often mistaken for other kid-appeal characters, including Wheelie, Cheetor, and Side Burn.

External links

• TV Tropes article on Kid Appeal Characters