Character

A character is a fictional depiction of a Transformer, a human, an alien or another entity that might or might not have a toy representation. If there is a toy, the character is usually, but not always, based on the toy and intended as a means of promoting said toy.

Over the course of the numerous Transformers series and toy lines, some characters have changed their names, while in other cases, characters have appeared that share a name with another character but are separate individuals. Many characters also have counterparts in other continuities they may or may not share a lot of similarities with.

Hasbro's attitude towards the importance of characters has changed a lot since the launch of the Transformers brand in 1984.

Character depiction

A character can be depicted in several ways. One of the simplest forms is the bio often featured on the back of a toy's packaging, which is usually a brief write-up of the character's personality and abilities.

Characters are also featured in supporting media such as comics, TV shows, movies, video games or books. In the case of characters based on a toy, the depiction of the character will often be consistent across the various media–in theory, at least.

Often, characters not based on existing toys may be created specifically for supporting media. They may be humans, but also Transformers or other aliens. In some cases, the same non-toy character appears in several different supporting media. Some of them might be turned into toys later on, due to the (often unexpected) popularity of those characters.

The reverse is possible as well: Some toy-based characters are featured as "main" characters in the primary fiction, some are reduced to a status as supporting characters, and some may even be mere toy-only characters.

Relevance

Originally, Hasbro didn't put as much emphasis on outstanding characters for the Transformers toy line from a marketing standpoint as they do today. Toys were supposed to have a shelf life of two years at maximum, to be replaced by new toys, which would be entirely new characters. As a consequence, Hasbro only bothered to register a small number of trademarks in the 1980s, such as "Optimus Prime" or "Soundwave".

Hasbro didn't originally realize how much of a crucial part recognizable characters had played in the success of the original Transformers series until they were facing the viewer backlash following Optimus Prime's death in The Transformers: The Movie. Following that, more and more toys were designed to resemble—and named after—existing toys/characters. Starting with the Generation 2 toy line, Hasbro began basing many toys from nearly every new line on existing "classic" characters.

In later years, the same character would get toy releases in multiple size classes in a very short period of time, especially if they were main characters in the primary fiction. In additon, a redeco of a toy is often a new version of the same character released under the same name (someimes with an additional prefix or suffix such as "Cybertron Defense" or "GTS"), with an explanation for the color change given in the character bio, and sometimes also in the supporting media fiction.

Same or different character?

Considering the large number of different Transformers toys, toy lines and continuities, there have been many instances where a character has used a different name, two or more characters shared the same name, and a character has different incarnations in different continuities. Figuring out whether two characters are actually one and the same or not may sometimes be a difficult task even for longtime fans, and in some instances people's views on the matter may differ.

Same universe, same character, different name

Sometimes the same character might be known under different names. For example, Hasbro might want to release a reissue of an old toy, or a new toy based on an existing character, but the trademark for the old toy's name might no longer be available. As a consequence, they will chose a different name for the new toy, even though it's very obvious it's still intended to be the same character. For example, Bluestreak's modern toys are usually released under the new name "Silverstreak", Hot Rod's new toys first became "Rodimus Major" and later simply "Rodimus", and Bombshell has been recently renamed into "Hardshell".

Sometimes, a character changes his name in a very short span of time. A frequent reason for this is that Hasbro and Takara plan to release a new toy that represents an "upgraded" form of the original toy/character, and the new name puts more emphasis on this. Hot Rod was upgraded into Rodimus Prime in The Transformers: The Movie (1986), and Cybertron Overhaul later became Leobreaker.

Usually those name changes are reflected in the accompanying fiction. Sometimes a name change is also exclusively used in fiction to explain the "origin" of a character: the Generation 1 comics by Marvel UK revealed that the Dinobot Swoop used to go by the name "Divebomb" until a Predacon humiliated him and claimed the name as his own. Likewise, the Energon cartoon revealed that Wing Saber's original name was "Wing Dagger". Neither name was ever used for the corresponding toys.

Lastly, a character might also have different names for different markets. Takara usually calls their toys of Optimus Prime and Optimus Primal "Convoy", Jazz is known as "Meister", Sideswipe becomes "Lambor", and so on. In return, Hasbro gave many Robots in Disguisetoys different names when they ported the Car Robots line to their markets. Furthermore, some toys released in Europe after the original toy line had ended in the USA got different (but usually English or English-derived) names for different markets, and when Hasbro eventually released those toys in the USA as part of the Generation 2 toy line, they were renamed again. But since all name variants of those toys featured the same bios (albeit in different languages), they're commonly considered to be the same characters by fans.

It gets more difficult with unusual cases, though, particularly with toys and characters "imported" from Japan to the USA many years after the fact. Commemorative Series Ricochet is considered the same character as Headmasters Stepper; but is Masterforce Overlord and/or or the 1991 European release of the Overload toy, the same character as Heroes of Cybertron Gigatron? Are the Classics and Universe "Leo Prime" toys the same character as Beast Wars II Lio Convoy? Your mileage may vary.

Same universe, same name, different character

Many times multiple characters go by the same name even though they're two entirely different individuals. The more common case is when two entirely different characters in two different continuities share the same name (discussed below); but this can also happen within the same continuity. Even though some fans tend to call Hasbro "lazy" because of this, there is some logic to it: If more than one human can go by the name "Bob Smith", why shouldn't the name Prowl be shared between several Cybertronian citizens?

It started with Barrage the Insecticon from 1985 and Barrage the Micromaster from 1990, and Sky High the Pretender from 1988 and Sky High the Micromaster from 1990. Generation 2 introduced more same-name characters, as did Beast Wars and Beast Machines.

The Unicron Trilogy was equally guilty of this, with names such as Dirt Boss, Mirage and Downshift assigned to several different characters, most of them Mini-Cons. Hasbro did, however, attempt to avoid attributing the same name to two different Unicron Trilogy characters who weren't Mini-Cons. For example, an Energon character that resembles Generation 1 Wheeljack was named "Downshift" because the name "Wheeljack" had already been used by a major Armada character.

Takara took similar steps during their version of the "Micron Trilogy": Armada Scavenger had been named "Devastar" in Japan, so Takara's version of Constructicon Maximus was named "Buildron" instead. And since the Micron Densetsu version of Armada Sureshock had already been named "Arcee", the Superlink version of Energon Arcee became "Ariel".

The live-action movie franchise once again gives us multiple characters within the same continuity using the same name, such as 2007's Jolt and Revenge of the Fallen Jolt, or Mudflap and Revenge of the Fallen Mudflap.

Again, there is room for confusion: Are Armada Jolt and Cybertron Jolt the same or different characters? Is the first movie's Jolt, referred to as "Dead End" in the supporting fiction, the same character as Revenge of the Fallen Dead End? Are the two Fallen Dead End toys even the same character? Or, to use an example from above, is Masterforce Overlord the same character as the 1991 European release of the Overload toy?

Different universe, same name, different character incarnation

Since the inception of the Transformers brand in 1984, the various series and toy lines have introduced multiple continuities. Several franchises may be set within the same continuity, while the same franchise might have incarnations in several slightly different universes. Either way, some universes, especially those from different franchises, are very different from each other–for example, the Unicron Trilogy and the movie franchise.

Nevertheless, characters may appear in those universes that share not only the same name, but also distinct physical traits and similar basic characterizations. Generation 1 Optimus Prime has a counterpart in the Unicron Trilogy and another one in the Movie-verse. Likewise, Generation 1 Bumblebee had a live-action and an Animated counterpart. Although the general audience might simply consider them all the same characters, most fans view them as different incarnations of the same general character archetype.

Different universe, same name, different character

Characters in different universes might also use the same name despite having nothing else in common. For most fans, this is less problematic than two characters with the same name in the same universe, since it's entirely possible that a White supremacist, a Buddhist monk or a genius child in another universe might also be named Barack Obama.

Therefore, movie Barricade is an entirely different character than Generation 1 Micromaster Barricade, and both are entirely different characters than Energon Barricade. Likewise, Cybertron Mini-Con Shockwave has nothing in common with Generation 1 Shockwave other than the name.

A common reason for this is that Hasbro wants to protect their trademarks. When no new toy based on the original Thunderwing is planned for the foreseeable future, Hasbro will simply slap the name on the next available Mini-Con to make sure the name is used in commerce for another term. Considering the large number of homage toys in recent years, however, this practice is applied less often than in the past.

Multiversal singularities

And then there are the really odd cases. For some characters, Hasbro has officially declared that there is only one of them ever in-fiction. There are no multiple characters in the same universe, not even different incarnations of a character in multiple universes. There is only one character that either exists in all universes at the same time, or travels from universe to universe in a linear fashion.

The first character that got this treatment from Hasbro was Unicron, starting with the supporting fiction for the 2003 Universe toy line. Other characters that were later also declared "multiversal singularities" by Hasbro are Primus and the thirteen original Transformers, including Vector Prime and The Fallen. Not all fans are happy with the implications of this mandate, however; and furthermore, the different portrayals of The Fallen in Dreamwave's The War Within: The Dark Ages and Paramount's Revenge of the Fallen film put a huge stretch on this concept depending on who you ask.

Multiversal aggregates

At the other end of the spectrum, there are entities which are aggregates of several alternate characters from various universes. Most notably this covers the Alternity. Each entity of the Alternity is the sum total of dozens of incarnations across the multiverse, and thus characters such as Alternity Optimus Prime are collectively drawing from the experiences of their component selves.

Hasbro's official position

Aside from the official mandate regarding "multiversal singularities", it's not entirely clear whether Hasbro make the same distinctions for different incarnations of characters and different characters using the same name as fans do. As far as Hasbro is concerned, are Robots in Disguise Hot Shot and Unicron Trilogy Hot Shot two entirely separate characters using the same name, or different incarnations of the same character in different universes? Do they view Generation 1 Bumblebee, movie Bumblebee and Animated Bumblebee as one and the same character who is portrayed differently in different series, or as different incarnations of the same character archetype in different universes?

Hasbro has never officially addressed the matter, and it's not unlikely they have a clear policy on it. There have, however, been a few instances where Hasbro has explicitly declared several toys with the same name as one and the same character, despite drastically different appearances. The Universe Autobot Inferno, a redeco of Robots in Disguise Prowl in a color scheme reminiscent of Generation 1 Red Alert, has been officially declared the same character as the Beast Wars Predacon Inferno (albeit from an alternate timeline). And the 2008 Universe Overload toy, a redeco of Cybertron Defense Scattorshot, is officially declared the same character as Armada Overload... and as if that wasn't confusing enough, Hasbro, when asked about this, gave an oddly phrased answer that even tied him to the Generation 1 Micromaster Overload.

Other unexpected same-character declarations made Robots in Disguise Axer the same character as Generation 1 Action Master Axer; and likewise, Robots in Disguise Sideways (who was sold in a two-pack with Axer) was later retroactively declared the same character as Armada Sideways. No word yet on whether Hasbro also consider Revenge of the Fallen Sideways to be the same character.