Repurposing

Pay no attention to the "Rattrap" tattoo on his ass!

Repurposing is the practice of using an existing toy to represent a different character than originally intended. A very early example is the Wal-Mart exclusive "blue" Transmetals Rattrap, which represented a Transmetal form for Packrat in the Wreckers comic book series. In many cases, this means a single toy can represent more than one distinct character. Individual fans may do this on an unofficial level within their personal canon, especially with toys that homage earlier toys without being the same character. Popular examples include using Energon Downshift as Generation 1 Wheeljack and Movie Big Daddy as Generation 1 Big Daddy.

Official repurposing happens when a character in a fiction uses the character model and color scheme of someone else's toy. The repurposed character has no official toy release of his own, but the toy can take on double-duty representing both the character he was originally released as (the character on the box) and the repurposed character established later on in fiction.

Examples of official repurposing

• The Microchange "MC-04 Mini CAR Robo 02 Familia 1500XG" mold that was sold on Cliffjumper cards was repurposed as Dreamwave Bumper.

• Generation 1 Fasttrack as a Guardminder.

• Generation 2 Dreadwing as Darkwing.

• McDonald's Panther as Ravage; also as General Jaguar, father of Metals Jaguar (in the Comics Bon Bon Manga). Yes, this means he's both Ravage and Ravage's father. Don't ask.

• Wal-mart exclusive Transmetal Rattrap as Packrat.

• Beast Wars Shadow Panther as a pre-Transmetal Tripredacus Agent.

• Beast Machines Mega class Tankor as Vehicon drones for Quake.

• Beast Machines Deployer Rav (blue redeco) as Chro.

• Takara's original blue-trimmed Generation 1 Megatron toy was reissued by e-Hobby as Megaplex.

• Universe Spy Changer yellow Optimus Prime as tiny universe Optimus Prime.

• Cybertron Optimus Prime and Ultra Magnus, redecos of Robots in Disguise toys, as Robots in Disguise Optimus Prime and Ultra Magnus.

• Music Label Soundwave<ref>BotCon 2008</ref> as the leftover bit of an otherwise scrapped Animated Soundwave. Sound and Fury

• Generation 1 Goldbug as a distinct non-Bumblebee Goldbug.

e-Hobby

Similar to Megaplex's situation detailed above, e-Hobby has released several Diaclone and Microchange-only color variants never before used in the Transformers line as new Transformers characters.

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Shattered Glass

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The Shattered Glass timeline of events has allowed for Autobots and Decepticons with typically uncharacteristic color-schemes and questionable places in their canon of origin to be placed as various characters in this one. Such notable examples include:

• Club-exclusive Astrotrain as Shattered Glass Astrotrain.
  • Starcatcher as Shattered Glass Fasttrack
  • Astro-Hook as Shattered Glass Stonecruncher
  • Astro-Line as Shattered Glass Tailwind
  • Astro-Sinker as Shattered Glass Submarauder
• Powerlinx Demolishor as Shattered Glass Demolishor.
• E-Hobby Glit as Shattered Glass Ravage
• Transformers Generations 2009 Volume 1 Mailaway Electro Disruptor Ligier as Shattered Glass Mirage
• Magnificus as Shattered Glass Perceptor
• The white version of Music Label Soundwave as Shattered Glass Soundwave

For a full list, see the main toyline page.

See also

• Retcon

References

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