Kid-appeal character
From MediaWiki
Transformers is, and always has been, a franchise aimed at children. And because most Transformers are always so broody and cool and all sorts of other things little kids won't get, most to all franchises have what could be called a kid-appeal character. This character often interacts with the token human character as one of their closest friends, and the two get into all sorts of wacky adventures together. They usually get pulled out by one of the older bots, completely fail to learn their lesson, and do it again. And again and again and...
List of kid-appeal characters
Original (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.
- Wheelie was still a companion to Daniel, even though they spent most of their time insulting each other.
- The Headmaster Juniors were unique in that they served both as the token young humans and the kid-appeal Transformer characters.
- Holi was Jan Minakaze's pal.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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).
- 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.
- Brains and Wheelie hang out with Sam and Carly and provide much of the comic relief for Dark of the Moon. However, when Brains alone returns for Age of Extinction, he's definitely not quite as much a character for the kids, considering he spends the better part of his screentime being tortured or enslaved. Usually both at the same time.
- 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 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.
Notes
- They have an overwhelming tendency to be yellow.
- More recently, 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 (including 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.
