Kid-appeal character
From MediaWiki
List of kid-appeal characters
Generation 1
- 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.
Beast Era
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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!
- 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, ironically with no human allies in sight this time. Hot Rod even takes center stage for most of Season 3, becoming the show's main star by that point.
