Homage

Everybody knows where this art comes from.

In fan terminology, an homage is a toy that is intentionally designed to resemble an earlier (usually Generation 1) toy or character, without being the exact same character. Noted examples of homages include Energon Downshift (based on Generation 1 Wheeljack) and Energon Shockblast (based on Generation 1 Shockwave).

Sometimes, homages are given different names from their predecessors if the rights to the name are lost via trademark murkiness, or if the name has already been applied to a non-homage toy within the same series.

Conversely, in order to protect trademarked names, Hasbro and Takara continue to use the same names over and over again, often on very different toys or very different characters within the official fiction. Since use of the term "homage" within the fandom is almost exclusively in reference to visual similarities, these name reuses alone are not considered homages.

Amusingly, Takara has given homages a new twist with "Ratchet Emergency Green", a redeco of the original Diaclone-based Ratchet toy in the color scheme of the live-action movie Ratchet, and "Ironhide Protect Black", a dual homage to the color scheme of both the toy's Diaclone incarnation and the character's live-action movie incarnation.

Notable examples

The following is a list of toys that visually reference older characters. Because characters that share a name are often given homage decos, this list focuses on toys that do not also share a name. For information on other toys, see the relevant character page.