Homage

In fan terminology, an homage is a toy that is intentionally designed to resemble an earlier (usually G1) toy, without being the exact same character. Noted examples of homages include Energon Downshift (based on G1 Wheeljack) and Energon Shockblast (based on G1 Shockwave). Sometimes, homages are given different names from their predecessors if the actual rights to the name are lost via trademark murkiness, or if the name has already been reassigned to a non-homage toy.

From Teletraan I: The Transformers Wiki, a Wikia wiki.