The Lost Art of Transformers Name Dumps

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Let's test your knowledge of the names we used to see pop back up from obscurity onto random toys.
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#Transformers #EntertainmentEarth

[@haydenreviewscustomcombos]

I think the ultimate toy that would use the name “afterburner“ would be a triple changer that turns into a jet and motorcycle in addition to the robot mode.

[@masterfarr8265]

now we have Afterburner (G2 Character) and Afterbreaker (Technobot)

[@diegodankquixote-wry3242]

I think triple changer that changes from rocket to bombardier beetle to robot and back again would best suit a character called afterburner.

[@myang12003]

Triple changers never had bikes

[@haydenreviewscustomcombos]

@@myang12003 Well, this would be the first.

[@Klode5190]

I remember a green construction vehicle that was part of a combiner team with other construction vehicles...Named Grimlock.

[@awesomeguy9513]

I mean armada alone slapped old names on most if not all minicons, the unicron trilogy was if you weren’t a show character your getting a g1 name

[@medafan53]

Even then; Red Alert, Smokescreen, Cyclonus, Perceptor, need I go on?

[@NovaSaber]

Armada Buzzsaw is named that because someone THOUGHT he had a saw...but he's actually a bucket-wheel excavator, similar to what Cybertron Metroplex is. Also I'm pretty sure Beast Machines Buzzsaw is supposed to be the same character as Beast Wars Buzzsaw.

[@Wolfie1262]

I kind of miss name dumping, because it also coincided with Hasbro being more interested in trying new things. Now all we get are iterations on a theme. That theme being G1.

[@rueceless7580]

Right? I'm so bored of G1 nostalgia. I cant believe I'm saying this but I miss the Unicron Trilogy era, at least they tried to do neat new things.

[@mr.end-game711]

14:47 seeing Energon Sixshot again makes me want to see an updated version Shockblast. Having an decepticon or any transformers that turns into a satellite is worth consideration.

[@1505627]

A good half of these names (including the first example you listed) are characters I never could have guessed because I have no idea what the original character was like either

[@JacobHillSBD]

In instances like Tracks and Jazz, I feel like they have to add the “Autobot” designation because it’s incredibly difficult to trademark words like that, which are common.

[@larrychilders6599]

They could go poor literacy route

[@misterbadguy7325]

@@larrychilders6599 Yeah, a name like Trakks would be pretty easy to trademark, because that's clearly a made-up word. Generally, the more a word sounds like you made it up, the easier it is to get a trademark on it.

[@larrychilders6599]

@@misterbadguy7325 I was thinking Trax

[@medafan53]

@@larrychilders6599 doesn't cevy have a car by that name.

[@larrychilders6599]

@@medafan53 no

[@DESTRAKON]

Tf animated addressed it pretty well as just having them be codenames

[@Kirby0189]

I honestly kinda miss this practice since it made exploring each new series feel more fun since you wouldn't know what to expect when someone pops onscreen for the first time.

[@kamensp1der]

the concept of a name dump is so funny to me it's like reading a book series and getting annoyed two unrelated characters are named jeff

[@scizorlord5126]

I've had minicon Shockwave since it came out and never knew its name until a few years ago, and I'm a HUGE Shockwave fan. Anywho, he now resides on my Shockwave shrine next to my other mircowaves.

[@oliverhendrix8176]

Hasbro or Takara should make a purple version of that Shockwave.

[@Robocopnik]

Gobots is an odd figure, they've got a color-changing gimmick that involves putting them in water, but also feature a decent number of stickers that aren't water-proof on the same parts.

[@legonerd0666]

Plus a large number of metal screws that can rust

[@robrice7246]

18:20 I do have a personal headcannon for Movieverse Warpath where after his death, his body was recovered and upgraded (with some Allspark) to resemble his G1 iteration and later made his way to Earth.

[@RogueTwo]

I think that the last time this was really important was during War for Cybertron and Transformers: Prime, where Hasbro couldn't secure the name Hot Rod and didn't want to call the character Rodimus before he became Rodimus Prime, and so declared that from then on, they would call him Hot Shot, which they'd had trademarked since the Unicron Trilogy... Only to then make a Prime Hot Shot who was clearly based on Unicron Trilogy character, while continuing to make new versions of Hot Rod/Rodimus.

[@robrice7246]

17:18 I feel like you can call this character by his "Galactic Man" nickname.

[@damien5748]

According to Ricky Alveraz ,who has written at least 4 unoffical collector guide books that G2 Dreadwind and Smokescreen 2 -pack was originaly intended to be released as versions of Megatron and Starscream.

[@haydenreviewscustomcombos]

I remember a Power Rangers villain/monster of the week who used the name of a Transformers character, or at least I think they did. I can’t remember what the name was.

[@LordArikado]

Fun Power Rangers-adjacent fact! VR Troopers' original name when it was being pitched was Cybertron. It was changed because there was no way in hell Hasbro were gonna let Saban get away with that.

[@skybite]

@@LordArikado there was a robot name Cybertron in one episode of Swat kats

[@robrice7246]

3:44 I feel like he could go by the Technobot's trademark name (Afterbreaker).

[@SixshotRevan]

I started with G2, so those names were a bit easier for me. G2 Afterburner was one of the first few Transformers I ever owned.

[@dr.bright5670]

My favorite transformer is Blastcharge, because it reminds me to spend wisely

[@duskbringer4583]

I wish Shockblast and Snowcat made return... Along Sideways. In case of Shockblast, they could make him failed clone of Shockwave, specializing more in Military Operations than Research.

[@Tez_Kiryu]

Honorable mention, ROTF Sideways. That name held so much gravity in reference to unicron/Armada and was reduced to be sliced up like bread with no lines or fight at all.

[@LordArikado]

One of my favorite instances of both a name dump and trying to update a name that was too generic to trademark is RID 2001 Skid-Z.

[@Kak37]

Broly: so far metroplex is the first thing that comes to my memory of the transformers Cybertron cartoon

[@Undrave]

There's a few of them in RID 2015. Like Jetstorm and Slipstream the puck minicons, Fracture who has nothing to do with the Crasher lookalike and Steeljaw.

[@powerrangerkid16]

G1 prowl: "Wait you're prowl? But I'm prowl!" Beast wars prowl: "I'm a product of name dumping" looks right at the camera "It's a lost art"

[@RetroRobotRadio]

I liked the Mini-Con repaints from the Cybertron line. It used tons of lost G1 names like Shockwave, Sky-Lynx, etc. Names they reestablished them for future toys.

[@milestinker2178]

There was also a time where Hasbro would slap a name on one character, and then a later character would come along whose design was more appropriate for the name that had already been slapped onto the previous character, but Hasbro _wouldn't_ reuse that name for the second character because both of them were main enough characters that Hasbro didn't feel like reusing the same name twice, resulting in the first character having a name that was better suited to the second character, who would instead receive a rather less-fitting name. For instance, Armada Wheeljack looked like an evil version of G1 Sideswipe, but was instead named "Wheeljack" (Aaron Archer once explained that he felt the name sounded cool for a bad guy since it sounded like "carjack", but I digress). Then when Energon Downshift came along, he was designed to look like G1 Wheeljack, but couldn't use the name because of Armada Wheeljack having already used it (this wasn't the case in Japan, where Takara named Armada Wheeljack "Rampage" so Energon Downshift was more properly named "Wheeljack"). Another notable example: Movie Bonecrusher. Because he had used that name first, the Revenge of the Fallen Constructicon bulldozer was instead named "Rampage", despite Hasbro trying to give as many of the ROTF Constructicons the same names as their G1 counterparts (excavator "Scavenger," dump truck "Long Haul", payloader "Scrapper", cement mixer "Mixmaster", and crane "Hightower" which was the replacement for "Hook" at the time due to "Hook" still being unavailable to use back then). Even Takara had cases like this. Armada Scavenger was named "Devastor" in Japan (that being the Japanese name of G1 Devastator). Then when Energon had its own Combiner who directly homaged G1 Devastator, Takara had already used "Devastor", so they instead named the Energon Combiner "Buildron" (the Japanese name of "Constructicon"). This also carried over into the English version in how the combiner was named "Constructicon Maximus" instead of "Devastator" or even "Devastator Maximus". Likewise, Armada Blurr was named "Silverbolt" in Japan. But when Energon did its Superion homage in Superion Maximus, the torso bot (whom Hasbro named "Storm Jet") was instead named "Afterburner" by Takara, making him the only one of the 15 Energon Combiner component figures that didn't use the (Japanese) name of his G1 counterpart.

[@AZWADER]

Energon Kickback works on another level too: he has big ass feet

[@ShadowWingTronix]

As I've said before, "Prowl" is basically the "Bob" of Cybertron.

[@SurprisedCoyote-mj8px]

Yes. Cybertronians, Camiens, (Junkions especially!), etc... would say "Call me..(insert name here)! And originally had production numbers such as B-127 or whatever his forged production number is. However, if there's millions of inhabitants, you're bound to run into several bots who want the same name going into battle or to race, etc.. Hot headed young bots: "No! I'M HOT SHOT!" No one: "I wanted to be Autobot Hot Rodimus!"

[@pancho855]

Small correction, the Cliffjumper and Ironhide released in armada were girls, so few people care enough about these characters, let alone one of them, to be aware of this.

[@TJOmega]

I wasn't even aware they had any fiction existing to gender them.

[@pancho855]

@@TJOmega That's why I said it, and I kinda like to imagine that Cliffjumper as the original one's sister... because weird headcanons

[@skybite]

Tankor was also a good example. It was used on the micromaster trainbots from universe, used on a Cybertron mini con, universe 2.0 Octane, and ROTF on the legends class brawl redeco. Hasbro cannot seem to let go of that name.

[@curbydinobot8633]

Don't forget Silverbolt which was an Airealbot but used the same name for the fuzor from Beast Wars

[@Bigdaddyweese]

I always thought the name Afterburner fit a jet way more than a motorcycle anyways

[@jadenova]

I always viewed this as being like here where people can have the same name but be different people.

[@RetroRobotRadio]

G2 wasn't really an attempted to keep the name legal, because they care much back then. It was just to use the name they knew was okay to use.

[@dylancrossman8502]

Smokescreen definitely seems to be a name that got handed out like candy. That the Armada version once actually used one is coincidence of the highest and funniest order.

[@benconforzi5696]

I like to think that these different transformers toys that have the same names of other transformers. Are just different characters, that happened to have the same name. Kinda like how some humans share the same name.

[@SwedishSeacon]

Ironically, the Cybertron Shockwave is the only Shockwave that has two eyes instead of one.

[@syafiqjabar]

Cyberverse Shockwave technically has two eyes but it's one small eye on top of his normal cyclops eye.

[@maximaldinotrap]

I love how some name dumps become more iconic than the original character. Movieverse Barricade vs G1 Barricade. I don't think we will really ever see G1 Barricade anymore under the name Barricade.

[@NightmareZerogbs]

Name dumping for someone born in the 90s means that for me, Bonecrusher IS a buffalo. And Minicon Shockwave was the very first Shockwave I had, and knowing the purple cyclops from Energon as Shockblast I just assumed that was his default name.

[@RiCeption]

Got 5 wrong. Gobots Soundwave, Minicon Mirage, Broadside, Ironhide and Shockwave. I think that's pretty good

[@nucleonegro9762]

This was pretty fun, very interactive

[@RetroRobotRadio]

I am of the belief Armada Sideswipe and Nightbeat had their names switched. The car is colored like G1 Nightbeat!

[@Mecharnie_Dobbs]

6:43 They knew they would want to use the name "Soundwave" again one day.

[@pinkstinger]

My first Transformers shows were OG RID and Armada, and then Movie 1, so I never minded the name dumps since I grew up around it. Even nowadays, unless it's a character that's basically the face of the franchise like Optimus, Bumblebee, Megatron and Starscream for examples, I'm fine with it. I guess I always rationalized it as it being just names, lots of people are called Matt and Susan, so why can't more than one TF be named Hoist or Bonecrusher? On a side note, I do find interesting when a name dump becomes the definitive version of the name (like Movie 1's Barricade) or just as significative as the original (G1 and Armada's Red Alerts)

[@EternityKingdomsHeadHoncho]

Again, serious missed potential for Legacy in not having the OG characters meet their name dumps. Imagine G1 Ramjet being awestruck by his Universe 2003 version and/or being disappointed by his Armada version… only to be impressed by how big Armada Ramjet’s “bulk” is. Also, imagine a bunch of Shockwaves realizing that there’s an Autobot among their ranks… and then they find teeny tiny Cybertron Shockwave, who’s wearing a chintzy G1 Shockwave costume.

[@lukebaldock4672]

I would have bought cybertron metroplex if it had a different name, just one of my collecting quirks

[@rueceless7580]

I miss the era of random name dumps, meant we had some really different takes on characters, rather than boring G1 reference # 123.

[@AvengingSaints]

Didn't Hasbro name dump the random seeker that followed B-127 to earth form the beginning of the Bumblebee movie as Blitzwing?

[@jaredhebert942]

All the more reason I miss this era (first exposure was late Universe 1, Cybertron, Mobie & Animated); not to boo-hoo the G1/Geewun stranglehold on HasTak more than need be (the figures have been solid save for price gouging) but it's a shame we haven't had more of the creativity & flexibility of the late-90s & 00s to pair with our better articulation standards (plus lots of toys from the era _do_ deserve a once-over)

[@bluebraixen]

It's interesting how Takara made G2 Smokescreen into an evil G1 Smokescreen.

[@Mecharnie_Dobbs]

Were Hasbro worried that a rival toy-firm would use the name "Soundwave" in the 90's?

[@shadowmarauder6033]

Although I like that now the names go to character designs more in line to the original, now we have the opposite problem: a lack of creativity in the designs. Before we had characters like Ironhide turning into a bison or Cliffjumper into a heavy duty jeep, which I think could work, but hasbro seems to have an obsession with g1 that needs to stop.

[@ToaArcan]

Afterburner makes more sense as a name for a jet than it does a motorbike anyway.

[@ericbay398]

I've never heard 'Kickback' being synonymous with 'recoil'. I'd always heard it meant when rich people gave money to cops to look the other way. I honestly always thought they named the Insecticon Kickback because of his ability to blackmail others as well as his super kick.

[@RKStrikerJK5]

Ah, those were the days. Cool topic and video.

[@botfan78]

Find myself renaming most of these cause I keep them in one continuity

[@IAmJames_Art]

With this type of history, I wish they’d left Micromaster Runner’s name as Barricade instead of changing it apart from the movie character.

[@pancho855]

I think that was a one off because they knew they couldn't get away with calling 2 toys the same thing in the same toyline, unless it's a black Bumblebee

[@Ranma_Leopard]

Very enjoyable video

[@autobotzapof0002]

I think black out and swindle should’ve been a back to back TBH

[@fishpop]

8:08 The Energon Sledge/Bonecrusher mold is a Front-End Loader.

[@sonerec725]

I love how name dump afterburner was the one to appear in cyberverse.

[@Cdr2002]

Friend of mine really likes G2 Afterburner/Snipe as well as the original Technobot so that’s fun

[@maryautumn7922]

for a recent example, there's Slipstream from RiD, who reuses the name of a char who only finally got mainline toys in the next series as the correct character, but they wanted to hold onto that name

[@PrincessMatrix]

I actually kind of miss name dumping. During that period, it meant that a character with a legacy name wouldn't be forced or expected to be a G1 homage. Cyclonus made far more sense as a helicopter, for example. And Scattorshot was free to be a tank with a southern accent. Nowadays, if those names pop up in a listing, everyone will expect them to be the G1 iterations.

[@marceldebruijn5888]

Sometime ago I started wondering why we al dislike when 2 bots share names. I mean it is not very different than in real life. When I was young I, Marcel de Bruijn sometimes played with another kid called Marcel de Bruin. The only difference was the extra j in my surname wich you don't even hear in the pronounciation.

[@Dualbladedscorpion7737]

Oh about bone crusher The one we see in the bayverse um bone crusher appears to be a combaticon

[@ShockUzer]

That's why I call g2 Afterburner by his european name: Snipe.

[@fishpop]

I think there's some Japanese material that says the Smokescreen with Dreadwing IS the Autobot of the same name but he's a Decepticon for a reason i've forgotten.

[@lyokomajor]

Hasbro needs to stop using names that swap "d" for "g" and vice versa. Because people confuse those names. Chief example: Dreadwin *d* and Dreadwin *g* . The G2 bomber, w/o Smokescreen attached, is the former. Another example: Wingblade and Windblade.

[@SurprisedCoyote-mj8px]

I thought the Gen 2 Smokescreen came packaged with the bruiser you showed.. originally Starscream and B.B. (I think!) I do agree however. Odd choice regardless of the big guy or smaller one!

[@matiasmarcelotoledop]

I kinda miss this era of using stablished names in any characthers,it was a chance to do new things,to me not everything has to be like in G1

[@exilemediasrfvideo]

I thought dreadwing was with Darkwing I didn’t think they called the other jet smokescreen

[@goemonbeatsnaruto]

another name dump I think off is leader 1, amarda megatron minicon named after the guardians leader from gobots

[@DarkSilverHedgehog]

But, wasn't six shot a recolor of a shockwave mold? I saw it here and thought of Shockwave immediately

[@NovaSaber]

The purple version of that mold was named Shockblast.

[@TJOmega]

Not the point, it's the name that's important, which is originally a very different G1 character.

[@Oturan20]

@@NovaSaber Shockblast(Shockwave) was one of the few in the Unicron Trilogy(that wasn't Optimus) to get the name they were meant to.

[@CarnoReviews]

Fun fact! Armada mini con cliffjumper is a fembot. I am not joking

[@skybite]

Oh yeah that profile book that did not follow the comics despite being the same publisher. They should have read the comics.

[@TFGourmet]

I sucked in the quiz, specially, because i dont know most of the TF names

[@Dogmaguy74]

The minicon nostalgia…

[@wolkaiserdrake9946]

and not a single swerve was mentioned

[@TJOmega]

He got a whole video devoted to him, which is more screen time than most of those Swerves got.

[@wolkaiserdrake9946]

@@TJOmega true

[@wyldefyr4116]

I think i got like 3....i stopped counting

[@GuzziHeroV50]

Minicon Cliffjumper and Ironhide are also female in some continuities. ;)

[@damien5748]

Also i think the reason they wanted to keep the Buzzsaw name is,an correct me if im wrong,but was there not a Dreadnock from G.I. Joe also named Buzzsaw?

[@ShadowPrime69]

How tf did I get minicon Buzzsaw right 💀

[@kevinmoney7717]

Forgot Ironhide elephant beast war combiner plus I think there was a lot of other beast wars toys that had name dumps

[@TJOmega]

Oh yeah, I could have listed a lot of them. THE character of that show is Dinobot which is still a trademark-securing name dump.

[@jimmyjeff1777]

What about RID steeljaw?

[@firesonic1010]

I wonder what the Minicon Ironhide's name was in Japanese, since they called Demolishor "Ironhide" there.

[@TJOmega]

Ironhide was packed in with a remold of Transmetal Cheetor, which was done to bulk out the line in the US, so it was never released in Japan as that character.

[@nickvanginkel4161]

1:48 Armada Ironhide is a girl actually

[@dexterthoma867]

Zero I did not get any of the names

[@RialVestro]

That is the original Dreadwing though? I mean his partner Smokescreen I get but why didn't you use his picture instead of Dreadwing's? Also tapes were still a thing in the 90's. It's not till the early 2000's that CDs really started to replace tapes. I think they might have come out before that but there was that weird transition period where a lot of people still had tapes and hadn't converted their music collections to CDs yet. The same kinda thing happened with VHS and DVDs. In fact I use to have a boombox with both a tape player and a CD player built into it because it was made durring that period where both were still in use. By the time I was in high school from 2000-2004 no one had cassettes anymore. So they actually could have gotten away with tape players in the 90's. Honestly I've always wandered how they would do Soundwave, especially his minions if they contined being based on music players. CDs have a lot less thickness than Casettes so I think would be harder to turn into a robot... or an animal... and it's even worse if you do Soundwave as an Ipod cause there's no physical media for the minions to turn into anymore. I'd also say name dumping is still a thing. I mean the most recent example I can think of is Blitzwing which was clearly suppose to be Starscream. It's not for Trade Mark reasons though it's just cause the movies don't seem to care all that much if the character actually looks like their name sake. We also have Clobber from Cyberverse who was intended to be female Lugnut but ended up being a very different character. The name Clobber was previously used for Titanmaster Grimlock, it was clearly designed to look like Grimlock's robot mode head but it's one of the Titanmasters that didn't actually have a larger robot partner so just randomly we got a Clobber that can transform into Grimlock's head for no real reason. I'm also surprised we don't see the trade mark thing still being done because there are a lot of names that haven't been used since the Beast Era ended and we also saw in Cyberverse that Strika is now called Alpha Strike because they lost that Trade Mark and it was still Strika the last time she appeared in Animated. Obsidian really hasn't been in use since Beast Machines. He had one Machine Wars toy in a BotCon set years ago but if they lost Strika already I doubt they still have the Trade Mark for Obsidian. I also happen to know they lost the Trade Mark for Savage Noble because NC Soft created a character with that name on City of Heroes. The official servers for that game have since shut down but Homecomming is currently in the process of aquireing all the Trade Marks from NC Soft. Hasbro has all their G1 Trade Marks down but they keep neglecting any original names from after season 1 of Beast Wars. There's also a lot of original names from the toy line that never made it in the show they've never reused. I'm guessing that's why Kingdom Polar Claw was cancelled cause they probably couldn't secure the name.

[@bequiet5373]

sandstorm

[@gyrrakavian]

I got 2

[@SuperiorNova]

I got a 0

[@Lawtann2]

That Six shot had the WORST color scheme

[@brod8142]

I got 2