I was wondering what everyone thought about the enormous numbers of characters with the same name. We all know that Beast Wars Megatron is not the same character as G1 Megatron. What are your opinions on some of these. Please feel free to add others. Note that Armada, Energon and Cybertron are shorthanded as U3 for Unicron Trilogy.

G1 Optimus Prime vs. U3 Optimus Prime vs. BW2 Lio Convoy vs. RiD Optimus Prime

G1 Jetfire vs. G1 Skyfire vs. U3 Jetfire

G1 Ultra Magnus vs. RiD Ultra Magnus vs. U3 Ultra Magnus

G1 Grimlock vs. BW Grimlock vs. RiD Grimlock

G1 Hot Rod vs. U3 Hot Shot

G1 Inferno vs. U3 Inferno/Roadblock vs. BW Inferno vs. Un Inferno

G1 Mirage vs. RiD Mirage vs. U3 Mirage vs. BM Mirage

G1 Prowl vs. U3 Prowl vs. RiD Prowl vs. BW (Magnaboss) Prowl vs. BW Prowl (owl)

G1 Red Alert vs. U3 Red Alert

G1 Landmine vs. U3 Landmine

G1 Wheeljack vs. U3 Wheeljack vs. U3 Downshift

U3 Smokescreen/Hoist vs. G1 Grapple vs. G1 Hoist

G1/G2 Megatron vs. U3 Megatron vs. BW2 Megastorm vs. RiD Megatron.

G1 Starscream vs. U3 Starscream vs. BW2 Starscream

G1 Thrust vs. BW Waspinator/BM Thrust vs. BW2 Thrust/Thrustor

G1 Scourge vs. U3 Scourge

U3 Scourge vs. BW Dinobot

Wouldn't g1 hot rod = u3 Rodimus and not hot shot? or would that be more like g1 Rodimus Prime = U3 Rodimus?

few questions so i can understand what your looking for. opinions on character designs or comparisons? you might want to add G1 Soundwave vs. U3 soundwave? one last thing what are the limitations to this are we limited to the bots that went with a series or is the full spectrum included? ie. titaniums and alternators?

That's what I'm asking. What's your opinion?

Basically I just want to know everyone's opinion on the actual character. If you believe Unicron Trilogy is an extension of G1 and comes before Beast Wars, or is it another reality altogether? Treat it like this: Is U3 Optimus Prime the same spark as RiD Optimus Prime? Different time frame or alternate reality? How are they connected to G1 Optimus Prime?

But couldn't G1 Jetfire (toy and comics) be a different character than G1 Skyfire (cartoon) even though they were meant to be the same? They could be brothers or something. Skyfire is still trapped in the snow in the comics and Jetfire is just not seen in the cartoon.

This is the type of conjecture I was hoping for.

ByrerPrime, there is plenty of food for thought in your list above! I'll pick and choose...

Wheeljack/Downshift: It's a sort of a neat nod to fans when they make toys that resemble classic characters, but I thought it was a little odd when they had the same appearance and name, but not personality. To me, the identity of a character is his(/her) personality, and where they fit with the other characters. I had a hard time thinking that the Wheeljack of G1 could ever become what Wheeljack/Downshift was in U3. They're different characters to me.

I'll throw another one in the mix. G1 Soundwave / Movie Frenzy. The movie authors have said that Frenzy was originally to be named Soundwave, but his character became less and less like Soundwave so they just made him someone else. I agree, and I'm glad they changed it. Soundwave was nothing like that. Soundwave is data driven, loyal to Megatron, and ruthless/deadly when the time is right. You know who had those traits in the movie? Blackout. Honestly, I'm not one to normally make connections between TF series, but I think of Blackout as the movie version of Soundwave.

But most of the time, I err on the side of making them be different characters. (G1 Jetfire ≠ U3 Jetfire. G1 Optimus ≠ RiD Optimus.) Same names, but different beings.

G1 Jetfire and Skyfire Are the same person, just diffrent names for copyright issues.

BW Grimlock is G1 Grimlock

Uni Inferno is suppsed to be BW Inferno, by the bio. But It seems that most everyone seems to consider him to be G1 Red Alert, taking up the name of his best firend for some reason.

BM Mirage is Skywarp. Seriously. Almost exact same bio.

G1 Prowl vs. U3 Prowl vs. RiD Prowl vs. BW (Magnaboss) Prowl vs. BW Prowl (owl)

G1 Prowl may be MB Prowl, with the others also being G1 characters that have survived, but other then names there isnt any real support for this. TM2 Prowl is probably G1 Prowl, or at least believes he is. RiD Prowl is probably ment to be G1 Prowl in the same way RiD Prime is. Weither they are the G1 versions, depends on how you handle RiD continuity.

I LOVE this sort of topic/disussion. Personally, I try to find ways to interconnect every incarnation of the Transformers. I write off RID (as crap (stories so I don't bother trying to incorporate that into continuity!)

I'm still working out how to interconnect Movie continuity with the rest of G1/BeastWars/machines/UnicronTrilogy... lore. Actually the movie can be explained quite easily. It's the events of the prequel novels and comics that screw a few too many things up... As long as you see Movie Megatron as a different Megatron than G1 and this Optimus as after his death and resurrection in events told in G1 continuity. Just figure that the Autobots eventually win and Optimus commands all record of Humans and Earth erased from the datatracks of every Cybertronian, including his own. With the desire to not interfere with Human civilization, that seems like something Optimus would do, right!

To understand another important factor in fitting together the *time*lines of transformers, one must consider all the traveling Optimus and Megatron do, going back and forth in their super advanced spaceships traveling at 99% of the speed of light. This creates all sort of *time dilation phenomenon* which actually allow all continuities to work together just fine! Talk to Dave VanDolamen. He's a physics guy. He can explain it all to ya!

Oh, do I piss my bros off when I start concocting crazy schemes in an effort to interconnect the generations of Transformers.

oh yeah i love RiD prow is nice his police car

There really needs to be more connection between characters than identical names and sometimes similar alternate modes.

Most of those listed in the first post, I'd say no way to. G1 Scourge and Cybertron Scourge are completely different - different personality, different origins, different appearance. Whereas eighties cartoon (not movie) Scourge, Marvel comics Scourge and Dreamwave Scourge ARE the same character although in different universes which do not crossover with each other (the movie does though with the U.K. Marvel comics but the cartoon does not).

Cybertron Scourge has no such similarities.

They're just different beings with the same name. Thats all.

I don´t know, some supposed "alternate universe" versions of characters existing in the newer releases of transformers just don´t seem to actually be the same character, someone said that trasformers names were not code names but rather common names like joe and mike, and we now that there are lots of joes and mikes and the point is unless someone says in canon material yes they are the same guy or "they seem to have the same energy signature" this will just be speculation.

none of them are the same character, aside from alternate names within the same universe. ie: g1 jetfire = g1 skyfire.
(EDIT: and the very very very few that have been explicitly stated to be the same character)

g1 inferno and bw inferno being the same doesnt make any sense. plenty of others in the list are in the same category. if you try to make them the same character you have to find some way to make all the disjointed different continuities and microcontinuities into one single continuity and you cant ignore any continuity (eg: rid) to do so.

you also have to resolve the issue of japanese names and the original japanese developed storylines, eg: e.prowl is called red alert in japan so is he a new prowl or a new alert/red alert. e.ironhide is called roadbuster in japan so is he an ironhide or not. shockwave is called laserwave in japan, tidal wave is called shockwave in japan. c.hot shot was called excillion in japan so is he a "hot rod" too or not? not to mention how do you decide whether to go by the name or the resemblance. there was a g1 downshift, so why isnt e.downshift = g1 downshift, and how do you decide who deserves to continue from one series to another? you see where this falls apart very quickly.

its just a trademark and name-recognition practice. registering new names is non-trivial.