Underrated Characters

[Alak]

Not so much as underrated as opposed to not-getting-the-recognition-they-deserve sort of characters. In any of the Transformers stories (cartoons, comics, video games, etc.), is there any character that you feel deserves more attention? Anyone you're personally fond of even though the majority disagrees?

I myself think that the Protectobots were underused in the G1 cartoons. They were awesome during the few scenes that they had, and I think it would have been nice to see an episode dedicated to their daily work. As for Beast Wars, I think Quickstrike was underrated by a lot of children at the time. The scorpion/snake combo wasn't as popular as the wolf/eagle counterpart so he got a lot of hate and shelf time.

[Night-Hunter]

For me it has to be Shockwave from the G1 Transformers. He was only in a few episodes.

[Aesir]

For me it has to be Shockwave from the G1 Transformers. He was only in a few episodes.

He had loads of screen time in the comics

I'd have wanted Rook and Nightbeat to have more screen time

[SkyxDB]

Well me personality, I think Slipstream, you know the female Starscream clone should have gotten a lot more screen time she did.

[Darkshadow14]

Poor 'Strike I agree he was a "underrated character"

[GoktimusPrime]

THUNDERCRACKER

From his original tech specs bio:
"Not totally convinced of the Decepticons' cause..."
This gives him LOADS of interesting potential as a character, but for 25 years this potential was left untapped. NONE of the G1 writers at Marvel or Sunbow - not even the great Simon Furman - ever really tapped this potential. IDW have recently begun exploring this (FINALLY!!!) which I'm quite pleased to see.

Here's a photo skit I made about it 6 years ago...






As far as Beast Wars is concerned - I'd have to go with Tripredacus. They were pretty interesting characters as the political heads of the Predacons and tied to Tarantulas and Unicron etc. - they're great toys and I would have loved to have seen them in action (yeah I know we saw Tripledux in action, but they're not the same characters (for one thing the Tripredacus Council aren't bad Mexican stereotypes :p).

[Razor One]

The problem with Quickstrike is that he sort of combines the worst possible animals... Snake and Scorpion. There's nothing wrong with those animals per se but the both of them are traditionally viewed as untrustworthy, backstabbing, conniving, manipulative and plain mean spirited.

And that's just on their own. Combine the two and you've got a double whammy of bad. Again, the combination itself isn't in and of itself bad, but human perception and culture being what it is it's unsurprising that Quickstrike got the short end of the stick.

When you compare Silverbolt, he got Wolf and Eagle. I think it kind of goes without saying that Eagles are viewed in a very positive light, and while wolves have had it bad in the past their more recent perception over the last few decades has been fairly positive.

What gets interesting is if you try to change the mashups to something different. Wolf / Snake, for instance, retains a strongly negative vibe in my mind. Eagle / Scorpion comes across as conflicted. Ditto for Wolf / Scorpion and Eagle / Snake combo's.

Given that the Beast Modes tend to inform somewhat about what the character is all about in Beast Wars (to a degree) it would be interesting to try to write how Silverbolt or Quickstrike would have reacted to being different combinations of these two creatures and how their characters would have changed as a result.

And I'm going to throw my support behind Thundercracker as well. He could have been G1's Dinobot if he'd been utilised in any way beyond background thug. Forgivable since it was in the 80's but unforgivable once Transformers cartoons started getting something akin to character development built into them rather than being glorified toy commercials.

[GoktimusPrime]

Given that the Beast Modes tend to inform somewhat about what the character is all about in Beast Wars (to a degree) it would be interesting to try to write how Silverbolt or Quickstrike would have reacted to being different combinations of these two creatures and how their characters would have changed as a result.

The overall/general theme of Beast Wars TF's alt modes, particularly in the beginning, was to have "warm bloods" (i.e. mammals, avians) as the good guys and "cold bloods" (i.e. reptiles, dinosaurs, insects, arachnids) as the bad guys. This was an intentional decision from Hasbro, much like how they decided to make all the 1st year G1 automobiles Autobots and the jets, gun and "spy equipment" (microcassettes and microcassette recorder) the Decepticons. Dinobot was the only non-mammalian Maximal in the 1996 line up, and of course, the mythology explained this by explaining that he was originally a Predacon. Later on we had a few other exceptions like Cybershark, Shadow Panther, Corahda -- but most of the Maximals are warm-bloods and most of the Predacons are cold-bloods.

HasTak are working off the assumption that dinosaurs and pterosaurs are cold-blooded - which is something that seems to be open to debate among paleontologists. However some of the way they portrayed the dinosaurs has since been outdated. For example, Dinobot and Mutant Beast Razorclaw's velociraptor modes appear to be based on an older interpretation how the 'raptors looked like (and popularised by Jurassic Park, image), but current evidence shows that the Velociraptor was covered in featherrs and had fully developed feathered wings (much like modern-day flightless birds) - image. It wouldn't be the first time this has happened though... G1 Sludge's alt mode is a robotic Brontosaurus, which has since been completely disproven to have even ever existed! And Grimlock's alt mode is a robotic Tyrannosaurus Rex, but based on an outdated interpretation which saw T-Rex standing upright and being a tail-dragger - whereas Beast Wars Megatron is more correct with his beast mode being 'vertical' and carrying the tail in the air.

Forgivable since it was in the 80's but unforgivable once Transformers cartoons started getting something akin to character development built into them rather than being glorified toy commercials.

The G1 cartoon hardly ever had any character development, rather a bunch of archetypes. There was much more character development in the Marvel comics, which is why a lot of G1 fans prefer the comics over the cartoon. Unfortunately Thundercracker was neglected in the comics too (neither Furman nor Budiansky ever really tried to develop the character). Even IDW could be doing more... but instead we get WAY more development for Drift... the G1 Autobot who nobody's ever heard of! (just like Poochie from the Simpsons!)

[Pacerwolf]

I agree that Thundercracker was an underrated and underused character. I used to think G1 Hardhead (the american version) was very underrated as well, until Simon Furman brought him into the spotlight by focusing on him In part 3 of the IDW Transformer comics "Revelations" story arc. If Furman had shown TC the same focus it would probably have turned out to be awesome.

[GoktimusPrime]

Hardhead got a fair amount of screentime in "The Rebirth" -- had the fourth season of the US cartoon not been cancelled so early he probably would've seen a lot more action. But I don't think he was underused or underrated. Hardhead also made several appearances in both the US and UK G1 comics from Marvel (he was ultimately stepped on by Unicron). He saw more action in the G1 comics than he did in IDW. Hardhead also got more screen time in the Japanese Headmasters animated series. Thundercracker appeared in several issues of the G1 and G2 comics written by Furman and he never did anything of tremendous importance there... probably the most important thing he did was get physically displaced into Limbo alongside Frenzy and Shockwave when Hot Rod, Kup and Blurr travelled back to the year 1986 from the awesome future time of four years ago. :p

[Wonko The Sane]

The Quintessons.In G1 (Especially in the Marvel/UK comics) they were a potential threat to the Cybertronians and could have started an intergalactic war if they wanted to....nowadays their not even mentioned anymore (With the exception of the Allspark Almanacs)

[GoktimusPrime]

The Quints totally should've been used in KISS Play. Mmm... Hentacle fresh... :p

yeah yeah, I know this post totally makes me look like some sad lonely dude in desperate need of a lay.