A very basic component of Marketing is Branding and Name Selection. The idea that a name will influece sale more than the actual product. Optimus Prime can be a big steaming pile and still sell decently, just look at Energon and the deluxe classics version. Optimus is branding Gold. Just the reverse, which figures have suffered because they were wrongly named, nothing wrong with the figure but the name didn't fit.

The first i can think of is Titanium Menasor... I believe he would be must have or at least rare if named Black Rodimus.

what are some others that suffer from wrong names?

Maybe not 'wrong' names, but how about BAD names?

Windbreaker
Erector
Aquafend

And more...

Mudflap was a shelfwarmer in my area. Had they named him Grapple or Hook, he mighta sold better.

And Optimus Prime is not always gold, the Cybertron monkey Prime was a major shelfwarmer in my area.

Hmmm...can't think of an example in my area, but I know what you mean.

I always liked the ones whose names made sense.

Hound was the scout
Mirage could turn invisible
Soundwave was a walkman
Mixmaster was a cement truck
Cosmos was a flying saucer

Then there were the ones whose names eluded me. Blaster was named as such why. He's a boombox. Why not give him a good guy equivalent name of Soundwave.

But then again, there are some names that are just going to have money attached to them. The ones I'm sure about are Optimus Prime, Megatron, Starscream, and in the last few years we've had Jetfire and Hot Shot/Hot Rod (take your pick they're practically the same character) thrown into the mix as popular names.

THEY SOLD MONKIES! WTF!

Decepticharge
Scattor (scat = Blot)
Scattorshot (shooting Blot)
Scattorbrain (Blot for brains)

Bumblebee's scat...

blaster's name makes as much sense as soundwave's, JMO (he's a boombox, a.k.a. ghetto blaster)

yep, that's exactly it. And of course he was a "black" Transformer too. Gotta love it.

He's a Tank! He's an Aircraft! He's...BLITZWING!

Still my favorite Transformer name.

And do you say it CHEAT-ER, or CHEAT-OR? Because the first one sounds lame.

Unicron was poorly named. You can clearly tell by looking that he has *two* crons, not one.

Oh no, they used an O in Scatter instead of an E! NOW THE NAME IS ABOUT Blot WHATEVER WILL WE DO.

I could never go to a convention. THey'd kill me because I pronounce Bludgeon's name as Blud-ge-on.

forget conventions, you wouldn't be able to go anywhere where they speak English! Just as well you live in America.

No, no, please, hold your applause.

in truth, he was only born with one Cron...

I'd make an Australian joke, but it'd be equally cliche.

I just feel with all the character development he has "Bludgeon" is too brutish of a name.

All the many versions of Scorponok, because, guess what they are?

Well you would be pretty retarded if you pronounced Chetor as Cheeter, hell you cant even prononce Cheetah as cheeter unless you are redneck trailer trash..


DX CLASSIX PRIME ROCKS IN BOTH VEHICLE AND ROBOT..





I think the only name that confuzzles me most is Sideways, how does that work? Or G1 Wheelie? ehh He is a futuristic racing car and you name it after a motorcycle stunt?

He did a side wheelie in the movie...

eh I got nothing

He was so cool he was Wheelie annoying to most?

Scatter, to go all over.
Scattorshot, his shots "scatter" all over the place, they go everywhere.
Scattorbrain, his mind can't focus on one thing, it's "scattered."
Not that hard to figure out.

Oh, don't respond with the "its an O not an E" argument. The word that the name's conveying is clearly meant to be "scatter."
Why did they change the E to an O? Aesthetics, probably. Just like "Optimus" isn't really a word, but we all know it conveys "optimal" or "optimum."
Just like "Sacttor" isn't a word, but if you don't have your mind in the gutter you can easily tell it means "Scatter."

"Optimus" is a word. It is Latin, yes, but it is most definitely a word. Just like "Rector Magnificus" is a word.

Well, then I guess Optimus Primal and Rhinox are retarded, because they spent the first half of season 1 calling him "Cheater."



Dude! That is SOOOO not a word...

...it's two words. *ba-dum-dum*

Then why doesn't my spell check recognize it?
J/K, but hey, can you blame me? I barley passed HS Latin.
Still, my point stands.
Anyone who thinks Sacttorshot's name is referencing Blot is either 1) obsessed with toilet humour or 2) very strict regarding the English language.
It's obvious, especially given his alt mode, that Scattorshot's name is a play off of the words "scatter" and "shot." Meaning his shots scatter, or go all over the place.

That applies with Scattershot, but not Scattorshot.

Optimus Prime's name had a lot of credit built up, so they could get away with a lot more moves that might be perceived as abuses of the name than they could with other names. That's a lotta monkeys...

"Decepticharge" was pretty bad..

Though with a lotta them, I think it's more just that neither the name nor the character really stand out.. like I wouldn't be able to tell you who was a technobot vs an autobot headmaster, much less be able to tell any of them apart without being able to cheat and look at the toy anyway. They all sound like the same guy to me, and all transform into Generic "Futuristic Vehicle".

Lightspeed transforms into a Powell Motors Tempura Hatchback.

Alt. Skids. Before he became Alt. Skids people thought he was going to be Alt. Ironhide. Many complained, as did I.

Decepticharge stands out as the lamest Transformers name ever created.

Except he was always going to be Skids. That's Skids's head. And Skids's alt mode kibble / body parts.

*nods* BT Skids' head is based on the way that Skids was drawn in the G1 cartoon.

Some names are great and really help add to a character/define a character. Some names are "whatever".
But then others...


Worst TF Names:
Octopunch
Banzai-Tron
Windbreaker
Fangry
Daytonus
Hot House
Decepticharge
Injector
Punch/Counterpunch
T-Wrecks
Horri-Bull
Cybershark
Krok
W.A.R.S.
Movor
Ro-Tor
R.E.V.
Crumplezone
Anti-Blaze
Cruellock
Doom-Lock

You're holding TF to an unrealistic standard when it comes to the English language. Why on Earth would they want to name a character in a franchise aimed at kids after Blot? Please, tell me.
The "Scattor" part of Scattorshot's name is obviously meant to reference the word "scatter." Why did they change that "e" to an "o"? Like I said before, probably aesthetics. Hasbro probably thought "scattor" looked more cool/futuristic/robotic then "scatter."
Bottom line is, most TF names are based on verbs and nouns. Sometimes they tweak the spelling so that the names don't seem as ordinary. Holding Hasbro, as it regards to TF anyway, to such a strict standard in regards to the English language when it comes to robot names is very unrealistic.

They didn't name the character after crap, move on.

The "other" one transforms into a Pontiac Firebird I think.

It's unrealistic to expect them to spell things properly in an age of automatic spell checkers??? :/
Even back in the 80s they never had dubious errors like this.


Because Hasbro so often doesn't pay attention to what they're doing and are sometimes just downright careless.
Why else would they have used the incorrect spelling of "shear" in "Wind Sheer" - wtf is a 'wind sheer'? A blade that... sheers... with wind?? WTF?!?!?!?

And why did Hasbro go and call the Classics line "Classic" when "Classic" was already used by Hasbro for their line of G1 reissues in 1990-1991... now fans have to refer to the new Classics as "Classics" (plural) with the G1 reissues called "Classic" (singular) which means that Classics Optimus Prime and Classic Optimus Prime are two entirely different toys (the former is a new toy whilst the latter is a G1 reissue). It becomes really ambiguous if you ever need to pluralise any of the G1 Classic...s...

The fact that we even have this thread pointing out all the stupid names that Hasbro has given us shows that they're not always paying attention to what they're doing. "Decepticharge"?? Someone was asleep and/or on drugs when they came up with that God-forsaken name.

Why have a toy that looks and is coloured like G1 Wheeljack only to call it Downshift?!? Why market G1 Commemorative Series reissues at children meaning that they have to bastardise missiles, launchers, sawn-off smoke stacks and for no particular reason - STRIP THE CHROME!

I could go on about Hasbro's apparent attention deficit disorder... they need corporate Ritalin™.



Yes, that sure will appeal to illiterate people... :/



Cos "Lugnutz" sounds cool... I hate having to "buzz" that 'z' at the end of that name everytime I say it... Lugnut-ZZZZZ! I sound like freakin' Wazzzzzpinator every time I say it.

But with Scattor the mispelling also makes it ambiguously synonymous with "Blot," since that IS the actual meaning of the word "scat" (from the Greek "scatolos," hence why the medical science of fecal study is "scatology").

It's almost as if Hasbro's not paying attention...

Man, how could the original cartoon voice of Jazz be called Scatman Crothers?! Does Hasbro know what they're saying?! They're implying that Jazz is BlotMAN. Because scat means Blot and scat means Blot and repeat forever.

We get it, Goki. You don't like scat. Thank you for your time.

...hence why Jazz got treated like crap...



Getting back on topic, another crappy name was "Galvatron."

Abbreviating "electronic" to "tron" seemed to be quite popular in the 80s, but I could accept Cybertron (cybernetic + electronic) and Megatron (a million electronics?) - but Galvatron? What's that meant to be? Zinc-coated electronics?? :/

When I was younger the name influenced if I bought the TF or not. I never wanted a bumblebee, thinking my friends would tease me about having 'girly TFs' I personally think the weirdest name was Alpha Q. How lame is that?

Tip Top is a freakin' weird name... a Decepticon named after a brand of bread and crumpets - what the?!


After retiring from his career as Quake's weapon, Tip Top found new life as a sandwich!

Alright, here's one I saw just now in the TFieds.. Squeezeplay. Reminds me of that concept sketch of a custom Galvatron that turns into a... adult female pleasure device.

Eh, most of the Beast Wars names were off the cheese-ometer. But then it kind of fit with some of the more lighthearted stuff.

My first thought when I saw this was "hey, didn't we talk about this a few weeks ago?"

yes but nobody really discussed the topic as in depth as i was wanting to get...

i really wanted to know if titanum menasor would be a hard to get item like titanium ultra magnus if his name and character was black rodimus instead...