Officially, Rumble was always the red one. the animators got the colors screwed up. This is even confirmed in the actual show's bible. Remember, the toys came first, and established Rumble as the red bot. It sounds better that way too— "Red Rumble, Red Rumble" (RR). It's also why just about every comic appearance of the two of them has Rumble as red. The Japanese also fixed that gaff in their translation, referring to the red one as Rumble. Thus, as far as both Hasbro and Takara are concerned, Rumble is red and Frenzy is blue, and that's good enough for me. As for Cyclonus, Yes, it was Bombshell who became Cyclonus. Wreckers even has that as part of the story since both Cyclonus and Skywarp are in it (in their Universe forms).

rumble=blue

frenzy=red

Officially, Rumble was always the red one. the animators got the colors screwed up. This is even confirmed in the actual show's bible. Remember, the toys came first, and established Rumble as the red bot. It sounds better that way too— "Red Rumble, Red Rumble" (RR). It's also why just about every comic appearance of the two of them has Rumble as red. The Japanese also fixed that gaff in their translation, referring to the red one as Rumble. Thus, as far as both Hasbro and Takara are concerned, Rumble is red and Frenzy is blue, and that's good enough for me. As for Cyclonus, Yes, it was Bombshell who became Cyclonus. Wreckers even has that as part of the story since both Cyclonus and Skywarp are in it (in their Universe forms).

Ah, but two points.

The English cartoon is what most people care about, and that had RIBFIR....

 

And Cyclonus is totally Skywarp. Duh.

Officially, Rumble was always the red one. the animators got the colors screwed up. This is even confirmed in the actual show's bible. Remember, the toys came first, and established Rumble as the red bot. It sounds better that way too— "Red Rumble, Red Rumble" (RR). It's also why just about every comic appearance of the two of them has Rumble as red. The Japanese also fixed that gaff in their translation, referring to the red one as Rumble. Thus, as far as both Hasbro and Takara are concerned, Rumble is red and Frenzy is blue, and that's good enough for me. As for Cyclonus, Yes, it was Bombshell who became Cyclonus. Wreckers even has that as part of the story since both Cyclonus and Skywarp are in it (in their Universe forms).

Ah, but two points.

The English cartoon is what most people care about, and that had RIBFIR....

 

And Cyclonus is totally Skywarp. Duh.

That was because of animator screwup though as seen here in the Production bible:

DECEPTICON ROLLCALL

 

NAME PERSONALITY TRANS-FORM

 

MEGATRON leader ray gun

STARSCREAM seeks power jet plane (silver)

THUNDERCRACKER not convinced " " (blue)

SKYWARP sneaky but dumb " " (black)

SOUNDWAVE opportunist cassette recorder

LASERBEAK (condor) cruel coward mini-cassette

RAVAGE (jaguar) night loner " "

RUMBLE (red robot) street punk " "

* REFLECTOR camera

SHOCKWAVE (left on Cybertron) ray gun

 

*Toy discontinued; do not use character

—Transformers Production Bible page 34

 

TRANSFORMERS SERIES BIBLE

 

NAME: RUMBLE

 

FUNCTION: Demolitions

 

TRANS-FORM: Mini-cassette

 

ABILITIES: Transmits immense low frequency groundwaves to create powerful earthquakes. Physical strength limited by his small stature, but ability to shatter ground makes him difficult to approach in a fight.

 

PROFILE: Basic street punk...small but always acting tough. Quick temper and mean disposition...follows Megatron's orders eagerly.

 

(NOTE: RUMBLE'S twin toy, FRENZY can serve as a replacement.)—Transformers Production bible page 42

 

In fact, there have been only two othe rinstancves outside of the cartoon, where Rumble has been depicted as blue, and those were in the Devil's Due Transformers/GI Joe comics, and the Diamond Select bust— RIRFIB/RIBFIR on TF Wiki

That was because of animator screwup though as seen here in the Production bible:

I have to call in to question if that matters, though.

 

To use a simplified example, if the script for Transformers 3 reads:

 

MIKELA

Sam, look out behind you!

 

But on set the day of filming, Megan Fox screams "Oh, crap, Sam, Starscream's behind you!" and then that take used in the finished film, even though the line is not exact to the filmmaker's original intent, it is still what the character of Mikela said in the context of the fictional universe.

 

The final product > filmmaker intent. Mistakes included.

That was because of animator screwup though as seen here in the Production bible:

I have to call in to question if that matters, though.

 

To use a simplified example, if the script for Transformers 3 reads:

 

MIKELA

Sam, look out behind you!

 

But on set the day of filming, Megan Fox screams "Oh, crap, Sam, Starscream's behind you!" and then that take used in the finished film, even though the line is not exact to the filmmaker's original intent, it is still what the character of Mikela said in the context of the fictional universe.

 

The final product > filmmaker intent. Mistakes included.

Script changes are one thing. animation errors on an already established design are another. As the links above state, the toys, comics, even children's books which had all come out prior to the cartoon, had already firmly established Rumble as the red bot and Frenzy as blue, and it was Hasbro's intent that the cartoon followed suit. Somewhere along the way during production there was some miscommunication and their colors got reversed. Also, even in movies, there do occur instances where the lines are screwed up and not caught. The cartoon is but one of several "final products", and it depiction of Rumble's and Frenzy's colors was indeed erroneous compared to everything already firmly established about who was who. The cartoon was loaded with similar animation errors. And, like I said, even Japan managed to correct that error in their dub of the cartoon by simply switching their names It was a very simple fix.

Ever since I was a kid Rumble was the blue one. Regardless of how he was supposed to be or what color he officially is, I will not betray my childhood.

 

Rumble is blue!

Frenzy is red!

 

I like Frenzy being red, it works better for his name I think.

Here's why I don't buy the animation error excuse...

 

G1 had tons of them, multiple Starscreams, bots moving backwards or being see through, Prime speaking for Megatron, and the list goes on and on...

 

One thing that was pretty much always consistent though, Rumble was blue and Frenzy was red.

 

Hence my stance, F*** the TF Ultimate Guide and Bible. Thats what it was, so thats what it is!

That was because of animator screwup though as seen here in the Production bible:

I have to call in to question if that matters, though.

 

To use a simplified example, if the script for Transformers 3 reads:

 

MIKELA

Sam, look out behind you!

 

But on set the day of filming, Megan Fox screams "Oh, crap, Sam, Starscream's behind you!" and then that take used in the finished film, even though the line is not exact to the filmmaker's original intent, it is still what the character of Mikela said in the context of the fictional universe.

 

The final product > filmmaker intent. Mistakes included.

Script changes are one thing. animation errors on an already established design are another. As the links above state, the toys, comics, even children's books which had all come out prior to the cartoon, had already firmly established Rumble as the red bot and Frenzy as blue, and it was Hasbro's intent that the cartoon followed suit. Somewhere along the way during production there was some miscommunication and their colors got reversed. Also, even in movies, there do occur instances where the lines are screwed up and not caught. The cartoon is but one of several "final products", and it depiction of Rumble's and Frenzy's colors was indeed erroneous compared to everything already firmly established about who was who. The cartoon was loaded with similar animation errors. And, like I said, even Japan managed to correct that error in their dub of the cartoon by simply switching their names It was a very simple fix.

My example isn't a script change, it's someone saying the wrong line on set. But they said, "Let's run with it."

 

And your example isn't as simple as an animation error. It's every single episode of the show that those characters appear in AND the '86 theatrical film. Clearly at some point someone said, "let's run with it." If they'd wanted to correct it, they would have. At some point, that has to become intent.

That was because of animator screwup though as seen here in the Production bible:

I have to call in to question if that matters, though.

 

To use a simplified example, if the script for Transformers 3 reads:

 

MIKELA

Sam, look out behind you!

 

But on set the day of filming, Megan Fox screams "Oh, crap, Sam, Starscream's behind you!" and then that take used in the finished film, even though the line is not exact to the filmmaker's original intent, it is still what the character of Mikela said in the context of the fictional universe.

 

The final product > filmmaker intent. Mistakes included.

Script changes are one thing. animation errors on an already established design are another. As the links above state, the toys, comics, even children's books which had all come out prior to the cartoon, had already firmly established Rumble as the red bot and Frenzy as blue, and it was Hasbro's intent that the cartoon followed suit. Somewhere along the way during production there was some miscommunication and their colors got reversed. Also, even in movies, there do occur instances where the lines are screwed up and not caught. The cartoon is but one of several "final products", and it depiction of Rumble's and Frenzy's colors was indeed erroneous compared to everything already firmly established about who was who. The cartoon was loaded with similar animation errors. And, like I said, even Japan managed to correct that error in their dub of the cartoon by simply switching their names It was a very simple fix.

My example isn't a script change, it's someone saying the wrong line on set. But they said, "Let's run with it."

 

And your example isn't as simple as an animation error. It's every single episode of the show that those characters appear in AND the '86 theatrical film. Clearly at some point someone said, "let's run with it." If they'd wanted to correct it, they would have. At some point, that has to become intent.

Actually, what you described in your movie example is what's referred to as an "ad lib". Those are quite common in movies, and often encouraged. Frenzy and rumble getting their colors swapped in the cartoon was a production error, so in that sense you're correct in that it's not as simple" as an animation error. It was far more grievous and likely happened further up the chain, and once it was done, they couldn't really undo it. The difference was that normal animation errors only happen in one shot. This occurred over a whole episode, and because of that, they were stuck with it. So in that sense, yes, they ran with it, because they couldn't really go back and change it after they had already run "X" number of episodes before it was caught. Also, for the most part, Frenzy and Rumble were basically interchangeable in the cartoon, and even sounded pretty much identical (both being voiced by Frank Welker using essentially the same voice).