Names

[Grand Moff Muffin]

The names of Transformers strike me as being on a wide spectrum in terms of creativity, as if they were thought up either by lots of different people or one person (Bob?) who had moments of inspiration and moments of not really caring a jot.

I mean, starting with Pretender Beasts, Catilla and Chainclaw are clever.

Catilla = Cat + Attila the Hun

Chainclaw = Chainsaw + claw

But Snarler is unimaginative in the extreme, given there is already a Snarl.

And Carnivac I just don't get at all. It seems to be the word "carnivore" mangled in a random way, though it ends up being more like "carnival". Can someone explain?

I also don't get where the "onok" in Scorponok comes from. Nor do I understand Trypticon.

Kickback is one of my favourite names, as he has both a powerful kick and a smooth-talking con-man personality.

The name Bluestreak was obviously assigned based on the blue box art, but the writers made a good recovery when he turned out silver, by writing a character that "talked a blue streak".

But having Bluestreak and Sunstreaker, and Cloudburst and Bomb-Burst, in the same sub-groups, was unnecessarily repetitious.

What other names are clever, dull, perplexing or just sound awesome regardless (like Windcharger)?

Martin

[Toph]

Trypticon has several layers. He's a triple changing decepticon, so theres that. It also sounds like a base's name, as well as a kaiju's name. So it works on all those layers.

[Toph]

Always thought Tantrum was a great name for a bull.

Eject and Rewind were great names for cassettes.

Mudflap is a good name, that has yet to land on what it should belong to, some sort of truck.

The japanese seem to be terrible at names.
Go Shooter, Scissorboy, Stampy, Tasmania Kid, plus a ton more. Plus a bunch that are just awkward, like Mach Alert, and God Magnus.

[Grand Moff Muffin]

Mar 12, 2014 18:38:03 GMT Toph said:

He's a triple changing decepticon, so theres that.

That much had occurred to me, but he's not the first Triple Changer, and I'm not impressed by random spelling variations (should really be Tripticon).

Metroplex is a decent name - metropolis + complex.

Hun-Grrr = hunger + grrr
Fangry = fang + angry
Horri-bull...

I like those kinds of name. I also like how the original Headmasters had names incorporating head, brow, dome, brain, face, skull and mind, without repetition. Some thought went into that.

Soundwave and Shockwave - not good, too similar.

Martin

[The Doctor]

I always thought Transformers with a first and last name sounded very mysterious and strange as a child. Loved names such as Optimus Prime and Ultra Magnus. Dulled by years of seeing those names as we are, it's hard to remember how much they stood out both within Transformers itself and toys and children's stories in general.

-Ralph

[Grand Moff Muffin]

I agree, and they were educational as they taught you Latin words (and Greek letters like omega).

I was silly. I was perplexed by the name Fortress Maximus as I thought a fortress was a fort considered to be female...

Rodimus Prime, however - really, really naff name.

Martin

[Toph]

Mar 12, 2014 19:10:00 GMT Grand Moff Muffin said:

Mar 12, 2014 18:38:03 GMT Toph said:

He's a triple changing decepticon, so theres that.

Metroplex is a decent name - metropolis + complex.
Martin

Metroplex is a real term in and of itself, referring to a system of independent but interconnected cities.
North Texas refers to itself as the D/FW Metroplex. It consists of Dallas, Fort Worth, Arlington, and Irving, plus a fair few smaller suburb or burrow cities like Grand Prairie, Mesquite, and Grapevine.

[Grand Moff Muffin]

Never knew that! We have conurbations and "city regions" here.

Martin

[Shockprowl]

There are some great names. I love names like Prime, Prowl, Mirage, Hound, Ironhide, Shrapnel, Ravage, Frenzy, Bludgeon, and ofcourse Megatron. Many of those do sound like codenames that the character has chosen. And I also like more 'constructed' names like Starscream, Thundercracker, Skywarp, Blitzwing, Menasor, Superion, Galvatron from galvanise, and Ultra Magnus. There are also some more joke-style names which work, like Blot, Hun-Grrr. Some names though, which I have long accepted, do sound odd to outsiders, Jazz, Springer, Slag, Ramjet, Thrust.... Bumblebee is actually quite an odd name if you think about it. And indeed there are some poor names that, as Martin said, seem like not much thought were put into them, like Hotrod, Kup, Drift. And yes, I've often thought Soubdwave and Shockwave are too similar. So much so that when we were boys, my brother and I designed a whole team of Decepticons whos names ended in 'wave'. The leader was a tank, a nasty piece of work by the name of Blastwave.

[Grand Moff Muffin]

Ramjet is OK because it's also something that actually exists - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramjet - and it has the added dimension that he really rams things.

Other combinations of course include:

Autobot = autonomous robot

Decepticon = deceptive con artist (fiendishly blending in as an innocent-looking cassette tape or... er... a fighter jet)

Martin

[Philip Ayres]

I've always found Slag appropriate for the Dinobots flame thrower.

[Grand Moff Muffin]

Grimlock's name is a bit random, but it really sets him apart as a character from the other Dinobots, who all have single-syllable names beginning with S. It wouldn't have had the same team dynamic if his name had been something like Strike or Slice, and one of the lower-ranking Dinobots had had a longer name.

Martin

[legios]

I quite like Grimlock as a name - it is descriptive because once he locks those jaws onto you your fate is grim indeed. Most of the Dinobot names are pretty good - although I think Sludge got the short straw really - everyone else got names that evoked their personalities, or the gruesome things that they can do to their enemies. Sludge gets named for goopy mud because he walks in the swamp.

I don't mind Go Shooter - being as I see it as a good bad pun. (And also a double meaning - referencing his real name, Shuta Go, whilst also sounding like "Goal Shooter" and therefore referencing his football skills).

Carnivac and Skorpornok I think came about in similar ways - taking a descriptive word for what they turn into and "word-salading" it a bit to get something that sounds like it belongs in English that isn't just calling them "Skorpion" or similar. (Could be worse, they could have called Carnivac Lupus...)

Karl

[Toph]

Mar 12, 2014 20:56:16 GMT legios said:

I don't mind Go Shooter - being as I see it as a good bad pun. (And also a double meaning - referencing his real name, Shuta Go, whilst also sounding like "Goal Shooter" and therefore referencing his football skills).

Karl

I never knew any of that! With all that in mind, his name isn't anywhere nearly as the bad kind of silly.

[Pinwig]

Mar 12, 2014 20:56:16 GMT legios said:

I quite like Grimlock as a name - it is descriptive because once he locks those jaws onto you your fate is grim indeed. Most of the Dinobot names are pretty good - although I think Sludge got the short straw really - everyone else got names that evoked their personalities, or the gruesome things that they can do to their enemies. Sludge gets named for goopy mud because he walks in the swamp.

Grimlock was the name that sprang to mind as I was reading through this thread, I think what you say is right and I would add the 'Grim' part describes his personality/facial expression too, and maybe the 'lock' his stubborn nature?

I think Thundercracker works really well too. If something can crack thunder it has to be a powerful force in the air, and aren't sonic booms part of his arsenal? I remember that right back from Man of Iron. So he cracks his own thunder.

[The Huff]

Mar 12, 2014 20:25:15 GMT Philip Ayres said:

I've always found Slag appropriate for the Dinobots flame thrower.

YES! I hate the fact that his name is considered taboo now.

[Deleted]

From 'Grimlock' I get the 'grim' bit to decribe his persona but the 'lock' bit I see more as 'dense, immovable' - 'Grid lock'. Ultra Magnus is a fantastic sounding name. In the Transformers Legends mobile game, 'Magnus' is the highest rank you can achieve (after Captain, then Commander'; I'd not heard it used in that context before.

I do like themes and naming conventions. The combiner teams always did well for these.

I am interested to know, like the chicken-or-egg conundrum, was a character designed for his name and power, or did they develop a power based on the name i.e. The aforementioned Thundercracker and Skywarp or Frenzy and Rumble? Did they think, "This guy has 'warp' in his name, let's say he can teleport." or did they say, "We have the name Skywarp. He's a flier who can teleport. Which toy should we give it to?"

Also, there's a few name cock-ups. The one that springs to mind are the Duocons: Battletrap and Flywheels. there are no wheels on Flywheels but there are on Battletrap. I wonder if there are any out there that are misprints (like 'Donkey Kong' was actually supposed to be 'Monkey Kong' but the company writing the instructions, box and labels cocked it up).

With regards to Japanese names, I'm reliably informed that many names that sound pump in English are poetic in Japanese but this 'class' is lost in translation.

[Grand Moff Muffin]

Mar 13, 2014 15:13:41 GMT @sifu said:

Also, there's a few name cock-ups. The one that springs to mind are the Duocons: Battletrap and Flywheels. there are no wheels on Flywheels but there are on Battletrap.

Tanks have wheels! They just have caterpillar tracks looping around them, that's all.

Though I think I remember there being a typo in 'Another Time and Place' referring to Battletrap in his tank mode.

Martin

[Philip Ayres]

You'll agree that the name Battletrap better applies to the Tank/Fighter Jet combo than a van and a helicopter?

Sideswipe and Sunstreaker is another but that's to do with the colours being mixed up too.

Thereare others but I can,t recall one off the top of my head

[Pinwig]

Mar 13, 2014 17:45:20 GMT Philip Ayres said:

Sideswipe and Sunstreaker is another but that's to do with the colours being mixed up too.

The more I look at this Sunstreaker I got recently the more it confuses me why he and Sideswipe are supposed to be brothers. I know the tech specs say they're twins - but that's based on the fact they're the same car. Which would be their Earth mode. The robot modes are totally different in every respect. So I suppose that's not so much a name flaw, more a tech spec flaw. Which I presume is explained by saying their alt modes on Cybertron were also identical. But that still shouldn't mean they're twins.

[Deleted]

Mar 13, 2014 17:41:02 GMT Grand Moff Muffin said:

Mar 13, 2014 15:13:41 GMT @sifu said:

Also, there's a few name cock-ups. The one that springs to mind are the Duocons: Battletrap and Flywheels. there are no wheels on Flywheels but there are on Battletrap.

Tanks have wheels! They just have caterpillar tracks looping around them, that's all.

Though I think I remember there being a typo in 'Another Time and Place' referring to Battletrap in his tank mode.

Martin

I wasn't going to delve into it but the if you had the name 'wheels' and had a tracked vehicle and a wheeled vehicle to apply it to, you'd probably consider the wheeled vehicle more suitable. Also, 'Battle Tank' : 'Battletrap', with 'trap' tenuously relating to the 'bear trap' landing device for helicopters? Conversely, a flywheel is a component in both a van and a tank so is equally suitable in that regard (although I'm pretty sure it's an accident from the amalgamation of two words).

... and for the record, most tankies call them treads, not tracks.

PA- I thought Silverstreak was the only one to get a 'dodgy' name but I hadn't really thought about those two.

[Deleted]

Mar 13, 2014 19:02:21 GMT Pinwig said:

Mar 13, 2014 17:45:20 GMT Philip Ayres said:

Sideswipe and Sunstreaker is another but that's to do with the colours being mixed up too.

The more I look at this Sunstreaker I got recently the more it confuses me why he and Sideswipe are supposed to be brothers. I know the tech specs say they're twins - but that's based on the fact they're the same car. Which would be their Earth mode. The robot modes are totally different in every respect. So I suppose that's not so much a name flaw, more a tech spec flaw. Which I presume is explained by saying their alt modes on Cybertron were also identical. But that still shouldn't mean they're twins.

Branched spark?

[The Doctor]

Mar 13, 2014 12:38:07 GMT The Huff said:

Mar 12, 2014 20:25:15 GMT Philip Ayres said:

I've always found Slag appropriate for the Dinobots flame thrower.

YES! I hate the fact that his name is considered taboo now.

Depends on the area/country. 'Slag' in no way is a taboo word in East Coast of Scotland.

-Ralph

[Shockprowl]

Mar 12, 2014 20:25:15 GMT Philip Ayres said:

I've always found Slag appropriate for the Dinobots flame thrower.

Absolutely. He turns things (enemy robots) into slag!

[Deleted]

'Slug', on the other hand, just sounds like a big dumb lump of metal... oh.

[legios]

And it would be unwise to underestimate the hitting power of a decent gauge shotgun Slug round...

Karl

[Shockprowl]

Do Americans have the world 'slag'? CJ?

[Toph]

Mar 13, 2014 19:02:21 GMT Pinwig said:

Mar 13, 2014 17:45:20 GMT Philip Ayres said:

Sideswipe and Sunstreaker is another but that's to do with the colours being mixed up too.

The more I look at this Sunstreaker I got recently the more it confuses me why he and Sideswipe are supposed to be brothers. I know the tech specs say they're twins - but that's based on the fact they're the same car. Which would be their Earth mode. The robot modes are totally different in every respect. So I suppose that's not so much a name flaw, more a tech spec flaw. Which I presume is explained by saying their alt modes on Cybertron were also identical. But that still shouldn't mean they're twins.

Why should that bother you, honestly? It's more realistic to me that they're twins because they DON'T look alike. Identical twins make zero sense for cybertronians, since they can change how they look at will. And it irritates the hell out of me every time I see people trying to shoehorn all repainted characters into being brothers, simply because they use the same base toy.

Also, there are no canon siblings that I can think of, who look alike.
Sideswipe/Sunstreaker
Sideburn/Prowl/X-Brawn
Fire Convoy/God Magnus
Galvatron/Megastorm

To cybertronians, what being a twin means is like a human egg, a spark splits into two when it's being formed. And since there is no definitive explanation of how a spark and a body comes together, then there's no reason to assume they should be identical. And even if they were, there's no reason for them to stay identical.

[Philip Ayres]

Mar 13, 2014 19:02:21 GMT Pinwig said:

Mar 13, 2014 17:45:20 GMT Philip Ayres said:

Sideswipe and Sunstreaker is another but that's to do with the colours being mixed up too.

The more I look at this Sunstreaker I got recently the more it confuses me why he and Sideswipe are supposed to be brothers. I know the tech specs say they're twins - but that's based on the fact they're the same car. Which would be their Earth mode. The robot modes are totally different in every respect. So I suppose that's not so much a name flaw, more a tech spec flaw. Which I presume is explained by saying their alt modes on Cybertron were also identical. But that still shouldn't mean they're twins.

You know they really should have made Fastlane and Cloudraker Sideswipe and Sunstreaker.

To me it's obvious Sunstreaker should be yellow, and thus Sideswipe red. It's also Obvious that Sideswipe's tech spec describes theCountach Super Tuning and Sunstreaker's the new Countach. But do the tech specs mention the colours anywhere?

The decision to have the Super Tuning Countach as yellow may have been forced on Hasbro by colour choices elsewhere but to me it's obvious it should be red, and thus Sideswipe, while the new Countach should be yellow, and thus Sunstreaker.

[Toph]

Mar 13, 2014 21:47:11 GMT Shockprowl said:

Do Americans have the world 'slag'? CJ?

For us, much like spaz or spastic, slag is a completely 100% inoffensive word. We only use it in it's dictionary meaning. I'd even hazard to guess a good chunk of americans don't even know the word at all.
It came as a complete surprise to most of us as to how offensive those words are to you guys.