The Energon Pub

If you take an obscure, mostly forgotten character and completely re-do them, what are they classified as? And what if you take the name of a revamp of an existing character and make them a completely new character, like what IDW did with Goldbug in the 'Spotlight: Metroplex' comic?

I ask because I have a small handful of characters from my "TF: Fractures" universe that fall into both categories: in the first instance, I took the eHobby exclusive character Road Rage and sorta spun a completely different twist on her (which, ironically, makes her much more like the IDW version of Arcee in several ways), as well as new spins on some of the forgotten Throttlebots and Mini-Cars; in the second instance, I made a completely new character and gave him the name "Twincast," which was the name of the Japanese-only blue redeco of Blaster (I also did something similar with "Goldbug," but that was just giving the name of Bumblebee's never-used Throttlebot "upgrade" to a 'bot with the personality and "speech impediment" of the live-action 'bee).