Rodimus Prime wrote:Yeah you would think that someone with crazy speed would merit a few of his own spotlight episodes. I don't even remember him doing anything in the G1 comics either, I'm not sure about IDW, I didn't start reading until 2012.
He's basically the Quicksilver of Transformers, it would have been awesome to see him in Bayverse doing similar stuff to Cons that Quicksilver did in X-Men.
He had his own
Spotlight issue, and I think he was a prominent recurring character in the post-war Cybertron, particularly the
Windblade series and the (surprise, surprise) Velocitron arc.
AllNewSuperRobot wrote:Rodimus Prime wrote:I can only give you my take on it, I don't speak for other fans. I think it's because he's an original and memorable character. He's 1 of whom I consider the "top 10" of OG Autobots: Prime, Ironhide, Ratchet, Jazz, Bumblebee, Cliffjumper, Sideswipe, Prowl, Mirage and Wheeljack. You might consider others, but to me when someone says "G1 cast," these guys pop into my head. Basically, I think to most fans Jazz is a made bot. Add to that his personality and memorable appearance in TF:TM, and you got a character that lives forever, even if he doesn't get used much.
That's what I find so confusing. I read that a lot. But Hasbro and Takara have consistently used him less and less. Unlike the other names you mentioned.
Was that because of the passing of Scatman Crothers? Did Sunbow have a plan for Post-Movie Jazz?? He's never established in canon or toy as being upgraded into a Head/Target/Powermaster. So maybe, maybe not??
As an aside, beyond a cancelled Laser Cycle, his entire line has an almost unparalleled level of consistency.
Even IDWverse seemed to not know what to do with him and just slowly phased him out. The last time I can think of he was effectively used onscreen was Animated. But again they didn't do much with him.
I recall the Marvel run, one of my favourite stories: Rhythms of Darkness. He's in it. So although an alt-future, Furman tells us he survives into the post Movie years. But, once again, he's just there.
Rodimus Prime wrote:Honestly I was most surprised by IDW not using him much. He should have bern 1 of those characters that was in like every issue. I would have liked to see him be on the Lost Light as part of Rodimus's inner circle their personalities were a lot alike.
Didn't he have a huge focus arc in the
Optimus Prime series?
Regarding Scorponok and Terrorsaur, I think they both have the problem of becoming redundant compared to other characters, but in different ways. For Scorponok, he kept switching between different contradictory roles that other Preds played better - sometimes he was a dumb loyal brute, but Inferno's madness made him both more threatening and funnier; sometimes he was the tech wiz who devised their new technological weaponry, but Tarantulas was a lot more enigmatic and sinister and his designs actually
worked. For Terrorsaur, he fulfilled the token "obvious treacherous minion" role, but most of the other Preds also fulfilled that role with their own unique, interesting twist - Dinobot was a honorable warrior and joined the Maximals early on, Tarantulas had his own mystery agenda and mad science, Blackarachnia was manipulative and competent (pretty telling that she was the one to deceive Starscream in
Possession), and Season 2 just added more with Rampage and his Hannibal mannerisms.
Honestly, my biggest example of underused characters are combiner teams. Aside from the leader and one occasional character (Swindle comes to mind), most are pretty indistinguishable from one another (the Constructicons are particularly guilty of this) and even the combined mode, despite attempts at giving each their own personality, are rarely played as more than "giant unstable punchy robot". Heck, the Maximus teams from
Energon barely transformed into individual robot mode; they just skipped from combiner to vehicle like Megazords!
