Stampy (1999)

It's Easter time! What Transformer could be more appropriate to feature than the one that turns into a bunny rabbit? To the best of my knowledge, only one Transformer has been created in the 30+ years of the franchise with this distinction.^* Therefore, I bring you "Stampy."

Micromaster Battle Patrol (1989)

Although there is a substantial portion of the Transformers fandom that fondly remembers the original (retroactively called "Generation One") era of the franchise, the latter half of the line—the portion from about 1988-1991—is often all-but forgotten. While concepts like the Micromasters do indeed show up in the form of Mini-Cons today, the term "Micromaster" is seldom, if ever, invoked, and Micromaster characters themselves are seldom homaged at all.

Transformers Hall of Fame 2016 Choices

So it's that time of year again. In preparation for BotCon 2016, Hasbro has asked the various fan sites, message boards, and other online media to nominate choices for the "Transformers Hall of Fame."

This year, fans are asked to select winners in each of three categories (parentheticals and quotation marks are mine, based on clarifications from Hasbro. Also, note that any characters or persons already inducted into the Hall of Fame in previous years are ineligible for nomination this year):

• Favorite Transformers (robot) character
• Favorite "Underrated" Transformers (robot) character
• Favorite Transformers-associated musical act

There are several points of confusion or concern about the ways that these polls are conducted. "Underrated" has not been well-defined (and, honestly, I don't see any way to define it well, especially not such that a character so characterized would be able to win what is, inevitably, a popularity contest), and there so few musical acts associated with Transformers (especially after removing people already inducted into the Hall of Fame in previous years, whether or not voted on for this specific category) that I don't think that particular category has any business being a part of the Hall of Fame to start with.

But, that said, here are my choices for the two character-related categories:

Favorite (not already inducted) character: Sky-Byte

Favorite "underrated" character: Scrounge