Trivia / Transformers: Robots in Disguise (2015)

• Author's Saving Throw:
  • While it was confirmed quite early in the show's development that certain characters from Prime wouldn't show up until Season 2, there were complaints about the much more heavy use of Broad Strokes in regards to the previous series. The second season makes more explicit references to the Prime, and even brings Soundwave back for one episode.
  • Adam Beechan, the producer, eventually said that the Grimlock in this series is a separate individual from the WFC Grimlock.
• Channel Hop: Before the series aired, the original press release stated that it would air in the US on The Hub. In the fall of 2014, however, Discovery Communications bought out 10% of Hasbro's holdings in the channel, renaming it Discovery Family, and limiting Hasbro-scheduled programming to daytime. Hasbro then decided to move the program to Cartoon Network, believing that Discovery Family's apparent girl-leaning demographics were not appropriate for the show. (Transformers: Rescue Bots and reruns of the G1 cartoon carried over to Discovery Family.)
• Completely Different Title: In Japan is called Transformers Adventure.
• The Other Darrin: Erica Lindbeck voices Windblade in season 3, replacing Kristy Wu.
• Playing Against Type: Eddie Deezen is known for voicing nerd characters, but his character Ped isn't one of those.
• Production Posse: Series co-developer Adam Beechen brought over a few of his friends over from Littlest Pet Shop (2012) , those being voice actors Brooke Goldner and Ian James Corlett, writer Guy Toubes, and series developers Julie McNally Cahill and Tim Cahill.
• Promoted Fanboy: Eric Bauza is a fan of Drift, having wanted to voice an incarnation of the character since Transformers: Animated. This show gave him his wish.
• Rereleased for Free: The series is available in full on the official Transformers YouTube channel.
• Role Reprise: Peter Cullen, Jeffrey Combs, Steve Blum, Kevin Michael Richardson, Frank Welker, and of course Will Friedle all reprise their roles as Optimus Prime, Ratchet, Starscream, Bulkhead, Soundwave, and Bumblebee, respectively, from Transformers: Prime.
• Screwed by the Network: By this point Hasbro's channel, The Hub, had went under, so they didn't have much options where to showcase this show, forcing them to go to Cartoon Network. Naturally this didn't do the show any favors, CN premiered it in an abhorrent timeslot (6:30am Saturday mornings), which is bad enough on the East and West Coasts, but what if you lived in the Central time zone? That's 5:30 in the morning, a time when absolutely no sane kid (or Transformers fan) would even be awake! Of course, the show never had any reruns—not even on Boomerang, instead being replaced with something else anytime new episodes dried up. Any potential viewer without a DVR, the capability to use Cartoon Network's Video app/website or On Demand platform (both requiring separate participation from a given cable company), the money to spend buying the episodes on iTunes/Amazon, or willingness to outright pirate the show online was pretty much out of luck.
  • Fans have accused Cartoon Network of doing this deliberately just so they can air more reruns of the extremely polarizing Teen Titans Go!; the exact same tactic was used to banish Pokémon, Sonic Boom and other acquired series to early weekend morning timeslots as well. A few have even gone as far as to accuse CN of doing so to kill both series and air even MORE TTG reruns.
• Schedule Slip: The third season was stated to premiere in January 2017. It wouldn't air in the US until 29 April 2017.
• Short Run in Peru:
  • This series is notable among US-produced Transformers shows in that it premiered virtually everywhere but the US itself first.
  • Every episode of the later half of the second season aired in the United Kingdom before their American airdate, with the length of time between UK and US airdates varying between four days to a full month.
  • The miniseries featuring Starscream aired in Canada about one to two months before the episodes aired in America.
• Shrug of God: Despite Word of God stating that this Grimlock is not the same Grimlock from previous Aligned entries, the Dinobots are on the blacklist in "Enemy of My Enemy", yet only one Grimlock is shown — the one in Team Bumblebee.
• Spoiled by the Merchandise: The Tiny Titans figurines of Bisk and Quillfire sported the scratched Decepticon insignia of Steeljaw's pack, thus spoiling that they would join the pack in season 2.
• Uncredited Role: Initially the case for the 2D team in Season 1, with only five episodes actually crediting them (three to drop, another two to GONZO). Averted come Season 2, with drop being involved on every episode from then on.
• What Could Have Been:
  • According to concept work, the character that eventually became Sideswipe was originally conceived as Fastlane. In hindsight, this makes Sideswipe's immaturity and certain other attributes make more sense when compared with other versions of the character.
  • Originally, the Dinobot on Bee's team would've been a female red Stegosaurus named Backlash. Ultimately, the design was Gender Flip into a hulking design that eventually laid the groundwork for Grimlock.
  • Also, Grimlock would have a retracting mouthplate and visor, making him look more like he previously appeared on this continuity.
  • The reason for Grimlock's shift in personality from his earlier appearances was because he was originally going to be a new Dinobot character. Hasbro requested that the writers change him to Grimlock in order to cash in on his appearance in Transformers: Age of Extinction. There was an attempt to keep Grimlock's personality and backstory, but it was never implemented due to the clashes of tones between the two series. Producer Adam Beechen later pulled a Decomposite Character on the matter via Word of God and said that the Grimlocks are two different characters.
  • Originally Unit:E would’ve returned, including a now-grown Jack who had joined the organization since the previous series (something hinted at in one of the final episodes of Prime).
  • Concept art◊ was made for Megatron. As elaborated by lead character designer Jose Lopez, Megatron was pitched around early in development, with the ability to transform into a laser pistol. However, he was rejected.
• Written by Cast Member: A few episodes were written by Will Friedle, the voice of Bumblebee.

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