As with most modern Transformers media, Transformers: EarthSpark is rife with call-backs to earlier points in the franchise.
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Secret Legacy Parts 1 & 2
- According to Alex, the Transformers first came to Earth on September 17, 1984 - the same date the original series made its television debut.
- The flashback story told by Alex to the kids is presented in a hand-drawn art style resembling the original 80s cartoon, complete with an Aspect Ratio Switch to the 4:3 ratio used by analog televisions of the time, deliberate references to animations from the original intro, lines from the movie and blatant animation errors.
- The town of Witwicky, Pennsylvania is named after the Witwicky family.
- Transformers comics exist in the show's universe that seem to take stylistic cues from the 80s Marvel Transformers comic.
- Dot affectionately refers to Megatron as "Megs", a name Beast Wars Megatron was referred to as once and has since become a common Fan Nickname for all incarnations of Megatron.
- Alex refers to Elita-1 doing a move called "Ariel's Gambit". "Ariel" being Elita's name prior to getting rebuilt by Alpha Trion in the original G1 cartoon.
- Swindle having a brother called Hardtop comes from the bios given to Hardtop and Swindle in the Transformers: Cybertron toyline.
- Megatron's bot mode design
is heavily inspired by his IDW appearances from Alex Milne, along with a tiltrotor alt-mode that brings to mind Transformers: Animated. - The Arachnamechs bear an uncanny resemblance to the aligned continuity family's depiction of Scraplets. However, they somehow manage to look even creepier even without a giant gaping maw.
Moo-ving In
- Transformers having to learn to transform and it having to do with their mental state is taken from Beast Machines where the Maximals having to re-learn to transform formed a huge part of the show.
Traditions
- Wheeljack claims his drones to be one of his better inventions as they haven't had any accidental self-destructions...yet. This is a reference to Wheeljack's inventions having a tendency to blow up or malfunction in the original G1 cartoon, also a longtime Running Gag in the fandom.
Classified
- The level difficulty of the training simulation room that Megatron trains at is referred to as "Unicron-14".
Decoy
- Soundwave's alt-mode is a stealth bomber similar to his alt-mode in Transformers: Cybertron.
- Soundwave plays back Megatron's own words at him as an Ironic Echo, similar to how he communicated in Transformers: Prime.
Age of Evolution Parts 1 & 2
- When trying to get the Emberstone to repeat the process of creating new Terrans, Alex encourages the kids by saying they have "the touch", complete with even a small musical cue.
- When discussing their plan, a soda can with the name "Sari" can be seen.
- Skywarp attempts to cut off Prime's arm with a buzzsaw hand. While not a notable Skywarp trait, it is a notable feature of the Movieverse Starscream. This is yet another example of the franchise making use of the shared body type link seen in many installments from the past.
Outtakes
- Elita-1 mentions that it took her a long time to find an Earth alternate mode that suited her; she never had an Earth mode in the original cartoon, and has more commonly been depicted as a Cybertronian car.
Missed Connections
- "D.E. O'Neil" is a pretty clear tribute to legendary comics writer and editor Dennis "Denny" O'Neil, who helped Jim Shooter flesh out the initial treatment for the original Generation 1 storyline.note
- As confirmed by the episode's writer, Tarantulas' appearance in this episode as a Foil for Nightshade was directly influenced by his role in IDW's Wreckers saga, which was largely written and drawn by EarthSpark character designer Nick Roche. Naturally, Roche also designed EarthSpark Tarantulas, who takes some cues from his IDW look.
Warzone
- The Cybertronian Memory Flowers that represent the remnants of the sparks of Autobots and Decepticons that died in the war are lifted straight from IDW's Transformers: More than Meets the Eye
- Much like his Cyberverse counterpart, with whom he shares a toy mold, Shockwave transforms into a 4 legged walking tank, though the onscreen design is wildly different from the toy.
- Megatron refers to the final battle of the war on Earth when the Decepticons had the AllSpark and planned to use it to create a new protoform army as "our Darkest Hour".
- Shockwave wields The Immobilizer, a weapon showcased in the original The Transformers cartoon and Transformers: Prime and largely shows to function similarly. The main difference is that while the original version was set up like a stationary turret and the Prime version was a polearm weapon, the EarthSpark Immobilizer is a straight-up gun.
- Rather than the decahedron design seen in past media (namely the Transformers: War for Cybertron Trilogy and Cyberverse series), the AllSpark is based on the Movieverse's cube design.
A Stygi Situation
- Grimlock's eyes switch between calm blue and rage red. A reference to how Grimlock's original toy had red eyes while in the G1 cartoon and comic he had blue eyes.
- When Robby shows Jawbreaker the Grimlock comic, Grimlock is breathing fire on G1 Thrust.
Disarmed
- Optimus recounts his origin story. His appearance as Orion Pax matches his appearance in the G1 cartoon. Similarly the Prime who gives him the Matrix is modelled after Alpha Trion, who is responsible for making Orion into Optimus in several continuities.
- The design of the Matrix of Leadership closely matches that of Generation 1.
What Dwells Beneath
- The Dweller is once again depicted as a mindless monster who craves energy, though this time it is specifically energon.
- When Starscream fights back against Megatron, he utilizes a buzzsaw in his hand. His Movieverse incarnation had this feature as well. Considering Skywarp previously displayed the same feature in episode 9, this is presumably a trait shared with all Seekers.
The Last Hope
- Mandroid's ultimate weapon releases bolts of energy that destroy those with Energon in their bodies. This bears a similar functionality to the Plasma Energy Chamber, introduced in the G1 three-parter "The Rebirth".
