Trivia / Transformers: War for Cybertron Trilogy

• Acting for Two:
  • Jason Marnocha plays both Megatron and Galvatron.
  • Frank Todaro voices both Starscream and Rattrap.
  • Jake Foushee voices both Optimus Prime and Nemesis Prime.
  • Miles Luna voices both Cliffjumper and Teletraan I.
• Creator Backlash:
  • Peter Cullen and Frank Welker expressed frustration at being subject to The Other Darrin in the series, since they wanted to reprise their roles as Optimus and Megatron/Soundwave respectively. They later clarified in an interview that neither of them were approached to come back, and both were heavily critical of Hasbro and Netflix for what they saw as undermining the actor's union.
  • Likewise, Gary Chalk posted his disappointment with the voice performances of the series on Facebook, finding them too "low energy".
• The Other Darrin:
  • As Roberto Draghetti died shortly before the release of the first season, from the second one onwards Optimus Prime is voiced by Alberto Angrisano in the Italian dub.
  • In the Latin American Spanish dub, none of the Maximals and Predacons' voice actors reprise their roles. In this particular case, however, compared with the criticized changes in the English version, the replacements are justified, since many of their original voice actors either died (Cheetor, Dinobot, Predacon Megatron and Tigatron) or retired from voice acting (Optimus Primal)
• Posthumous Credit: In the Italian dub, Roberto Draghetti (Optimus Prime) died on July 24, 2020, exactly one week before the show's premiere.
• Prop Recycling: A handful of minor items, such as Hound's grenades and the core override detonator, are reused from Polygon Pictures' previous work on Transformers: Prime.
• Role Reprise:
  • This series marks the third time Jake Tillman voiced Optimus Prime after Transformers: Cyberverse and Transformers: Rescue Bots Academy.
  • Jason Marnocha and Frank Todaro return as their respective roles as Megatron and Starscream since the Prime Wars Trilogy.
  • In the Japanese dub:
    • Tesshō Genda is back for voicing Optimus Prime.
    • Ryōhei Kimura returns to voice Bumblebee for the fourth time.
    • Kenji Nomura voices Jetfire for the first time since Revenge Of The Fallen.
    • In addition, Ryūzaburō Ōtomo reprise his role as Galvatron from Transformers: Age of Extinction.
    • Takehito Koyasu and Shigeru Chiba reprise their roles as Optimus Primal and Beast Megatron, as they often have since the original cartoon.
• Show Accuracy/Toy Accuracy:
  • While most characters looked like their Siege series toys, they included a lot of accessory changes — the Autobots mostly used the blasters that came with the Cog figure instead of the ones that came with their own figures, while Elita-1 was shown using a long-barreled sniper rifle that didn't resemble anything that any figure in the toyline came with.
  • Jetfire, meanwhile, was constantly popping out a Laser Blade from his wrist that he absolutely didn't get with his toy and never showed off the removable armor parts that the toy centered around.
  • Arcee does have a toy in the War for Cybertron line, but it seemingly wasn't known to the animators while the show was in production (it's part of the Earthrise line), so they used her typical design instead.
  • Optimus is a strange case. His animation model is fully based on his Siege toy, but the toy released to tie-in with the Siege series is a repainted version of his Earthrise figure, which has a noticeably more slender look than the Siege figure or model. Takara changed that with their Perfect Effect line in 2021, which released a redeco of his Siege mold with more accurate colors to the show.
  • Similar to Jetfire, Shockwave doesn't ever don any of his armour or utilise its drone mode — he's just the base figure in the series.
  • The Megatron figure in the line is spot on to his appearance in the show, but it comes with figures of the Battlemasters Pinpointer (meant to go with the Siege line's Crosshairs) and a toy-accurate repaint of Lionizer. None of the Battlemasters or Micromasters appear in the cartoon.
  • A minor case, but Soundblaster sports a Mercenary logo in the series. However, his toy sports a Decepticon logo, being an homage to the original Soundblaster toy which was just an upgraded Soundwave, as opposed to a separate character. However, when Takara announced a release of Soundblaster, he was given the Mercenary faction symbol.
  • The paint jobs on the toys tying in with the show don't always line up with how they actually looked in the show. The toys for Chromia and Sideswipe, for example, appear as if the two were badly burned or covered in black dirt — but in the show itself, they actually look like the already released versions of the toy that don't sport this new paint.
  • For the Earthrise chapter, aside from being slightly leaner, Doubledealer looks exactly like his toy. This isn't quite the case for the Coneheads (Dirge, Ramjet, and Thrust), all of whom use their familiar heads, but swap their Earthrise molds for the Siege ones (despite the fact they didn't appear in the Siege line). Similarly, Bugbite uses the Bumblebee model made for the show rather than his Generations Select figure, and Exhaust reuses Wheeljack's head rather than the one from his figure in the same line.
  • The Earthrise toyline is centered around the Autobots and the Decepticons war on Earth. The Netflix version of Earthrise is centered around the journey to Earth so all the characters continue using their Siege models. This is most notable with Bumblebee and Soundwave, whose Netflix figures were also their Earthrise figures, meaning their toys transformed into a Volkswagen Beetle and a tape recorder respectively even though their show counterparts had yet to set foot on modern Earth.
  • Sky-Lynx's model on the show has a few differences from the toy, notably lacking the NASA decals that the figure's shuttle mode had, along with a black-colored jaw and cheeks said toy also lacks. While this is due to the fact that he never obtains an Earth mode due to his death, it's still noticeable.
  • The Galvatron seen on the show looks closer to his appearance in The Transformers: The Movie than his toy for the Kingdom line, due to the fact that the show was made before said toy was designed.
  • Tigatron's design in the show reuses Cheetor's model, albeit larger, including the reused face like with the Bugbite and Exhaust example above. His Kingdom figure, however, uses the more familiar cartoon-accurate face, and is not a redeco of Cheetor.
  • Likewise, while Beast Megatron looks relatively close to his Kingdom toy, his hip detailing looks a bit different compared to the real figure.
  • Takara's Perfect Effect line would notably bring this trope full circle by releasing figures of the WFC characters in accurate paint. In additional the aforementioned Optimus, Megatron, Starscream, and Ultra Magnus have been confirmed thus far.
• Spoiled by the Merchandise: The Ultra Magnus figure was sold in packaging warning that it contained spoilers for the first season. Indeed, the translated Cybertronian script on the box revealed that he would surrender to the Decepticons and be killed by them.
• Troubled Production: Linsay Rousseau, the voice actress for Elita-1, explained that the show was originally meant to debut in June 2020 but had to be pushed back due to the COVID-19 pandemic complicating recording foreign dubs for the show, a standard requirement from Netflix who simultaneously release their original programming worldwide.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Upon the announcement of the show, many of the G-1 and Beast Wars veterans campaigned to return to the series, but Netflix and Hasbro elected to use non-Union actors.
  • The crew behind the show put together an idea for a cartoon based on Transformers Legacy, the toyline that follows the War For Cybertron line, which would have been Lighter and Softer. While Hasbro apparently "loved it", Netflix stated that it "did not meet their mandates" at the time and turned it down. Hasbro, wanting to maintain good relations with the streaming giant, chose not to shop it around to other platforms and the project died.

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