You can see many cameos in the crowd scenes on Cybertron of robots that became famous in earlier Transformers cartoons, as well as relatively obscure characters. These include Steeljaw, Powerglide, Huffer, Flareup, Grandus, and Tracks.
The character Rattletrap is an obvious reference to Rattrap from Beast Wars: Transformers (1996). He has the same accent, same general color-scheme, buck teeth, the exposed brain-like cranium, even rat's ears. His name clearly couldn't have been Rattrap, though, as he only got that name after he had taken up a rat as an alternate mode, something that hasn't happened in this series. Yet it does reference Rattrap's Japanase name: Rattle.
Interestingly, art designer Derrick Wyatt originally drew the character as a birthday present for a well-known Transformers fan.
Interestingly, art designer Derrick Wyatt originally drew the character as a birthday present for a well-known Transformers fan.
Autobot Tracks speaks in the same manner as the original Tracks from The Transformers (1984). Fans have always joked that it made him sound quite a bit homosexual over the years, and this running joke got carried over to official media, as in this series, Tracks was noticeably designed with homosexuality in mind.
Ratchet mentions having gone to "Maccadam's Oil Bar". This is a reference to Maccadam's Old Oil House from the Transformers comics.
Decepticon Shockwave reveals his real colors by switching from his dull-gray color-scheme to purple. This was his original color in the eighties. The color-shift was most likely meant as a way to advertise the character's purple recolored toy.