Childhood favourites vs Adult favourites

[minion]

Thought it might be a bit of fun to go through some favourite teams/groups and compare who was your favourite (if you had one) as a child and if that has changed as an adult (and why).

There's obviously a lot more TF teams I haven't covered here, but I just went for the most obvious and popular ones for now. we can do more later if peeps think this is fun.

Constructicons
Favourite as a child: Didn't have any. I picked up Mixmaster at a school fete so I liked him. I thought Scrapper always looked cool though, but that's probably because the cartoon protrayed him well.
Favourite now: I still don't really have one. They're pretty cool characters as a group, but no one stands out.

Dinobots
Favourite as a child: Slag - my brothers and I all had favourite dinosaurs and regardless of the property you had to be that character. The joke was on me when I had to be Cera in the Land Before Time. Payback for one of my brothers when he had to be the Pink Ranger. My brother who nliked T-rex's never got chumped out though - well other than the fact he asked for Grimlock for Christmas and ended up getting Sludge- weak! I actually only got Slag a few years ago when my wife bought him (and a replacement Sludge) for me for Christmas.
Favourite now: Snarl - I like all the dinos, but Stegasaurus' have really grown on me as a dinosaur. I like the way Snarl lookswith the tail wings, solar plates, etc, and the toy is cool. Plus he's a moody git who 'doesn't want to be there 'which is alway fun. I think I relate to him half the time.

Insecticons
Favourite as a child: Shrapnel - visually looked cool with the horns as a beetle and then on his shoulders in robot mode. he also had the coolest name. I never owned any of them as a child though.
Favourite now: Shrapnel for the same reasons. I think Bombshell is a nice and distinctive looking design though.

Special Teams

Aerialbots
Favourite as a child: Air Raid - because he was a black jet and looked pretty sharp. This was the first Special Team my brothers and I completed between us, but I only owned Slingshot though.
Favourite now: Slingshot - because I owned him as a child and I like his visual design (the head is very distinctive). He also has that rebellious young punk thing going on which makes for good stories.

Protectobots
Favourite as a child: Hotspot -because the toy was amazing. He's a really underrated piece of kit and it's too easy to forget how cool he is because I guess most of us who own him display his as Defensor.
Favourite now: Still Hotspot based on the quality of the toy I guess. I'm not super keen on the other toys/characters. Groove does have that Chips factor though.

Stunticons
Favourite as a child: Dragstrip - One of two I/my brothers owned (Dead End was the other)I guess 'cause he was brightly coloured and the car looked fast.
Favourite now: I quite like Dead End because he's so miserable. I do like them all pretty much equally though.

Combaticons
Favourite as a child: Onslaught - The Combaticons were one of those teams where my brothers and I all had to choose one (Dinobots, TMNT, etc). One of my brothers and I always used to argue because we both wanted to be him. I guess it was the master strategist and leader aspect that I liked. I also liked the visual appearance of the twin cannons behind his back.
Favourite now: I love all of the Combaticons, but I have a real fondness for Swindle. He is just a cracking character and I like his visual design too.

Terrorcons
Favourite as a child: Hun-Grrr - because of the dragon/hydra aspect. I always liked that his dragon heads became feet. Never owned him though.
Favourite now: Rippersnapper - because he's a weird land shark thing which is cool.

Technobots
Favourite as a child: Meh, Didn't have one. They were always pretty bland. I did own Nosecone that I got from a carboot though so I guess him.
Favourite now: Still meh. Nosecone if I had to choose because his alt mode is pretty unique.

Seacons
Favourite as a child: Snaptrap - 'cause he was a giant turtle. The moving mouth turtle mouth, pom-pom cannons and sword were just pur win. The guy looked awesome. I was also sold on his Butcher of the Bogs bio.
Favourite now: Still Snaptrap. He's freakin' amazing!

[Brawn]

I think my favourites now are still highly linked to my childhood toys or what my friends had.

As a kid my favourite toys from the groups where:

Seacon - Nautillator (He was sturdy and fun to play with, plus his colours are cool)
Stunticon - Dragstrip (The only TF I ever lost, plus I loved Racing cars in general)
Protectorbot - Hotspot (Loved that you could do a beefy punch action, plus he had play value),
Aerialbot - Silverbolt (Never saw him outside toy brochure, but I liked the concordeness)
Combaticon - Vortex (Helicopters ruled, great fun to swoosh!)
Dinobot - Sludge (Played with my cousins all the time, I wanted him)
Insecticon - Bombshell (Didn't have him but though he was cool in the 85 annual)
Constructicons - I never even knew existed, back then.

As an adult:

Seacon - Nautillator (but Snaptrap is so very close on his heels.)
Stunticon - Deadend (like the design, but they are all cool)
Protectorbot - Hotspot (Agree with you min, just the coolest, I like blades a lot too though),
Aerialbot - Slingshot (Harriers are awesome and I found out Silverbolt was lame!)
Combaticon - Vortex (Helicopters still rule)
Dinobot - Slag (Love the character too)
Insecticon - Kickback (Just a cool looking bot mode)
Constructicons - meh, maybe hook, not that bothered about them.

[Gruff]

I dont think I ever really liked any individual members of any teams but more often than preferred the whole teams if you know what I mean? The Dinobots were always firm favourites of mine for the sheer amount of kick ass storylines and general amount of mayhem and destruction they caused!

Loved the Aerialbots and Stunticons as it allowed for a change of warfare between the Autobots and Decepicons.

The Constructicons were awesome simply for being the first gestalt.

I did love the Predacons and Predaking, awesome robot/alt modes and one of the coolest gestalts ever but over time they just ended up being general whipping boys really. Nothing came close to the Prey storyline.