PRIME HOT SHOT by cheetor182 on DeviantArt (original) (raw)

I guess they wanted to keep the yellow as Bumblebee's trademark color.

Interestingly, when Armada came out, Hot Shot was originally supposed to be a new incarnation of Bumblebee but had to have his name changed to Hot Shot because Hasbro couldn't secure the trademark on Bumblebee's name. While he did fulfill the same type of role as Bumblebee, being the kid-appeal character who connects the most with the Autobots' human allies, in practice, he was more like G1 Hot Rod/Rodimus Prime, being the brash, All-American boy who matures into a leadership role.

When Animated came about, the creators had intended to use Hot Shot as part of the main cast of Autobots, but because of the success of the first Live-Action movie, Hasbro had them use Bumblebee instead. As such, the character was remodeled to resemble the G1 character, but he still had some of the same mannerisms as Hot Shot, being the hotheaded troublemaker who causes just as much mischief and trouble for his friends as he does for his enemies.

As such, because of that brief link to Hot Shot, nowadays, Bumblebee has the maturation-to-leadership arc that was once Hot Rod's/Rodimus Prime's defining trait. Or, to put it another way, they haven't really been giving Bumblebee his OWN story arc, THEY'VE JUST BEEN GIVING HIM HOT ROD'S!! Personally, I never really saw 'Bee as leadership material.