>>149028998
In a roundabout way, they did in that T-wrecks from Beast Machines has a bio that heavily implies he's Grimlock reformated. Namedrops his old function, and mentions him coming back from the area of space he was in in the G2 comic. If they made him closer to his G2 toy colors it would've been perfect, but Magmatron was already partly a blue theropod
>>149029200
I suspect it's in part because the dinobot mold was similar to Grimlock in that his beast legs become his robot arms, and some slight resemblance in the headsculpt(no visor, but a mouthplate and a slightly similar helmet).
Botcon couldn't really use any official characters until after BW ended. In the main BW line they often avoided repainting the larger figures