darkSpyro

Both franchises are old (TF being 7 years older) and are still going today with new incarnations... and yet how they're seen so differently despite similar things about their reception:

1. Both fanbases have their toxic sides with G1 fans creating the Ruined Forever and Trukk not munky meme yet isn't ridiculed as much the Sonic fanbase. Both fandoms are divisive on all the hard and soft reboots the series had but it's Sonic's that get mocked more often.
   
2. There are many fans who want to (cough) get it on with fictional characters but somehow it feels more acceptable for Transformers to inspire Rule 34 fan art as well as the shows and comics getting away with double entendres but when you all this to Sonic, it's seen and displayed as more creepy. Megatron dominating Starscream? Cool. Sonic and his pals in a orgy? Pretty icky.
   
3. Loads and loads of characters. Maybe it's because Transformers is a toy commercial, so it would make to have as many characters made so kids would want as many of these toys as possible. Even then, the characters who aren't the big ones are well-beloved in their own right while Sonic's many friends and foes, outside Tails and Eggman, are loathed by many fans and non-fans.
   
4. Sometimes new characters are made to take the spotlight for a while. It worked well for Windblade, not-so-much with Shadow. Sure, Hot Rod and Kicker are well-hated but future writers either bring them back as punchlines or pretend they don't exist whilst Sega would double down on the many characters like Charmy the Bee, Cream the Rabbit, Silver and Infinite.
   
5. Despite all this, both franchises have a great sense of humour with TFWiki and the official Sonic Twitter account, plus both comic adaptations are under IDW.
   
6. On another positive note, there's a celebration of fan-made Sonic games that Sega approves to the point of getting one to do Sonic Mania and even when the Sonic games are bad, they're not predatory live services. On the other hand, Activision doesn't give a damn about the Transformers license despite having some great titles like WFC, FOC and Devestation.
   

Personally, I can't stop thinking about Transformers, hence why I did this, and I nominally like the Sonic games, even the 3D ones.

Sonic the Hedgehog never had a character voiced by Leonard Nimoy. Maybe that's where it went wrong.

All of the can be solved by