Book 1: Chapter 2

Not a lot of Easter Eggs in this chapter. Obviously, I'm referencing any number of typical Japanese RPG video games where the mysterious hero wakes up in a cabin or in the woods and starts their adventure. Dragon Quest being a prime example.

I examined my hands and they looked like some sort of fiber or cabling muscles like you see in diagrams of people without skin, except the fibers were black with very faint lights pulsing through them. On top of these fibers was a kind of light gray armor plating.

The initial description of Prime, or rather, an Automata, is based heavily on the War Forged from 5E Dungeons and Dragons. This book was almost called "Warforged Artificer" but I didn't want to run into trouble with Wizards of the Coast.

I had two thumbs, one on each side of my hand, and two fingers in the middle.

Aside from the manufacturing efficency and cost savings of having a singular hand design for both left and right, having a thumb on each side would provide a vastly superior grip. The design of the hands and feet are partially inspired by the Neo-Sapians from the Cartoon, Exosquad.

In the cartoon, the Neo-Sapians were a race that was genetically altered and bred from human DNA to be larger, stronger, and more resiliant than normal humans, capable of surving in much harsher environments. They were immediately used as slave labor, because that's what humans do. The Neo-Sapians revolted and waged war against the humans that enslaved them. But they were the bad guys in the show :/ It was a surprisingly deep show for Saturday mornings.

The rest of the chapter is pretty straight forward. Sure I refrence things directly, but that hardly counts as an "Easter Egg" ^__^

Chapter 3

I couldn’t help but think of a certain robot leader from the show Beast Wars now.

This is a reference to Optimus Primal from the show Transformers Beast Wars that aired in the late 90s. He turned into a gorilla. For what it's worth, I own zero Optimus Primal figures, though I do own 86 Optimus Primes.

[RockMortar()]

The transforming arm cannon is partially a reference to the Transformers in the live action movies and in Transformers Prime that could transform their arms into weapons, but the "Rock" bit here w/ the arm cannon is really a nod to Rockman, or Megaman as he was called in the States.

“Um... I told you my name. What do I call you?”

I thought about it for a second or two, then answered, “you can call me Prime.” Please forgive me, Optimus.

This exchange is totally a reference to any number of RPG video games where someone asks what your name is and then you are given the chance to type something in. And of course, our MC is naming himself as a reference to Optimus Prime.

Chapter 4

Mister? I didn't have any Mister parts, but sure, why not?

Not really an Easter Egg, but Prime uses "he" and male pronouns because it's convenient but really he's genderless. He could have just as easily gone with female pronouns if Shea had called him "Miss Prime."

Chapter 5

I found myself set onto a support rack to hold me up next to several other Automata.

Not really an Easter Egg, but I'm referring here to these sort of armatures that you would use to pose your collector figures:

“Elita, designation one,” she said in a tone that betrayed military experience.

“Elita One, Huh. That’s a really funny coincidence...”

Elita-1 was the name of Optimus Prime's "girlfriend" in the original G1 cartoon. Or more specifically, before the war, she was a simple dock worker named Ariel who was the girlfriend of Orion Pax, the bot that would become Optimus Prime. After the war started and Orion was upgraded by Alpha Trion to Optimus Prime and went off to fight and brought the war to Earth, she was also upgraded by Alpha Trion to Elita One and lead the Autobot resistance on Cybertron for the next 5 million years while Optimus and company were dormant in a volcano waiting for Earth tech to catch up enough for them to turn into something. It was a really dumb plot thread but it is what it is. Elita was every bit the warrior that Optimus was, argubly greater given that she had 5 million years more experience than he did.