For parts

Your Transformers collection is almost complete, if it wasn't for that one thing. Maybe it's that missing Fortress Maximus gun, or maybe your Skyquake has finally fallen prey to the dreaded GPS and he needs a new scope, maybe you just wish Optimus Primal could have missiles in his arm cannon as well as his shoulder cannons at the same time... If only there was a way to purchase missing/broken/spare pieces somewhere... But who wants to pay full price for a figure when you only need one or two pieces? If only there was a way to buy a figure just "for parts".

“	Need parts. Kill ze little one!	”
—Scalpel needs pieces to complete his Megatron. Luckily he brought some with him.

Non-Fiction

A figure sold or bought for parts typically is missing one or more parts, is broken, has chipped paint, or has damaged or missing stickers. To a collector, these are worthless on their own, but if combined with another figure that is also missing pieces, there is potential for a complete figure...and another figure to be sold for parts. This practice has become increasingly popular with the rise of the internet, particularly eBay. Before incomplete figures could be posted on the web for the whole world to see, the idea of selling them seemed pretty ridiculous. After all, the odds that someone in your town has that one yellow clip you're missing for your Omega Supreme is pretty darn small, but at least there's a sliver of a chance that someone in the world has one for sale.

Additionally, getting a figure for parts can solve problems that will never go away no matter how many versions of a figure you buy, or can help you make your own "unique" figure. For example, while most Beast Wars Grimlock figures will suffer from GPS, the Dinobots Grimlock does not. It is conceivable therefore that since the parts on Beast Wars Grimlock are similarly colored on Dinobots Grimlock, someone could buy a Dinobots Grimlock for the parts that will inevitably break on their Beast Wars Grimlock. A collector could also buy a Ruination solely to get pieces that are missing in their set of Combaticons, or buy a Universe Silverbolt to get spiffy purple missiles for their Beast Wars version of the same character.

Due to the sudden rise in interest in the original Generation 1 figures, a new form of shop has appeared on the web, Transformers chop shops. This basically consists of individuals buying complete figures of rare and valuable characters (say Fortress Maximus) and gutting them for parts, knowing that the individual pieces will sell for substantial amounts of money and that someone out there is bound to end up buying the gutted body because theirs got broken.

Buying a figure for parts is an easy and affordable solution for collectors that are missing pieces. Many figures are very expensive to get on the secondary market and buying an entirely new figure just to get a missing missile for your Swoop would be outrageous. This also gives hope to all the sellers out there that someone, somewhere may have a use for that Rhinox you're selling, despite him missing arms, legs, weapons and the left half of his mutant head.

Complications

Variants: Driving collectors insane ever since 1984.

An often unforeseeable problem is a possible incompatibility of parts. Despite being the same sculpt at the core, redecos, reissues and even variants of the same toy might sport molding differences that make parts from two or more specimens difficult, if not outright impossible to connect to each other. Maybe joints or pegs and pegholes are different in shape or size, maybe the plastic tolerances are different, maybe there has been a retool that makes parts incompatible with each other. Whatever the case, using these toys for parts requires two compatible specimens, or at least a slight amount of customizing.

Fiction

The Transformers cartoon

Megatron required a special circuit to complete his solar needle, meaning he had to capture Gears and take the part from the Autobot's internal workings. Changing Gears The Combaticons required energy absorbers when they first came online, leading them to have to capture Autobots and Decepticons alike to scavenge the required parts. Starscream's Brigade When a space bridge control panel was damaged by the Insecticons, Perceptor used parts from Optimus Prime and Megatron to fix it. The Revenge of Bruticus When Metroplex's transformation cog was stolen by the Decepticons, the Autobots responded by parts-swapping Trypticon's in its place, necessitating Trypticon to use Metroplex's. Neither cog was mold-compatible, complicating the subsequent battle. The Ultimate Weapon

Beast Wars

Megatron essentially used this process to create Dinobot II. The protoform used was missing a spark, but thankfully he had half of one to spare. Feral Scream Part 1

Revenge of the Fallen

When Scalpel realized that Megatron would need a significant amount of repairs before being able to function again, he used pieces of Scrapmetal (and a shard of the AllSpark) to bring his leader back to life. Revenge of the Fallen

Transformers: Prime

When MECH required a T-cog, they ambushed Bumblebee and took his. Operation Bumblebee, Part 1 Ratchet volunteered to donate his T-cog to Bumblebee but in the end Bumblebee managed to get his own back from MECH. MECH promptly stole Starscream's as a replacement. Operation Bumblebee, Part 2 Starscream later killed a clone of himself and salvaged its T-cog to replace his own. Triangulation

Megatron raided the tomb of a long-dead Prime and gained a new right arm. Alpha/Omega