Robot mode
Robot mode (also known as "bot-form"<ref>"Bot-form" and "alt-form" were used to describe a Transformer's two modes in Transformers: Exiles.</ref>) is the form that Transformers have outside of their alternate mode. Although generally a bipedal humanoid in shape, the robot mode is not always so. Prominent examples include the Mini-Cassettes with animal based forms, as the cassette would be considered their alternate mode, while the "beast mode" would be considered their robot mode. Another unique situation concerns the Mutants, Transformers who have lost their robot mode but acquired two beast modes.
Generally speaking, robot mode provides greater freedom of movement and better combat capabilities (though this can also be said of alternate modes which are designed for combat). Often, the alternate mode will be given or taken to better facilitate the robot mode, such as repair (which is what Teletraan I did with the Autobots and Decepticons aboard the Ark) or for protecting the robot mode (which was done to protect the sparks of the Maximals and Predacons during the Beast Wars). After taking an alternate mode, the robot mode will display characteristics of the alternate mode.
Notes
[edit]- In the The Transformers cartoon episode "The Autobot Run", Megatron refers to the robot mode as "the root mode". This could've been a typo in the script of "robot mode", or it could've been deliberate, referring to the robot mode as the original form of the Transformer.
- Early in the Marvel Comic, Prowl called the Autobots' robot modes their defensive modes and defensive configurations The Transformers while the narrator called the Decepticons' robot modes their Decepticon modes. Power Play!
- Grimlock's packaging bio calls his robot mode a Dinobot mode, while his Marvel Universe profile calls it an Autobot mode.
- In the Beast Wars II cartoon, the Beast Wars II manga, and the Beast Wars Neo manga, the robot mode is called the battle mode (戦闘モード sentou mode). Of note is that supplementary material tends to use robot mode (ロボットモード) and that Moon, by his own words, does not have a battle mode despite his ability to transform. Showdown in the Sea
- In Exodus, robot modes are referred to as protoforms, presumably because it was a Cybertronian's original form when they emerged from the Well of All Sparks, before they learned how to transform.