Talk:Transformation

"Maintaining a transformed state requires a constant output of energy. The 'base' state for a Transformer seems to vary- sometimes robot, sometimes vehicle or skirmish mode. Most Beast Warrriors have their beast mode as their base state."

Where does this come from? Interrobang 15:37, 4 December 2006 (UTC)

Maintaining a transformed state using up energy comes from "A Decepticon Raider in King Arthur's Court." I don't know where this stuff about Beast Warriors having their beast mode as a "base state" comes from. Or the term "base state" for that matter. If that's not from canon, I'd suggest "root mode," from "The Autobot Run." --KilMichaelMcC 15:49, 4 December 2006 (UTC)

BM mostly, I knwo there's a similar bit in G1 somewhere... probably not able to switch to vehicle mode due to low power. (It's not jazz's paralyzed half-transformed stated in Desertion of the Dinobots.) -Derik 15:51, 4 December 2006 (UTC)

I don't really see BM as evidence for beast mode being the "root form". They were in beast mode all the time because Vehicon scanners couldn't detect them while they were in beast mode, not because it was their root form or whatever. Interrobang 22:03, 4 December 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, but if they were startled, or knocked out, or broke their concentration in some way, they would automatically snap back to beast mode, rather than robot mode. The beast mode was their "default," and they had to teach themselves to transform out of it, unlike the more common method of starting with robot mode, and going to alt mode. - Chris McFeely 22:21, 4 December 2006 (UTC)

That suggests this is the case only for the technorganic Maximals, not for "most Beast Warriors" as the article reads.--KilMichaelMcC 01:02, 5 December 2006 (UTC)

Just to pin down the G1 reference, in "Decepticon Raider," Warpath is forced to revert to robot mode, stating that he's getting so low on energy he can't even stay transformed. --KilMichaelMcC 15:54, 4 December 2006 (UTC)

*glomps* Thank you Ethan! I remembered from viewing the eps there was an instance of explicitly that behavior in the cartoon- but not what ep it was. -Derik 02:16, 5 December 2006 (UTC)

TF cogs?

Has there ever been a mention of a transformation cog outside of metroplex and trypticon?

Also, i take issue with the 'Lithonians dont' transform' thing. They do transform in Marvel UK continuity, as they were seen to do so in the Marvel TF:TM adaption. Put another way- in at least SOME versions of the Multiverse, Lithonians transform. -Derik 02:22, 5 December 2006 (UTC)

You will note, sir, that said comment is under "Animated continuity," where it is true. Feel free to add a comment to the contrary under the comic header. :) - Chris McFeely 19:08, 5 December 2006 (UTC)

Unit 1 had his transformation cog damaged. --ItsWalky 02:25, 5 December 2006 (UTC)

Statement weights

I think this article kind of sucks right now. I'm glad to see some of the weirder statements cited, but that's not good enough. I think a lot of the statements made in the opening section are overstated, even if we restrict ourselves just to the continuities they are based on. I think it's clear that transformation usually is *not* a mentally rigorous task, for example. I highly doubt that maintaining a certain mode is more strenuous than maintaining the other except in unusual circumstances (such as, arguably, the BM Maximals). One obscure reference to something in one episode does make a statement multiversal, or even universal when the weight of evidence from other stories in that universe goes against it. Basically, I am inclined to heavily rewrite the opening to make it actually match the vast majority of the fiction. But right now I need to go have lunch. --Steve-o 18:58, 5 December 2006 (UTC)

I don't disagree, but, just re: the rigorous thing, I think it's worth pointing out that the Headmasters-in-training from Headmasters had a bloody hard time of it, and required a lot of training before they could get it right. So there is something to be said for transfoming being a rigorous task to learn, at least, if not to perform constantly. - Chris McFeely 19:10, 5 December 2006 (UTC)

I've just made a number of large changes to this article in an attempt to make it something besides a misleading mishmash.

• I moved a lot of material around and/or added qualifiers so there should be no more cross-continuity errors.
• I removed the stuff about "root" modes mainly because I've never heard anybody use the term before and would rather not try to introduce it to this wiki without us at least discussing it first.
• I added more citations and removed a seemingly erroneous statement that Junkions are descended from Cybertronians. (Walky says this probably came from the MTMTE guidebook, but it says nothing about the origin of the race, only the planet itself.)
• Slightly expanded Beast Era discussion.
• Questioned relevance of Warpth's "Decepticon Raider" statement.

I have a remaining qualm about the first paragraph under the G1 cartoon section. I have no recollection of transformation leading to the Autobots' victory in the first great war, and would like somebody to confirm that. To my memory, it simply helped them out, but the Decepticons picked up on it and started transforming as well long before War Dawn, presumably even during that same war. That's all from FFOD, right? --Steve-o 23:36, 5 December 2006 (UTC)

The quote from FFoD is a little... fast and loose. It goes: "Knowing we could never defeat the Decepticons with firepower, we turned to stealth and invented the art of transforming." Pause. Some guys on bikes fight in the animation as the narration then picks up, kinda out of nowhere, with: "The Autobots ruled for many centuries, but in time, the Decepticons also learned to transform. Thus, one fateful night, far below the city, Megatron was born."

This, then, to me, would certainly say that the Autobots won the first war with the aid of transformation. The lack of coherency between "FFoD" and "War Dawn" doesn't help when trying to tie what we know of the planet's past together, but the period of Autobot rule would logically be the Golden Age of Cybertron, with Megatron's creation then coming some time before "War Dawn."

Oh, and re: Junkions as Cybertronians, one of the "historical trailers" from season 3 specifically refers t Junkions as "a tribe of Autobots" who dwell on the planet. Not conclusive, but, y'know. - Chris McFeely 02:12, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

Images

How about we use those 'transformation' pictures from the World of the Transformers to pad out this page? Some of the other pictures (such as schematics and mechanical drawings) could be used in other Transformers factual articles, too. --FFN 10:50, 8 September 2007 (UTC)

I thought about that... but frankly, I'm VERY leery of overusing that content. Equal parts respect and paranoia being the reason. I think we should probably not add any more images from there to our wiki for the time being.

I recommend we shoot for as much breadth of media for this page as possible. I would not be adverse to putting an animated GIF of, say, Wheeljack transforming from MTMTE down in the "sound" area just because of the tie-in to the cartoon. I'd like to see a screen-grab of a BM Maximal in mid-transformation too. Hell, screen-grabs from other shows of those in mid-transform would be nice. --M Sipher 11:30, 8 September 2007 (UTC)

I've done like, a shitload of transformation montages from the Movie trailers/tv spots. We could probably find a place for them in here. --FFN 11:46, 8 September 2007 (UTC)

Need .GIF?

http://www.flyingomelette.com/cartoons/tf/tfanim.html

I was just surfing from a TF webcomic, where the owner linked to the flying omlette.com.

I don't care one way or another, but here's a boatload of .gifs and I suppose one of y'all could ask to borrow some or however it works.

The Noise

In reference to this article and this wiki, I think it makes sense to capitalize The Noise because we're familiar with it (most of us) and we're referring to a very specific sound when it is mentioned. I suggest that capitalization would denote the specificity intended. What do other people think?--Suzyprime 00:54, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

Well, it was the signature sound effect of G1 (and it appears to be the only one they didn't steal from Star Wars) so that would make sense to me. -- SFH 00:56, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

I agree. In fact I kinda wonder if it should have its own page. -- Repowers 00:59, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

I was thinking that The Noise should have its own page, but I will defer to the opinion of the group (and I don't know how to make a new page). Within the fandom, The Noise is pretty iconic.--Suzyprime 01:19, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

Transformation scheme

It's been suggested that transformation scheme should be merged with this page, but where would it go? Under special transformation types? --Meg720 (talk) 18:17, 14 August 2016 (EDT)

Put the following as the second sentence of the article: "A transformation scheme is the process by which the parts of an individual Transformer move and shift in relation to each other to convert it from one mode to another." Redirect transformation scheme here, and you're done.--Khajidha (talk) 19:13, 14 August 2016 (EDT)

How to discuss this?

Like some figs have questionable alt modes such as Exo suit Noah and ER Quintesson. What would they be considered?Poliwag06 (talk) 22:02, 18 September 2023 (EDT)