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Conceptual history

Early Transformers stories established that Transformers needed to be physically rebuilt by an external force to change their alternate modes.

The earliest Transformers stories, including the cartoon, comic, and various ancillary storybooks, depicted transformation not as an innate ability of the species; rather, it was portrayed as a sort of "upgrade" that allowed a Cybertronian to transform. As a result, the process of "scanning" as it is understood today did not exist per se in these early stories; rather, Transformers who wished to adopt a new shape would have to be manually rebuilt, generally involving a variety of shipboard facilities to do so. In some tales, such as "Battle for Cybertron," Cybertronians did not transform at all until their rebuilding at the hands of the Ark's repair protocols after crash-landing on Earth, an unexpected side-effect.

It was the Beast Wars cartoon, however, that first detailed a specific mechanism by which a Transformer could change their alternate mode: shipboard DNA scanners allowed the various Maximals and Predacons to adopt the forms of native organisms while marooned on prehistoric Earth, using an external CR chamber to finalize the procedure. The sequel series, Beast Machines, would lay the groundwork for the finalization of this concept through the character of Nightscream, revealed in the episode "Survivor" to have directly integrated all of the necessary hardware directly into his chassis—the in-universe explanation being that this was a product of the "Quantum Cycle Upgrade" that occurred while Optimus Primal and company were away from Cybertron. With this, Nightscream could directly scan any compatible lifeform and instantaneously make the necessary alterations to his body, though this ability was never displayed on-screen as a result of him becoming a technorganic shortly thereafter. Japanese-original Beast Era fiction would follow through on this idea, unanimously depicting their casts of characters as able to pick up new altmodes "on the fly."

The next series, Robots in Disguise, would take the concept to its logical conclusion by unanimously depicting all Transformers as having this built-in ability. It is in this form that the concept of "scanning" has more-or-less persevered into the present day, and would be most famously depicted in the live-action film series as the means by which both Autobots and Decepticons assumed their terrestrial alternate modes after landing on Earth.

Fiction

Generation 1 continuity family

Marvel Comics continuity

Autonomous systems aboard the Autobot starship Ark gathered data on native lifeforms using autonomous probes, and its shipboard facilities could manually disassemble and rebuilt Cybertronians into a new configuration to disguise themselves. It first did this four million years ago, shortly after its crash on prehistoric Earth; detecting Shockwave in the Savage Land, the Ark obtained information on the region's ancient creatures and reconstructed Grimlock and four other warriors into dinosaurs. The Last Stand

During the 1984 eruption of Mount St. Hilary, the reactivated Ark mistook human machines for the dominant life-form, and rebuilt all of the Autobots and Decepticons aboard the ship into suitable Earth forms. The Transformers Through a similar process, Straxus's Cybertron-bound Decepticons rebuilt Spanner into a space bridge. The Bridge to Nowhere! Future arrivals on Earth would adopt suitable altmodes through manual rebuilds. Some Transformers bypassed the process by encoding their minds onto crystalline containment vessels; once Optimus Prime decided they needed reinforcements, the Ark simply constructed a suitable Earth body for the Transformers in question, at which point the Autobots uploaded the mental engrams of their comrades into these new forms. Rock and Roll-Out!

Cartoon continuities

"Wake up, Prime! Don't make me use this to wake you up."

Transformers possess "idento-computers," which help Cybertronians adapt to unfamiliar conditions; in the case of the ravenous Insecticons, who crash-landed in Bali four million years ago, their idento-computers somehow modified their bodies so that they transformed into mechanical insects and gave them the power to metabolize organic matter. A Plague of Insecticons

The other Transformers aboard the Ark went into stasis lock after their starship crash-landed on Earth; in 1984, volcanic activity stirred the half-buried Ark and awoke Teletraan I. Teletraan I sent out a Sky Spy satellite to reconnoiter the new world and scanned terrestrial machinery in order to repair the Transformers, blasting them with an energy beam that not only repaired and re-energized the fallen Cybertronians, but also reformatted them into new alternate modes. More than Meets the Eye, Part 1

Beast Wars cartoon

The Axalon's DNA scanner gathers information on Earth wildlife for the benefit of its crew.

Three hundred years after the conclusion of the Great War, the descendants of the Autobots and Decepticons were known to use DNA scanners while on other worlds to blend in with the native lifeforms. These devices analyzed and copied the genetic material of native wildlife, and the Transformer in question could then use a CR chamber to adopt a potential beast mode based on the indigenous fauna. Beast Wars (Part 1) DNA scanners could also extract a sufficient amount of genetic data from inorganic remains, such as fossils. Beast Wars (Part 1) Survivor In Darkest Knight

The scanning process was known to play an integral part in the creation and activation of new Transformers; the stasis pods that housed newborn protoforms during offworld expeditions were equipped with a built-in DNA scanner. Once a pod had touched down on a planet, the scanner would immediately attempt to locate a nearby animal and copy its characteristics onto its protoform occupant to bring the Transformer to life. The Spark Spider's Game

Beast Machines cartoon

Upgraded DNA scanners allowed Maximals to quickly adopt new shapes on the fly and rendered stasis pods obsolete.

During the Quantum Cycle Upgrade, which took place while Optimus Primal and his crew were off-planet fighting the Beast Wars on prehistoric Earth, DNA scanners were directly integrated into the bodies of all Maximals, allowing Cybertronians to adopt new beast modes without the need for stasis pods or CR chambers. Survivor Botanica and her crew of explorers used these new DNA scanners to blend in with the lifeforms on a distant world of ambulatory plants. Home Soil

Shortly after Megatron and his Vehicons invaded Cybertron, the young Maximal Nightscream knocked himself unconscious after fleeing into the depths of Cybertron and falling into a fossil chamber, and his onboard DNA scanner somehow activated and scanned the bones of an extinct bat-like creature. Survivor Blackarachnia was later able to return Silverbolt to his old self, breaking Jetstorm's shell program in the process, by forcing the Vehicon General to scan a fossilized bird while submerging him in liquid from Cybertron's organic core. In Darkest Knight Additionally, the mystical Oracle displayed the ability to instantaneously "reformat" any Cybertronian life-form into a highly evolved "technorganic" form,a mystical hybrid of the organic and technological; The Reformatting through proper discipline, Optimus Primal was able to channel this power as needed, using it to reformat several other Transformers into new technorganic shapes. Forbidden Fruit Home Soil

Beast Wars II cartoon

Tasmania Kid's internal systems were able to instantaneously scan the DNA of a local creature and make the necessary alterations to his body in a matter of seconds.

Thousands of years in the future, all Transformers would come to possess a set of optical DNA scanners and bodies that coiuld instantly adapt to new alternate modes, be they organic creatures or more conventional machinery. During the Maximal-Predacon conflict on the post-apocalyptic planet Gaia, Tasmania Kid accidentally scanned a Tasmanian devil shortly after landing, The New Forces Arrive! while the Predacons were able to obtain suitable vehicular modes by accessing an ancient computer and downloading information on the dead civilization's machines. White Lion, Run!

Universe (2008) promotional video

Shortly after he awoke on Earth, Optimus Prime used his built-in optical beams to scan a passing truck. Action Blast 1 Part 1

Beast Wars: Uprising

While developing the Beast Upgrade, Megatron devised a modified scanner for use on Cybertron's native mechanimals. The experimental process led to many horrific failures until the Predacon criminal secured Leatherhide's knowledge; testing the scanning procedure on a newborn protoform led to Formikon's creation, the first successful mechanimal Transformer. Not All Megatrons Once Megatron had perfected the technology, his mass-produced Beast Pods came with pre-existing options for beast modes and did not require external scanners. Cultural Appropriation

2019 IDW continuity

In this continuity, Transformers are not born with a natural alternate mode; rather, they are given the opportunity to choose a suitable vehicle form at some point after their forging. This choice may indeed tie into their future vocation, The World In Your Eyes Part Three though it is possible for a Transformer to change alternate modes multiple times over the course of their long lifespans. The World In Your Eyes Part One

Live-action film series

Cybertronians in this continuity family display a unified ability to switch alternate modes almost instantaneously.

Trans-scanning is the mechanical process by which a Transformer's built-in sensors choose and examine a new alternate mode, immediately generating a new exostructure around the ultra-dense liquid metal that constitutes the base Cybertronian protoform. After arriving on a new world, a Cybertronian searches for local machinery, then chooses a new form appropriate to its body mass and locale. Depending on the size and mass of their desired alternate mode, Cybertronians may absorb raw minerals from their surroundings to generate an appropriate disguise; in extenuating circumstances, a Cybertronian may have to effectively sacrifice their own weapons to complete the process, breaking them down into base metals. Transformers: The Movie Guide

The trans-scanning process replicates every last detail of a Cybertronian's shape, including rust and faded paintwork when imitating old or run-down vehicles. Transformers Bumblebee At the same time, however, Cybertronians do have the ability to control, at least in part, the nature of their disguise, and have been known to alter the paint jobs or appearances of their new vehicle modes from the template from which they were scanned. Age of Extinction Every Cybertronian maintains a databank of previously assumed alternate modes, from which they can alter their bodies without having to scan that shape again. Transformers: Ghosts of Yesterday

Some Transformers, like Frenzy, Skids, and Mudflap, have been noted to possess a specific aptitude for changing disguises. Frenzy, for instance, is specifically noted to possess a "hyper-reactive" trans-scanning and reformatting processor, which allows him to transform into anything at any given moment. Given the incredible ease and fluidity in changing forms that Transformers in thiscontinuity family display, it's not particularly clear what this entails, or how it distinguishes them from other Cybertronians. Transformers: The Movie Guide

Ask Vector Prime

One cautionary Cybertronian folk tale concerns a contest between a Metrotitan and a prideful Malignus, each seeking to outdo the other by scanning the perfect shape. When the Malignus tried to scan the concept of entropy as his alternate mode, however, the effort involved disintegrated him beyond any hope of repair: an allegorical warning for 'bots not to scan more than they can handle. Ask Vector Prime, 2015/07/15

Notes

The PETA gonna SUE!!

• In an advertisement of PSX version of Beast Wars: Transformers in the United Kingdom Cheetor grabs and scans a cheetah by the scan beam emitted from his optics.

Foreign names

• Japanese: Scan (スキャン skyan)

Toys

Trans-Scanning

The Optimus Prime of your nightmares.

• Bumblebee
• Optimus Prime

Japanese-only releases, these figures are spindly skeletons referred to as "Core Bodies". To these skeletons, two sets of armor pieces can be attached to create one of two forms for either character: their protoform mode or their Earth mode.

The Scan Series

Toys"R"Us exclusive Scan Series Ironhide

• Ironhide
• Sideswipe
• Bumblebee
• Autobot Ratchet

Exclusive to Toys"R"Us' Mission Earth, these redecoes represent each character trans-scanning their vehicle mode. As such, nearly all of their vehicle mode parts (and thus, most of their robot modes) are cast in translucent clear plastic, with the rear of their vehicle modes being left unpainted, their middle portions having painted scan lines, and their fronts having a heavy amount of paint operations in order to cover the clear plastic.

Notes

See also: Scanning