Humanization

Throughout the various Transformers canon, there have been several instances of Transformers with humanistic traits and having very human actions that possibly conflict with their status as mechanical robots. Many of these instances can be dismissed as stylistic choices by the artists or as gags not to be taken seriously.

Glandular, digestive, and respiratory

Sweating

• In issue twelve of the original Generation 1 comic, Rumble is seen leaking lubricant from his head during a stressful confrontation with Shockwave (as Shockwave points out), in a manner resembling sweating.
• Numerous times in the Marvel UK comic, Kup can be seen "sweating".
• Robots in Disguise and Armada featured Transformers displaying the traditional anime "sweat drop", a giant bead of liquid appearing at the side of the head to convey embarrassment or exasperation.

Coughing

• In the G1 episode "Roll for It", when the Autobots emerge from the ruins of a demolished antimatter laboratory, they are coughing.
• Megatron coughs while infected with Cosmic Rust. Cosmic Rust
• In "Call of the Primitives", a fiery blast from Grimlock causes both the Terrorcons and Predacons to cough.
• In Beast Wars, Megatron begins to cough for no reason while making a triumphant speech. Much like Powerglide's "heart", this could be a one-shot joke. He also coughs while sleeping.
• In the Transformers Armada episode "Mortal Combat", right after Optimus Prime says "I wish I could accommodate you," he coughs silently.

Breathing

On Star Trek the Next Generation, it was explained that the android Data's breathing served primarily to cool his inner components. It could be argued that breathing serves the same purpose in Transformers, but this explanation is always going to smack of desperation.

• In an Energon episode, Jetfire instructs Ironhide that they have to synchronize their breathing before they can powerlink.
• At the climax of The Transformers: The Movie, Galvatron tries to strangle Hot Rod, complete with sounds of Hot Rod gagging and struggling to breathe. It's possible that Galvatron was trying to compress Hot Rod's neck until the Autobot's head popped off, but that isn't likely.
• Cheetor, calling for help as a python constricts him, says he can't breathe. Dark Voyage
• Bumblebee is shown to be breathing heavily after trying to chase down Blurr, even though he quips in a previous episode that not needing to breathe is useful for an Autobot. Velocity
• On the Nemesis, Megatron and Starscream's breath can be seen due to condensation in the cold ship. [[Revenge of the Fallen (film)|]]

Spitting

• Throughout his term on the Marvel UK comic letters page, Soundwave would regularly say "(Puttup)" after mentioning the Autobots or an Autobot's name to represent him spitting in disgust. This habit made an in-story appearance, with him spitting at Robot-Master despite his mouthplate.
• In issue 72 of the Marvel US comics, after Nightbeat escapes from the Decepticons's New Jersey base via a sewer, he spits as he complains about their poor choice of back door.
• In the Beast Wars episode "Tangled Web", Quickstrike "spits" after reissuing his challenge to tangle with Silverbolt, despite the fact that, like Soundwave, he has no apparent mouth.
• In Revenge of the Fallen, Starscream spits at Sam Witwicky. Optimus Prime also has to spit his mouth clean after being blasted across a forest by Megatron.

Crying

Tissue: desired.

• A twinkle of light that may not literally be a tear, but is clearly intended to imply one, can be seen in Omega Supreme's eye at the end of "The Secret of Omega Supreme".

• When Optimus Prime dies in The Transformers: The Movie, Arcee is seen to dab at her eyes.

• In "The Burden Hardest to Bear", Scourge has tears falling from his eyes, presumably in pain, during his monstrous disfigurement after he gains the power of the Matrix.

• At the end of "Heroic! The Victory War", some Decepticons are crying over their defeat.

• As he mourns his dead friend Snowstalker and decides he can never fight again, Tigatron cries a single tear in beast mode.

• When pondering Silverbolt's fate in Beast Machines, Blackarachnia is shown to shed a single tear from one of her spider eyes.

Surf's up—and I'm talkin' up!

• Throughout Beast Wars II and Robots in Disguise, and occasionally in the Armada cartoon, several characters are seen crying in hyperbolic anime fashion.

• Tears can be seen welling up in Ironhide's eyes and falling to the ground in Energon as he mourns a fallen comrade.

• In Transformers: Animated, Blackarachnia cries, though this "ability" could be part of her partially organic nature. Along Came a Spider

• Bumblebee cries after Sam Witwicky tells him cars are not allowed on campus. Revenge of the Fallen

Eating

• There are references to Cybertronian food.

• Skullcruncher has been known to eat Autobots as well as humans and other organics, despite not needing to do so to survive. Other Decepticons are disgusted by this practice.

• There are Pepsi and pizza in the refrigerator in Pepsi Convoy's home.

• In Beast Wars, the Maximals and Predacons are shown to eat:
  • Tarantulas even displays something of a voracious appetite, eating rats and leaving webs to catch prey. At one point, he captures Cheetor and prepares to drain the Maximal's fluids, claiming that it is the act he prefers over the nourishment (which adds just another level of creepy to the already creepy Tarantulas). The Web
  • Rattrap eats apples. The Web
  • Terrorsaur eats a bird. Power Surge
  • Dinobot eats his clone. Optimus Primal remarks that he is "disgusting". Double Dinobot
  • While suffering from an Energon discharge virus, Rhinox eats wild beans to build up his power. This later ends disastrously for Megatron. The Low Road
• In Beast Machines, Nightscream is shown eating what appear to be metallic apples. Boy's got some strong teeth. In Darkest Knight
• Also in Beast Machines, Optimus Primal wants to eat the underground tree's fruit; Cheetor protests that "we don't eat food, we process energon—PERIOD!", but is overruled. Forbidden Fruit

Flatulence

• In the Beast Wars episode "The Low Road", Rhinox lets out an extreme amount of flatulence after consuming wild bean vines. This could be due to Maximals having organic parts in their makeup.
• In the Beast Wars episode "Bad Spark", Cheetor also lets out flatulence, blaming it on a large buildup of energy from his Transmetal body.
• Just go watch Revenge of the Fallen. Happens every five minutes. You can set a clock by it.

Urination

• Tasmania Kid urinates (in beast mode) to put out a fire.
• Bumblebee performs a similar action on Agent Simmons by popping off his automobile oil filter in robot mode. Optimus Prime claims that 'Bee is just "lubricating" him. Presumably, this action was inspired from witnessing a similar incident.

Intoxication

• In the G1 cartoon episode "Microbots", the [[Decepticon|Decepticons] behaving in a noticeably intoxicated fashion after consuming high-grade energon. Powerglide refers to this as "over-energizing".
• In the UK comic, the Wreckers frequent a "bar" on Cybertron called Maccadam's Old Oil House, where they consume high-grade energon, presumably for the purposes of getting intoxicated. Dreadwind and Darkwing pay a visit to this establishment in a later story, and get so hammered that they don't even notice Quickswitch fighting with some Mecannibals.
• In Beast Wars II, Galvatron gets "drunk" on numerous occasions.
• In the Beast Wars II manga, Lio Convoy gets drunk once and messes up Apache's room.
• The Constructicons in Animated, whose personalities are shout-outs to construction worker stereotypes, seem to drink oil the way humans drink beer. However, they never actually get drunk.

Miscellaneous

Oh, my eyes!!

File:Cigarchomping.jpg

Bet it's imported from Cubatron.

• In the episode "Auto Berserk", Optimus Prime's eyes are closed (apparently to shield them against the smoke) much like a human's when the Autobots stagger out of the fire and smoke of the Negavator's destruction.

• Deathsaurus once gets a cold, causing him to cough and have a fever, in an issue of the Victory manga. The Star of Friendship, Jean and Star Saber!

• Star Saber got a bump on his head after being hit by Deathsaurus with a staff when they were young boys. The Star of Friendship, Jean and Star Saber!

• Kup chomps on a sparkplug-like object like it's a cigar. All Hail Megatron issue 5

• Bumblebee has bandages wrapped around his middle after Sari is knocked out and the Autobots return to their base. TransWarped

Body parts

Teeth/tongues/eyeballs/eyelashes

• The Generation 1 cartoon series is the only major piece of fiction to not present Transformers as possessing teeth and/or tongues. The features appear in both the Marvel and Dreamwave comics, The Battlestars manga, the Beast Wars and Beast Machines animated series (where teeth would even be knocked out on occasion), the Robots in Disguise cartoon, and the Unicron Trilogy cartoons and comics.

• There was a teardrop on young Star Saber's face after being beaten by Deathsaurus.

• Lyzack sported some pretty heavy-duty eyelashes for her brief appearance in the Victory manga. So did Esmeral. Heroic! The Victory War

• One of the most prevalent examples of this tradition is the Kiss Players manga, in which a Legion character is equipped with a distinctive prehensile (and phallic) tongue.

• In Spotlight: Hot Rod, Hot Rod is shown to have what appears to be blast shields for his optics when he passes out after landing. Dealer's optics are mostly covered by his eyelids, so he looks half-passed out. Per an email query to IDW, their response is that Transformers do not have eyelids, that it's just artistic license.

• The robots in the live-action film series have eyes designed to resemble a camera, enabling them to dilate and blink. The more human like the robot, the more they are likely to have teeth. In the case of say, Optimus Prime, his teeth are mechanical cubes overlaid on each other, while Megatron has bona fide fangs. Optimus spits out a piece of his shattered faceplate in the second film, which is intended to resemble a boxer spitting out his tooth after a brutal match. Revenge of the Fallen

• File:Esmeryl-manga.jpg
• 
  About 15 gallons of mascara for those things.
• 
  Hey, wake up!
• 
  Got munchies?

Facial hair

• Alpha Trion, Scourge, Unicron, and Wreck-Gar all sport "facial hair" in the G1 cartoon. In addition to that, Energon's Bulkhead, the films' Optimus (who has a goatee), Ratchet and Jetfire and Animated's Scrapper, Mixmaster, and the other Wreck-Gar. (The last of these was modeled after his voice actor's own, prior to his appearance's overhaul.)

Obesity

Although Transformers come in all shapes and sizes anyway, some characters have particularly round appearances that suggest something equivalent to human obesity.

• Bulkhead is virtually as wide as he is tall and is depicted as extremely round, with very short, stubby legs. It gives him more than a passing resemblance to a heavily obese person, or at best one of those huge, flabby, off-season wrestlers.
• Much the same could be said of Omega Supreme. Being big-chassied is no excuse to let yourself go.
• Animated Ratchet has a prominent gut that resembles a human paunch. Although ordinarily this might be considered merely a feature of his transformation scheme (ala Trailbreaker), he is specifically designed to be a crotchety "old man" character, and in flashback sequences to his younger days in the Great War, he notably lacks said paunch.
• Gnaw. Well, all the Sharkticons, really, but seriously. It's kind of comically appropriate that the robots which do absolutely nothing but hang out and eat stuff all day are so roly poly.

Feminine Characteristics

File:TM2 Blackarachnia.jpg

I'd tap it, like the fist of an angry god.

There are several instances of female transformers whose bodies are designed with the explicit similarity to stereotypical human females. While this generally includes a more slender build (particularly a narrow waist) it also sometimes includes other characteristics which suggest a degree of gender dimorphism similar to organic races, although the purpose of this is unclear.

Note however that there are certainly some exceptions to this.

The real-world explanation to most of these exceptions are redecos of originally male toys.

Breasts

Some female Transformers, such as Arcee and Elita One (not to mention the other Arcee and Elita-1) have a protruding chest area that bears no apparent relation to their altmode kibble, which bears some vague resemblance to clothed human breasts, or a "monoboob" if you will. Some females even have two separate and even more distinctly rounded breast-like protuberances, particularly in their fictional depictions. Blackarachnia, Antagony and Beta all fall into this category. One, Thunderblast, even has visible nipples. (You're going to look, aren't you...?)

Lips

Though not female, Silverbolt got a sexy nice lip.

Another common feature to denote gender in some female Transfomers (mostly only in the fiction) will be possessing distinctly fuller, plumper lips than is standard, such as Blackarachnia in Beast Wars. Sometimes, however, they will additionally have red or otherwise different/darker colouration to their lips, with an evident similarity to human lipstick. Such paint-mouthed hussybots include Blackarachnia in Beast Machines, her Animated cousin, and most G1 Female Autobots.

Hips

Dan Reed, you perv.

See also the Sexuality section below, and the articles: Female Transformer and Reproduction

Questionable body parts

Not Astroboy, we swear!

• Nearly all Transformers seem to possess noses for no discernible functional reason, Beast Wars characters and movieverse Ratchet being exceptions. Movie (Megatron also notes that he can smell Sam when the latter is trying to escape from him.

• At the end of the G1 episode "The Girl Who Loved Powerglide", Powerglide is seen to have the LED outline of a cartoon heart within his chassis. This is somewhat nonsensical even within in the context of the show (the contents of Transformers chest cavities had been shown several times before), and is doubtless merely meant as a one-off sight gag.

• Although listed separately above, breasts would also fit under this category quite well, seeing as there doesn't appear to be any use for them on Transformers, other than to show them off.

Brains

Predaking: All brawn AND brains!

• Predaking has an organic brain when he is sliced in half in the Zone cartoon.

• Unicron also has an organic brain in the G.I. Joe crossover, Black Horizon Part 2.

Nuts and Bolts

• Rattrap kicks Waspinator in the groin, causing apparent pain and giving him a high pitched voice. Other Voices, Part 1

• Devastator has a pair of dangling wrecking balls in a...very unfortunate place. Revenge of the Fallen

Other biological functions

Sleep

• In the G1 comic, Ratchet falls asleep and dreams (or rather, has a nightmare). This goes against established canon for that continuity that Transformers deactivate fully rather than "sleep," a point Ratchet himself makes.
• In the Japanese Headmasters cartoon, Mindwipe is able to use a form of hypnotism on the Autobots, which can include lulling them to sleep.
• In the Generation 2 comic, Kup attempts to rouse a vision-struck Optimus Prime by urging him to "wake up" -- then reminds himself that "we don't sleep!"
• In Beast Wars, it has been firmly established that (perhaps partially due to their organic components), all Transformers within the cartoon sleep. Some prime examples of this are:
  • Megatron has been shown to sleep in the command chair of the Darksyde, while his dino head mounted on the end of his arm stays awake, looks around, and smiles slyly. Wonder what it thinks about...
  • Cheetor has been shown asleep at many points, complete with (occasionally prophetic) dreams. In "Feral Scream Part 2", he also purrs when he's asleep. How cute!
  • In "Call of the Wild", the Maximals are kept awake for two days by the Predacons' non-stop attacks on their base, which exacerbate their beast instincts overriding their logic circuits.
• In Beast Wars II, Galvatron often nods off in a narcoleptic-like fashion.
• In Beast Wars II manga, Lio Convoy sleeps and has a nightmare for one time.
• Armada Cyclonus is quite fond of catching forty winks when possible. Scavenger did the same on one occasion. Armada Megatron was also seen asleep twice in the episode "Rebellion".
• Animated Ratchet enters a form of sleep he calls a "stasis nap", during which he gets several parking tickets. Transform and Roll Out!

Aging

Some transformers have been depicted as aging.

• 

  Alpha Trion has been depicted in three different eras: 11 million years in the past, 9 million years in the past, and the present day. Though his character model undergoes many changes, his facial hair changes seem to mimic human aging. In his (chronologically) earliest depiction, he has a small black mustache. In his second depiction, his mustache has turned white. By the modern era, he sports a long mustache and beard.

Young and Innocent

• Emirate Xaaron couldn't transform anymore because he was old.

• Kup's systems are going to shut down because he is too old in Marvel UK G1 comics.

• Deathsaurus and Star Saber were depicted as "child" Transformers, complete with childlike temperaments, in flashbacks. The Star of Friendship, Jean and Star Saber!

• Movieverse Jetfire has a cane and is rusting.

Sexuality

One of the most controversial aspects of Transformers is the idea of sexuality. While it is established in most continuities that Transformers do not reproduce sexually, most continuities nonetheless have distinctive male and female characters.

Sorry Side Burn, I don't think Wedge rolls that way.

The G1 cartoon brought the first official female Transformers into the canon, including Elita One and Arcee. The characters are noticeably more feminine in design and some have clearly defined romantic relationships with male Autobots.

The issue becomes more complicated in Beast Wars, where the sexuality line is clearly defined (Blackarachnia has a particularly well defined female figure, including what appears to be an ample bosom). It is hinted on occasion that the robots may engage in activities resembling human sex acts. Rattrap offers to take Silverbolt to what sounds like a Cybertonian version of a strip club, and later slyly makes a double entendre regarding Silverbolt's suspected kinky activities with Predacon Blackarachnia. The Agenda (Part 1) In the Japanese Metals dub, Rattrap, thinking himself about to be stabbed by Dinobot, asked him to "be gentle, because I've heard the first time can hurt."

In the original Japanese version of Energon, Mirage displays romantic interest in Galvatron, causing his comrades to regard him with minor confusion. The Energon dub seemed to do its best to skirt around this issue, with Mirage's exclamations either being about different things entirely or simple cheering on of his leader - but they couldn't do anything about the hands-clasped-beside-his-head-while-doe-eyed expressions, or the one time that he pirouetted and struck a pose while surrounded by a giant glowing pink heart. Why, Japan?

See also

• Transformer anatomy
• Robot-fleshling romance
• Reproduction
• Relatives