Subspace storage pocket

"Where'd you get that?"
"Editing mistake... in my favor!"

Subspace storage pockets (also known as "extra-dimensional" storage pockets) allow Transformers to store their personal paraphernalia in the interdimensional void of unspace. Objects placed in there are tethered to the material world by the Transformers' personal energy supply, each operating on its own frequency.

Fiction

Generation 1 continuity family

Generation 1 cartoon continuity

The Transformers cartoon

Ravage's missiles disappear into his subspace storage pocket as he assumes his cassette mode.

Visible use of subspace storage pockets was rare, but not unheard of. Ravage's proton bombs disappeared in a flicker of purple light when he transformed to enter Teletraan I; More than Meets the Eye, Part 2 Kickback's gun manifested in his hands in a purple flash during the Insecticons' first battles with the Autobots; A Plague of Insecticons

Optimus Prime's trailer sports a glow indicative of subspace activity.

Cyclonus summoned his oxidating laser into his hand while confronting the Autobots in their mausoleum; Dark Awakening and Blurr once did the same to his electro-laser. 1986 commercial bumper

The glow-effect seen to accompany these displacements also appeared in a few other vanishingly rare instances that subspace can probably be attributed to: Jazz's forearm once glowed orange when he substituted his hand for his grappling hook More than Meets the Eye, Part 2 and Optimus Prime's trailer sported a pronounced golden glow in one instance when he called it to him, The Ultimate Doom, Part 2 perhaps indicating that its near-constant absence following Prime's many transformations to robot mode were the result of it being stored in Prime's subspace pocket. In one solitary instance, Soundwave shimmered with a white light as he grew back to full size, Transport to Oblivion suggesting that he and other size changing Transformers displaced their excess mass into their storage pockets when changing form.

Japanese cartoon continuity

Deathsaurus fails to summon his sword from his subspace pocket.

Weaponry displacement gradually became a much more common sight in the years that followed 2011; Godmaster warrior Ginrai was often seen to summon up his cannons into his hands with a flash of light. The great users of this technique, though, were Star Saber, Deathsaurus and their warriors, who would regularly manifest their various weapons during battle. Their frequent use of the technique offered some more insight into its working, suggesting that a Transformer uses some of their personal energy supply in summoning a weapon, and in keeping it summoned: When Deathsaurus was poised to slay Star Saber with his Living-Metal-Destroying Cannon, the weapon fizzled out and de-materialized because he did not have the energy to spare. Attempting to summon his sword immediately afterward, Deathsaurus could only manifest the blade for a moment before it too faded out. Resurrection!? The Decepticon Fortress

War for Cybertron Trilogy marketing material

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Unicron Trilogy cartoon continuity

A Cyber Key is summoned.

Blurr and Runamuck explicitly keep their Cyber Key in their extra-dimensional storage pocket to be retrieved as-needed. Force of Habit Presumably, all other users of Cyber Keys store theirs in similar fashion, explaining why they manifest out of thin air when required. Cybertron cartoon

TransTech

Scattorshot explained the function of subspace storage pockets and their relation to Transwarp space to Jackpot and Hubcap, who had trouble wrapping their heads around the concept. Gone Too Far

When his spark was hijacked and transferred into a "lowtech" body, Bulletbike had a subspace storage pocket in his left forearm. I, Lowtech

Animated cartoon

"Optimus Prime, eject! Operation... waituhwhat?!"

Swindle refers to his storage pocket as his "personal storage dimension", which he accesses by means of a drawer that opens from his chest. He makes particularly excessive use of it, storing the exceptionally large amounts of technology he has begged, borrowed, bought and/or stolen on his travels across the galaxy. It was used against him once, however, when he hijacked the Autobot starship Steelhaven; by identifying the unique transwarp frequency of his pocket, Sari Sumdac was able to use a space bridge to transport Optimus Prime through it, allowing the Autobot leader to reach the trouble craft by emerging from Swindle's chest. Decepticon Air

Wreck-Gar is particularly adept at not only storing things in his trash-compartment backpack, but pulling all manner of random useful and useless things from within it (including sizes and quantities of things which shouldn't physically fit there). Garbage In, Garbage Out

Live-action film series

Guys store things in their bras too.

When Nemesis Prime takes the Staff of Merlin from Viviane, he shrinks the staff into a smaller size and stores it inside his left chest piece. When he opens it up, a glowing light can be found emerging from the cavity indicating some form of a subspace pocket being used. The Last Knight

Notes

• The idea of subspace storage pockets originated as a fan-created concept that served as a communal explanation for where Transformers stored their weapons when they transformed, where size-changing characters' additional mass went, and where Optimus Prime's trailer regularly disappeared to. They were finally canonized by longtime fans Greg Sepelak and Trent Troop in the prose stories they wrote for the Transformers Collectors' Club, first receiving a mention in "Force of Habit" and later having their working explained in "Gone Too Far", which tied them in with transwarp technology.
• In the first four films, Optimus Prime is known to pull many of his weapons out from a compartment inside his back. However, since so many of his weapons are stored inside his back at the same time, it becomes a little difficult to comprehend where he has the space to fit them all. It is entirely possible that a subspace pocket is used for this since he did use one in The Last Knight to store the staff. Known weapons to store inside his back include his Ion blaster, Energon-axe, Mega Striker and possibly his Barrage cannon.