Ability

An ability, loosely speaking, is a special technology and/or weapon that is incorporated into a Transformer instead of being a separate device. Most of these ability are rare, and possibly some are unique, while there are also abilities that are rare but similar others. For example, the ability of Windcharger to form a magnetic field compared to the ferrocobalt magnet under his Tailgate's hood that he uses to be towed by other vehicles.

The first mentions of these abilities occur in the bios of the G1 toyline.

Some examples of these abilities include:

• Force field: Trailbreaker (G1)
• Glass gas: Cliffjumper (G1)
• Teleportation: Skywarp (G1)/Dreadwing (Movie)/Sea Phantom/Jumpstream
• Telekinesis: The Fallen

The abilities of some Transformers are categorized as special powers and produce colorful lights.

Fiction

The Transformers cartoon

The original The Transformers cartoon visualized the abilities of the Transformer characters. However, the cartoon show took liberties with some of the toys' bios to change one's tool into an ability. A classic example is Hound, who was repeatedly featured producing holograms of various sorts without aid of any device. However, Hound's toy bio states that he has a hologram gun... and only uses it to produce 3-D maps.

The source of the Decepticons' individual abilities was their power chip rectifier. Heavy Metal War It can be presumed that the Autobots also use a power chip rectifier for their special powers.

Beast Wars cartoon

After the quantum surge, some of the Maximals and Predacons obtained Transmetal bodies, which granted them an extra vehicular-like mode. Cheetor's third mode gave him the ability to fly via integrated rocket boosters.

Beast Machines cartoon

After being reformatted by the Oracle, the Maximals exhibited unique and almost arcane abilities in their robot modes. Optimus Primal could absorb enemies' fire and send it back at them, Blackarachnia could send electrical "stings" through the ground, and Cheetor had a pair of blades he could use for slicing, dicing, gliding, and deflecting Vehicon fire.

Live action continuity

The Fallen displayed the ability of telekinesis during Operation: Firestorm, using it to great effect to defend himself as he attempted to activate the Star Harvester. He used it to lift all of the humans' heavy weaponry high in the air before dropping it, and later created a shield of rocks around the Great Pyramid of Giza to protect him from air attack. But in the end, this power couldn't save him from Optimus Prime using Jetfire's parts.

Animated cartoon

The Decepticons of Animated have straight-up weapons, but the Autobots have distinct abilities they use in combat instead. Examples would include Bumblebee's stingers, Ratchet's magnetic powers, and Prowl's holograms. A particularly notable case is Blackarachnia, who has the power to download and copy others' abilities for brief periods of time.

War for Cybertron

Many of the combatants during the Great War possessed two abilities in robot mode, along with a vehicle mode ability. There were many abilities, and the lesser known combatants of the war could choose from a set of four depending on their class. Examples of these abilities include Cloak (making the user invisible, though a sharp-eyed enemy might notice disruptions in the air), Spawn Sentry (deploying a drone), Hover (allowing a combatant to hover for a short amount of time, and more advanced versions allowed for indefinite stationary hovering), and Barrier (creating an energy shield).

2005 IDW continuity

Transformers with unique abilities were known as outliers.

Notes

• The abilities were a combination of a way for Bob Budiansky to make each character unique and to get around a "no bullets" restriction.<ref name="BC10">griffin's 2010 BotCon report</ref>

References

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