Stock footage
Stock footage refers to a sequence in film or television that can be frequently re-used. It is commonly used in animation to save the time and expense of having to re-draw sequences that are more or less assured to take place in every single episode.
In the context of Transformers, it applies to most of the series based off Japanese anime: Victory, Beast Wars II, Beast Wars Neo, Robots in Disguise, and the Unicron Trilogy. All of those series would almost ritualistically showcase the same clips of characters transforming, combining, or deploying unique weapons. These sequences often seemingly transport the characters to a setting different from the actual events of that part of the episode, as the entire standard background fades away and is replaced by streaking speedlines and flashes of color.
The dub for Transformers Cybertron poked fun at the practice, having characters narrate their stock-footage in a way that implied boredom or curiosity ("Why do we always go this way?").
