Scale
Scale in the Transformers multiverse is, to put not too fine a point on it, screwed.
Virtually no generation, eara, franchise, fiction, toyline or other incarnation of Transformers has presented scale in a consistent, logical or easily-believable fashion. Most fans would agree that one needs to either ignore it or accept it, lest they be tempted to actually explain away these problems and in the process undoubtedly fanwank themselves into oblivion. There has only been one notable exception, the Alternators toyline, where every item is a 1:24-scale representation of a real type of car.
However, this does not mean that the chronic scale problems of Transformers do not merit description.
Types of scale problems
Scale within toylines
As it generally well known, the Generation 1 toyline, especially the entire pre-Movie lines, were created from repackaged and redecoed toys from several different Japanese transforming toylines. The crucial point being that they came from different toylines. All characters (well, virtually all; see below) should be in correct scale to each other as they all are supposed to represent real-world altmodes that can pass for correctly-scaled vehicles etc. However, since the Diaclone toys were not designed to be part of the same line as Microman toys, scale issue arise. While Diaclone figures such as Optimus Prime, Prowl and Hound are more-or-less in correct scale to each other, many of the Mini Vehicles from the Microman line are clearly far too small by comparison. Even aside from the deformed penny-racer style proportions, even a comparatively small car such as a volkswagon is dispropotionately tiny when compared to a Porsch that should be in the same scale. The disparity becomes all the more obvious with other minibots such as Warpath and Seaspray whose altmodes would suggest that they should be many times their actual size.
Another glaring scale problem comes in the form of the Seekers, who turn into F-15 Eagles which, in real life, are 63.8 ft (19.44 m) long. Clearly not in scale with the Autobot cars then...
Other scale problems come from charcters who transform into the same (or very similar) altforms but whose toys are very different sizes. For example Air Raid transforms into and F-15 Eagle, but his toy is half the size of Starscream's. In reality they should be an identical size (in fact, Silverbolt, transforming into a Concorde passanger jet should in fact be one of the largest G1 Transformers with an Earth altmode). The same can be said for Breakdown, who, having a Lambourghini Countach altmode, should be in scale with Sunstreaker. This also goes for the other Stunticons and all the Special Teams/Scramble City-type combiners with Earth-based altmodes, whose toys are all out of scale to earlier waves. By the same token, Warpath should be roughly the same size as Blitzwing.
Also, from an in-universe logic perspective, the characters with role-play altmodes such as Megatron, Soundwave, Perceptor or Armada Laserbeak are scaled to be human(well, kid)-scale. Although size changing is obviously not possible for real toys (or at least, that's what Takara wants us to think...), this human-scaling makes in some cases for inordinately large robot modes, e.g. Blaster.
Scale within shows
Scale issues abound within cartoon fictions, especially the G1 cartoon. A lot can be attributed to animation errors, or even "lazy animation". Size changing is rarely depicted onscreen outside of characters such as Megatron and Blaster, but is rather implied (or, one could argue in many cases, inferred) in the following method: character such as Astrotrain transforms in-frame from robot to shuttle with no visible expansion of size relative to his surroundings. Cut. In the following shot his fellow Decepticons are shown running into frame, suddenly tiny in stature so that they can board the shuttle. Although Astrotrain has not been shown to actually grow (in the was Megatron is usually seen to perceptibly shrink in-shot), one inferrs that it is more likely that Astrotrain has expanded rather than all his confederates have individually shrunk. The same goes for Omega Supreme and other "transport" characters.
Some scale problems apprear to be arbitrary, for example Optimus Prime (and, indeed, most Transformers in general) is routinely shown as being throughly gargantuan, equal to several stories in hight and capable of cradling humans in the palm of one hand. In reality, Prime would probably be less than 20 feet tall. Conversely, Bumblebee is sometimes shown as being only a few feet taller than an average human, where in reality he would be around 10 feet tall. And those pesky Seekers remain a walking scale problem; in reality they would be amongst the largest Transformers of all and would tower over their Autobot adversaries, whereas the animation generally depicts character such as Thundercracker and Wheeljack as being approximately the same hight.
Combiner characters are often depicted as far larger than the sum of their parts. Characters such as Devastator and Menasor are frequently shown being as tall as large buildings, sometimes even the size of small skyscrapers. When one thinks that their individual limbs are comprised of cars and construction vehicles, this becomes patently absurd. Superion, however, actually would be fairly massive, if one considers the much larger real-world size of his component parts.
In most cases, the G1 cartoon adopts approximations of the toy scale (with all its inherent problems) when depicting the characters in robot modes; Prime, Megatron and Soundwave are generally animated at the same height, Seekers and Autobot cars slightly shorter (although not as much shorter and unevenly so as the actual toys are), and Minibots are given a smaller stature again. However, these depictions were far from consistent.
Some fans interpret these discrepancies to also be the result of size changing, but this is debatable. If virtually all characters used mass-shifting (or whatever) to gain or drop just a few feet for no apparent reason (other than to make the animation more plausible), the technology would seem pointlessly mundane. Furthermore there is no strong evidence in the series to indicate that size changing truly is so widespread as opposed to the animation having a particular style to it that favours emphasising the hugeness of the Cybertronians.
Show scale vs. toy scale
Some characters have great discrpancies between their cartoon scale and their toy scale. "Giant" characters such as Omega Supreme are, even aside from any size changing for transport purposes, clearly not in the same scale in toy form as they are depicted onscreen. Cassette characters such as Rumble's toys are roughly the same height as most minibots, while in the show they are usually portrayed as human-sized (which is odd, considering that Soundwave is capable of expanding to massive size).
Rodimus Prime and Ultra Magnus are usually shown to be of a fairly similar hight (although Magnus is much bulkier), whereas there is a considerable difference between the size of their toys. By the same token, Rodimus is always depicted as being an equal stature to his opposing leader Galvatron, whereas the toy Galvatron is instead the same size as Magnus.
Cybertron Metroplex is depicted as garganuan in animation, whereas his toy is merely Leader-Class (although the Japanese Galaxy Force release, dubbled "Megalo Convoy", included an exclusive redeco of the Heroes of Cybertron (Cybertron) Optimus Prime to indicate the "correct" scale.
Citybots
The characters Metroplex, Trypticon, Fortress Maximus and Scorponok each have altmodes which are described as a "city". However, the scale at which they could plausibly house enough humans, let alone Transformers to be in any way reasonably defined as a "city" would suggest a robot-mode scale that would make Godzilla look like a gecko. No fiction to date, not even the very large depictions in the Japanese Headmasters cartoon, even begins to approximate the size that a true "citybot" would logically become. In reality, the grossly-undersized depiction of Unicron (see below) would probably be closer to the scale of an actual transformed city. Which is ironic, as in Season 3 of the G1 cartoon Unicron requires citybot eyes to replace his own shattered ones. That's right, citybot eyes fit a planetbot. Explain that one...
Rare examples which even suggest such a realistic city scale include occasional Japanese promotional art (e.g. see left) and the 13th installment of MattMoylan's LilFormers.
Furthermore, there is virually no way to reconcile the "city" altmodes of the actual toys with any believable use of the term. Using windows as even a vague scale, they would hardly qualify as a city block. One obscure explanation (Source?) suggests that Metroplex at least only constitutes a small proportion of a larger expanse deemed to be the "actual" Autobot City, although this is not consistantly depicted.
Although little fiction to date has significantly featured the Headmaster leaders fulfilling their "city" roles, they have in the Japanese-exclusive cartoons been employed in their tertiary modes as massive starships capable of transporting and housing many normal-sized transformers. Conversely, the Marvel G1 comic depicted Fort Max and Scorpy as merely "large-standard" size characters, of an equal height to Powermaster Optimus Prime and, in some UK issues, even the same as Rodimus Prime (to be fair, Powermaster Prime was often drawn "undersized" in the comics).
Planets
Scale when it comes to planets is almost so frought it's actively painful. The logic problems of describing citybots as "cities" is a thousand times worse if Unicron is supposed to have a planet-sized altmode, and that Cybertron is supposed to in turn be in scale with him. Although different fictions have compared both Cybertron/Primus and Unicron to drastically different Sol-system planets, the fact remains that they are supposed to be planets, and yet across most fictions they are shown in insane scale to characters that would suggest they are barely the size of a very, very small moon.
To start with, Cybertron itself was depicted throughout G1 as having buildings visible from space. Although this was clearly intended to make it immediately obvious that the planet was entirely technological in nature, it actually makes no sense whatsoever, as such structures would have to be the size of small continents to actually be visible from such a distance. If the buildings were in fact supposed to be Transformers-scale skyscrapers (or even 2000 A.D. style mega-bocks), Cybertron would therefore be barely a fraction the size of Earth's Moon. By comparision, the rather Coruscant-like orbit-views of Cybertron in the Beast Machines cartoon may be less distinctive or recognisably "Cybertronian", but is far more believable.
Unicron, however, is a much more extreme problem. If one presumes that no obvious size changing occurs during His transfomration (and really, why would he want to become smaller?), He would be so massive that any shot that features even a part of his body, let alone the whole thing, whould be of such a scale that no no normal Transformer, however massive, would even be visible. His depiction in the The Transformers: The Movie in which he directly interacts with cybertronian characters is blatantly absurd (regardless of how totally phat it looks). Shots such as the Dinobots fleeing his grasping hand, a starship penetrating his eye or especially picking up Galvatron between his thumb and forefinger before swallowing him (or, similarly in the comic, impaling Brainstorm on his fingernail before crunching him between his teeth) bend any concept of scale beyond breaking point. If Unicron is the size of a planet, his hands would be the size of continents. This would make Galvatron the size of Great Britain.
There is no possible explanation for any of this. Just go with it.
Beast Era scale
In the Beast Era scale is not such a large issue, although it certainly does crop up in less obvious (depending on your point of view) ways.
Real world scale
Although the Beast Warriors all seem to exist quite happily in their own relative scale, their scale in relation to the real-world animals they have adopted as altmodes is more problematic. While the "giant insect" characters such as Waspinator and Inferno are obviously not in real world scale, when considered carefully virtually none of the charactes actually are. The only character who has been clearly depicted interacting with real members of his adopted species is Cheetor, who is seen attempting interact with other cheetahs in Beast Wars, Part 1, who react in fright. Cheetor was shown here to be in the same scale as real cheetahs, which effectively makes him the measuring stick for all other charcters. Rattrap is therefore obviously a monstrously huge rat, about the size of a large dog, Rhinox is a rather small rhinoceros, and Optimus Primal is probably a roughly normal-sized gorilla. However, Megatron is therefore an positively dwarfish specimen of a tyrannosaurs rex.
In their few interactions with (adult) protohumans, the Cybertronian characters seem between twice and three times the average height of humans. This does not entirely make sense if one considers that a cheetah (essentially) standing on its hind legs would not be much different in hight to a modern man. Whether this is to imply that protohumans in the BW universe were much smaller than modern-day humans (or real neanderthals for that matter), or that prehistoric cheetahs were much larger than modern cheetahs is a matter of personal taste. Or you could just say Mainframe stuffed up a little.
Scale relative to G1
Size changing appears to be a thing of the past by the Beast Era, as the majority of the Cybertronian race seems to have considerably downgraded in size, apparently due to the Maximal Uprgrade Program (although this is of course a backwards rationalisation, since the show's basic premise requires the characters to transform into (vaguely) normal-sized animals, compared to the G1 characters transforming into large vehicles etc.). When entering the Ark, the Beast Warriors are very small compared to the sleeping G1 characters, especially Optimus Prime. They are roughly the size humans should be (but usually weren't) depicted in relation to these characters.
Toy scale vs. cartoon scale
The first waves of Beast Wars figures were not made in the same relative scale to each other as depicted in the cartoon, although from Season 2 onwards the scales (and general toy-accuracy) of the cartoon became much more consistent with the toys.
For example, of the Season 1 Maximal crew, Dinobot, Cheetor, Tigatron and Rhinox are all from the same deluxe size class, while Airazor and Rattrap are considerably smaller basics. Optimus Primal, an ultra, stands at virtually twice the size of the deluxes. In the show, Dinobot is the tallest, followed by Rhinox and a slightly shorter Optimus Primal, shorter again is Tigatron, while shorter still is Cheetor (despite being an identical mold) and Airazor, while Rattrap is the shortest, but by no means to such a degree as his toy would suggest.
The Beast Machines' toyline was far worse in terms of scale discrepancies with its cartoon, with the tallest character Silverbolt becoming the shortest (show-featured) Maximal toy, and similarly the massive Tankor was reduced to a tiny basic-class (well, in Japan anyway, but the Tank Drones that his BWR toy was redecoed from were supposed to be the same size anyway). And, sadly, the most show-accurate toy in the line (well, sorta in the line...) "Air Attack Optimus Primal" was rendered as an enormous supreme figure, completely incompatible with the other toys.
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