Idento-computer

Idento-computers are a piece of technology from the Generation 1 continuity family.

An idento-computer is a onboard control system that regulates a Transformer's identity.

Fiction

Generation 1 cartoon

The Insecticons jettisoned themselves out the Decepticon cruiser when it and the Autobot ship crashed on Prehistoric Earth. Stranded and isolated on a foreign world, their idento-computers adapted their forms into insectoid beast modes with the ability to process organic matter. They were discovered four million years later, so there is no telling how long the adaptation process took. A Plague of Insecticons