Dinosaur (dinosaur)
| The name or term "Dinosaur" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Dinosaur (disambiguation). |
Dinosaurs are prehistoric reptiles that dominated the Earth during their existence. Scientific consensus holds that they became extinct 65 million years ago. In the various Transformers continuities, this belief is often reassessed.
Dinosaurs' most prominent influence in Transformers culture is serving as the altmodes for some of the most dangerous (and occasionally ludicrous) Transformers of all time.
Fiction
Generation 1
Big Looker storybooks continuity
When the Autobots' spacecraft crashed into the Earth four million years ago, the mighty dinosaurs fled in terror. Battle for Cybertron
Generation 1 cartoon continuity
The Transformers cartoon
Dinosaurs were understood to have been sluggish and stupid. They dragged their tails on the ground, and theropods walked fully upright. A number of dinosaur bones were found in a cave near the Ark, prompting the Autobots to investigate further. Hound and Spike Witwicky visited a museum to take holographic scans of the reconstructed dinosaur skeletons on display there. This led them to develop the Dinobots, five rebellious (yet extremely powerful) Autobots, who proved time and again a match for an army of Decepticons. S.O.S. Dinobots
A selection of dinosaurs survived the mass extinction of 65 million years ago and lived on into the present on the time-displaced, and energy-rich, Dinobot Island. After discovering the location of the island, the Autobots found themselves tangling with some of the wildlife there. Dinobot Island, Part 1 The Decepticons also discovered the island and set about harnessing its energies, until Grimlock harnessed the power of the island's dinosaur population to kick them out. Dinobot Island, Part 2
Trypticon was build by the Constructicons with a dinosaur primary mode. Five Faces of Darkness, Part 4 Other dinosaur Transformers included Sky Lynx, Thief in the Night and the cassette warriors, Slugfest and Overkill. Call of the Primitives
Transformers who have dinosaur altmodes have something known as "dinosaur electrons" within their systems. Transformation causes these electrons to release dinosaur transform static. Thief in the Night
Japanese Generation 1 cartoon continuity
Victory cartoon
The Dinoforce consisted of six Decepticons with sentient dinosaurian Pretender shells and the ability to combine into Dinoking.
Beast Wars II cartoon
Gigastorm, Galvatron's younger brother, took the form of a theropod dinosaur. He then made several Predacons into Cyborg Beasts including Thrust, rechristened Thrustor, a cyborg Velociraptor.
Beast Wars Neo cartoon
The Predacon lineup consisted primarily of a number of dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals.
Marvel Comics continuity
Shortly after the Ark crashed on Earth, the Ark's defense systems detected Cybertronic life on the continent of Antarctica. The Ark sent a drone to investigate, and it discovered Shockwave roaming around in the Savage Land blasting dinosaurs with high-powered X-rays. The Ark determined that Shockwave was a threat and rebuilt five Autobots into forms it assumed were the dominant form of life on the planet, the dinosaurs the drone discovered. The Last Stand
Four million years later, Ratchet visited the Savage Land and passed a dinosaur in his shuttle. Repeat Performance!
Earthforce
By 1992 the dinosaurs of the Savage Land were suffering from an unidentified disease that drove them insane and ultimately killed them. When the Dinobots returned, searching for the control crystal from their shuttle to help save Snarl from Corrodia Gravis, they discovered that a human paleontologist named Professor Embrey was using it to keep the disease at bay from healthy dinosaurs. Ultimately, they let Embrey keep the crystal and transferred Snarl's mind into the body of a Stegosaurus. Destiny of the Dinobots!
Milton Bradley mini-comic
When the Ark crashed on prehistoric Earth, the ship's computer detected that Soundwave had jumped overboard at the last minute. It scanned the local life forms and repaired four Autobots with dinosaur alternate modes. The Dinobots found Soundwave shooting dinosaurs in the face and attacked him, eventually burying him and themselves under tons of rock. In the Transformers
IDW Generation 1 continuity
Six hundred thousand meta-cycles ago, Shockwave foresaw Cybertron's eventual exhaustion of natural resources. To ensure their survival, he seeded many worlds with Ultra-Energon and waited. He arrived on the world later to be known as Earth to regulate the growth of the valuable resource. Unfortunately, the Autobot Dynobots, lusting for revenge after Shockwave had defeated them in a skirmish, followed him to this world. To endure the intense energon radiation on this world, the Dynobots assumed the form of the long-extinct dinosaur species. Spotlight: Shockwave
Hearts of Steel
Both the Autobots and Decepticons assumed the forms of these doomed reptiles upon arriving on Earth, which was in the grip of one of its ice ages. Hearts of Steel #1
Beast Wars cartoon
By now, dinosaurs were understood to have been quick and agile, with theropods like T. rex holding their bodies parallel to the ground. After crash-landing on a primitive world that was later revealed to be Earth, the Predacon renegades Megatron and Dinobot used scans of fossils to assume the forms of extinct dinosaurs—a dwarf Tyrannosaurus rex and a giant Velociraptor respectively—as their beast modes to survive on this energon-soaked planet. Beast Wars (Part 1)
After Dinobot's betrayal, Megatron cloned him. This clone was completely biological and unable to transform out of its dinosaur mode. Double Dinobot
When the alien Vok Planet Buster superweapon that threatened Earth was destroyed, the resulting quantum surge altered Megatron's structure. His new, more powerful Transmetal body allowed him to transform into an entirely mechanical Tyrannosaurus with flight capabilities. Aftermath Later, Megatron used the alien Transmetal driver to create a drone army of Velociraptors with Cybertronian enhancements. Cutting Edge Refining his experiments, Megatron subsequently created Dinobot II, a Transmetal 2 clone of Dinobot with a skeletal cyborg Velociraptor beast mode. Feral Scream Part 1
3H Universe continuity
The Dinobots were created by the Oracle using dinosaur DNA information from Dinobot's spark. Most of the members had true dinosaur alternate modes of a Tyrannosaurus, Triceratops, Stegosaurus, Pachycephalosaurus, and a mechanical Velociraptor. Magmatron also joined the team although only one of his multiple beast modes is actually a dinosaur. Whether or not Airraptor's Archaeopteryx mode counts is debatable.
Unicron Trilogy
Energon
The Terrorcon Cruellock is a theropod dinosaur, but with a distinct Japanese giant monster influence.
Cybertron
A Spinosaurus is the beast mode of choice for one of Scourge's underlings, Undermine, and his brother Repugnus.
Dinobots toyline
Walmart released an exclusive mini wave of figures in 2003. It is unclear what continuity these figures belong to but they were released along with Armada figures. There is really no story behind these figures other than the fact that they are the Dinobots. The members with true dinosaur alternate modes are Grimlock, Snarl, Triceradon, and Slapper.
Animated continuity
Animated cartoon
Grimlock and Snarl are dinosaurs (a T. rex and a Triceratops) while Swoop is a Pteranodon. They form the Dinobots, based on animatronic robots that had entertained the public. Blast from the Past
Zaur lives on Cybertron and is frightened of organics. He is a brontobot, a species which bears a remarkable resemblance to sauropod dinosaurs. This Is Why I Hate Machines
Time-Quake
While conducting time experiments, Professor Simion Hawkins time-displaced a number of dinosaurs, including a T. rex which Bulkhead fought. When the Autobots tracked the professor down, he held them off by transporting more dinosaurs forward in time, leading them to fight a Triceratops. Time-Quake
Movie continuity
After being awoken by an AllSpark fragment, Jetfire, confused and disoriented, had trouble remembering what his mission profile was. In his confusion, he briefly believed that the Seekers were there to destroy the dinosaurs, but Mikaela Banes informed him that they were long since dead. Revenge of the Fallen
Power Core Combiners
The Autobot Grimstone, who transforms into a mechanical Styracosaurus, can combine with three dinosaur drones, a Parasaurolophus, a Pachycephalosaurus and an Ankylosaurus, and one Dimetrodon.
Shattered Glass
Grimlock, who transforms into a Tyrannosaurus, was created by the heroic Decepticons. He was deactivated by Megatron for being too violent. Optimus Prime reactivated him and he joined the Autobots. Grimlock's toy bio Wheeljack created the Dinobots based off of Grimlock's design. Some of these Dinobots were kept by the Decepticons and renamed Dinocons. Dungeons & Dinobots
In search for Soundwave, Heatwave went to Wyatt's Roadsideaganza, where he mistook two of the displays for real dinosaurs that tried to attack him. He destroyed both displays and some more. The Desert Heat!
Aligned continuity
Rescue Bots cartoon
The Griffin Rock natural history museum had a number of robotic dinosaur exhibits. After a fire, Chief Burns and Graham were almost crushed when the head fell off one damaged model. The Tyrannosaurus rex, sporting damage that went unnoticed, later went for a stroll and had to be subdued by the Rescue Bots before being returned to the exhibit. Family of Heroes
Doc Greene later reprogrammed the damaged dino into a butler and dubbed it Trex. It was used by a mysterious figure to access the island's mainframe and, infected by a virus, it began rampaging through town again. Return of the Dino Bot
Fall of Cybertron
Shockwave was fascinated by the lifeforms he spotted on Earth called dinosaurs, and used them as inspiration for strange experiments where he changed the bodies of Grimlock and the fellow members of his strike team. Once Shockwave was done, the team possessed the ability to transform into dinosaurs! Transformers: Fall of Cybertron
IDW Transformers Prime: Beast Hunters Comics
Shockwave created organic clones of the same dinosaurs he used as models for the Dinobots, and tried using Energon to give them life. However these dino-clones could not survive long in the oxygen-less atmosphere of Cybertron, so Shockwave kept them inside stasis tanks to keep them alive.
Grimlock and Swoop found the laboratory Shockwave had stored them in, and the bones of a dino-clone that had already escaped its tank and expired. The two Dinobots subsequently came up against a T. rex, a Stegosaurus, a Triceratops and a Pteranodon as they broke out of the tanks. The attack soon spilled into Last Spark where the other Dinobots were, but the dino-clones began to combust and soon exploded, leaving nothing behind but a huge puddle of Energon. Beast Hunters issue 3Beast Hunters issue 4
Notes
- A number of Transformers, such as Terrorsaur, Brimstone, Sling, Swoop and two thirds of Magmatron, are treated as if they have dinosaur alternate modes. However, in all cases, these are animals which are either only closely related, very distantly related, or so distantly related it's like saying you're a fish. But that's pretty much par for the course when it comes to the casual portrayal of dinosaurs in popular culture, so we're not judging.
