Thought, After Watching Relentlessly Repeated Promotions for a New DVD Too Many Times

[beamjockey]

Generation X question:

So Transformers are these robots, originating on a distant planet long ago, which are able to fold themselves into a perfect replica of semitrailer trucks, fire trucks, and (if memory serves) a yellow Volkswagen Beetle. I believe the latter was recast as a Chevy Camaro for the live-action film.

Do the Transformers have an arbitrary ability to change their forms? If they found themselves on, say, Mars, could they disguise themselves as Martian trucks? Or were they designed originally to fold up into a Volkswagen Beetle (etc.), and nothing else?

Comments

[avram]

There's a spot in our universe where it brushes up against the Platonic Realm of Ideal Forms -- specifically, the part of the Platonic Realm where the Ideal Forms of automobiles are stored. Those forms are broadcast through space on a subconscious telepathic waveband, influencing automobile designers. There's a small amount of relative motion between our world and the Platonic Realm, so different designs get broadcast as time goes by, which accounts for changes in auto design over time. If Mars had a native intelligent species, their cars would look just like ours.

The Transformers' homeworld is the same distance that ours is from the broadcast point. If it were a few decades farther away, the robots would all look like '50s cars with big tail-fins.

[peteralway.livejournal.com]

Oh, no! Now the very idea of the Platonic ideal form of an automobile existes in my head, and it makes my brain run in loops that it usually reserves for sick dreams.

Make it stop!

[stickmaker.livejournal.com]

The Autobots were originally designed as multi-function consumer goods, according to one of the later episodes. The Decepticons used the same tech for military customers. There was a lot of technology bleed after they drove their creators off Cybertron.

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

They used their chameleon circuits to blend in when they first got to earth, but those circuits were damaged so now they're stuck like that.

Or maybe that's another science fiction show...

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

Actually I think they carefully and secretly guided car design so that the cars that they could turn into would be designed and built. Sneaky, huh?

[bigblued.livejournal.com]

In the current movie reality, they have the ability to "impress" their from from things around them. In the first movie this is demonstrated when they first land on earth and pick their forms from nearby vehicles. In the second movie it's shown that it's not a permanent form. The Twins start the movie together as an ice cream truck. When their mission is over they "given" street racer forms by having them drive past the cars the military wants them to look like.

In general tho, once they take a form they tend to keep that form, mostly out of personal choice.

IIRC, in the cartoons, they were assigned forms to blend into the environment, and once they took that form they couldn't change. Hence the Dinobots.

[bigblued.livejournal.com]

Oh, and if you want to learn more than you ever wanted to know about their history, variations, science, toy runs, tv shows, etc., ask darkwing830 at Windy.

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

There have been ten comments so far. I already know more about their history, variations, science, toy runs, tv shows, etc. than I want to...

Sorry, Gen X, but I always found this a very uninteresting TV show. I had already been exposed to anime when T first aired. So it looked derivative and way less interesting than Japanese-giant-robot cartoons.

I respect darkwing830's expertise, but this stuff is not for me. On the other hand (as you probably know) I can rattle off all kinds of detail about 1960s cartoon shows, including some highly flawed ones.

[seawasp]

You asked the question. You have geeks on your FList. You should expect exhaustive answers in detail far greater than you want, with repeated exhortations to actually WATCH the show, because you're not Getting It and should try it again!

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

You should expect exhaustive answers in detail far greater than you want, with repeated exhortations to actually WATCH the show, because you're not Getting It and should try it again!

Right. To quote a Saturday morning cartoon character from MY era, "You knew the job was dangerous when you took it, Fred!"

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

I was juuuuust a little too old to be into the Transformers, by about a couple of years. And the appeal is as mystifying to me as it is to you. And G.I. Joe? G.I. Joe is a realistically modeled soldier in a U.S. Army uniform! I don't know who those little guys with all the fancy laser guns are.

Yet I totally get Speed Racer.

[erik]

I think you may be overthinking this.

In fact, I know you are. Because you are thinking.

[jarodrussell.livejournal.com]

Do the Transformers have an arbitrary ability to change their forms?

http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Transforming

[madtechie2718.livejournal.com]

Bill, you need to work harder on your suspension of disbelief ....