by Chris McFeely » Wed Nov 07, 2007 3:15 pm
1) It's not spelled out, but the reason would appear to be that the Autobots didn't have any contacts on Cybetron, so they had no-one to create a receptor there for them to use. With the Decepticons, they could build one end of the space bridge on Earth, and Shockwave built the other end on Cybertron and manned it, allowing for transport between those two points. The Autobots could've built one on Earth, but without another end to it for them to travel to, it'd just catapult them off through space - like the malfunctioning bridge in "Child's Play."
2) The thing about the G1 cartoon is that there's really absolutely zero funky quasi-mystical elements to it, until the Matrix is introduced in the movie. These robots are not infused with magic life by the Matrix, or the Allspark, or anything like that - they're just products of science, who are programmed. Wheeljack programmed the Dinobots as best he could, while Vector Sigma, and the super-intelligent Grimlock in "Grimlock's New Brain," could do the job to its fullest and program Transformers with full, complex, "living" personalities. This "product of science" origin is the backbone of a lot of the G1 cartoon - compare the "magic" comic book origin, with Primus and Unicron as godly beings, and Primus creating the Transformers from his own lifeforce, to the "science" origin of the cartoon, where the Quintessons build the Transformers, only to have them rebel, and Primacron builds Unicron, only to have him rebel. Science gone wrong!
