The Energon Pub

Tramp wrote:

Shadowman wrote:

Tramp wrote:The only version of Soundwave's alternate mode we ever see is from the cartoon, and it's immobile. Don Figueroa did a concept design for War Within he uptimately regected. He never showed Soundwave's alternate mode in the comic itself. Soundwave's cartoon alternate mode on Cybertron looked to be some sort of communications relay tower or something along those lines. It was not, as some claim, a street light.

Look at the street lights outside Iacon in the first episode of G1. Then, compare them to Soundwave's alternate mode.

I have. He is not a street light.

He looks a helluva lot like one, then.

Shadowman wrote:

Tramp wrote:

Shadowman wrote:

Tramp wrote:The only version of Soundwave's alternate mode we ever see is from the cartoon, and it's immobile. Don Figueroa did a concept design for War Within he uptimately regected. He never showed Soundwave's alternate mode in the comic itself. Soundwave's cartoon alternate mode on Cybertron looked to be some sort of communications relay tower or something along those lines. It was not, as some claim, a street light.

Look at the street lights outside Iacon in the first episode of G1. Then, compare them to Soundwave's alternate mode.

I have. He is not a street light.

He looks a helluva lot like one, then.

No. He looks like a communications relay tower.

Tramp wrote:

Shadowman wrote:

Tramp wrote:

Shadowman wrote:

Tramp wrote:The only version of Soundwave's alternate mode we ever see is from the cartoon, and it's immobile. Don Figueroa did a concept design for War Within he uptimately regected. He never showed Soundwave's alternate mode in the comic itself. Soundwave's cartoon alternate mode on Cybertron looked to be some sort of communications relay tower or something along those lines. It was not, as some claim, a street light.

Look at the street lights outside Iacon in the first episode of G1. Then, compare them to Soundwave's alternate mode.

I have. He is not a street light.

He looks a helluva lot like one, then.

No. He looks like a communications relay tower.

Who the hell puts a communications tower, outside a base, on the highway leading in?

Shadowman wrote:

Tramp wrote:

Shadowman wrote:

Tramp wrote:

Shadowman wrote:

Tramp wrote:The only version of Soundwave's alternate mode we ever see is from the cartoon, and it's immobile. Don Figueroa did a concept design for War Within he uptimately regected. He never showed Soundwave's alternate mode in the comic itself. Soundwave's cartoon alternate mode on Cybertron looked to be some sort of communications relay tower or something along those lines. It was not, as some claim, a street light.

Look at the street lights outside Iacon in the first episode of G1. Then, compare them to Soundwave's alternate mode.

I have. He is not a street light.

He looks a helluva lot like one, then.

No. He looks like a communications relay tower.

Who the hell puts a communications tower, outside a base, on the highway leading in?

Why wouldn't they? Unless you want the base completely isolated from the rest of the world, you need realay towers to allow communications to and from the base.

Relay towers standing bent over a highway, at set intervals, giving off light.

Yup, that's a comm tower, all right.

Shadowman wrote:Relay towers standing bent over a highway, at set intervals, giving off light.

Yup, that's a comm tower, all right.

Soundwave doesn't give off light. He also doesn't have lamps. He was a relay tower not a street light.

Tramp wrote:

Shadowman wrote:Relay towers standing bent over a highway, at set intervals, giving off light.

Yup, that's a comm tower, all right.

Soundwave doesn't give off light. He also doesn't have lamps. He was a relay tower not a street light.

Suuuure he was.

So, he was a telephone pole, then.

Loki41872 wrote:So, he was a telephone pole, then.

while his initial design from cybertron looked like a standing "T" and was et in intevals along a road, this could indicat telephone pole lines or street lamps. Going by his function, and better known altmode, a communications tower would be most appropriate. While lighting could be a secondary function of his altform, being named Soundwave and having an alt unrelated to sound kinda seems... wrong.

But if you asked me when i was first watching the show what i though he was i would have said a lamp post too.

AxiomScion wrote:

Loki41872 wrote:So, he was a telephone pole, then.

while his initial design from cybertron looked like a standing "T" and was et in intevals along a road, this could indicat telephone pole lines or street lamps. Going by his function, and better known altmode, a communications tower would be most appropriate. While lighting could be a secondary function of his altform, being named Soundwave and having an alt unrelated to sound kinda seems... wrong.

But if you asked me when i was first watching the show what i though he was i would have said a lamp post too.

Yeah, names should be related to alt-modes, like Bumblebee, Blaster, and Starscream.

Shadowman= Logic Master.

besides grimlock, what were the other dinobots alt mode?

Sludge = apatosaurus (falsely called brontosaurus)
Snarl = stegosaurus
Slag = triceratops
Swoop = pteranodon.

Actually, I quite like IDW's take on the Dinobots. They arrived on Earth a couple of million years ago, when the energon levels were too high (as in Best Wars). Slag suggested using a synthetic organic shell to protect them from the radiation (again, as in Beast Wars). He made some suggestions for alt modes, but Grimlock thought they were all too wussy, scanned some fossils, and was much more impressed with the dinosaur forms.
The organic skins got blasted to shreds in the fight with Shockwave.

Ramrider wrote:Sludge = apatosaurus (falsely called brontosaurus)
Snarl = stegosaurus
Slag = triceratops
Swoop = pteranodon.

Unfortunately, Sludge wasn't falsely called a brontosaurus, he actually was a brontosaurus. The alt mode was made when it was believed that this particular dinosaur still existed. Luckily, all the Dinobots alt modes were indistinctive enough that this can be changed.

Soundwave is a comms relay and data station back home. He kinda is the Cybertronian equivalent of a phone booth.

I don't know why people find mass conversion so hard to accept. There is a whole lotta theory behind it in real life.

If E= mc^2 , then by moving any mass at the speed of light would allow you to convert it into pure energy, which could be quite happily stored within the transformer from which it came.

So, for an advanced alien race like the transformers, mass conversion is 100% viable and logical. just because most of us humans can't comprehend it...

Loki120 wrote:

Ramrider wrote:Sludge = apatosaurus (falsely called brontosaurus)
Snarl = stegosaurus
Slag = triceratops
Swoop = pteranodon.

Unfortunately, Sludge wasn't falsely called a brontosaurus, he actually was a brontosaurus. The alt mode was made when it was believed that this particular dinosaur still existed. Luckily, all the Dinobots alt modes were indistinctive enough that this can be changed.

Ah, right. I didn't know this, but I checked to try and find out the true story. I thought they were the same thing; that apatosaurus was discovered first, then brontosaurus was discovered later, only to be revealed to be another apatosaurus.

I've just found out different, thanks to your pointer. Apparently when 'brontosaurus' was reconstructed, it was actually made from the bones of more than one animal. The scientist who constructed it found a headless apatosaurus and finished it off using the closest thing he could, which turned out to be a camarasaurus (whose head had been with the rest of its body when he found it).
http://www.angelfire.com/mi/dinosaurs/brontosaurus.html

while we're at it - why would robots "talk" to each other instead of communicate via radio waves? Talking seems quite the inefficient way of communication!

ajy101 wrote:while we're at it - why would robots "talk" to each other instead of communicate via radio waves? Talking seems quite the inefficient way of communication!

Not really. Radio signals require more power to transmit than simple sounds. For sounds, all you need is enough power to cause a vibration in a membrane. For radio communication, you ned to have enough power to create the radio waves, which is an exceptionally greater amount of of amperage. Therefore, it is actually more energy efficient to talk than transmit radio signals except over exceptionally long distances where vocal communication would be impossible.

For what it's worth, you can see Soundwave's cartoon "alt mode" in The War Within comic in issue 4, on the screen that has Kup saying "So, Grimlock... we going in?" In the picture, the "communications" towers (or whatever they are) are giving off a faint amount of light.

Those aren't quite the same as what Soundwave looked like in his carton Cybertronian mode. For one thing, these are exceptionally taller and bent. The boxes on either side are also significantly shorter. They aren't the same.

Tramp wrote:Not really. Radio signals require more power to transmit than simple sounds. For sounds, all you need is enough power to cause a vibration in a membrane. For radio communication, you ned to have enough power to create the radio waves, which is an exceptionally greater amount of of amperage. Therefore, it is actually more energy efficient to talk than transmit radio signals except over exceptionally long distances where vocal communication would be impossible.

You're kidding right? We're talking about 50 ton robots who can fly, and you think the power required to run a cellphone is going to be a problem? Bring me more energon cubes!!

Tramp wrote:Those aren't quite the same as what Soundwave looked like in his carton Cybertronian mode. For one thing, these are exceptionally taller and bent. The boxes on either side are also significantly shorter. They aren't the same.

Hello.... Look at Optimus's robot mode on Cybertron in the first episode, then look at his design in WWI..... I think they're allowed to change the designs of some things...

ajy101 wrote:

Tramp wrote:Not really. Radio signals require more power to transmit than simple sounds. For sounds, all you need is enough power to cause a vibration in a membrane. For radio communication, you ned to have enough power to create the radio waves, which is an exceptionally greater amount of of amperage. Therefore, it is actually more energy efficient to talk than transmit radio signals except over exceptionally long distances where vocal communication would be impossible.

You're kidding right? We're talking about 50 ton robots who can fly, and you think the power required to run a cellphone is going to be a problem? Bring me more energon cubes!!

Besides, They use energy to talk anyway, they don't have vocal chords. So considering the alternative is using a fair bit of energy to vocalize noises that can only be heard close by, a system that runs more like MSN between robot's does seem more effective. It also allows one to know what another is thinking almost instantaneously, much better in a combat situation, which it seems these guys are constantly locked in.
edit: It would also mean the speech would be directed only at those the user wants to hear. Unless using some kind of hacking device, the Decepticons wouldn't be able to overhear any of Prime's "make a special run to Autobot city" orders again.

I've wondered about them speaking before (we won't get into why they speak even when there's no-one else around) because it would make more sense for them to relay information via radio or whatever. Thinking about it, the only reason I can think that they don't have Cybertron Instant Messenger for talking is to avoid being anti-social when other bots are nearby (real nearby) but not yet visible. Of course, they could have some sort of Bluetooth (which sounds like a cool TF name) thing for detecting each other as well, so the argument kinda falls flat.
Maybe they just don't like getting in each other's heads.