Mkall, thank you, To Thunder Thrust and optronix91, thank you both. I think really a bunch of people need to get a time out and chill out.
Firstly to Shirogoshi, please calm down okay. I understand how this is frustrating for you, but please do try to see it from our point of view. You said that it's pointless to debate this as they are machines. I point out that there are several aliens in Starwars and Startrek that most people wouldn't believe reproduce but they do. Can't it be a possiblity that, maybe not the way you or I have relations, Transformers also can produce their own children? Is it so wrong to even consider this factor? This is all we're trying to get at, simply debating the ways of that possibly happening. And for the record, according to Flit D. and the Matrix of Knowledge on the 20th anniversery edition, there was a relationship that they were deveolping in G1 between Hot Rod and Arcee, but that was dropped due to the fact that they didn't want the whole issue of Hot Rod having to focus on Arcee and being a leader. They were supposed to be romantic rivals, as the writers of G1 did try to bring that into the series. I point to the whole Search for Alpha Trion, Sea of Change, The girl that loved Powerglide, and Carly's slight infatuation with Bumblebee. The reason they couldn't expand on this was becuase at the time cartoons weren't as sophisicated. Heck, if you want to get technical most people assumed that Cheetar and Tigera (or whatever his name was) on Thundercats were already doing more then just hanging out. So The whole idea of romance and kids cartoons is pretty much hand in hand. People expect it, this isn't My little poney, even Rainbow Bright had some romance in it!
Tramp...
I'm not mistaking what they are. More than Meets the Eye #8 specifically refers to them as regenerative circuitry. The writers may have used the teminaology incorrectly, but the mechanics are the same. Basically, what they're talking about is self-replicating nano-machines.
No, they're distinctly different things. And I doubt that the writers used the terminology wrong. The Regenerative circuits follow the same system that is similar to the armor based system in the movie continuity, which is not a nanite system but rather a liquid much like mercury. They are not self replicating machines, they are a type of circuitry that acts as a device which can alter and fix damage to the autobots body, with limitations. It is not nanite tech, nor was it ever shown to be as such. If anything it’s designed to help repair internal damage, not damage to the exoskeleton which is probably why a lot of the time Ratchet had to weld and fix parts.
It is part of the biocircuits. That is simply what the book calls the system.
No, the Biocircuits are a vastly different item which has yet to have its function fully ascertained to. But by the quote from Megatron about deactivating them on Starscream it appears that they’re probably used for biological reasons that we’ve yet to see. But they are not part of the regenerative circuits. This much is known because there was never a link established between DW, and the G1 cartoon, which they were basing a lot of the story off of.
Yes, the soul matures, but it doesn't do so before you are born, much less conceived. The spark matures as the Transformer matures, not before the Transformer is even created; not before the protoform is imbued with a spark and formats itself into new life. The Dreamwave comics, which became the basis for most of the information in TransFormers: the Ultimate Guide, established the core G1 continuity. DW also produced an Armada/Energon comic book series. They also released an MtMtE for Armada as well, though it provides no additional information on Sparks.
Please do read this article. As much as the Ultimate guide follows the Comics story, it doesn’t establish anything at all in connection to the cartoon. If you will notice, they even have Starscream and Skywarps numbers wrong! No one’s fixed them!
http://transformers.wikia.com/wiki/Spark I find this site far more helpful then the book ever was. And DK is not your best source for anything. A lot of the information that they have in there is not edited correctly. And before you say that Simon Furman is the main source, let me again point out that Marvel and the Uk were different continuities to the Cartoon, which I consider more cannon as it’s the one that most people know of.
The spark takes on qualities of the transformer, and um how do you know that the soul doesn’t mature before you are born? Have you ever seen a soul? Sparks are more physical then souls. Starscream notes that he was in a chamber, this to me is the equivalent of being in a womb, thus maturing before it’s placed into it’s first body.
Not entirely. They are pretty analogous to humans, just larger. Secondly, some minibots, yes, as simply small of stature, like Brawn. He's basically a drawf. Others are simply young. Bumblebee is supposed to be relatively young. I would estimate about equivalent to 15 or so in human age, Wheelie is about the equivalent of a 12-year-old.
Acutally Bumblebee is supposed to be older then Spike, like 19 or 20. And while they have similarities to humans, they’re not the same as humans. There’s a lot about them that we don’t have, and vice versa. I wouldn’t say that Brawn’s a dwarf by any means, I think that the reason for the minibots was to be used in the actual factories by the Quintessons. But that’s for another debate. Wheelie I will agree is a child.
The main point about children being so small and remaining comparitively small depending upon the Parent bot's size, particularly the mother, is because the femme's body wouldn't be able to stretch in orde to accomidate a larger offspring. Thus, any offspring would need to be small enough to not impede the femme or grow too big for her internal systems. For a Full-sized bot, that would equate to a child about the size of an adult human or smaller. For an adult minibot femme, that would equate to a child about the size of an an average six-year-old human child.
A transformers body can’t stretch. This has been proven by the fact that their internal structures are mostly composed of wiring and hardware. It can fold into itself and change size and mass, but it can’t shift the same way a normal female’s body would. Do note that a normal human female not only gains additional weight and muscle when pregnant, but also the body has to have elasticity and the pelvic joints that allow for the baby to rest. A female transformers body doesn’t have this elasticity because if she were to become pregnant as you suggested, then her body could not transform. And that would leave her vulnerable.
Actually, yes they do. MtMte #8 repeatedly refers to them having a genetic code. For instance, in the section on Mass conversion, it states that "this ability represents a significant genetic difference in those who posess it." In the section on Triple-Changers. It states that Shockwave realized that there must be a hardwired genetic component predisposing certain Cybertronians to accomidate triple-changing. So, yes, Cybertronians do have a genetic code. They do ave an analog to DNA.
Yes they have a genetic code, this code exists inside the spark, not inside the circuitry, or if it does it’s in the bio circuits. It is not in nanites. Nanites are designed for repairing or replacing limbs and other parts of the body, and I highly doubt Transformers would like them considering the virus Scraplets
http://transformers.wikia.com/wiki/Scraplet would be exactly what the nanites are, Self replicating microscopic robots, which embed themselves under the skin. There may be a componet, but it’s not a whole system, and it’s not the regenerative one that you’re suggesting. Each part of the Transformers body serves one function, and that function alone, if it were that it did more then that, then the system could become full of glitches and lead to a massive breakdown.
No, it wouldn't. They would just need to age and grow. It's part of being life. Life does not require outside forces to grow and mature. It just requires food and time. What you are ferring to specifically is a process called reformatting, and that is not the same thing. In the example of Cheetor, he was already fully grown, an adult, about the equivalent to an 18-year-old or so. In the cartoon, he went through very specific metamorphosies as a result of special cercumstances. HE wasn't aging or growing.
Firstly, you need an internal structure to grown. If our bodies were not to have a skeletal structure then we’d be mush, no way to grow at all. We’d be goo. The exoskeltal structure on a transformer is the main body, and if you’ve noticed this would not be able to change without some outside interference. The inner workings of the mecha system would need to have stability, if they kept stretching and changing then the housing and casing over time would slip and fail. Trust me on this one, I know how heat and cold screw up a computer system and when the metal warps, it’s not a good thing. Also regarding cheetor, he was not a fully grown transformer. Point blank, there has been several sketches of his early conception showing him to have a teenage face, much like the freckled one that was to indicated that he was at the oldest 15. Thus impulsive and reckless, and as such he didn’t notice women. He treated BA like any other kid would, and only in the third season did he mature enough to notice girls. Yes his changes were probably unique, but they probably followed the same pattern that most transformers bodies are subjected to. New housing units as the spark matures.
Secondly, it has also been shown in comics and later cartoons, that the alternate mode chosen has a dramatic effect on the robot mode's appearance, and that TransFormers are capable of scanning a new alternate mode by themselves. We see this in Armada, as well as the new movie, and in the differences in appearance between War Within and the ongoing G1 comics. Thus, a child would not need an outside force just to grow and develop, or even necessarily to reformat himself or herself a new alternate mode more in keeping with their size and age.
Please note the scanning is the outer form, the alt form, not the actual robot in side. Cheetor, Primal, and the others did not change their robotic modes when they scanned things, infact they stayed exactly as they were while on the ship. I never said that they couldn’t scan things on their own. However it’s just the altmodes that they change, not the actual robot inside the alt modes. The outer shell takes on features of the altmode, but the transformation is still practically the same. Look at Rattrap. Yes his head becomes his shoulders in Transmetal form, but the width and the bearings on his chest stay exactly the same. No change there.
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