It's actually a good question. I suppose the reason the earthen animal robot modes (Ravage, Laserbeak etc) were so designed is to correspond with the original Cybertronian robot mode. I don't hold with the theory of them being 'domesticated', though, as they were portrayed (not in the cartoon, but everywhere else) as distinct characters, not just Soundwave's 'pets'.
Why they'd have these 'animal' (if that's the right word under the circumstances) forms in the first place, it's hard to say. I think Ravage and Laserbeak's robot modes for instance would suit their personalities, so if, as some have suggested, their modes are chosen upon initial formatting according to personality - like a subconscious choice on the part of the protoform - that'd work. Though I don't think the theory works for, say, Buzzsaw, who I'd really think should be a humanoid, if only for the opposable thumbs (it must be hard doing art with just a beak to work with!).
Auto Bot wrote:Following the G1 story, Teletran 1 sent out a probe to explore a possible alt mode for each transformer.
It's a wonder why a few alt mode chosen were BIOLOGICAL creatures.
Actually, if you follow the original comics, the 'sky spy' picked out the mechanical entities it did actually because it thought they
were the dominant lifeform - it had never encountered biological life before and so didn't acknowledge it. Only later (presumably once the Transformers' presence been firmly established on Earth) did 'organic' alt-modes come into play. Maybe by this point disguise had become much less of an issue, and the alt-modes were designed with a more active function in mind.
