The Energon Pub

Even after that classic scene from the 1986 movie:



It is hard to really see how big they are. Especially in vehicle mode. Are the Junkions mass-shifting so their human-sized bike mode accommodate smaller bots, or are the bot big, standard TF sized and the bikes are giant enough so that a normal sized Transformers can ride it?

Asking for a friend who is a scale purist.

In robot mode they are shown as being similar in size to Transformers like Springer. Regarding alt mode, they are very flexible beings and can change size almost immediately to accommodate larger or smaller riders. Usually, this can be accomplished with ordinary tissue stretching but perhaps they can do some interdimensional mass-shifting sometimes. Their technology seems compatible with Transformers, given how easily they repaired Ultra Magnus.

So, the bike size depends on the rider.

I bet that by G1 Sunbow logic, the same Junkion could offer a ride either to a human or Metroplex.

"How big is a robot next to another robot?"
"Uh, similar size, I guess?"

"How big is a bike next to a car?"
"Uh, little smaller, I guess?"

"Should these two things have any relation to each other? Like when the robot rides the bike?"
"I don't understand the question."



(FWIW, this movie also features Soundwave transforming to his tape player mode in scale with the other Decepticons when previously Spike could put it in his backpack, and Megatron transforming into a gun Starscream could hold. The logic's screwy, but at least consistent - scale is "what looks right in the scene.")

Glyph wrote:"How big is a robot next to another robot?"
"Uh, similar size, I guess?"

"How big is a bike next to a car?"
"Uh, little smaller, I guess?"

"Should these two things have any relation to each other? Like when the robot rides the bike?"
"I don't understand the question."

A robot who is as tall as a house sure wouldn't ride a human sized bike. So, that bike that can carry a giant-ass robot, how big it is compared to a regular sized car?

That's the point, it was just drawn to look right so there's no way to make the scale work. A regular-sized robot should turn into a bike that's about the same size as the Autobot cars - which the toy did IIRC! But a bike that looks right next to the Autobot cars, as the movie depicts them, should turn into a robot a little bigger than a human. The standing robots were drawn to fit with the other standing robots; the bikes were drawn to fit with the cars; the riders were drawn to fit with the bikes.

There's no squaring that circle without invoking mass-shifting.

Glyph wrote:
There's no squaring that circle without invoking mass-shifting.

That's nothing compared to Astrotrain.

A regular sized bot who can transform into a shuttle able to carry the WHOLE ARMY. Including a fully formed Devastator.

Sunbow logic! "Whatever looks right in this scene, the end"

I guess you could make a Junkion toy that was a bit smaller than average (Scout vs Deluxe?) and turned into a bike a bit larger than it 'should' be. That wouldn't match any of the on-screen depictions, but it'd at least "work" toyetically (I think the Junkions were mostly modelled on Honda Goldwing-type bikes, so it'd be ok for them to be a bit bigger than a superbike). But if you had two copies of that toy, you probably still couldn't have one riding the other and not look silly.