The cast of The Transformers were asleep for 4 Million years. They're behind the times, technologically.

 

They have fusion reactors. Megatron has one bolted to his arm. He uses it to knock down Autobots every week. He still chugs energon like its going out of style.

That's right, these robots consume so much juice that they get wasted off enough power to light up vegas and are hungry again the next day. They also use a power source capable of supplying all of earth's energy needs as a mostly-non-lethal gun.

The Autobots have also toyed around with solar and wind and magnetic energy, but the problem is those sources aren't efficient enough to supply the needs of humanity, let alone the transformers.

 

maybe erergon is more of a drug versus any other old energy source?

Do transformers need medical attention maybe reprogramming or mental medical help to help ween off it ? maybe addictive personality treatments, ocd ?

maybe weekly visits with a shrink to discuss why the NEED erergon and fight for it so much they are willing to DIE for it ?

 

The prospect of a mobile Nuclear powered Fusion cannon is beyond me. Using simple logic, I've come to the conclusion that Megatron's frame is too small to hold a Fusion Reactor.
Add this to the fact that, should the Fusion Reactor enter meltdown stages, A.K.A blow up, everything in a 10 mile radius will be vaporized.
They can just use Energon, which as noted in Thief in the Night (G1), requires 1000 barrels of oil for 1 energon cube, thus making it inefficient, but making up for it with the Energon's longevity once consumed.

 

True... but treating Transformer biology as being similar to earth machinery, including internal combustion engines, is something that defined Cybertronians very much from the beginning. It's an element I always liked about them, and too often I find Energon to be treated as a cure-all patch for whatever the plot requires.

When was this? Not doubting you, just curious when they first treated Energon this way.

Right. In almost every single case that a TF's metabolism and energy/propulsion systems are ever mentioned in the extended bios, it's very clear that they operate on combustible fuels.

The cartoon writers just defaulted to Energon because it was easier to write half-baked storylines around. It's pretty clear that most of the writers had no idea what Energon should be, considering it started as containment boxes for anything the Cons felt like stealing that week... oil, hydro-electric power, hyperactive children, static electricity from kittens, etc...

Megatron's fusion cannon is a bit ambiguous... hypothetically, based on the description in his bio, he could just dump garbage into the thing, and convert the matter into explosive power. Hypothetically, this tech could be pretty useful in an energy crisis, but it's possible that it's very design prevents it from being used for anything other than blowing shit up.  

To say nothing of inter-dimensional links to black holes to siphon Anti-Matter...

This is why I think Shockwave is probably an exceptional case. He probably avoids being on the front lines, and isn't the type who gets torn open very easily.  

Have we ever seen Energon cubes sit around for "millenia"?

Exactly! How many Autobots on the Ark do you think could make a nuclear reactor from scratch? Not many... it's tough enough just keeping up with the broken servos and repairing the photon rifles and whatever.

Also the fact that Ratchet is described as the "best tool and die man on Cybertron", emphasizes the fact that he hand-tools all the replacement components and parts for all of the Autobots, from scratch pretty much... which is why he's so critical. Of course, the "nanotech self-repair blahblahblah" that we've seen pop up in the fiction here and there over the years would make that redundant, but we all know that "nanotech" and magic regeneration is for empowerment fanboys. It's all BS.  

I think this depends a great deal on the individual, and how much "ammo" they are carrying. I doubt most Autobots would be able to wreak that much havoc on one tank of gas or whatever. Even Thundercracker or Skywarp are pretty much reduced to some cluster bombs, machine guns, and incendiary rounds.

Of course, then there are guys like Onslaught and other heavy hitters. It's surprising sometimes... like Slingshot also comes to mind. The description of his firepower is pretty startling. More than anything though, the thing that most often seems outrageous in the extended bios, is the RANGE that all of these weapons are considered effective at... realistically, Transformers firefights would all be resolved before either party could even see each other.  

True, though in that case, they were also cannibalizing each other for parts, and it was considered pretty grotesque.

I mean, we could hypothetically eat each other too, though there's a pretty strong taboo associated with that.

I guess it depends on whether the gas contacted directly with metal supports before it dissipated. It's a good point though.

As for radiation... who's to say that radiation wouldn't affect TF's too on some level. They're electronic beings... maybe extreme radiation could cause catastrophic decay in their memory banks, or temporarily frazzle their cognitive processes.

Again, that's his gun, not him. Just because his fusion cannon can generate explosive power, that doesn't mean he can use it as a fuel source. Seems a little... volatile?

How would he go about administering energy to his flagging troops? Everyone line up, place your face in front of the barrel, and open wide...  

Well yeah... it is sort of silly. But remember, Megatron's Fusion Cannon is a unique weapon... it's not like everyone is walking around with one, and I don't exactly see Megs handing his over to be dismantled and retro-engineered to feed the needy, y'know?  

Unless you're Snarl... he powers up to tenfold his normal power in the sunlight, but then can't store any of it and becomes weakened at night. Kind of an all-or-nothing flawed energy system, that.

zmog

 

I know, right? I mean, he's small enough to fit in the palm of my hand... how could he POSSIBLY hold a nuclear reactor in there??  

zmog

 

yeah and then the good ole geiger counter gets broken out along with the XXXL can of robot whipass and SMACK...one less transformer trying to blend in.

 

duh! why didn't I think of that, That's an excellent point Cinder.

 

Blackthorne's short-lived "Transformers in 3-D" comics. An obscure source to be sure, but it's fascinating to see how early this concept came about, and for it make a resurgence in Beast Wars out of nothing but sheer coincidence!

 

Ah... that thing! I vaguely remember coming across that oddity on the rack back in the day, though I don't think I ever had a chance to actually read it.

zmog

 

You didn't miss much.

 

I do remember being struck by how the artwork seemed more cartoony, but somehow better than the stuff Marvel was putting out in their TF title. Not sure how I'd feel about it today though...

zmog

 

If I was TF I'd build a solar array near the sun (or even a shell completely enclosing the sun) and have the energy collected by that. Then either make energon cubes from it or have it somehow beamed directly to every TF. Much less hassle than drudging around Earth and sliding about in oil and humans.

 

Build a transforming dyson sphere.

 

Like a Dyson Sphere?

 

Looking back, I find it funny that, (from the context of the cartoons) with the Decepticons' apparent capacity to build on a pretty grand scale (orbital energy collection platforms, giant purple flying griffins, remaking New York), they rarely ever just build their own solar/wind/hydro/geothermal/whatever power plant in an out-of-the-way place to generate Energon so they don't have to constantly steal from other sources. My best guess is the 'Cons are either too impatient for a slower process like that, or they generally "just don't think that way".  

I suppose the war is the big factor too, as any side is not likely to leave an installation which gives one side an energy advantage alone, even if it's not being harmful to the planet or the people.

 

Because as "The Master Builders" showed, the Autobots would tear it down.

The big reason is plot. If the Decepticons were building their own resource gathering devices there wouldn't be much of a story without making the Autobots complete jerks.

One aspect that's interesting from the comics is that Darkmount is seemingly geothermally powered.

 

Mmm... Smelting Pool....

Yup. It's funny that I'm always advocating a Dyson-Sphere-style Unicron in the movie forums but when it came to making my post in here I couldn't for the life of me remember the name 'Dyson Sphere'.  

Sure the Autobots might come along and destroy such a building project if the Decepticons did it around Earth's sun, but maybe if they sneakily sent the Constructicons in a small shuttle to the next nearest sun and built one there then they might get the time to reap the benefits. Or go through the Space Bridge and find a sun nearest Cybertron so they can take advantage of handy materials and drones and the fact that Optimus and co are millions of miles away. And Cybertron would be a nice nearby place to take all the energon cubes to when the machine is up and running and generating power.

It may not be very warrior-like sneaking about and building stuff, but once they have enough energon they can crush the Autobots just for fun.

 

You mean like their quiet space refining program that Astrotrain and the Constructicons were running which was discovered by Cosmos, prompting the Autobots to stop them as in "The Secret of Omega Supreme"?

You mean like in MTMTE III when the Decepticons were leaving Earth forever and the Autobots shot them down to keep them from taking Energon back to Cybertron?

One thing that's amusing is that in the cartoon the Autobots and Decepticons are embroiled in this near equal civil war on Earth, but on Cybertron Shockwave rules Cybertron with large stockpiles of Energon, only Alpha Trion and his femmebot wrecking crew oppose him.

 

  Well, to be fair, the Decepticons were of course going to conquer the universe with all that Energon, so it was the right thing to do. I guess.

Yeah, but that's because apparently they are the only living things left on Cybertron.

Shockwave just hangs out pushing buttons and telling his drones to do stuff because presumably there's nobody left to oppress. Poor Shockwave... he's practically the last guy on the planet with 5 women, and they all hate his guts. Alpha Trion is apparently the Hugh Hefner of Transformers though.  

zmog