Touché.

 

Using meteor forms yes. As shown with Ravage they function more as missiles than fighters.

Unlike the Autobots they don't go for a stripped down based form. Decepticon protoforms like these have been shown to transform into anything without growing vehicle kibble parts. Like the police car and the car shooting civilians at Chicago.




They may transform into almost anything of proportionate mass but primarily they are troopers and pilots.

Autobots protoforms as said are stripped down exoskeletons to be filled out.

 

I actually really like the concept of the meteroid "flight mode". Its unique.

 

It's called "having a budget", bro. Why waste money on making slightly different Starscream's when you could easily just reuse the ships and the Protoforms?

 

t:

Ratchet was stoned.

And Ironhide was aiming for the house.  

 

...And Ironhide into a family's pool.

 

I think its important to remember a concept they tried to reinforce since the very beginning of these movies: you have to keep it accessible to people unfamiliar withTF-lore, and if that means pushing the idea that these things are aliens before pushing the idea that they are transforming robots, then so be it.

That being said, I think the two opposing sides here mesh well together. I always thought of the "meteor" form as sort of the equivalent of an extraterrestrial paratrooper, meant just for quick entry purposes. The ships however support the idea they they are in fact living things that dont always choose to travel under their own power. Humans can walk and run, put on roller blades and roll, and then hop in a car and drive. It's all relative.

 

seems more money saving to make a Starscream variation than completely new ships for DOTM. so i dont get your budget complaint.

 

I may not be the only one thinking this, but those smaller bots/guns that just fly around shooting at stuff, those should have transformed back into a robot.

They were merely weapons/guns floating around.

 

Well, nobody's perfect!

 

hahaha Ironhide would.

 

There wasn't any need for the meteor forms. I personally like the idea of them; a single-bot entry/reentry form with a stone outer core (absorbing the material from asteroids or the like) to protect against the heat of atmospheric entry without a ship. Safe? For the Cybertronian, yes. Efficient? Yes. Practical? Yes. The Autobots don't have a huge fleet of warships. They have/had the Xanthium and the Ark (And the Ark 2.0), and that's it. They launched from the second Ark to Earth upon receiving Bumblebee's signal. Where's the second Ark now? No idea. Maybe it was too badly damaged by the Nemesis (Which was itself seemingly incapacitated, perhaps in battle with the second ark) to continue using, perhaps it's Omega Supreme. I don't know. But as a "deployment form", it makes plenty of sense to me.

 

It neatly mirrors our own combat techniques, using various modes of travel depended on your goal. Stealth and quick entry? Meteor forms. Mass invasion and troop transport? Ships. Like paratroopers vs the Normandy beach boats.

 

Well, the pilots of those jet-fighters were in their proto-forms. Also, perhaps transforming is only used for stealth missions. Otherwise, I'd assume that they prefer to be in the safety of a vehicle, to protect themselves from attacks. Perhaps transforming isn't as common on Cybertron. In that clip in the beginning, most of the Cybertronian bots were in their protoforms.

 

Action Master homage??

 

That or Micromasters. The homage probably wasn't intentional, but it's not inheard of in TF history. Flattop, for example, transformed into a jet but also flew a jet.

Flattop (Decepticon) - Transformers Wiki

Overload and Roughstuff also flew jets, but they turned into trucks. Skystalker was a car who flew a jet. Oh, and Skyhopper transformed into a jet and flew a helicopter.

 

True, buy my statement was more sarcastic than anything...