I have been thinking about it and was wondering. Why is that Transformers on Cybertron Transform into vehilcles that have doors, steering wheels, and windows? They are self operating beings with no operators needed.
Is it known that the cybertronian modes for sure have such features? Can you give me some examples? The "futuristic" tfs from the 86 movie likely adopted such features due to exposure to the humans, or for all we know, theyre meant to be based off the new 2005 Chevy Sunspot or some other fictional car thought up 25 years ago. Doors I could see being useful if internal cargo bays were in use, windows I could see being protective covers for complex and delicate internal sensor systems. Steering wheels, not so much. When in doubt, you could always make up some story about how they were enslaved and those features are vestigial, relating back to their Diaclone Slavedrivers.
If applied to cartoon G1, this makes perfect sense, with the cabs/cockpits designed for Quintesson or Sharkticon crews. In other continuities, they could be intended for use by smaller TFs such as Minibots, Micromasters or Minicons.
Looking at War With In they all had cockpits and this was way befor any involvment with Earth. If you have no controls like a steering wheel then there is no reason to have cockpits like on WWI Prime, Prowl, all the seekers and so on...
Umm... Bumblebee may not have been driving exactly, but he fit pretty nicely inside of Wheeljack while he was in his alt. mode (Wheeljack, not Bumblebee- though that holds just as true). And Blaster rode inside Cosmos in an episode. Though that is some time after already being on Earth. However much you consider a UFO an "Earth mode." So... my best answer is that they drove each other. Or at the very least, gave each other rides. Sounds weird, but there's plenty of evidence to support it.
Mainly, because people are stupid. Toy vehicles that look like nothing won't sell. People don't identify with vehicles that don't have some semblance to preconceived notions of "futuristic designs". Toy vehicles have to clearly look like vehicles, so that includes stuff like windows, cockpits.
Cockpits and windows could easily be their visors and sensors in vehicle mode. I remember in TFA that Omega Supreme couldn't see anything because his cockpit area was covered in rocks.
Like Nachtsider said, for when smaller Transformers want to travel inside larger ones. At least that's my explanation, anyway. And I like to think their windows serve as their optics in vehicle form.
The real answer is so kids can still associate them to cars/jets. The fake answer, is that humans aren't the only humanoids in the TF universe. We've seen many alien races in the cartoons/comics that resemble humans (Nebulons being the most obvious example). I just assume that they've been influenced over eons by these races.
Primus, the Matrix or whatever foresaw the Transformers involvment with Earth and Humans and nudged TFs subconsciously to add places for smaller beings to ride in their alt modes. That and for smaller robots to ride in. Maybe having those mysterious riding compartments and windscreens prompted TFs to build smaller robots to make full use of them. Rumble should thank Humans for him being created.
Joe wins the internets! Also, there are some theorists that buy into the idea that the Quintessons play a large role in the creation/fabrication/retrofitting of the Transformers in the distant past. IIRC, the short version of the story revolves around the Quints manufacturing TFs on Cybertron. Some as Military hardware and some as Domestic... these machines were built with the intent to sell to other species that would in turn use them for their own ends. Yadda yadda, over time the transformers gained sentience and decided that they didn't want only a life of servitude.
It's the same as asking why they spoke English on Cybertron before they ever met humans. It's one of those "just accept it and move on" type of things.
Agreed, there are so many things like that - disappearing trailers, spontaneously growing tape decks, etc... Funny, those things irritated me far more when I was ten than they do now.
No Not really. Thats a totaly diffrent type of angle. Because they dont speak english in Japan and so on.
But every Canadian or European they run into in Masterforce speaks Japanese. I imagine a concept like Transformers just requires a great deal of suspension of disbelief.
I think the concept at the heart of it is "they speak the same language as humans before they meet humans" Which is certainly a case for suspension of disbelief.
