I've always wondered who makes the 'tech spec' stats we read on TF packages and where they pull their sources from. I've only never used the cartoons as reference material, and consider myself a moderate fan, but sometimes it seems like the numbers are completely random and make no sense.

Ultra Magnus
Strength: 9
Intelligence: 9
Speed: 6
Endurance: 8
Rank: 8
Courage: 9
Firepower: 6
Skill: 8

Soundwave
Strength: 8
Intelligence: 9
Speed: 2
Endurance: 6
Rank: 8
Courage: 5
Firepower: 6
Skill: 10

Lazerbeak
Strength: 5
Intelligence: 6
Speed: 8
Endurance: 5
Rank: 6
Courage: 2
Firepower: 8
Skill: 9


Rumble
Strength: 2.5
Intelligence: 5.75
Speed: 3.5
Endurance: 6.25
Rank: 6.25
Courage: 10
Firepower: 9
Skill: 6

Optimus Prime
Strength: 10
Intelligence: 10
Speed: 7
Endurance: 10
Rank: 10
Courage: 10
Firepower: 10
Skill: 6

So now lets get the discussion going with a familiar character. If you look at Ultra Magnus' stats, the intelligence and speed seem really high. IOne would think anything over 7 would be reserved for the hyper intelligent transformers (Wheeljack, Perceptor, Soundwave) that have shown knowledge of sciences, physics, time travel, creation and so on. Ultra Magnus has only ever been portrayed as an Autobot leader, a soldier, and war hero. He seems to have limited knowledge beyond combat experience and tactics. His speed is 6, but since he only has a vehicle mode that is land based, shouldn't it be somewhere around 3?

Next we have Soundwave, whose stats seem reflective of how he should be, however his strength and courage seem a tad high. He's always been a puppet master, letting his cassette bots do most of the work. While he doesn't fear engaging Autobots to protect Megatron, he's not exactly a bruiser like Iron Hide or Grimlock. Moving onto his pint sized spy, Lazerbreak's courage and speed seem accurate, but does he possesses more skill and firepower than Ultra Magnus? Im sure those blasters of his sting, but they haven't exactly one shotted any bots.

Rumbles stats are all over the place. He is one of the few transformers I've seen split the earth with pure seismic power (Sludge did the same thing in the G!), however his strength is a mere 2.5, half of that of Lazerbeak. According to these stats, his firepower and courage rival that of Optimus Prime. This is Rumble. Sure he's got an attitude, and like a mean metal chihuahua, he's got alot of bark, but does he really have that much bite?

Then we have Optimus Prime, whom blasts past Lazerbeak in speed (even though both their top speeds have been listed with complete contradiction in other sources), and whose intelligence places him far beyond the genius level intellects of the Autobot inventors, and yet, he comes up short in 'skill'. While the skill stat is vague at best, but I'm willing to believe that the leader of the Autobot trumps both Rumble and Lazerbreak combined in virtually all areas of skill.

If 10 is the maximum for strength, firepower, endurance and other attributes, reserved for strongest of transformers, Optimus, Megatron and the mighty Dinobots, then where would the likes of Devastator, Predaking and Omega Supreme fit? What about Metroplex?

Please discuss. Have fun.

 

They're all basically made up by the people who write the profiles.

 

To add to that, they're made up to make them sound awesome to sell toys to kids.

 

Chip Chase has a quadrillion in courage.

 

Grimlock
Strength: 10
Intelligence: 4
Speed: 3
Endurance: 10
Rank: 9
Courage: 10
Firepower: 8
Skill: 9

Now we have Grimlock. His sheer size and power seems to be reflected in his Strength, Endurance and Courage, however, Dinobots lack brains. That 4 could easily be a 3. Dinobots have been shown to be the slowest of Transformers, that speed could come down as well. Maybe instead of posting what they are, I should just post the specs how I feel they should be. This is my neurosis.

Agreed. I guess looking for continuity in something where there is none is kind of silly. Doesn't make the characters any less awesome, or the tech specs any less weird...

 

According to the War Within specs, Optimus is faster than Megatron. I didn't like them giving Optimus a speed of 7 in the movies while Megatron got a 10 in speed. Megatron is more obsessed with power so therefore only his strength and firepower should be 10.

 

See and thats the problem with continuity here, there are so many different versions of each bot. What is War Within? A comic series?

It is difficult to determine the factors chosen for speed are. Their ability to travel in vehicle mode? Their reflex and reaction time? Since G1 Megatron transforms into a pistol, I would think his speed should be 2. He has no extra locomotive power from his transformation. However, if its a version that transforms into a jet, then it makes sense.

I have to disagree with you here. The fact that Megatron is obsessed with attaining power shouldn't make him the most powerful by default, otherwise, he wouldn't have anything to obsess over if he was already at his apex.

 

He better. Chip's the man.
Megatron seeks out greater power than what he already has inherent to his being. His power may be at 10, but that doesn't necessarily mean he's maxed out.

 

This is, and always has been, a matter of contention like many things having to do with TF lore. I would actually agree that Ultra Magnus should have a high intelligence though, as any "general" or commander should. But what good are those rockets on his shoulders if Lazerbeak is so much more powerful. For that matter, Soundwave has a huge missle launcher on his shoulder and carries a massive gun of his own, yet it's paultry next to Lazerbeak's.

And what the hell is "skill" anyway?

These things have been laughed at since 1984. They form a decent guide, but not much more.

 

I think they pick the numbers out of a hat because 80% of the time they don't match up to the character nor does the bio description

 

I'm with you here, though I've always felt that the bios themselves were well written. Even going back and reading some of them now, the verbiage used in the paragraphs, and the personalities they tried to assign to every single Transformer were impressive. 80s GI Joe and Transformers cardbacks appeared to have been written for boys ages 13+.

Another interesting point about the bios, is that while in the G1 cartoon, most all the weapons had the same effect on its target (Autobot gets hit, Autobot grunts and falls, rock gets hit, rock explodes, rinse and repeat), and had the same visual effects (looks like a laser beam, mostly due to animation production costs) the writers of the bios really seemed to want to expand on the universe and create a vast and interesting arsenal of Transformer weapons and what they do.

Transformers Wiki has some great info on their weapons, such as Wheeljack's Magnetic Inducer, a shoulder-mounted cannon can fire magnetic inducer shells. On detonation, they cover the target in a special magnetic dust. The victim, now magnetized, will find every metal object within 4000 feet is suddenly flying towards them. The dust may also force the victim to change mode and/or disable them.

There is a entire world of unique weapons that a video game franchise could tap into and offer up varied effects, such as Prowl's Acid Pellets, Starscreams Null-Ray, or Megatron's frightening ( and yes the most inconsistent of weapons) Fusion Canon. Do any of the TF games take advantage of this information? I haven't played any, but they seem pretty straight forward.

I wonder if there was every any creative disagreement between the people charged with producing these tech specs, or as another poster said, were they just drawn out of a hat? I'm sure there was some consideration to the reading level of the owner of these little bots. Sadly, the new MOTUC cardbacks look like they were written by 5 year olds for 5 year olds.

 

The movie games and War for Cybertron use fairly standard fps weapons for the most part, but Fall of Cybertron has a more unique arsenal. There's a sniper rifle
that turns enemies friendly, a triple buzzsaw weapon that can be used in melee or ranged combat, and an acid blob launcher to list a few. Even the more mundane weapons have neat upgrades, like turning a random bullet in the clip into a grenade

 

Maybe we are taking fire power wrong, maybe its how much of a drain the fire power is on there system, laserbeak is pretty small but his guns are of an average size for a tf. Its like putting robotic gun turret on your pickup, sure it'll work but your battery is going to run dry real fast.

I notice with both megatron and metroplex using their high end firepower leaves them both very weak, so maybe we've been looking at it backwards all these years.

That or it is all just numbers pulled out of the air to sell toys to kids.

 

Despite the tech specs, there are times when characters don't exactly live up to them in movies and shows. DOTM Megatron for example had specs worthy of Megatron but didn't exactly show them and neither did the Fallen.

 

Yeah, I remember reading some of the bios and weapon descriptions and thinking they sounded awesome only to have them completely ignored in the show. You're right though, if used as source material some of that stuff can be really greatly utilized. I don't remember reading that about Wheeljack's weapon, but it's really, really cool.

 

We should also keep in mind that the comics and the TV show were different continuities. How a character and his weapons were portrayed in the comic was off in different from how they were portrayed in the cartoon. for example in the headmasters miniseries Marvel comic book the target masters were showed using very different weapons from what they used in the cartoon. also in the US comic blaster was shown using his electro scrambler gun that had a very particular energy output. Tech Specs werr a good guide but the different mediums: cartoons, comic books, commercials, print books, were not always consistent.

 

I liked it when Optimus and Megatron had a score of 10 in everything.

 

Yeah it seems that way! That's why I started this thread.
Tech Specs Modified

 

Remember that the toys came before the cartoon and comic and cannot therefore take any subsequent story lines in to account when looking back at the tech specs.

Having said that, the idea that Grimlock with his inteligence of just 4, can outrank Ultra Magnus is bizarre!

 

Take the tech specs, as well as any special powers the characters have in the bio, with a HUGE grain of salt.

Sometimes little gems can be found in the specs...like that ROTF toaster with a courage of ten...he's very brave indeed.

Usually though, they don't make much sense, especially when compared to each other..and if the characters really had the full powers as described in the bios, they had the power to completely destroy the opposite faction and/or planet within a day.  

edit: sorry, just realised this thread was revived by somebody.