In the sequel, Starscream was nice enough to point out that Transformers are "born" and need energon to survive.

Now, completely ignoring the reproduction aspect, as that's a whole nother discussion, I want to know what makes them grow?

Is Energon the only thing? Do they need raw materials?

Or more importantly, why do some Transformers seem to stop at Human Size or smaller while others grow to be Devastator sized?

I know it is kind of hinted at with the Twins upgrading from 1 vehicle to 2. They obviously "grew" at that time in order to make 2 vehicles.

As The Fallen and Jetfire proved, it has nothing to do with age either, as they were the same size as Optimus. However, both were much older than him.

I also wonder, do Transformers decide when they want to quit growing?

And, as has been speculated with the whole Constructicons debate, there seem to be several different "breeds" of Transformer, which makes sense, as the larvae that slips out of its birth juice onto Starscream's shoulder is probably bigger than Frenzy or Alice.

That makes me think that Frenzy, Alice, and Wheelie all come from a smaller breed that have smaller larvae. Obviously, their size would pretty much rule them out as potential soldiers as the war goes on. So the few we have seen so far were probably around before the war began and were allowed to survive for espionage.

So one has to think that the Decepticons are trying to breed a "superior" race of Transformer for their army, which is strikingly similar to something that happened here on Earth....

Your thoughts?

 

What I noticed about Transformers is that they range in size from the tiny Insecticon to the maximum size of the Fallen.
Many of the smaller ones cannot seem to talk and are servants of those who can talk. The ones I saw who cannot talk are the tiny spy insecticon, the worm with tentacles carried by 2 flying Insecticons, Scorponok and Ravage. There are also small ones who can talk like Frenzy, Wheelie and Alice.
One explanation for the size difference is the lack of energon for the small ones.
Anoter explanation for the small ones is that they were not able to find more metal to incorporate into their bodies.
For those born by AllSpark, the initial size depends on the size of the metallic material that the AllSpark strikes.
For those born from eggs, the eggs do seem to start small and their growth might depend on energon and additional metal. Optimus was able to become larger by using the parts of Jetfire.
Energon might only be useful for sustaining life rather than making robots increas in size which probably requires additional metal or parts.
The disadvantage of large size is probably the need for more energon. A smaller size probably needs less energon to survive. It is useless to be large if you cannot find enough energon to support you so you will die.
Female transformers probably have breast energon for babies.