In the first movie BB drives by a concept Camaro, scans it, and then changes his alt mode. In the second the ice cream twins pull up on 2 concept GM vehicles in a hanger (why they were there exactly I really don't know) and reformat into those cars. If it is so easy to do this why don't all of the bots rescan to fit where ever they are. Such as in the desert scenes when you see sportscars, concept sub-compacts, etc (not exactly ideal desert modes). Why wouldn't Bee or others reformat into more appropriate modes (Hummer, Land Rover, dune buggy, SUV)? They were surrounded my military Humvees and whatnot, so it would've made sense to just switch modes. It seems too convenient and easy sometimes, while other times it isn't even explored as an option. This was just one of the things that I've had trouble digesting about the movieverse, and there has been no attempt to really explain it at all. Likewise if they are trying to be robots in disguise then why is Prime so flamboyantly done up in flames? Why are concept vehicles used so often? An ice cream truck like that rolling through China??? You think that these modes would just draw more attention, and only hinder the "disguise".
Well, I'd like to think that robots can only scan a limited number of times in a given time frame. Like, they get only 5 opportunities to scan a new altmode or they can do it only once every 6 months or so. They're just being discretionary about it. /fanon
To sell toys, and to make characters memorable. All cartoon characters wears the same clothes for that reason.
Those cars were brought there by the miliatary for them to scan after their screw-up as the Ice cream truck. It may sound cheesy but its just not in the autobots mentality to do that. The scan an alt-mode that suits their personality as individuals. That's why so few autobots scan military modes. That is what a decepticon would do. Random alt-modes is a staple of transformers. Why does it bother you about the movie verse specifically? I think your thinking about it to hard. Why do you wear the clothes you do? It just suits you and it fits. Thats probably all the thought that goes into an autobots altmode
Autobots and Decpeticons need to scan a vehicle of suitable size and mass. That way, it takes less getting used too. They have to scan vehicle modes that are like the ones they used on Cybertron.
It bugs me with the movieverse specifically because of how arbitrary it seems. I get the costume, clothes, whatnot discussion, but changing vehicles is a whole lot different than going from a pinpoint oxford to a concert tee. When I watch it on film it causes my brain to hiccup, and I can't look at any of them as having this amazing ability to change modes but not use it as a tool but rather a costume change. The mass issue is easy too. Why drive around in the desert as a Camaro? You'd be stuck the second you went off the road and into the sand. There are other options with similar masses. In the end I guess I don't even know why mode shifting was used in the movies aside from a setup for Sam buying the car (he could have just as easily won a CC). Now that it has been used several times in two different movies I feel it has become confusing, and has been used for nothing more than a tool to pimp cars not enhance character. As an example I think that Skids and Mudflap would have worked much better as beaters.
How would Skids/Mudflap go then go from a Cyb form, to an ice cream truck, to two sub-compacts? There seems not to be any logical connection between the truck and cars.
I would have been fine with BB, skids and mudflap all being beaters for both movies. Its best not to over think all the economic issues and business deals that cause things like all the cars being gm concepts or pimped out. This is one of those times when "cuz its cool" is the only answer that fits despite how disappointing it is
Peterbilts do have flames. I've seen several on the highways. It's not that uncommon. The answers though? A) We know who the characters are. They're easier to identify when they're not changing forms every other scene. B) ILM has enough trouble making a robot with one alt mode. They don't need to waste the time rendering several Bumblebee variants. C) As much as it is a toy commercial, the movies are a car commercial as well. There are plenty of other questions to ask about the Movieverse. This is pretty minor.
While in all honesty I prefer the "having to be rebuilt" route be it on a table or in a chamber (yeah, time-consuming and difficult but it gives the process more of a feel in my opinion), the fact is that's how the Bayformers work and do so for many viable reasons. Screentime & convenience mostly, its certainly advantageous to any situation, likely there are limits such as how many times in a certain period of time due to energy consumption or something else, or having to roughly match amount of mass. Many reasons both in continuity and in movie-making. Sure, even with the advancements such a living machine species could have it does raise an eyebrow that in the literal blink of an eye they can scan something and have their entire form reformatted to accomodate the disguise and restructure their entire robot body to suddenly be made from whatever they scanned (ILM's admission that there's mass coming out of nowhere aside, natch), but questionable technology in Transformers is nothing new, and the fact is what's done is done.
