You know how old computers are not as smart or as fast as new computers? Yeah, that.

You know how kids start out not very smart and they get smarter as they get older? Yeah, that.

 

It didnt happen that way. In their first demonstration, the Dinos went Berserk and started leveling Autobot HQ, swating the Autobots like flies asside. Wheeljack used his magnetic inducer to shut them down, and begged Optimus "not to pull the plug on them", to which he responded yes, but they will be locked in the caves for ever. His reasoning for this pressumably was that the Autobots could not afford another time of them going haywire and them been unable to stop them (as it happened 2 more times, even with upgraded brains). Wheeljack complied, but we see him openly working into his lab on the new brain modules. Which I interpent to be a gray area. As far as I know nobody has ever put any restrictions on him, on what to work on and he himself conviniently took advantage of it, to stay behind and finish his work without mensioning any Brain upgrates to anyone whatsoever. As an asside the memory modules are the solo work of Wheeljack, we dont see Ratchet involved with them in anyway. Which is a point proving that Wheeljack is anything BUT useless.

 

Never made sense to me how they were able to build transformers without energon, stronger than anyone on the either side, with limited resources, in a cave.

 

What makes you think they didn't have Energon and had limited resources?

The Autobots never seem to be short on Energon, based on several episodes we know in fact that they were getting energy from Human governments

New York from never seem to be short on spare parts so it seems to me that resources to create new bodies would have been no problem for them

 

Indeed, the only thing Ratchet complained about was that the tools he was provided (presumably by the humans, or he built himself using earth materials) were not of Cybertronian grade.

 

They are stated to not run on Energon. That's why they were sent to Cybertron that time.

So they build this supreme almost invincible robots and they run on some sorta earth fuel

 

They were stated to not have any cybertonium in their systems. That's why they were sent to Cybertron that time.

Think of it as Energon = gasoline, cybertonium = oil. Since the Autobots didn't have access to cybertonium sources on Earth, the Dinobots were designed to not need it.

 

You are incorrect on that maybe it's been a long time since you seen the show

In that episode was called desertion of the Dinobots and what they did not have within their bodies was an element called cybertoniuam (my spelling could be off) and it wasn't any form of energy but some kind of mineral

 

Yep, it was an element found only on Cybertron that was needed for their systems to function properly and acording to Perceptor the amount/chips whatever it was that was using/comprised of it, degraded due to exposure to the Earth.

 

Theory: Dinobots are mentally disabled not mentally impaired. They were able to replicate a cybertronian brain but not the life cycle. It has been shown several different ways over the years but the main example would be G1 Bumblebee cybertronians mature as they age(to varying degrees per character of course). Now Wheeljack and Ratchet could duplicated parts not experiences. Optimus Prime basically ordered combat ready infants strong enough to battle their strongest enemies. If this were possible in G1 from the get go it would completely change the whole war. Even Vector Sigma creates bots that I would argue are adolescent not mature adults. The arielbots actually go through many of the growing pains the dinbots do.
Just a thought....

 

I was always considering a similar thing: Yes the brain (with its limitations) has been replicated, but for all intentents and purposes the dinobots ARE infants. And their actions especially in the first two seasons show that. Later in season 3 Grimlock is around 20 years old. While far from a mature adault, he seems to understand the notions of friendship and comradery as well as having developed feelings for the Autobots. He still acts like a child but this is mostly due to his mental state been unable to develop further.

 

IIRC Wheeljack does refer to Grimlock as a Tyrannosaurus.

But . . . Grimlock has three fingers. So he could be an allosaurus, or at least a hybrid between Allosaurus and Tyrannosaurus. (Tyrannosaurus only had two fingers.)



Wheeljack obviously did take some liberties, because real theropods don't drag their tails on the ground. (That was the popular idea in the 80s, though.)

Speaking of outdated ideas, in the 80s a lot of people thought that sauropods (brontosaurus, braciosaurus, etc) spent all day in swamps, that their massive bodies couldn't be supported without the buyancy of water. Now thought to be completely incorrect. But anyway, that's why Sludge's tech specs specify that he's so good at fighting in swamps and water.

 

Actually some scientist believe that the T Rex may have that one point had three fingers or that some sub species did

 

Interesting, I didn't know that. Turns out G1 was ahead of its time!

 

That may not be the case either in doing some research I have found that some early of the very early science in the field and early models which I'll admit were based on more conjecture then fact , featured some with three fingers as well

 

it didn't happen exactly that way either

Optimist didn't exactly respond "yes" nor did he say anything about the caves

WHEEL JACK
Wait! Maybe my magnetic inducer can stop them!

There. But I beg you, Optimus. Please don't make me pull the plug on 'em.

OPTIMUS PRIME
I'm sorry, Wheeljack. The Dinobots must never be activated again. They're too dangerous.

The next thing we see is them being placed in the caves

 

They will never make dinosaurs feathered audiences would laugh at them.

It's plausible in the fictional world that they simply didn't have access to advanced Cybertronian technology and materials to makeit better.