Well based on Buzz and Woody:

1. Yes! They can transform themselves, but they probably need to read their own instructions first! Bet they get stuck sometimes!
2. They would default to presume they were truly 'Autobots and Decepticons' at first like all the Buzz Lightyears in the toy aisle but learn the truth later on in life.

 

As much as quotes such as "Autobots, Roll Out!!", "Lighten our darkest hour" or "One shall Stand, One shall Fall" is a classic in Transformers, I can't help but think those exact quote is overdone and used so much that it's getting boring especially in things like the Prime cartoon. I won't mind something like a newer alternative such as "Autobots, rev up and roll out", or come up with new, more modern badass quotes like "Autobots, full speed ahead!!" (One quote that I can came up with)

And no, "Megatron, BEGONE!!" doesn't count because that's lame as hell (Even I can came up with original quotes more awesome than that).

 

100% agree, add variations of "Soundwave Superior"

Even it's fundamentally the same, I thought Barber resisting the movie homage temptation and having Optimus say a paraphrase "Light this dark hour," in Unicron #6 was refreshing because of the overuse.

 

"Autobots, Roll Out!!" doesn't bother me, as its more a catchphrase than a repeated line, but I wouldn't be opposed to shaking it up.
The rest... yeah the TFTM quotes get old after a while. Those sorts of shout outs should be used very sparingly, so your audience goes "OMG they said the thing!!!" and not "take a shot."

They're not even the best lines in the movie. I much prefer "You who are without mercy now plead for it? I thought you were made of sterner stuff." (It doesnt sound great written out but I swear it sounds badass when Op says it.) and "This is bad comedy..."

 

To an extent, I think it should be a case-by-case basis. I'm fine with the cartoon TFs being more humanoid, and having more human features. They're aimed at younger kids, so the characters should be as accessible and easy to understand as possible.

But when it comes to more 'adult' media like the movies, I prefer them be a bit more alien (not super alien, just lacking the more overt human features, like mouths and whatnot). Adults don't need stuff to be as exaggerated as kids do, we're better at detecting subtlety. We don't need a literal smile to know that a character is happy. Plus, they can add more detail to the facial features. For instance, something like Bumblebee's eyes in the BB movie wouldn't be possible in a cartoon. Sure, they can make the eyes dilate and whatnot, but they can't capture all those fine details.

 

It's just one of the things that are repeated ad nauseum in this franchise because Hasbro thinks they are earning easy money whenever a reference to the 80's cartoon or the appearance of an 84 character gives a forty year old an orgasm.

 

Thank for solving this mystery makes sense and i get why none of them ever wanted to bring it up

My random thought. Was i the only 6 year old in the theatre wondering why no one said hey wreakgar can you guys come back to earth and fix up optimus? You know after they slapped ultra magnus back together from tiny bits. Also why couldn't he fix him in return of optimus prime? I mean if your blown to bits he can fix you but if your wounded in the torso your scrap wtf

 

Prime's spark was already extinguished.
Also that scene was written with Mags getting neatly sliced apart with laser whips, not blown up, meaning he was probably still alive.

 

Well they didn't do the whips. So 6 year old me was still confused. Also the term spark was not a thing for us in 1986

 

I guess my point was they were supposed to be welding a still-alive Magnus back together, not resurrecting him, whereas Prime was fully offline.
It was a confusing change though. Apparently a robot getting pulled apart is too violent for kids? In a movie where Prowl dies whilst smoke, that may or may not be his now liquefied internals, belches out his mouth and eyes?
It always slips mind that Beast Wars invented the spark. Although the idea was apparently floating around behind the scenes for a while?
The script says Cyclonus was created from the "life spark" of a dying Decepticon.

I suppose it doesn't matter too much what was in the script if it didn't end up in the finished product, but it does help explain why things don't make sense. Sometimes.

 

They were originally going to use the energon/laser ropes to lasso each of his extremities and pull him apart.

 

I always thought it was obvious that they were standing in the torso of their suits. You can see Daniels arms bent on his chest and holding 'control handles' when he 'transformed'. You can see Daniel's scale against the suit when they help him into it. Ofc that's not consistent all the time but that was the idea.

So the legs and arms are purely robotic, they don't wear them like pants and shirts or anything like that.

What makes LESS sense was that the Autobots brought Daniel into deep space and didn't think to give him the exo-suit until AFTER they crash landed and that he SURVIVED ALL THAT.

 

Hahahaha my mind is BLOWN.! You my friend are or will be a good parent lol. I totally didn't realize that.

 

Even if the Autobots are swore the defeat the Decepticons, was there anytime where an Autobot can take that a bit too far like killing injured Decepticon vehicons who are wounded or perform a colony drop at a Decepticon occupied planet? IF an Autobot actually do those kind of thing, would the Autobots see it a a war crime?

 

So, is the name Uncle Bobby B a reference to Bob Budiansky?

 

Does Mirage ever hear or see more than he'd like when walking around invisible?

Hotrod - "I've got something plugged in my exhust port again"

Ratchet- "how does stuff keep getting up there?"

 

cybertronian vehicles how do they know whats a car

 

Probably because the inside of an exosuit is set up similar to this:

 

 
That's probably the least of it.

 

If Soundwave was to be shrunk to become a Micromaster, would he change his name to Microwave?