They already did that, sadly, with Animated Bumblebee’s faux roof/chest in the show.

I’d say faux parts are the bigger of the two sins. I should say that I don’t consider removing an accessory to be ‘partsforming’. G1 Omega Supreme is partsforming, Weaponizers are partsformers ER Cliffjumper is not. If you popped off the bonnet you still have a complete robot, if you leave off a part of a Weaponizer you have an amputee.

 

Or, the transformation works fine, but the designer insists on a robot part that simply doesn’t fit with the design. Consider the Siege Seeker mold, which is great except for the fake chest canopy, looking like a hot mess hanging off the back of the tetrajet. Why couldn’t they just place an orange jet exhaust in the center of the chest instead? The association with the Earth mode canopy would have remained, but it would have worked with the alt mode. There was no reason for it to be fake. In this case it wasn’t laziness in engineering— it was a deliberate choice.

 

I like partsforming when it comes to combiners and characters that have "super modes". I like building smaller toys into larger ones. I dont mind some of the recent toys that do partsforming like ER Cliffjumper and Arcee. As long as the sacrifice benefits the bot mode it doesnt bother me.

Faux parts dont really bother me either... most of the time. The fake wheels on the heels on ER Runamuck is one that annoys the hell outta me cause clearly they didnt need to be there.

 

I agree that accessories are exempt from the “parts forming” label, but to be an accessory, the part should not be required for either mode in order to be considered whole. Removing that backpack from ER Cliff may leave the robot intact, but the car mode can’t be without it. ER Cliffjumper is therefore a parts former in my opinion.

 

If there is a logic to it both are fine. Netflix Bumblebee's back half becoming a shield or his back? Fine. Optimus having fake windows but the real ones are completely hidden? Fine

 

Considering the hooliganish nature of the Battlechargers, you could look at them kinda like in line skates. Letting them nyoom around the battlefield tripping fools, breaking shit, ect.

 

Sure… maybe if they were actual wheels from the car, instead of featureless, hollow, non-rolling chunks of plastic. Even as rudimentary as the original Battlecharger toys were, at least their wheels were real.

 

faux parts in the animation goes back even further than that, Masterforce had Ginrai with his fake chest windows and ab grill, not sure if there was an especially egregious one prior to him, but faux parts have been in the animaiton for a long time

 

I think both can be executed good or bad. But the worse sin to me is the faux part when the "real" part is still visible hanging off of the robot somewhere. I don't mind Prime's tummy grill not being the truck grill if the truck grill is folded up inside his torso. But if Prime has a grill on his tummy and the same grill on his back, it's weird.

 

I don't have a real problem with either as long as they are done right and both modes still look absolutely fantastic. For example, I don't have any issue with SS Hot Rod's faux robot chest since the car mode or robot mode doesn't seem to suffer (QC issues aside). I also don't have a problem with Siege Megatron's tank barrel becoming a pretty bad ass looking sword.

The big issue I have is when either one is used as a lazy design choice and doesn't really serve a purpose except as a cop out. ER Ratchet and Ironhide, I can forgive the roof just coming off and sitting there since they can be repurposed as the drone sleds like they had in G1. But ER Arcee's back half of her car just coming off and sitting there and just calling it a "hoverboard' bothers the crap out of me.

 

Missing an option:

'Both absolutely fine'

 

Sometimes faux parts can be artful, like when it resides directly behind the real part.

 

Looking down on Parts-forming is something that the Fandom decided; I believe that no official sources ever stated that Transformers should not Parts-form.

Faux Parts on the other hand makes no fucking sense; like why would a Transformer have an extra part of a part to form another part... WTF?

 

I don't much have much to say about either - I dislike other things much more.

1. Clip on Wheels & except where appropriate unpainted wheel hubs example Studio Series '86 Hotrod has no paint on his rear wheels.
2. Transformers with no place to store their accessories
3. Kibble that gets in the way of articulation or other wise inhibits a toy's play value
4. Excessive gappyness - like a lot of Cyberverse toys suffer from... (speaking of cyberverse)
5. Transformers that can't rotate their heads.
6. I also can't say I am a fan of missing paint (think of Nu-RID cars or TF Prime cars)
7. Or missmatched colours of parts or paints and parts - such as on The Ark (the nose of the vehicle) and on Earthrise Sunstreaker.
8. I kinda hate that they still put the wing logos on Starscream upside down just because someone at Sunbow was an idiot nearly 40 years ago.
9. Low quality stickers that fall off & look cheap as they are mirror shiny - Prime Wars Trilogy I am looking at you. if they were stuck on properly and more semi-gloss or Matt I wouldn't mind as much - except for when they put them on wrong of course. Tampgraphs made to resemble stickers are preferable - Stickers have long shown their downsides as long ago as The G1 Cassettes or certain middle 80's toys where the surface would rub off the sticker leaving it bare. But Titans Return issues was also with rubbing and hiding the mould detail - example being Voyager Megatron's wings or the POTP Starscream - where the stickers really do the toy no favours at all.

I am also not especially fond of Gorilla arms (think Beast Hunters Deluxe Bulkhead)

The worst example of "disgraceful" use of parts forming is likely POTP Evolution Rodiumus Prime & the combined mode arms on that thing - is just a big "no" to me.

 

What? this sounds like a joke against faux parts

yes, axactly. I care about good, well designed transformation, it's right there in the name. ER Optimus's grill abs are false, but they work well. Something like the new Tracks' fake roof is just unneccesary. The MP did it, Sunstreaker did it just last year at the same price point.

 

I hate faux parts. Pastoring is acceptable to me in situations where the part could arguably really move there in a full scale figure, but in miniature the arms, hinges, etc, benefit to move it would be infeasably delicate.