Removing mass shifting limits storytelling and fun. With no mass shifting and 1:1 alt mode scales, minibots would not be minibots. Seekers would tower over everyone. Combiners wouldn't feasibly work unless it was bayverse devastator style where they all break apart and fuse together into a monstrosity. Triple changers would be broken. Gun megatron is the size of primes toe in robot mode. Realism in this kids franchise sounds boring.
Ignoring the fact that nobody said anything about Transformers being better with 1:1 alt mode scales. Combiners with comically oversized punching fists of death and giant seekers that tower over the Autobots sounds absolutely wicked as hell! I'd genuinely love to see some continuity follow those rules! Also this literally would not effect the Minibots at all. The whole point is that they're little guys who turn into little vehicle. That does not require mass shifting.
It's not even necessarily mass shifting. It's just that consistency and scale in the original series was supremely screwed up because, and this cannot be re-stated enough, they honestly didn't care that much to be bothered by it. It was a cheap toy commercial cartoon being churned out at a ridiculous pace to meet demand, especially in the second season, and increasingly often done (including the episode shown in the OP) by a studio notorious for their blatantly cheap lack of give-a-damn cost-effectiveness. The fact that the series is, on balance, mostly pretty good and survives to this day as one of the better efforts of the merchandise driven explosion of 80s cartoons is a testament to the strength of the concept and the talent of the people involved (except AKOM because screw them) in spite of how easy it would've been to just phone in some total dreck and not care in any regard. It's honestly best to just not think about it.
I was folding in comments I constantly see in other threads when scale and mass shifting is talked about. Like warpath and powerglide should be big because they are a tank and an A10. Or groove should be tiny because he's a bike. Or Sludge should tower over the other dinobots because the dinosaur he looks like was the biggest. I'm with you, tiny vehicles and car sized motorbikes should be a thing that happens. And certain characters should be able to mass shift when they transform. Call it a special ability like hounds holograms, trailbreakers forcefield or mirages invisibility if people are irked by it that much.
I think I could vibe with mass-shifting if was both just the ability to shrink and also a one-off superpower that only a few characters like Soundwave and Deepcover since that is straight up already his superpower has. On the reverse side of things. I've always really liked this one idea (Don't remember where it's form) where Broadside's aircraft carrier mode is made from an ungodly amount of really thin plate that fold into his other modes. Making his robot and jet modes basically indestructible while his aircraft carrier mode is flimsier then paper. It's a really stupid way to explain his size changing but it's stupid in a way that i find kinda endearing... Not sure if I'd use it for anything other him though personally.
I thought Broadside was in only one episode: Remember, the storywriter is not responsible for all the animation errors which many considered the worst episode in the entire series. Since it was animated badly, I thought it couldn't get much worse. And since the guests were aliens, I thought it didn't matter what their skin color was. So just for kicks, I used the opposite color scheme. Others might think the off-scale animation is what made the episode funny, visually.
Broadside was in carrier mode for Thief in the Night and robot mode for Grimlock’s New Brain, Carnage in C-Minor, and The Burden Hardest to Bear, my favorite episode. It’s where my pfp comes from.
I absolutely agree. Even if the animation is filled with errors, even if consistency and continuity are thrown out the window, the performances of the voice actors is still some of the best to come out the 80s.
