FORGET TECH SPECS!!!

Ok, so let's just look at transformers for what they are, in either mode.

I'm looking at you Optimus Prime...with your glass Windows on your chest covering all those important robot parts. One punch from a decepticon and your dead. I can see it now...
Brawn: what happened to optimus?
Ratchet: we think he either tripped..or a bird flew into his chest, either way the glass shattered and seriously messed up his important stuff...
Brawn:dayummm...

Megatron..look at him! His chest is like a slab of armor! He wears a helmet! He's gotta be tough!

How much damage can the bot mode sustain and still be able to transform? If humans built that shit, as soon as it walked it would never transform again.

Just going on the looks, and materials the alt modes are made of, what are some of the toughest battlefield bots, and what are some of the weakest?

 

The glass thing... You are right on that. Take Ratchet from TF:TM for example. Normally that wouldn't do shit. Also, this is Transformers you're talking about here, IT MAKES NO SENSE IT ALL, ITS HOW IT WORKS AROUND HERE.

 

You're assuming Cybertronian "glass" is as fragile as earth glass. These are alien robots with advanced technology, who have been at war for millions of years. I think they know how to armor themselves.

 

What makes you think that is really glass? Do you think the tires are made of rubber, too?

Two words: Transparent. Aluminum.

 

Especially if that Transparent Aluminum has a metallic glass microstructure. Strong as hell.

 

I'm sure a lot of the materials on a Transformer are way more durable than the Earth materials they mimic. Even the regular metals they are made of are often described as being specificly Cybertronian, rare to find anywhere else.

However, you do make a good point about being able to transform after being damaged. It varies between continuities I think - movie bots are made out of lots of small panels that we can see get blasted off easily, although on the other hand, they can somehow regrow the small bits.
It's easy to assume the disguise is ruined as soon as a bot sustains moderate damage, but more importantly: what if some of the parts required to work in altmode can no longer connect?

In the end, this is all cartoon/comic fiction, of course. Let's take it with a grain of salt.   If you really want an interesting discussion you should take a look at the incredibly insane powers some G1 Transformers have in their bios.   If all of these were used in fiction literally as they are described, the war would probably not even last a full year, and no planet they fight on would survive  

 

Or you could base on the design of either Masterpiece Optimus toy, where there's a big slab right behind those glass chest windows. (the front bumper, which should be pretty strong even assuming Earth truck materials)

Now I'm thinking of the 'edgy' Marvel G2 comics. Optimus' windows would break in a stiff breeze in that comic.  

 

While making fun of Optimus Prime, you forgot to mention the seekers. Bust up their chest, it also blinds them in jet mode.

 

All Autobots and Decepticons have eyes (in Shockwave and Whirl's case, just one), just shoot their eyes, and they're blind.

 

 

Also, the glass doesn't cover his internals. He's consistently depicted as having a layer of armour (usually the matrix cover) below that which covers his internals. The ''glass'' is just for show.

I mean, just look at the movies. Prime's chest windows are hard as hell to shatter and even still he's fully armoured underneath anyway. It's like having a bullet proof vest under your shirt.

 

Ive never even thought about the tire thing...and I remember in the movie Primes tires all seperating too, so thats a good point

Im just thinking about the stuff for face value in a fun way.

I agree with the powers and weapons. If they all lined up, it would be ONE battle, and it may last 30 seconds tops..lmao

 

Agreed, And like I said, im just having fun with it, But imagine if Prime got in a fist fight with megatron. After Prime TF'd...He would have fist marks on the cab windows...Kinda makes me laugh a bit

 

most movie characters vs a pair of wire cutters

 

But don't the Seekers have that radar thingy in the nosecone? Even if their canopy is damaged they should still be able to 'see.'

 

While we're at the topic of glass: what really used to bug me during the Budiansky era of the Marvel comics was how sensitive the Autobots seemed to be to their glass parts. At moments it seemed like shattering their windshield was the Transformer equivalent of getting kicked in the testicles. Some of you may remember that issue where one of Skids' windows was smashed by some dude, and the poor 'bot's literally black out from the agony! You'd think that a part of a TF's anatomy that doesn't seem to serve any vital purpose and is only there for camouflage wouldn't hurt more than cutting off your hair or clipping your nails. It just didn't make any sense to me.

 

I actually wondered about this in "Fire in the Sky" when Starscream yells to Skyfire "Where are you, traitor? Show yourself!" and Skyfire says, "Here I am!" It looked like they were implying they couldn't see each other.

 

They're made of plot armour glass.

 

Yeah, all TFs that turn into modern jets should have radar dishes in the nosecones, as demonstrated by the MP Seekers.

 

this. /thread

 

i used to HATE how all the movie 'bots had variations on the "front end of the vehicle = chest" thing until i remembered epps' comment about blackout in the movie.. "they're weak under the chest" or something like that. i like the idea that the vehicle mode parts are worn as armor protecting all their internal systems and stuff...

 

Fun/nerd fact:

In A Prime Problem when Windcharger came out of the crevice, Wheeljack says Windcharger's rubber tires insulated him. So at least for the G1 cartoon it can be assumed that if they took on an Earth vehicle, the Transformers aren't made completely out of Cybertronian parts.