OK, so I was thinking about this with the onset of the new Beast Hunters. Why are there TFers that turn into Beasts, like in Beast wars.

I get TFers that turn into cars. They are robots in disguise on a foriegn planet, so the best they can do is turn into cars and planes and such so that humans don't spot them.

For Beasts, and correct me if I am wrong, it took place before any humans. So they looked like the inhabitants of the planet they were on of that time.

Question is, why? I mean, if you went to an ancient planet with no evolved thinking like, would you think, oh shit, I need to hide from those prehistoric guerrillas by looking like one of them?

I mean, what the F is the gorilla gonna do? It's not going to unite with all other guerrillas and Rhinos and shit like that from around the world and use all it's fire power to get you off the planet. With Humans it's a different story.

So I don't get it. Some one please educate me on how they pull this off on the show. Now, don't prove your point by attacking the original G1 series. Let's just stay on this.

 

Because, much like many people who haven't watched Beast Wars, you assume that the beast forms are for hiding.

They are not.

When maximals and predacons landed on the planet the energon concentration on it was so dense that the direct exposure to it over a big ammount of time would cause them to shut down.

So they took beast forms, fur and all, so that they could go outside and explore the planet.

Much like how the Terminator had to have skin on him in order to travel back in time.

 

The greatest way to describe it.

 

Gotcha.

BTW, I never knew that about the Terminator. Was that said in 1 or 2? Also, the new Terminator in 2 (forgot the model number) didn't have skin. So not sure how all that works.

But back on point. I wonder what the hell Beast Hunters is going to use for it's reasoning. Unless it says, these bots existed during that time. But then, how are they going to get away from the whole problem that all other TFers scan to change their alt modes. I guess it could be written away, but I bet won't be as good of a reason as this one.

 

The question could also be directed to the G1 cassettes (minus Rumble, frenzy, Rewind and Eject), Dinobots, Insecticons, Predacons and to some extent, the Terracons. Not to mentions many future incarnations of them and others.

Anyway, In Beast Wars and IDW, they needed synthesized animal skins absorb energon radiation due to there being too much.

In Cybertron, that was just what was done on the Jungle Planet. Cybertronian turned into Cybertronian Vehicle and Animationians turn into Animatronian animals.

Every other continuity, as far as I know/remember, never explained it.

Edit:

Forgot about the "Aligned Continuity". In that, the Insecticons were ancient species from Cybertron's past. Shockwave gave some Decepticons Insecticon alt forms to increase their power. He also viewed Earth through a small portal or something and gave the Lightning Strike Collision Dino modes. We can assume the same was done for the Predacons who Shockwave claims to be "the Ultimate Autobot hunters".

 

Terminator 1. Reese tells the cops that only organic material can travel back, that's why Skynet didn't just send a bunch of futureweapons. Though I always wondered why the terminator didn't just embed a plasma rifle or whatever in it's chest cavity, but then again, Terminator 4. In Terminator 2, I think the official explanation is that T-1000 was sent back either as a liquid metal blob embedded in a meat shell, or simply with a layer of synthetic-flesh over it's assumed shape, which it then ditched.


In Beast Hunters, it could very well be that the forms are for disguise or adaptation, not combat/task oriented, and thus, these critters resemble the creatures of the habitats they resemble. And then they arrive on earth, start running amok (because the habits they've picked up don't bode well for humanity, maybe?), and it's up to the Autobots to hunt them down or something. It could be the Beasts have some fundamental difference in mannerisms, attitudes, or programming that differentiates their behavior from the Autobots and Decepticons.

 

Movie 1

REESE: "You go naked. Something about the field generated by a living organism. Nothing dead will go."

SILBERMAN: "Okay. Okay. But this... cyborg...if it's metal..."

REESE: "Surrounded by living tissue."

SILBERMAN: "Of course."

The T1000 was made out of liquid metal and in an deleted scene it's shown that he was sent in an organic cacoon type thing but it wasn't in the final cut.

If Rage of The Dinobots comic is anything to go by the Predacons in Prime are basicaly Cybertronian equivalent of dinosaurs, a prehistoric cave-man Cybertronians if you will.

They were supposed to be extinct but Shockwave cloned them or something it's not really clear how he brough them back.

 

Also don't forget one of 13 Primes in the aligned continuity is a beast former. Theefor, like fembots, 1/13 of all cybertronians are likely beast formers.

 

Maybe being a beast just works out better for them? Animal forms have other uses. They can handle far more rugged terrain. Four legs can easily get you places the most diverse tank couldn't. They can accomplish more tasks than vehicles, and are more mobile in combat.

Frankly, being an agile cheetah or hulking gorilla makes more sense to me than being a square slab that can only move quickly in open, flat spaces and can't jump, move in three dimensions, or attack in any way inherent to the form. Beasts just seem like, from a practicality standpoint of having two forms, more sensible unless it's for disguise. (and in Beast Wars they were sometimes used for disguise. Kinda) They're robots, so they don't get tired as fast as real animals, and their beast forms would likely be even more powerful and athletic than a regular animal. I mean, a fight between animals, especially if it's two completely different creatures, is way more exciting than two cars driving fast and just ramming into eachother, or a jet just flying around shooting missiles. And that's not even accounting for if these beast Transformers have deployable weaponry. Whoo-boy, all bets are off with how that could go.

I mean, just compare how much time the Beast Warriors spent in alt mode than, say, the robots of Prime. I mean, from a purely logical standpoint, for a race who's entire point is the ability to change their shape, just turning into a car or plane doesn't seem like maximizing on the concept. Now a jet-powered eagle with razor talons and a beak that can shear metal or super-fast robot cat with four sets of claws and teeth that could tear a dude to bits, that makes for a more diverse alternate form to a humanoid robot tired of walking on his two boring legs. Really it comes down to application. Beasts can be applied to far more situations than most popular kinds of vehicles, but still provide the basic advantage of speed and ease of transportation. (and this isn't considering the half-modes of the Transmetals with their flip-out gizmos for even faster travel while retaining the advantage and dexterity of an animal) I mean, all of team Prime are wheeled vehicles with no weapons that can only fight in those forms with implausibly laughable abilities to just sort of fly around to hit people on the rare occasions they do fight in said modes. (like tiny little Arcee bike impossibly jumping somehow and knocking over two Vehicons each four times her size) Replace them with any given alt mode for BW and you have numerous possibilities. A recipe for awesome.

 

Beast Mode based transformers could very well be experimental supersoldiers. Shockwave did rebuild the dinobots and he is bringing the predacons which he dubs Project Predacon. Who knows, maybe the Autobots have a supersoldier program of their own. Project Maximal or something.
That's the only conclusion I can think of at the moment.

 

The super soldier idea isn't bad, even if it cheapens the concept just a touch. I like the idea of animal alt modes being the next evolutionary step via augmentation. That's basically what it was in Beast Wars except they reached that during peacetime.

 

Honestly I like a healthy mix of both viechles and beast formers.

I like to think that in peace time everybot could be rebuilt in whatever shape he wants, and have whatever altmod he sees fit for himself and as such there are bots who like to transform into beasts because they help em out (say an adventurer or an explorer would much benefit by transforming into a wolf than into a jeep) while other like say bots that live in big cities would be transforming into viechles because it's easier to get around.

You can even do a parody like: "Oh man remember when having a beast mode was the coolest thing ever?"

"Yeah man EVERYONE used to transform into beasts! I was a koala!" and stuff like that  

 

:I

 

We should create a Koala Maximal. Maybe we could make him a BW Blurr who decided to take things slow after living life in the fastlane for his entire life.