Are transformers parts hinged/bolted together or are they just held together by a ridiculously powerful force?

When in vehicle mode, are certain parts like windows actually glass or just made to appear so. Reason I ask is because the glass never shatters during combat for the most part. Perfect example is Bee, he's always flipping, getting tossed around yet the glass in the doors on his back never breaks. Also, when B threw Skids and Mudflap out of the door way in Egypt, the glass never broke.

Off topic...Why did Que announce his name when dat beeyotch of director showed up after Optimus found the part?

 

I would assume they're hinged together because in the movies you can see arm, leg, and feet holding together by something that looks like normal bolts to them, but huge bolts for us.
Que was introducing himself to the NEST/Director who i suppose never meet him.

 

The explanation may be found in what Jeff Mann, the production designer of the first film,says in the dvd2: "The technology of the transformation is a nano-molecular process. Each cell of a Cybertronian is a machine unto itself"

That, means that the Cybertronians replicate materials, but its not like they produce a exact copy of the material on a sub-atomic level. I mean, parts of their body simulate rubber for example, for the wheels, but if you analized it at a sub-atomic level, you would find that it doesnt have the exact atomic structure of rubber.

If they could replicate, then Cybertronians would have the magical ability to produce organic materials such as leather (on the seats), and things like that.

So, although some parts may look and even feel like glass, or plastic, or rubber, they are actually not the real thing, it just seems like it.

 

I like this idea. I've always thought the same thing about the metal they're made of. Most people seem to assume they're made out of steel, but TFs are so advanced that I'm sure they've discovered a stronger alloy than that. Something like duranium from Star Trek.

 

You can see sockets and hinges on the models.

That's how I've always seen it and told it to people I really like that method and it makes the most since.

 

Transformers appear to look like our vehicles, but that's only a disguise, they're supposed to be made up organic metal from cybertron.

 

think of how your body is made up of quadrillions of little living cells, each its own litle body. Transformers have those same cells, but a lot more sophisticated, and able to control them a will, more advanced then we can our owns.

I can tall all my little cells in my arm to move simultaneously and wave around. optimus can tell his to turn into an engine. Maybe those cells can also transform from cells that form leather, to cells that form glass, etc.. they would just need to re-arrange themselves in such matter, to do so.

 

That is pretty advanced then, considering it would have to re-arrange itself at a subatomic level. If the cybertronians can rearrange individual atoms at will, why would they need weapons, or run out of energy? They could just turn pieces of their own bodies into energon and then use the energon energy to regrow the part back.

 

This. If the Transformers work along these lines, then there is cognitive dissonance when considering other aspects of the bots. IF there is a limit to what they can do at the subatomic level, then who put it there? Who stated that they could ONLY use such technology to rearrange the molecules of their bodies, but not absorb local material to repair damage, or be forced to use low tech ballistic weapons rather than energy weapons? The tech levels just don't make sense if we were to explain utilizing subatomic rearrangement.

 

Thats right, Cybertronians arent made of metal. At least, common metal. It is some form of organic metal that is capable of altering its atomic structure at will.

So, in a way, theyre like as if they were made of "liquid metal", like the T-1000 and T-X from Terminator.

Even though they look exactly like machines, thats just a disguise. Their components are never like the materials they copy, at an atomic level, they just look like those.

As for your question, they cant alter their cells to become energon. Thats already explained. They can imitate appearances, but not atomic structure.

 

If they can alter atomic structure, why can't they make energon? Energon is matter, isn't it? Or why can't they do any other number of things that at-will manipulation of universal building blocks lends itself to? More to the point, if they have the astounding amount of energy available to alter atoms on a daily basis, why do they need extra energy in the first place? Why don't they just conserve it?

Also, if you alter atomic structure of a substance, even if the atoms remain the same, you drastically alter the material, as in the case of charcoal and diamonds. But why do you say they both can and can't mimic atomic structures in the same post?

I mean, it's science fiction technobabble that has no serious basis in the very basics of science. Might as well just say they are metal space wizards and all their abilities are a form of star magic.