One of the small things that always bother me about TFs as a kid was the existence of body types without explanation; like how one character would look like another just recolored (Starscream, Thundercracker, and Skywarp for example), and how even though body types existed there was always just a few models, so I wonder if anybody else felt the same way and what ideas you have too explain it body types? I personally like the idea of all body types being siblings and born with the same model (Thrust, Dirge, and Ramjet being triplets).
I usually like my body types to have some nice curves on them, and as long as she has a nice smil- Oh. Awkward. Seriously though. What exactly bothered you though, Megastar? The different ones in terms of "gender", or how some could fly and some couldn't and what not? Form? Function?
I like the way animated handled it best. No one's 100% unique other than super special cases like Megatron and Ultra Magnus, who were likely heavily modified, or put in custom bodies as they rose to power. Everyone else? standard forms that have different heads, colors, or other slight modifications to their bodies. It's what you'd expect from a mass produced race. Every other time, it wasn't really explained. This guy just looked like that guy, and no more thought was given to it. In Anmated, it was actually acknowledged, and in a way that works for every other series as well.
I agree Animated did it best. It made a lot of sense and looked good. You are wrong on one thing though: Ultra Magnus wasn't unique; the previous Magnus, Powered Convoy Magnus, had the same body type is him. Possibly it is a body type reserved for Magnus'.
That's in the Allspark Almanac, and thus, cannot be fully trusted. There's all sorts of things Jim Sorenson and Bill Forster made up in there that didn't come from the people who actually worked on the show, and thus isn't actually canon with the show. He may be part of the show canon, he may not. I don't know. Sentinel became Magnus, and all he got was a fancier helmet and a cape, not a new Ultra Magnus type body.
I don't really know it never really bothered me before. With the g1 cartoon they said the Quintessons mass produced them. So I guess I naturally assumed they were given bodies that would suit their specific function. Then after the whole revolt thing they just sort of altered their own bodies. :shrug I guess I'll go with everyone else and just say I liked the way Animated explained things.
My thoughts on body-types? Well, I'd kind of prefer that every Transformer has some unique twist/variant/design to them, something distinct, and that Cybertronians that look the same are a sort of mass-produced drone class, like the TFP Vehicons or something. That's how I'd do it
I think it's an underused concept. Imagine how many more characters we could have in Prime if they'd repaint CGI models.
Poll options are kinda limiting. I don't have any problem with it, but I do prefer every robot have a unique body that helps visualize their character traits.
TFA had a great idea to explain why a lot of character can easily be repainted and retooled. But alas they never really did Glyph, Tap-Out, Searchlight as toys.
