Any ideas on how they might explain this?

 

If they dont explain a Transformers Gender (50% Chance), I doubt it.
Then again, just think of them as TF`s that scanned Beasts. Or TF`s with Animal Habbits for now...

 

Same way they explained humanoid robots: nope.

 

Look at life on earth - the 4 legged mammalian and the 8 legged arachnid configuration are far more common than the bipedal humanoid configuration. In fact apart from humans - there are few other creatures that use bipedal locomotion.

 

Convergent evolution. Any passing similarity with Earth life is because they were designed to operate in similar terrain and in a similar manner as the Terran animals they resemble.

Ravage looks cat like, not because he scanned a cat, but because that body shape is perfect for a stalking, ambush predator.

 

Reason = Because.

 

I think you guys are right - they just won't bother to explain it - be nice if they did tho, and used one of the reasons mentioned by you guys.

either that or at least just have sam or someone say ''how comes they look like animals and not cars optimus?''

then prime says ''they must have used the internet to look for the world's most efficient killing species to replicate''.

 

wait til Optimus Primal shows up. Evrybody will flip... an orangutan?

 

I think that their forms are a matter of personal choice. The bipedal TFs choose modes that reflect their personal tastes -- Jazz chose a sports car that fit his mass and his personality and the same is true of the others. It is possible that there's a group of Transformers who choose to be animalistic. There are humans that want to "get back to nature", after all.

 

i just think its one of those things you dont need to explain... just leave it as is : )

 

Wonder why the writers said they cant explain Dinobots, yet they did Ravage, scorponok etc

 

Because the dinobots transform into humaniod robots too..not just stay dinosaurs.

But they will probably show up in the third movie..

 

Well, it is difficult to explain Dinobots. You can't scan creatures that don't exist. Theories on their structures have even been modified since the 80s.

If they do end up in a film, they will be drastically changed like Ravage so as to have only a coincidental basic resemblance to dinosaurs.

 

6-legged is vastly more common than 8 or 4, in fact half of the species of animals on the planet have 6 legs, so ravage and skroponok would be a small minority.

also by few other creatures having bipedal locomotion, you mean currently 9000 species of birds, 60 species of kangaroos and wallabies, a few species of kangaroo mice and spring hares and and unknown amounts of dinosaurs in the past too?

 

I think he meant stand up straight, like a human, not just on two legs. My dog can stand on two legs, he's not humanoid.

 

Dinosaurs are a different matter entirely. Remember also that, in the movie reality, Scorponok and Ravage are just TF animals. The Dinobots, however, are (semi-)intelligent.

 

Your first point is correct - but I wasnt stating the were the most common overall - just that they were vastly more common than bipedal.

I'll concede your second point - although it is important to note that all of the bipedal creatures you have listed have vastly different methods of movement and virually none are analogous to humanoid bipedal locomotion.

 

bones are there for a reason.

 

I think there's a difference between bots like Ravage and Scorponok (though his toy had an added-play-value-sort -of-bot-mode), who have a best-like robot mode and those like the Dinobots who are humanoid bots with a beast alt-mode.

It was said that Scorponok's form was suited to his environment (i.e. the desert) and I don't think he necessarily scanned a scorpion (as we've seen the movie-verse bots tend to scan things with the same mass as their proto-form) so much as has a coincidentally scorpion-like form. I'm sure in the prequal novel for the original movie he was already a scorpion before the decepticons got to Earth.

The problem with the Dinobots would be the practicality and reasoning behind having an alt mode that's just as conspicuous as the bot mode. If it doesn't disguise you or make transporting yourself easier then what's the point?