"Attack of the Autobots" question

Vin Ghostal · Post by **Vin Ghostal** » Mon Apr 05, 2004 3:29 pm

I know, the cartoon ain't the place to ask about consistency, but this one's really bothering me...

I was semi-watching "Attack of the Autobots" yesterday, and when the 'good' Autobots are on their quest to save all the 'evil' Autobots, they chase Skyfire down flying over the desert somewhere. Hound grabs one of the personality stabilizers and asks, "These things are magnetic, right?" and Sparkplug says yes. If they are, how the hell does Hound get it off his fingers and into his gun? And for that matter, how does he even fire the thing out of his METAL gun? I'm at a loss.

verytired · Post by **verytired** » Mon Apr 05, 2004 4:03 pm

He's made of Rubber.

Post by **Hound** » Mon Apr 05, 2004 4:12 pm

I always assumed that the personality stabilizers were magnetic like a refrigerator magnet, not powerfully so...

Garrason · Post by **Garrason** » Mon Apr 05, 2004 8:43 pm

a 30 sec time delay on the elco-magnet inside it..... uhhh bad writting

Jetstorm316 · Post by **Jetstorm316** » Mon Apr 05, 2004 10:54 pm

I always assumed that Hound didn't activate it until he loaded it into his gun and that the force of it being shot out strengthened the magnetic field.

Optimus_Type-R · Post by **Optimus_Type-R** » Tue Apr 06, 2004 6:43 pm

The magnetic field was in subspace

another tf fan · Post by **another tf fan** » Tue Apr 06, 2004 6:53 pm

For goodness sake, if we can accept that optimus' trailer can disappear at will and megatron can shrink and grow then why ask about magnets? that was about the closest the physics got to being real on the show. i love the cartoon, don't get me wrong, but i know that real world physics don't apply anywhere in it. like "nothing can travel faster then the speed of light" yet the space bridge instantly transports matter light years away. i can go on all day about this.

Cyberman · Post by **Cyberman** » Tue Apr 06, 2004 8:01 pm

Originally posted by another tf fan
like "nothing can travel faster then the speed of light" yet the space bridge instantly transports matter light years away

Well, in defense of the cartoon, that actually is not really a problem. I think itÂ´s a commonly accepted escape in Science Fiction(though I wonder where the Science is left in TF) to assume that the speed limit of light only applies to OUR, physical universe - while there can be other, non-physical(i.e. energy instead of matter) universes that use different laws of physics.

Like Subspace in Star Trek, or Hyperspace in various other shows and books.

Vin Ghostal · Post by **Vin Ghostal** » Tue Apr 06, 2004 8:36 pm

Not that Cybertron and Earth were "light-years" away...the Autobots and Decepticons were only flying through space for a little while before they crash-landed on Earth in MTMTE.

And on top of that, why shouldn't I ask questions about the cartoon? Obviously real-life physics don't always apply to the cartoon, but would you rather no one bring up topics of conversation at all? Why even talk about Transformers? Why even have a forum? Christ.

another tf fan · Post by **another tf fan** » Tue Apr 06, 2004 9:04 pm

fair point, vin, but riddle me this : if the insecticons can instantly clone themselves then why didn't they create an army to stop the other decepticons from throwing them out of astrotrain in the movie?

Vin Ghostal · Post by **Vin Ghostal** » Tue Apr 06, 2004 11:48 pm

I would hardly say that any of the Insecticons were in good enough shape to start cloning themselves. A process like that would require at least some power to spare, which the Insecticons definitely did not have at that point. That's like asking why Thundercracker didn't start blasting away when he saw that he was getting dumped out...he was too beat up to do so.

another tf fan · Post by **another tf fan** » Wed Apr 07, 2004 4:47 pm

Not a bad answer, but if the insecticons could replicate themseves as seen in " a plague of insecticons" than why didn't they just take over the decepticons in the first place? I bet you'll say cause they were never really decepticons but if you could replicate yourself would you leave the government alone?

Vin Ghostal · Post by **Vin Ghostal** » Fri Apr 09, 2004 9:32 pm

For one thing, the cartoon showed time and again that the Insecticon clone army was pretty damn feeble. Witness the obscure "Quest for Survival," where the entire army save the original three are eaten by those stupid plant-bots. Beyond that, did the Insecticons ever really show any interest in taking over the Decepticons? I don't think they were interested. The only time they got close was in "The Insecticon Syndrome," but Bombshell seemed to be controlling Starscream and the guys just to get into Iron Mountain, not because he/they had any aspirations of running the Cons.

another tf fan · Post by **another tf fan** » Fri Apr 09, 2004 9:58 pm

Ah hell, Truk not bug...thats what I say