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The headmasters functioned without their head but this was after a special surgical procedure. Would an ordinary mech survive as their brain doesn't necessarily have to be in their head and they could still see using radar/sensors

Grimlock say has two heads one for each mode. So where would the brain be inside there central body mass wher eit would be least vulnerable would make sense.

If you're taking sparks as canon (nothing mystical necessarily, just data as energy) I'd suggest it's somewhere heavily protected in the torso region, with memory stores in the head and sensors both in the head and extremities of an alt-mode.

Your sig's gone inactive with Photobucket, by the way.

Depends on the requirements of the storyline, as per usual...

It appears to be possible to destroy a Transformer by decapitation, providing, I think, there is some kind of energy involved that also blows the main system and the circuitry in the head. Guess that means surgery is an option or just the whole 'removing my own head' thing, but both of those could result in data degredation.

Any head, on its own, could have an independent power supply, but would be sundered from the CPU in the torso, so only be partially active and unable to represent the whole of the unit. Put onto another body, there might be programming conflicts and, certainly, any personality retained by the head circutry might find it awkward to handle the personality built into the body (unless the body was a blank, but that is still not A Good Thing, when you think about it).

Megatron mentions the fact that he's going to rip out Optimus' laser core, which is located in the chest rather than head. I've always assumed that that referred to a memory unit attached to a CPU. Sparks and their issues came later...

Well, in G1 nothing can kill a Transformers apart from in the film, where they die left, right and centre.

In the Live Action film, if Optimus bashes your head in, you die- unless you happen to be Megatron, in which case you just grown and leave, or Frenzy, in which case you grow legs from your head and wiggle around.

According to BM Scavenger, no they don't.

Well, Prime was perfectly fine without his body in "City of Steel," and he was able to survive in a similar state in the early Marvel comics. Prime seems able to survive in just about any state...and to die in it as well...

Summerhayes wrote:Well, in G1 nothing can kill a Transformers apart from in the film, where they die left, right and centre.

Unless we're talking about the comics, Cyclonus didn't fare too well without a head. Neither did Twintwist, or Topspin for that sake.
There are however also indications of the opposite. Straxus lived for some time without a body.

What it really depends on is the plot. If the character is meant to die, he dies.

Alligatorcon wrote:What it really depends on is the plot. If the character is meant to die, he dies.

Whoah whoah woah woah!
You mean they haven't sat down and worked all this out?
What were they thinking?

Depends.

Runamuck survived without a head in the IDW-verse, and can still talk when one of those Reapers sliced his noggin off. (Of course, it didn't help when another Reaper crushed his head with a big rock). Soundwave died when Hound tore off his head. But then, it was in Spotlight Mirage. Alternate universes and everything, so it doesn't count. Beast Wars Terrorsaur, Tarantulas, Inferno and Megatron had lost their heads at one point or another, but return in the next episode. Inferno, for one, can still talk when his head was blown off.

In Animated, the Headmaster's victims (Starscream, Sentinel and Bulkhead) all can still talk and think without a body.

In the movies, if someone TEARS YOUR FACE OFF, you die. (Grindor, Bonecrusher and the Fallen to name a few) But Frenzy can survive as a head, though it's because he has a delocalized nervous system or somesuch.

In G1... there are the Headmasters, obviously. Both Optimus Prime and Lord Straxus also survived as a head in the Marvel comics, though on both cases, they had specialized equipments feeding them power and such. Ripping Cyclonus' head off killed him, however. The same happened with Topspin. Or is that Twin Twist? Can't remember.

I can imagine that a head has lots of sensory equipment, but as sparks are now the canon, I don't see why they would expire due to decapitation.

NO, of course, the matter isn't really a brain. Okay,amimated Sentinel doesn't need one but still. It did look funny when he lost his head and it did look the same when Screamer did.