Humanization

Throughout the various Transformers canon, there have been several instances of Transformers with anthropomorphic traits and displaying very biological actions that possibly conflict with their status as mechanical alien robots. Many of these instances can be dismissed as stylistic choices by the artists or as whimsical gags not to be taken seriously.

Glandular, digestive, and respiratory

Sweating

• In issue twelve of the original Generation One comic, Rumble is seen leaking lubricant from his head during a stressful confrontation with Shockwave (as Shockwave points out), in a manner resembling sweating.
• Numerous times in the Marvel UK comic, Kup can be seen "sweating."
• There were manga-like depictions of Bumblebee sweating in fear/nervousness in the Transformers Animated episode "Nature Calls".
• Robots in Disguise and Armada featured Transformers displaying the traditional anime "sweatdrop," a giant bead of liquid appearing at the side of the head to convey embarrassment or exasperation.

Coughing

• When the Autobots emerge from the ruins of a demolished antimatter laboratory, they are coughing. Roll for It
• Scrapper coughs when Smokescreen surrounds him with smoke. Triple Takeover
• Ramjet and Dirge cough when they're surrounded by Smokescreen's smoke at Lord Gycony's on Monacus The Gambler.
• Megatron coughs while infected with Cosmic Rust Cosmic Rust
• Astrotrain coughs after coming up from underwater. Megatron later tells him, "Transform, you sponge, and get us out of here!" It's not clear from the animation that Astrotrain is coughing, because the timing is off, but it's clearly Astrotrain's voice. Sea Change
• In Beast Wars, Megatron begins to cough for no reason while making a triumphant speech. Much like Powerglide's "heart", this could be a one-shot joke. He also coughs while sleeping.
• In the episode "Mortal Combat" in Transformers Armada, right after Optimus Prime says "I wish I could accommodate you", he coughs.
• In the 2007 movie, Bumblebee coughs when Ratchet tries to fix his voice.
• In the episode "A Decepticon Raider in King Arthur's Court", Rumble and Starscream, out of energy, are coughing.
• In the movie Age of Extinction, Optimus Prime coughs up dust shortly after his reactivation by Cade.

Breathing

On Star Trek the Next Generation, it was explained that the android Data's breathing served, primarily, to cool his inner components. It could be argued that breathing serves the same purpose in Transformers, but this explanation is always going to smack of desperation.

• Megatron would strangle Starscream like Homer strangling Bart on The Simpsons, on a regular basis. The Ultimate Doom, Traitor, Hoist Goes Hollywood, Starscream's Brigade, The Revenge of Bruticus...
• In an Energon episode, Jetfire instructs Ironhide that they have to synchronize their breathing before they can powerlink.
• At the climax of The Transformers: The Movie, Galvatron tries to strangle Hot Rod, complete with sounds of Hot Rod gagging and struggling to breathe. It's possible that Galvatron was trying to compress Hot Rod's neck until the Autobot's head popped off or until his neck was crushed damaging his internal mechanisms enough to kill him. Before that, Galvatron was breathing (panting, really) after Unicron mentally tortured him.
• In Transformers Animated, Bumblebee was shown to be breathing heavily after trying to chase down Blurr. Velocity
• Optimus Prime breathed very angrily with the sound of a motor revving when Prowl and Bulkhead told him that they relocated the Dinobots to an island. Megatron Rising - Part 1
  • Blurr was later seen breathing very heavily after his run across the galaxy to Cybertron. TransWarped
• When Megatron fled back to the Nemesis, his breath was showing just like how our breath shows when its cold outside. When Megatron tried to choke Starscream, Starscream is gagging. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Spitting

• Throughout his term on the Marvel UK comic letters page, Soundwave would regularly say "(Puttup)" after mentioning the Autobots or an Autobot's name to represent him spitting in disgust. This habit made an in-story appearance, with him spitting at Robot-Master despite his mouthplate.

• In issue 72 of the Marvel US comics, after Nightbeat escapes from the Decepticons's New Jersey base via a sewer, he spits as he complains about their poor choice of backdoor.

• In the Beast Wars episode "Tangled Web", Quickstrike "spat" after reissuing his challenge to tangle with Silverbolt, despite the fact that, like Soundwave, he has no apparent mouth.

• In the Beast Wars series-finale episode "Nemesis Part 2", Optimus Primal spit out a very-human-looking tooth into his hand after Megatron punched him.

• In the film Revenge of the Fallen, Starscream is seen spitting at Sam in apparent disgust after Sam was captured. Later Jetfire was seen to spit as he was talking like many other old people. Optimus spat something like a bloody tooth from his mouth after being blast by Megatron.

• In the film Dark of the Moon, Starscream spits while he talks to Sam.

Crying

Tissue: desired.

• A twinkle of light that may not literally be a tear, but is clearly intended to imply one, can be seen in Omega Supreme's eye at the end of "The Secret of Omega Supreme".

• When Optimus Prime dies in The Transformers: The Movie, Arcee is seen to dab at her eyes although no tears appear to come out.

• In "The Burden Hardest to Bear", Scourge had tears falling from his eyes, presumably in pain, ecstacy or both, during his monstrous disfigurement after he becomes imbued with the power of the Matrix.

• In the Marvel US comic issue "Warrior School!", Ratchet cries green tears after striking his bargain with Megatron This could, however, also be seen as energy of some kind, representing Ratchet's hate and anger at that moment.

• As he mourns his dead friend Snowstalker and decides he can never fight again, Tigatron cries a single tear in beast mode.

• When pondering Silverbolt's fate in Beast Machines, Blackarachnia is shown to shed a single tear from one of her spider eyes.

Note: The above two examples, however, were techno-organic and thus may very well have had tear ducts.

• Throughout Beast Wars II and Robots in Disguise, and occasionally in the Armada cartoon, several characters are seen crying in hyperbolic anime fashion.

• Tears can be seen welling up in Ironhide's eyes and falling to the ground in Energon as he mourns a fallen comrade.

• In Transformers: Animated, Blackarachnia cries, though this "ability" could be part of her partially organic nature. However, the only organics that can cry are humans and elephants. Along Came a Spider

• But tears definitely start to well up in Wreck-Gar's optics when he's told he can be a hero.

• In the film Revenge of the Fallen, Bumblebee cries sadly when Sam tell him that he cannot come with him to the college. Though it was done with actual windshield-washer-like devices, and after two years of living in the garage he's probably picked up on a lot more human mannerisms, so this is possible one of the less weird examples.
• In the Robots in Disguise 2015 cartoon, Sideswipe tears up thanks to a movie, leaking a bit of lubricant from his eyes.

Smelling

• Nearly all Transformers seem to possess noses for no discernable functional reason, although Octane did use it to smell some alien food (and denied trying a sample), and Movie Ratchet could apparently detect human pheromones by smell. We can assume, in these cases, the olfactory sensors are housed in the "noses" of these bots.

• Grimlock was curious why the Energon cubes smelled different. Thief in the Night

• In Beast Wars, Rhinox likes to smell flowers. But Optimus Primal didn't like his ultimate weapon after all those wild beans. The Low Road

• In 2007 film, Megatron said "I can smell you, boy!" right before breaking through to the second floor of the building where Sam was hiding.

• Revenge of the Fallen film had Ironhide say that he could "smell Decepticons" while wrinkling his nose like he just caught up a scent.

Eating

• There are references to Cybertronian food.

• The Insecticons are shown to eat metal and organic material.

• In Beast Wars, the Maximals and Predacons are shown to eat:
  • Tarantulas even displays something of a voracious appetite, eating rats and leaving webs to catch prey. At one point he captures Cheetor and prepares to drain his fluids, claiming that it is the act he prefers over the nourishment, which adds just another level of creepy to the already creepy Tarantulas. The Web
  • Rattrap eats apples. The Web
  • Terrorsaur eats a bird. Power Surge
  • Dinobot ate a clone of his. Optimus Primal remarked that he was "disgusting". Dinobot himself thought it was quite tasty Double Dinobot
  • While suffering from an Energon discharge virus, Rhinox eats wild beans to build up his power. This later ends disastrously for Megatron. The Low Road
• In Beast Machines, Nightscream is shown eating what appears to be metallic apples. Boy's got some strong teeth. In Darkest Knight

• Also in Beast Machines, Optimus Primal wants to eat the underground tree's fruit; Cheetor protests that "we don't eat food, we fuel up on energon--PERIOD!", but is overruled. The question of where they would get energon is never really answered. Forbidden Fruit

Flatulence

• In the Beast Wars episode "The Low Road", Rhinox lets out an extreme amount of flatulence after consuming wild bean vines. This could be due to Maximals having organic parts in their makeup. Before he ate the bean vines, the energon discharge virus he was suffering from was causing him to literally sneeze out energy bolts.
• Also in Beast Wars, in the episode "Bad Spark", Cheetor also lets out flatulence, blaming it on a large buildup of energy from his Transmetal body.

• In Revenge of The Fallen, Jetfire releases a parachute from his rear end with a farting noise heard, suggesting that he farted.

• In Revenge of The Fallen, Ejector and Wheelie emit puffs of fire from their lower backs.

Urination

• Tasmania Kid urinated (in beast mode) to put out a fire.

• Bumblebee performed a similar action on Agent Simmons, by popping off his automobile oil filter in robot mode. Optimus Prime claims that he was just "lubricating" him. Presumably, this action was inspired from witnessing a similar incident.

Intoxication

• In The Transformers episode "Microbots", the Decepticons are noticeably behaving in an intoxicated fashion after consuming high-grade energon. Powerglide referred to this as "over-energizing".

• In the UK comic, the Wreckers frequent a "bar" on Cybertron called Maccadam's Old Oil House, where they consume high-grade energon, presumably for the purposes of getting intoxicated. Dreadwind and Darkwing paid a visit to this establishment in a later story, and got so hammered that they didn't even notice Quickswitch fighting with some Mecannibals.

• In the Headmasters series, Hardhead gets drunk on energon and starts singing karaoke.

• Apache goes on a drinking spree when he thought his commander Lio Convoy died. The New Forces Arrive!

• In Beast Wars II, Galvatron gets "drunk" on numerous occasions.

• In Beast Wars II manga, Lio Convoy gets drunk once and mess up Apache's room.

• Throughout "Rise of the Constructicons", oil seems to correspond to beer. However, no one appears to actually get "drunk", except while waiting for Santa.

• The Micromaster Road Hugger blames high grade energon intoxication for the idea to tattoo a Blendtron symbol onto Mudslinger. Erm... yeah. Probably got spiked with Angolmois.

• In War for Cybertron, in the level "Iacon Destroyed", two generic Autobots can be seen standing in a corner in the energon factory. One is patting the other on the back while the other "drinks" from an energon cube and begins crying. Whilst the autobot drinks, a healing symbol can be seen above his head.

Miscellaneous

Oh, my eyes!!

• In the episode "Auto Berserk", Optimus Prime's eyes are closed (apparently to shield them against the smoke) much like a human's when Autobots stagger out of the fire and smoke of the Negavator's destruction. Some of the earlier episodes, including More than Meets the Eye part 2, have characters such as Hound and Mirage blinking.

• In The Transformers:The Movie, Megatron appears to be drooling blue fluid after he's dumped out in space.
  • However, it is likely this is a reference to one bleeding out of one's mouth.

• Deathsaurus once got a cold causing him to cough and have a fever in an episode from Victory manga. The Planet of Friendship, Jean and Star Saber!

• Blitzwing indicates that he gets dizzy when he can't control himself. Velocity

• After Sari is knocked out by Ratchet's EMP and the Autobots return to the plant, Bumblebee is seen with bandages wrapped around his middle even though he doesn't have blood. TransWarped Similar things also happened to Powerglide. The Girl Who Loved Powerglide
  • However, according to Transformers: Prime, Transformers have energon pumping through their bodies, apparently making it analogous to blood

• After Rumble had some energy, he started hiccuping while saying "Boy, these are good!" Microbots

• In the beginning of the episode "Rise of the Constructicons", Bumblebee states he's "thirsty"

• Bumblebee throws up vomit in Revenge of the Fallen.

• Trypticon surely knows how to burp after all that Energon from Africa. Thief in the Night

• When Ironhide rammed the Dreads' head-on in vehicle mode, they both leaked red fluid out of their mouths when they transformed to robot mode in an imitation of a bloody mouth. Dark of the Moon

Body parts

Teeth/tongues/eyeballs

Main Article: Teeth

A little too friendly, there, Megatron...

• The Generation One cartoon series is the only major piece of fiction to not present Transformers as possessing teeth and/or tongues. The features appear in both the Marvel and Dreamwave comics, the Beast Wars and Beast Machines animated series (where teeth would even be knocked out on occasion), the Robots in Disguise cartoon, and the Unicron Trilogy cartoons and comics.
  • However, some Generation One episodes do show the vague impression (with outlines inside the mouth) that there are teeth and/or a tongue, particularly with Megatron and Ironhide in some of the season 2 episodes, and Matrix-mutated Scourge in The Burden Hardest to Bear. The most blatant example is Snarl talking with a tongue in stegosaurus mode in Call of the Primitives. In one of the early drafts of the Transformers: The Movie script, Scourge was described as having fangs.

• One of the most prevalent examples of this tradition is the Kiss Players manga, in which a Legion character is equipped with a distinctive prehensile (and phallic) tongue.

• In the live action films, Autobot Skids is bucktooth with one of them being gold, while some Decepticons has razor-sharp like Megatron or mandibles like Frenzy.

• Animated Starscream reveals that he has a tongue in the short "Starscream Heckles Megatron".

• Optimus spits out a metal tooth after being struck by Megatron. Though this could also be a reference to the Beast Wars example above.

• Alice, the Pretender who attacks Sam, has a long tongue composed of organic tissues.

• In the film Dark of the Moon, Wheeljack seems to have teeth.

Facial hair

• Alpha Trion, Scourge, Unicron, and Wreck-Gar all sport "facial hair" in the G1 cartoon. Also, in The Transformers: The Movie, Galvatron also appears to have a "goatee" of a darker shade on his chin. In Victory, Governor Riker has a mustache, while in Beast Wars, Transmetal II Cheetor and Mudflap have goatees. In addition to that, Energon's Bulkhead and Animated's Scrapper, Mixmaster and the other Wreck-Gar all sport facial hair. (The last of these was modeled after his voice actor's own, prior to his appearance's overhaul.)
• In Revenge of the Fallen, Jetfire has a metal beard and whiskers to indicate that he is old. (This could also apply to The Fallen's 'beard', though it may simply be the Egyptian styling of the character physically, rather than an implied sign of age as on Jetfire.)
• In Dark of the Moon, Sentinel Prime had a beard with little red things at the tips. They seem to resemble beads. Almost like a pirate. He also has a mustache.

Questionable body parts

Not Astroboy, we swear!

Predaking: All brawn AND brains!

• In the G1 episode "The Girl Who Loved Powerglide", Powerglide is seen at the end of the episode having the LED outline of a cartoon heart within his chasis. This is somewhat nonsensical within in the context of the show (the contents of Transformers chest cavities had been shown several times before), and is probably merely meant as a one-off sight gag. Yet his Universe figure has a molded heart detail under his chest plate.
• Shrapnel comments that the humming in their hive is Bombshell's stomach rumbling because of the lack of food they had. Later on, Spike informs everyone that the Insecticons have trilithium stomachs. The Insecticon Syndrome
• Predaking (possibly brought back from the dead) has an organic brain when he is sliced in half in Zone.
• In the Beast Wars episode "Other Voices, Part 1", Rattrap kicks Waspinator in the groin, causing apparent pain and giving the Predacon a high pitched voice. Rhinox does the same to Inferno in another episode. Yet no evidence suggests Transformers have "Nuts and Bolts", unless that counts.
• In the film Revenge of the Fallen, Devastator has "wrecking balls", a particularly crude joke since none of his component vehicles are even equipped with such devices (though, if you view an image of Hightower, it appears that he has a wrecking ball, but only one). Also, one of the Appliancebots has a raygun on his crotch.
• After becoming a Transmetal and the others are staring at him, Rattrap asks if his gearbox is hanging open, making an reference to someone leaving their fly unzipped.
  • In one Beast Wars episode, Rattrap suggests that there's something underneath the torso plates of some female Transformers that would be indecent to see in public. And Blackarachnia has obvious breasts, despite the fact that her beast mode isn't mammalian.
• In Transformers Decepticons, when Create-A-Bot and Barricade are discussing whether or not Starscream is a better leader than Megatron and Create-A-Bot verifies Starscream's claims, Barricade says 'he can blow it out his exhaust'. This is a parody of a similar real-world phrase.
• In the Transformers Animated episode, Five Servos Of Doom, Safeguard is seen accidentally kicking Sentinel Prime in the groin.

Other biological functions

Sleep

• In the G1 comic, Ratchet falls asleep and dreams (or rather, has a nightmare). This goes against established canon for that continuity that Transformers deactivate fully rather than "sleep," a point Ratchet himself makes.
• In the Generation 2 comic, Kup attempts to rouse a vision-struck Optimus Prime by urging him to "wake up" -- then reminds himself that "we don't sleep!"
• In Beast Wars, it has been firmly established that (perhaps partially due to their organic components), all Transformers within the cartoon sleep. Some prime examples of this are:
  • Megatron has been shown to sleep in the command chair of the Darksyde, while his dino head mounted on the end of his arm stays awake, looks around, and smiles slyly. Wonder what it thinks about...
  • Cheetor has been shown asleep at many points, complete with (occasionally prophetic) dreams. In "Feral Scream Part 2", he also purrs when he's asleep. How cute!
  • In "Call of the Wild", the Maximals are kept awake for two days by the Predacons' non-stop attacks on their base, which exacerbate their beast instincts overriding their logic circuits.
• In Beast Machines, Optimus Primal is shown sleeping while having prophetic dreams from the Oracle
• In Beast Wars II, Galvatron often nods off in a narcoleptic-like fashion.
• In Beast Wars II manga, Lio Convoy sleeps and has a nightmare for one time.
• Armada Cyclonus is quite fond of catching forty winks when possible. Scavenger did the same on one occasion. Armada Megatron was also seen asleep twice in the episode "Rebellion".

See also:Stasis nap

Sexuality

One of the most controversial aspects of Transformers is the idea of sexuality. While it is established in most continuities that Transformers do not reproduce sexually, most continuities nonetheless have distinctive male and female characters (with the notable exception of the US G1 comic, which explicitly states there is no sexual distinction).

Sorry Sideburn, I don't think Wedge rolls that way.

The G1 cartoon brought the first official female Autobots into the canon, including Elita One and Arcee. The characters are noticeably more feminine in design and have clearly defined romantic relationships with male Autobots.

The issue becomes more complicated in Beast Wars, where the sexuality line is clearly defined (Blackarachnia has a particularly well defined female figure, including what appears to be an ample bosom - in fact, in Transmetal 2 form, she even has nipples)). It is hinted on occasion that the robots may engage in activities resembling human sex acts. Rattrap slyly makes a double entendre to Silverbolt regarding his suspected kinky activities with Predacon Blackarachnia, and later makes a comment about going to what sounds like a Cybertonian version of a strip club. In the Metals dub, Rattrap, thinking himself about to be stabbed by Dinobot, asked him to "be gentle, because I've heard the first time can hurt."

In the original Japanese version of Energon, Mirage displays romantic interest in Galvatron, causing his comrades to regard him with minor confusion. The Energon dub seemed to do its best to skirt around this issue, with Mirage's exclamations either being about different things entirely or simple cheering on of his leader - but they couldn't do anything about the hands-clasped-beside-his-head-while-doe-eyed expressions, or the one time that he pirouetted and struck a pose while surrounded by a giant glowing pink heart. Why, Japan?

Transformers sexuality is no longer confined to Transformers Animated franchise. While Revenge of the Fallen (franchise) features a certain little mech who develops a disturbing attraction for Mikaela Banes' leg.

See also

• Transformer anatomy
• Robot-fleshling romance
• Reproduction