I always figured that it was one of three possibilities.

 

1: They choose an alt mode that fits their specific configuration (i.e. their arm goes here, and a leg goes there when in alternate mode), because if you look at BW you see what I mean.  I'll take Cheetor for example.  In all three of his form, his hind legs formed his robot legs and his front legs in both his regular and TM forms went behind his shoulders.  Primal in all three forms his waist did a 180 turn for each robot mode in regular, TM and Op Op forms.  In the Cybertron line, Hot Shot and CD Hot Shot have very similar transformations.  As does Red alert and CD Red alert, even though they're on different scales.  CD Red alert and smaller Red alert both have legs that are made from the front and back of the vehicle where the wheels are, and the arms are also very similarly positioned.

 

2: It was the will of Primus and they could do it, but only under certain circumstances which resulted in the complete overhaul of a reformatting, i.e. Overhaul into Leobreaker and neither of them have a similar transformation, or TM Megatron in TM2 Megatron.

 

3: It's a freaking kids show and I shouldn't bother trying to figure it out because it's just again a show there for the purpose of entertainment and to market characters to kids for them to buy them.

I think of this every time I see a TF scan a disguise. I'd assume they can do it when ever they want to as long as they have efficient power. One instance where they did do this on the fly was when the CD team scanned the Army vehicles because there current bodies couldn't hold the amount of power there were given.

Ja... getting a new alt mode means being completely rebuilt.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Unless you're new alt mode is caused by a transmetal wave, a TM2 driver, or housing a 2nd spark.

 

and in Armada, Megatron just showed the vehicle designs to his troops and BANG they had them.

Yeah, they did that in BWII too - just used eyebeams to scan for alt mode subjects.

Whenever it fits the story.

 

What I can't stand is that in the first episode of the cartoon the Autobots and Decepticons could both fly w/o jet packs. Then later on the fact that Autobots couldn't fly is what distinguished them apart :wtf

That never happened in the G1 comics. They had this thing called plot consistency. that the cartoon was often sorely lacking in.

 

Oh look! Megatron just created the Constructicons on Earth... who later turn out to have been created on Cybertron as Autobots who were later turned into Decepticons by Megatron... who himself was created by the Constructicons (Constructibots?) on Cybertron.... AAARGH!!

That never happened in the G1 comics. They had this thing called plot consistency. that the cartoon was often sorely lacking in.

 

Oh look! Megatron just created the Constructicons on Earth... who later turn out to have been created on Cybertron as Autobots who were later turned into Decepticons by Megatron... who himself was created by the Constructicons (Constructibots?) on Cybertron.... AAARGH!!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

:tflaugh1

 

Yeah, the comics worked better because they were one issue at a time - not a whole season with a movie being made in the background :tdown

you mean drive down the street, see a better set of rims, scan em and then change em up just like the Scion commercial where the car changes parts????

 

yea I can see that

Ok here`s how it works when they land on a planet they need to fit in. So they try to find a vehicle mode that is similar to their Cybertronian alt mode. This allows them to still transform similarly to how they did on Cybertron. Since this isn`t always possible they occasionally have to redesign their new alt modes to fit them. They can however get a new alt mode when needed to fit in on a new planet. The reason why they don`t change over and over and over is so that their comrads will still recognize them.