It's like a self-degenerating molecular farmer. Welcome back Autobots, Hedizab Dukans, and everything in between to another Transformers theory. Today's is going to cover how the Transformers are able to transform into squeaky-clean vehicles while being so gosh darn dirty in their robot forms. So without further ado, let's jump right in. Now when it comes to the live action Transformers movies, one question that is on everyone's mind is how these war-torn robots are able to transform into such perfectly clean vehicles. This is a question that I've been pondering over for a while now myself. And today I think I have a solid explanation that can finally put this question to rest. Probably the most well-known example of this phenomenon is bumblebee from Transformers Dark of the Moon. Pay close attention to his front bumper. As you can see, it's perfectly clean in vehicle mode. However when he transforms, it all of a sudden becomes war-torn with scratches and dirt that wasn't there before. Now every single Transformers character in these movies suffers from this issue. A few examples of that come to mind as Side Swipes Chess and Robot Mode having these black marks by the wheel wells. While in vehicle mode they are perfectly clean, Skids and Muffler both having scratches on their front headlights while in vehicle mode they are gone. And Ironhide having scratches on his front right fender by his headlight, which are not present in vehicle mode. The technical reason for why the robots look dirty in robot mode but not in vehicle mode is because the production team believed that the robots would not look as interesting if they were squeaky clean. Thus adding nicks and dinks to them in order to make them look more real. The most fun and most challenging thing is can we make this stuff look real? We did huge packages of like texture reference. An abrasion reference for even the robots internally because we didn't want to be so squeaky clean that they were uninteresting. So on his hand the surface was perfectly smooth and then we add in these scratches and nicks and dinks. So hard is part of this film is we don't have real robots, we have real cars. And the real cars they're buffing. You look at a real car that's just been washed and polished and shined up and it almost looks like a CG car. So the hard part was trying to find a balance of dirt and aging to add to the robots that didn't make it look implausible that they could have come from this very clean car. Furthermore the Transformers movies at the end of the day are just massive product placements for car companies wanting to sell their vehicles. If it wasn't for the help of GM pouring money into the production, Transformers 2007 would have never been made. Which explains why all the Autobots in that film besides Prime transformed into GM vehicles. And this product placement would continue to play a prominent role in the sequels because it made GM millions. Here's a real statistic. The popularity of the Transformers movies has positively translated to interest in the Chevy Camaro. In 2009, two years after the release of Transformers, the Generation 5 Camaro dropped and sold 60,000 models. GM soon announced the Transformers special edition Camaro package that was set to be released in 2010. That campaigns on another 80,000 Camaro sold by the end of the calendar year. And this excludes all the bumblebee Camaro toys that have been sold and are continuing to be sold to this very day. According to Edward T. Wellburn, the former vice president of GM Global Design stated that being a part of the Transformers franchise is an incredible way to showcase the design work of which GM is capable. The global series gets our cutting edge designs in front of more potential customers than we could through traditional methods. Now for those of you who may not know, this guy actually made a cameo in Transformers age of extinction as one of the managers who worked at KSI. Now you may be wondering what this has to do with battle damage. Well as we know, companies paid top dollar to promote their vehicles in these movies. If the robots were to realistically transform, their vehicles would be all banged up. And for companies wanting to market their vehicles such as GM, this would be a disaster since their cars would all look like junkers, defeating the whole purpose of having their vehicle in the movie. It would also defeat the concept of robots and disguise as well, which now leads me into the in-universe explanation. That being holograms. Now holograms have been used by cyber tronians in order to blend into their environment. Since a driverless vehicle would attract a lot of attention. These holograms were primarily used by the Decepticon so they could operate within military branches and law enforcement agencies of the United States without being detected. Furthermore, cyber tronians are able to use holograms to simulate environments. In the O7 film, Optimus was able to show cyber tron appear right in front of Sam and Michaela's eyes, and Jetfire was able to show the fallen's betrayal to Sam and friends, along with the battle for the Matrix. So with that in mind, we know that cyber tronians have sophisticated hologram technology, which is partly used when they want to blend into their environment. I believe that they use this same technology in order to cover up the damage they have sustained when they transform into their vehicle forms. Since a car that is covered bumper to bumper and scratches is going to draw a lot of attention, which is the opposite of their objective. A misconception many people had on why the battle damage went away in vehicle mode was due to the transformers being able to regenerate damage on their bodies. This theory stems from a line that was said by a soldier examining Scorponok's tail. It's like a self-regenerating molecular armor. However to pinpoint this as the reason wouldn't make sense. This of the damage reappears as soon as they transform back into robot mode, meaning nothing got regenerated. However this regeneration factor comes into play when a transformer receives more severe battle damage. More severe battle damage is more or less when we see a transformer lose parts on them, and yet those parts somehow magically come back later. An example of this would be Scorponok, as we know in the O7 film, and AC-130 Specter Gunship was able to damage Scorponok to the point where the tip of his tail fell off. However in the sequel, Transformers Revenge of the Fallen, his tail was fully fixed. The reason why it was fixed was because Transformers have the natural ability to regenerate missing parts. However not all cases like this are equal. Since in most cases when we see a transformer lose parts, those parts end up coming back in a later scene. An example of this would be when Ironhide gets shot by Sentinel Prime. As we can see his left tire goes flying out of his body. However it's back when Ironhide is consumed by the cosmic rust. Another example of this is when Optimus Kick starts screaming into face. As we can see several parts go flying off his face, including his left eye. However in the shot after, his left eye is back in place. And throughout the film after this kick, his face is perfectly fine. There is no proper logical explanation to this since this happened so much and the part loss is never consistent. This right here is a real frame from Transformers Dark of the Moon. By all means Megachron just killed Sentinel Prime, because his torso is literally gone. However in a later scene, all that damage has been reverted. So there's really no in-universe explanation for part loss cases like these. However in cases like Scorponox Tale, that can be explained by a cyberchronious natural ability to regenerate over time. Another thing I would like to point out is that it doesn't seem like a Transformers head can regenerate like other parts of the body, since Megachron's head still had the damage he sustained in Egypt. With him requiring Scapple units in order to fix it. Another example of this would be Ironhide Scar. Throughout the trilogy, Ironhide supported a scar on his right eye. How he got it is unknown, but it never ended up going away. Which leads me to believe that for some reason, the head and face of a Transformer cannot be naturally regenerated. In addition to this, I do want to stress that cyberchronians are unable to regenerate limbs. However, they are able to take the limbs off of other cyberchronians in order to replace destroyed ones. An example of this would be Squeaks from Transformers of the Last and Night. In that film, Squeaks's right arm was shot off by a TRF Sentinel. However, it would later be replaced by a Decepticon arm thanks to the help of Izzy. Now the last thing I would like to address is if a Transformer can transform while having missing parts. And to this I say it depends on the part loss since despite Megachron having a good chunk of his head missing, he was able to transform without issue. However, if the parts that they lose end up making a significant part of their VioComode, or a part that requires their VioComode to function, such as a wheel, wing or thruster, then they would be unable to transform. For example, Bumblebee at the end of the 2007 movie would not be able to transform. Because he lost both of his legs which make up the back half of his VioComode. And just like that, now you know why Transformers are dirty in robot mode and squeaky clean in VioComode. I hope you guys enjoyed this video and if you have not already, check out the Fixing Transformers playlist for some more awesome theories. But before I go, I want to say thank you to all my Patreons and Channel members for supporting the channel. Thanks to you guys, Trans theories is where it is today. So thank you. And as always, if you enjoyed the video, consider dropping a like rating because it does help the channel a lot. With that said, keep on theorizing.