Fiction
The background fiction for the toys as to why they became Action Masters stated that in an attempt to replace their dwindling supply of energon, Optimus Prime had come across a super energy known as Nucleon. It had the unseen side-effect of causing any Transformer who took it to lose their ability to transform. Megatron also found out about the Nucleon and stole some for his side. To compensate, both the Autobots and Decepticons developed weapons and vehicles that were able to transform.
In the original Transformers Marvel comic, the Autobots had come across Nucleon on an alien world. Due to the unpredictable side-effects of Nucleon, Optimus Prime prohibited the use of it. Grimlock later flaunted this ban testing it on himself and using it to revive his comrades. While it had the desired effect and made them more powerful, it caused them to lose their ability to transform. In the Generation 2 Transformers comic, those Autobots who had taken Nucleon could once again transform. This contradiction was explained in the 1991 Transformers annual text story "Another Time and Place", which concluded with the discovery of a new batch of Nucleon which restored the transforming ability of those who took it.
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Famous quotes containing the word fiction:
“It is with fiction as with religion: it should present another world, and yet one to which we feel the tie.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“The purpose of a work of fiction is to appeal to the lingering after-effects in the reader’s mind as differing from, say, the purpose of oratory or philosophy which respectively leave people in a fighting or thoughtful mood.”
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940)
“I write fiction and I’m told it’s autobiography, I write autobiography and I’m told it’s fiction, so since I’m so dim and they’re so smart, let them decide what it is or it isn’t.”
—Philip Roth (b. 1933)