Transformers Technology - Mass Displacement

Mass Displacement

In the American animated series, and various comic incarnations, many Transformers have the ability to change size during transformation, a glowing outline occasionally appearing around their bodies as they do so. Notable examples include Megatron, Soundwave, and Astrotrain. Long a source of confusion, such technology first received a full-scale explanation in the final issue of the Generation One version of Dreamwave Productions' More Than Meets The Eye series, which focused on many different aspects of Transformers technology and other information. In IDW Publishing's Transformers: Escalation it is also mentioned that it takes considerable power to accomplish this feat. During Optimus Prime and Prowl's conversation, it is hinted at that the technology is old, but has not been in use for some time. Megatron and Soundwave are the first Transformers in this continuity to display mass displacement. Mass displacement was not utilized by any of the Autobots or Decepticons in the 2007 Transformers film, as the producers claimed that they considered it a form of "cheating". This claim is contradicted however, when the film depicts the Allspark displacing mass when it reduces itself from its Hoover Dam filling size to one that Sam is capable of carrying around.