>>105296114In the cartoon, when "personality components" or the precursor to sparks were inserted into vehicles, the vehicled then altered themselves to fit something more appropriate to the bot.
But Optimus, Jazz, Wheeljack, Bumblebee, Megatron, the Constructicons, and a few others had the same robot mode on cybertron as on earth. Hell, when Hotrod becomes Rodimus, his robot mode is basically just a bigger version of his regular one, despite his vehicle being totally different.
Transforming into an alt mode is often described as flexing a muscle. Xaaron hadn't used his in so long that it was in danger of literally killing him.
The dinobots were a different thing entirely, as they were created in a whole different process than any other transformer we know of. In the G1 cartoon though it's important to know that, aside from when you insert your personality component into another machine, the only time we see someone changing their alt modes comes with an outside system making alterations.
There could be people who change their bot modes, punch/coounterpunch, doubledealer, and triplechangers are all forms of shifters
shifters are a particular class of transformer that has advanced transforming abilities. Prior to the prime series, these hadn't been lumped together though
