Living metal
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The living metal from which Transformers are constructed is known by many names and descriptors, including bio-chanic, protomatter, technomatter, sentio metallico, birth metal, cyber-matter, Sparked metal, elemental metal, and Transformium. Usually depicted as the living stuff of Cybertron itself, it is no ordinary metal, possessing a self-replicating cellular structure and a genetic code. Transformers are sometimes presented as having a "natural" alternate mode they take on at birth, defined by the hard-coded design schematics in their spark, but their living metal is malleable and adaptable, and is capable of being programmed to reconfigure into new shapes, designs, and colors, allowing 'bots to change alternate mode as needed. Indeed, newborn living metal seems to desire a shape; if complications at birth prevent it from taking one, it is likely to die, and the spark of the Transformer to be extinguished with it. As with human flesh, when living metal dies, it is often shown to become drained of color; conversely, if infused with an excess of exotic energy, it has been known to unexpectedly take on new hues or even mutate into new shapes.
At the base level, living metal is composed of Rarified Energon.[1] As living matter, it is capable of being ravaged by unique diseases, but it can heal damage done it to it over time, its metallic cells regenerating and "growing" back. This healing process can be accelerated via medical means such as hands-on maintenance, external repair devices, or energon infusions. Lost parts can be replaced with duplicates made from ordinary metals without difficulty; a Transformer's systems can absorb and break down conventional material, convert it into living metal, and re-integrate it into their bodies.[2][3] However, major organs are exceptionally complex and replacements are virtually impossible to construct from normal materials, meaning that it is possible for a Transformer to suffer irreparable damage to parts of their body and lose the function of them.
It is entirely possible for a new Transformer body to be built from scratch without using living metal at all, and for a spark to then be implanted in it. The resultant being is no less of a "real" Cybertronian, but may face some social stigma in an unenlightened society. In some universes, the infusion of the spark will actually convert such a body into living metal.[4]
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Fiction
Generation 1 continuity family
Cartoon continuities
The earliest Transformers' living metals were forged in the fires of the Plasma Energy Chamber. The Rebirth, Part 1 It was this universe that popularized the idea that when a Transformer dies, their living metal becomes drained of color. Some of the most famous examples of this process took place here, including Optimus Prime himself, but accounts differ on whether a dead Transformer's remains turn various shades of grey The Transformers: The Movie Birth of the Fantastic Double Prime Ginrai Dies!! or stark white. Call of the Primitives The Mystery of Planet Master The same is even true of the living metal of Cybertron, which originally shone a healthy gold but which faded to a lifeless grey as its energy drained away. War Dawn The Rebirth, Part 2
By one account, the Quintessons used the Key to Vector Sigma to convert the matter of an organic world into the metal of Cybertron. Kiss Players timeline In 1985, the Decepticons discovered this power when, after stealing the key and bringing it to Earth, Soundwave dropped it on the ground, and it converted the rock and soil around it into metal. Megatron immediately set about turning Earth into a "new Cybertron" with the key's power, starting in the forests near Seattle. The Autobots were quick to react, and in the battle that followed, Silverbolt knocked the Key from Megatron's hand and destroyed it, reverting the transformed metal back to its original organic state. The Key to Vector Sigma, Part 2
The Pretenders were able to convert their living metal into organic matter to disguise themselves as human beings. The Master-Braces used by Headmaster Juniors and Godmasters were capable of achieving the opposite effect, temporarily converting the organic cells of human tissue into metal, thereby allowing the humans to transform and combine with Transtectors. Super-God Masterforce
The Decepticon Emperor of Destruction Deathsaurus wielded the Living-Metal-Destroying Cannon, a powerful weapon that fired energy blasts which killed the cells of living metal. Resurrection!? The Decepticon Fortress However, the cannon had no effect on gurunium. The Strongest Pair, the Combination of Victory!
Marvel Comics continuity
This universe was the first to show the Transformers being born from the fabric of Cybertron, as the first Transformer was depicted emerging fully alive straight out of the planet's surface, the Creation Matrix already installed within their chest. The Primal Scream That said, this appeared to apply only to the original first generation of Cybertronians; the creation of a Transformer in the modern day involved manually construction of a body by their fellow 'bots, which would then be brought to life with the Matrix. The Next Best Thing to Being There! Brainstorm! Command Performances! Aerialbots over America! Heavy Traffic!
When Optimus Prime was afforded a glimpse through time at the birth of the Transformer race, he watched the moment of the first Transformer's creation, as their raw body clawed its way out of a pool of primordial metal matter on Cybertron, a mass of liquid metal over an endoskeleton that promptly took shape and color once the robot had fully emerged, a crackle of light traversing its shifting surface. As the vision continued, Optimus saw how Cybertronians had once multiplied: the bio-chanic metal of their bodies replicating and dividing like a cell, forming a huge liquid metal pustule on the robot's body, which then burst to release a new, raw Cybertronian body that quickly took form. The Power and the Glory
Beast Era
Several centuries after the end of the war between the Autobots and Decepticons, a technological quantum leap known as the Great Upgrade bestowed new attributes on the Transformers' living metal. The bodies of those who underwent the upgrade process gained the ability to be reconfigured not just into metallic forms, but also organic ones such as beasts or plants. Sparkwar Pt. II: The Search Such organic beast mode "skins" were used by the Maximals of the Axalon and the Predacons of the Darksyde to shield themselves from harmful energon radiation on prehistoric Earth, Beast Wars (Part 1) but during their adventures there, exposure to a variety of energies including a quantum surge and the technology of the alien Vok caused further mutations to their bodies. Aftermath
Brand-new Transformer life created from this new, upgraded form of living metal begins as a featureless, inanimate body known as a protoform that lacks an alternate mode or conscious mind. The Spark In this "unformed" state, their living metal exists as a nanotechnological liquid metal referred to as protomatter. Beast Wars Universe The Gathering #1 Beast Wars Sourcebook It is also possible for the body of an active Transformer to be reduced down to a protoform state. Revelation Dawn of the Predacus Ruination Chapter, Part One Protoforms are stored in stasis pods, which induce stasis lock to keep their protomatter inert, locked in a mannequin-like form. Outside of stasis, their protomatter exists in a state of flux, constantly rippling around the Transformer's endoskeleton, eager to adopt a shape. When the pod activates its scanning apparatus and identifies a suitable alternate mode, stasis ceases, the protomatter is sculpted into its new form, and the Transformer is brought online; however, should the pod malfunction and stasis cease before an alt mode is scanned, the destabilized living metal and the spark will perish within a matter of hours. The Spark A Quantum Cycle Upgrade mitigated this problem by installing internal scanners inside each individual Transformer's body, Survivor which were still in use tens of thousands of years later. The New Forces Arrive!
Upon the return of the crew of the Axalon to Cybertron, the Oracle began a plan to use the organic matter they brought back with them to convert all of Cybertron and its inhabitants from pure living metal into technorganics. To stop this, Tankor obtained the Key to Vector Sigma, intending to use its ability to convert organics into technomatter to ensure Cybertron remained a world of metallic purity. Nightscream was the first victim of the key, and the conversion of his technorganic body into technomatter left him delirious with pain. As the Maximals set about obtaining a Mole Drone so they could mine curative organic goop from Cybertron's organic core, Nightscream's touch passed on his condition to Blackarachnia, but the pair were later cured when the Maximals found sufficient quantities of goo. The Key
When Megatron seized control of the key's power, he had his Vehicon drones use it to turn a huge organic vine that the Maximals had grown into technomatter. As the conversion spread down the length of the vine, Optimus Primal had to outpace it and sever the vine before it could spread to, and eliminate, all the crops the Maximals had cultivated. The Catalyst Subsequently, during the Maximals' assault on the Council Citadel, they were overcome and transformed into technomatter by Megatron's drones, while Optimus himself was converted by Tankor. End of the Line Fortunately, the conflicting energies of the Plasma Energy Chamber and the Key to Vector Sigma cured all of the Maximals. Fallout Megatron was not through with the key, however, and eventually tried to use its power on Cybertron's organic core itself. The core began to convert into technomatter, but the process was halted when Primal dragged the pair of them into the core and reformatted the whole planet into a technorganic paradise. Endgame Pt. III: Seeds of the Future
2005 IDW continuity
A "natural" Transformer birth results from a spark igniting in a region of Cybertron (or one of its moons) known as a hot spot. The ignition of a natural-born spark is accompanied by the formation of a portion of birth metal—scientifically known as sentio metallico—around it, which is harvested from the planetary surface along with the spark in a specific quantity determined by an equation. The Fecund Moon Silent Light The sentio metallico will soon coalesce around the spark to form a protoform, beginning with a simple geometric shape, from which it will grow and mature into a full-size Transformer Silent Light over the course of one to two days. This Machine Kills Fascists The process begins with the appearance of limbs and facial features, and soon after the manifestation of its natural alternate mode; a protoform will remain warm to the touch throughout these early stages, cooling once an alt mode has been taken. Silent Light Occasionally, however, the sentio metallico may have difficulty reading the genetic "instructions" of the spark, and struggle to assume its natural form. In such instances, a Cybertronian obstetrician known as a blacksmith will help nurture the protoform and sculpt it into its "god-given" shape. A World Misplaced
If a spark is not harvested from its hot spot and left to fade out, the sentio metallico typically dies with it. In incredibly rare instances, however, it will survive as "widowed metal," re-patterning itself into a snowflake-shaped bloom of incredible value. A World Misplaced
Such naturally-born Transformers are called "Forged." The Fecund Moon By contrast, "Constructed Cold" Transformers are ones whose bodies were built in factories from conventional materials and implanted with sparks, and were for a time considered "lesser" than Forged 'bots, resulting in social apartheid. The Divided Self Chaos Theory, Part 1 It is possible to use sentio metallico harvested from other sources to build a Constructed Cold body, however; this was the tack taken by the Decepticons at Grindcore Prison, where they smelted down the bodies of prisoners to harvest raw materials to build a better class of M.T.O. Speak, Memory! (Part 2)
The remains of extremely old Transformers, such as the members of the Guiding Hand, dissolve into inert sentio metallico—a red or grey powder—shortly after their demise. The Sun in Flight The Unremembering A Spark Among Embers
2019 IDW continuity
Leviathan made a job for herself by travelling across the surface of Cybertron, harvesting the planet's living metal so that new sparks would have a supply from which to mold their bodies. The World In Your Eyes Part Three
Unicron Trilogy
Though not limited to this universal cluster, instances of a Transformer's living metal becoming discolored due to an infusion of energy are particularly prevalent here, be it through the power of Mini-Cons, Puppet Mortal Combat Worlds Collide, Part 4 of 4 More than Meets the Eye: Armada #3 the unknowable attributes of Energon, Optimus Supreme Wishes or a Cyber Planet Key. Fury Sufficient amounts of such "divine" power can even spontaneously generate more living metal, as when the partially-powered-up Omega Lock turned Starscream into a towering colossus many times his normal size. Starscream (episode)
The regenerative effect of Energon on living metal was also seen often. Not only could immersion in, or ingestion of, the fuel heal gashes in a Transformer's armored skin almost instantly, their living metal replicating and "growing" back over the wound, but a big enough dose could help a Transformer—even one as huge as Unicron himself—regenerate entire lost body parts from scratch. Megatron Raid Energon Grid
Live-action film series
The "elemental metals" used to forge the bodies of the Transformers were created by an alien race known as the Creators. These beings used cyberforming "seeds" to convert the organic material of other planets into metal that they then harvested and took to Cybertron. Age of Extinction There, life was breathed into the metal by the AllSpark. Transformers This ultra-dense liquid metal makes up the protoform that serves as the core of every Transformer, and is capable of absorbing and integrating additional matter in order to generate the armored exoskeleton that surrounds it and forms the robot's outward appearance. The Movie Guide When analyzed by humans, this "self-regenerating molecular armor" was noted to have regenerative properties, but was unable to heal the 6000 degree magnesium burn of a high-heat Sabot round (at least not as fast). Transformers
Prehistoric Earth was one of the worlds where the Creators generated their metals. The deployment of the seeds there triggered the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, wiping out the planet's dinosaurs and even converting some of their remains into metallic skeletons. Small deposits of the metal were left on Earth which survived into the modern day, but humanity could find no use for the mysterious substance, unaware of the true power it held. It was the arrival of the Transformers on Earth that allowed Kinetic Solutions Incorporated to make the connection between the mysterious metal and the physiology of the aliens. The Battle of Chicago gave the company the chance to obtain the remains of multiple deceased Transformers, and using their remains, KSI proceeded to crack the Transformer "genome", and learned how to program and manipulate the metal, to which they gave the focus-grouped, trademarked, and commercially charged name "Transformium". Using Transformium, KSI began developing man-made Transformer prototypes, including the Bumblebee "knockoff", Stinger, and the centerpiece of their line, Galvatron—robots that exploited the reconfigurable properties of the metal to "transform" in their own unique way by exploding into a cloud of Transformium particles and reforming in alternate mode, a process known as "hypno-transformation."[5] Accept No Substitutes! This mastery of their molecular structure is apparently limited to conversion between pre-set forms, but doesn't make them any tougher than an ordinary Transformer; nail them with a killing strike and they go down like any other 'bot.
With Earth's limited supplies of Transformium dwindling in the face of their escalating production, KSI head Joshua Joyce wound up conspiring with CIA agent and anti-Transformer fanatic Harold Attinger, who provided Joyce with an additional Transformium supply in the form of the dead bodies of Decepticons that his Cemetery Wind task force rounded up (though unbeknownst to KSI, many of those corpses were in fact Autobots). Even this was not enough, however, but Attinger's secret ally Lockdown promised salvation in the form of a cyberforming seed that could provide them a vast quantity of Transformium for decades in exchange for assistance in capturing Optimus Prime for his own ends. They intended to safely detonate the seed in the Mongolian desert, creating enough Transformium to last for decades, but Galvatron—in actuality, Megatron reborn through silent manipulation of the KSI and its Transformium—sought to obtain it for himself, and had no such compunctions about protecting humanity from its effects. He took control of KSI's small army of Transformium prototypes, but his plan was foiled by Optimus Prime's Autobots and their human allies. Age of Extinction
Animated
Cybertronian life begins with protomatter, which is mined from Cybertron's Sonic Canyons and crafted into protoforms. The protoforms are then nurtured by the light of the Cyber-Ninja Corps' Matrix Chamber, before being brought to life by the infusion of a spark from the AllSpark or Vector Sigma. The AllSpark Almanac II Five Servos of Doom Though typically only occurring as the result of an accident or a scientific experiment into the abnormal, it is possible to format protomatter into organic configurations, yielding a techno-organic being. Along Came a Spider TransWarped Predacons Rising
When Cyber-Ninja Corps master Yoketron was fatally wounded by Lockdown, Prowl attempted to save his life by transplanting his spark into one of the Corps' protoforms. The body's protomatter reconfigured itself to resemble Yoketron, but the old master was dismayed to learn Prowl had wasted a protoform trying to sustain "a piece of the past," and allowed his own spark to extinguish. Five Servos of Doom
Fun Publications Shattered Glass continuity
Starscream referred to the metal and circuits of a Cybertronian body as technomatter when describing how they could break down and incorporate parts made with normal metals into their systems. Blitzwing Bop The Scraplets of this mirror universe consume dead metal and regenerate it into fresh living metal. Dungeons & Dinobots
Aligned continuity
The "primordial soup" from which the living metal of the planet Cybertron was formed in ancient times was known as cyber-matter. Transformers emerged from the fabric of the planet within the Well of All Sparks; the matter of their bodies was called Sparked metal by metallurgist Alchemist Prime The Covenant of Primus and noted by Alpha Trion to be made up of a "different form" of Energon which formed everything found on Cybertron. Transformers: Exodus Medical officer Ratchet described the complex inner workings of a Transformer's living metal body as "biology" rather than "technology," and made clear that vital organs like a T-cog could not be built from scratch out of ordinary materials. Operation Bumblebee, Part 1
When Megatron poisoned the core of Cybertron with Dark Energon, the planet lost the ability to support life. Million of years later, Optimus Prime's Autobots discovered and activated the legendary Omega Lock, which generated a fresh supply of living cyber-matter that could be used to re-cyberform Cybertron. Unfortunately, when the Lock fell into Decepticon hands, Optimus Prime was forced to destroy it to prevent Megatron from using it to cyberform Earth. Before Prime destroyed the lock, Megatron managed to use the cyber-matter to create a fortress for himself in Nevada. Darkest Hour
Salvation for Cybertron manifested from an unexpected source when the genetic material of some failed clone Predacons was inadvertently mixed with Synthetic Energon during an explosion in Shockwave's Project Predacon laboratory. The blending of the two materials created an unstable form of cyber-matter, which Megatron tasked Shockwave with perfecting so that he could resume his earlier plan to cyberform Earth and Cybertron.
With the Decepticons defeated, Team Prime took possession of the warship, Lock, and cyber-matter. The quantity of cyber-matter was not enough to manually re-cyberform the entire surface of Cybertron, and as Ratchet did not know Shockwave's half of the formula, they were unable to create more, but Optimus Prime had the solution: he launched the cyber-matter into Well of All Sparks, where it revitalized the core itself, so that it in turn could restore life to the rest of Cybertron. Deadlock
Ask Vector Prime
When questioned on the subject, Vector Prime observed that the various names used across the multiverse to refer to the living metal of Transformers' bodies, including "protomatter", "cyber-matter", and "sentio metallico" were all different names for the same thing (but also noted that an expert might potentially distinguish subtle differences between them based on the differing physical laws of different universes). He was loathe to use the word "Transformium", to refer to it, but only because he feared legal reprisal for infringing on a KSI trademark. In response to further questioning, Vector also explained that, in some universes, the infusion of a spark into a body made with conventional materials could convert the substance of that body into living metal. Ask Vector Prime 2015/08/03
Games
Transformers Roleplaying Game
The Collection Vaults wore suits of power armor that incorporated reverse-engineered Cybertronian transformium. Field Guide to Action and Adventure
Notes
- The word "protomatter" was first used in Transformers fiction to describe the watery-looking substance that makes up transwarp portals in the 1999 prose story "Schism". This usage would never be repeated, and its subsequent use as the name of the matter protoforms are made out of—in Beast Wars: The Gathering, The AllSpark Almanac II, and Ask Vector Prime—was not likely a deliberate repurposing of this word, but just a coincidence.
- "Technomatter" was first used in the Beast Machines cartoon to describe pure mechanical substances that had been converted from organics by the Key to Vector Sigma (an effect previously seen in the Generation 1 cartoon). The Shattered Glass story "Blitzwing Bop" later used it to specifically refer to the living metal of a Transformer's body, drawing a distinction between "technomatter" and conventional metals and circuits.
- The term "sentio metallico"—which, incidentally, in Latin translates as "I feel metallic"—was created by writer James Roberts for his unofficial Transformers novel Eugenesis, to refer to the living metallic stuff of Cybertron from which Transformers were birthed in the Generation 2 comic. He would later introduce the term into canon through the IDW comic books, in which it was established to be the substance which makes up protoforms.
- "Living Metal" became a mechanic in the Magic: The Gathering Universe Beyond: Transformers set, allowing transformers who are Vehicle artifacts to become creatures during their controller's turn. This is used to allow for some of the functionality of Vehicles (usually non-creature except during specific conditions), while maintaining that they are autonomous.
See also
Other named metals used in the construction of Transformers bodies, typically as armor, include:
Humankind is known to have created a living metal of its own, "sentient metal," which was used to create the superhero Pepsiman, and loaned to the Autobots to create Pepsi Convoy.
