|Diet||Energy, Oil, Various Minerals (Energon is not food)|
The Autobots are both one of the primary factions of the legions of Cybertronians, and a subspecies of the Cybertronian race, at least to the extent that one could call them a subspecies.
They usually find themselves defending both their own race and other species against the Decepticons and upholding justice and freedom throughout the galaxy.
A generally heroic, honorable group, they tend to be dedicated to peace, and feel a need to protect other races from the Decepticons. As a result they are usually Transformers who change into non-combat oriented alternate modes such as domestic vehicles, cars, trucks, or rescue vehicles. This is not always the case, however, as their ranks certainly contain ne'er-do-wells, malcontents, and unsavory types, and the necessities of war have led many to adopt more combat-oriented alternate forms. While the Autobots have usually found themselves outnumbered by the Decepticons, the Autobots have always had home-field advantage, having not only the humans' military support, but also having more places to fall back on, while the Decepticons are entirely unwelcome on Earth. Autobots are often seen as the workforce of the Cybertronian race, performing the jobs that make civilized life possible. The Decepticons who joined Megatron in his quest were mostly from the militia.
The origin of the Transformers species differs according to continuity, and not all continuities have given the race a specific stated origin at all, but, of those that exist, the most prominent are:
- Atechnogenesis — Spontaneous evolution from "naturally occurring gears and pulleys" on Cybertron's surface. This rather questionable origin was given in the first Marvel Comic issue and then was promptly (and thankfully) ignored.
- Quintesson made — Created as consumer goods and military hardware by the alien Quintessons. This was the origin given for the Transformers in the original Generation One cartoon. Although well known because of the cartoon's prominence, it has been given relatively little attention in subsequent media. According to some sources, it may be just another Quintesson trick.
- Primus created — Created by the god-like "Lord of the Light" Primus to carry on his age old battle with the "dark god" Unicron. This origin sprang from Simon Furman's United Kingdom comics and then carried back to the later American Marvel books. It is also the origin that has been embraced and adopted by pretty much every Transformers work/continuity since then. A retcon created by the Transformers Universe and Fun Publications Cybertron comics and related fiction has unilaterally applied the Primus and Unicron backstory to all Transformers continuities in the Multiverse, past and future. How this works in light of the original cartoon's Quintesson backstory has not been explained (3H attempted to do so, however).
- Biomechanical evolution — In no continuity is this a proven back history for the Transformer race. It is mentioned as idle speculation by Nightbeat, who wonders if perhaps Transformers perhaps evolved/upgraded (with or without external help) from biological beings to mechanical ones, in a similar manner to the transition he witnesses underway on Gorlam Prime. In some continuities, Cybertron is known to have once been inhabited by organic life; in Beast Machines, for example, Nightscream finds the fossilized remains of organic animals, which incidentally were startlingly similar to known Earthly life forms. However, there is little or no implication that the Transformers evolved from these organics; there is more implication that whatever previous life was on Cybertron was instead swept aside by the Transformers or their forebears. The Kiss Players timeline states that 12,000,000,000 years ago, Cybertron was a verdant planet in Japanese continuity.
- Cube Creationism — This origin, the newest, is seen in the Transformers 2007 movie and Transformers Animated. According to it, a cube-like object (much larger—though shrinkable—in the movie) mystically gave birth to the Transformers. It is not known by any of the Transformers who created it. This cube was known as the Allspark.
While many would find it difficult to tell the difference between the Autobots and Decepticons were it not for their trademark insignia, Decepticons are the only ones of the two who are naturally built to fly; all Decepticons in fact are meant to have this ability, likely a throwback to their days as use as Quintesson warfare constructs.
Notable Autobots Edit
- Optimus Prime (leader)
- Ultra Magnus
- Hot Rod/Rodimus Prime
- Red Alert
- Vector Prime
- While it has certainly been speculated by fans that all "Transformers" subspecies consume Energon, this is in fact not the case. Autobots did not even know what Energon was until they were introduced to the substance by the Decepticons inadvertently in 1984.
- In the 2007 Transformers movie, Optimus Prime says "We are autonomous robotic organisms from the planet Cybertron". This may imply that "Autobot" is the species name for the Transformers (or at least a name they probably used to refer to their kind before the war).
- Though in recent time the term Autobot is commonly thought to be a contraction of "Autonomous-Robot" it was originally conceived as a contraction of "Auto-Robot" thought the Comics sometimes stated this as "Automatic-Robot" and the toyline development materials as "Automobile Robot" due to the most early Autobots had car alt modes in 1984.
- Energon the substance that functions as the lifeblood of Cybertronians and that powers their weapons and much of their technology has shown to exist in multiple states as an energy contained in a forcefield cube, as liquid which is often drunk in robot mode or used like Petroleum fuels would be in an Earth car, or as a Natural or artificial cystal form.
- Energon can be seeded and the crystal form can be made to grow in a natural environment this has been a plan implement by The Decepticon head Scientist Shockwave on Earth and elsewhere.
- Not all Transformers are either Autobots or Decepticons some are non-aligned, or part of defunct or rare factions like Ultracons, or Star Seekers, this is especially true of any Cybertronians who left Cybertron in the Pre-civil war Colonial "Golden Age" era.
- Transformers are exceptionally long lived and a life span of many millions of years for an individual is not unheard of.