Living metal

The first Transformer is born from the living metal of Cybertron, which immediately reconfigures to adopt its armored robotic shape.

The living metal from which Transformers are constructed is known by many names, including 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. 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. 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.

“	This is the greatest advance in modern physics since the splitting of the atom. Programmable matter... We can turn anything into anything.	”
—Gill Wembley, Age of Extinction

History

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 When a Transformer dies, their living metal becomes drained of color. Sometimes 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

The Key to Vector Sigma converts the organic matter of Earth into metal.

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

Beast Era

Outside of the stabilizing influence of stasis lock, a protoform's liquid metal "protomatter" exists in a constant state of flux.

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

Shattered Glass

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

Notes

• The word "protomatter" was first used in Transformers fiction to describe the watery-looking substance that makes up transwarp portals in the 2000 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.