Transformers: About Sparklings

Transformers: About Sparklings

So I have a sparkling character. But my question is: ‘Til what age are they a sparkling ? Very few canon informations exist about Sparklings and the term itself seems to comes from the fandom (source: tfwiki). However it has been use in the comic since - I can’t remember witch issue but - something about a tf trying to insult an other in a very childish way and immediatly being glassed by his friend like “are you a sparkling or what?”

So I went on a little adventure in the two Transformers comic issue talking about baby Cybertronian (on the top of  my head - there might be other but I don’t remember/read them) :  - ROM Vs Transformers #1 - the Holiday Special - especially the second story

We’ll only talk about forged Sparklings in here. Constructed cold Sparklings are obviously differents.

First I’d like to signal that I do a difference between the words Sparkling and protoform. In my own headcanon (and ‘til proven wrong) protoform is the stage where the Cybertronian is forming his shape (baby) ; while sparkling is the fully formed Cybertronian but in their very youth (child).

Let’s go !

Following this page of the Holiday Special we gather: - Protoform are usually referred as “she”. - Protoforms can be of any shapes and size. - They’re warm til their true shape is found - Minutes are needed for a face. - Hours are needed for alt-mode/fonction clues - They look like mashmallows.

Now from these pages of ROM vs Transformer #1 we learn: - Protoform seems to look the same-ish in their starting form NOTE: I don’t think those are constructed cold bodies - Stardrive talk about “solidifying” meaning her metal wasn’t and so from my very limited knowledge in metal physic: not-hard-metal = warm metal - Any shape and size again: she’s bigger than ROM (whom is regular-size human ? I think ?) - Able to create sound/words but seems to take a lot of effort/energy - probably because they didn’t developped a voicebox yet and so are stuck like movie/TFP Bumblebee and his beeping. - Sparking have to learn to talk and social interactions - Five solar cycle (5 years) are needed to finish the development (I suppose cause it’s a date they took the time to stop at in the narration) and being able to transform. - On the next pages (not saved) the story continue and Stardrive is 10 years old during the comic.

We also have the very small fact that Cybertronian are put to work their function after 2 weeks of age. For those who don’t read MTMTE, Tailgate - the white one- was working on the Ark and after an accident fall in a deep sleep at the take-off. During the comic he comes out as a curious and young-minded bot.

So those are the fact I could gather from those pages. Now to the speculations ! - Again I feel the need to say that those are my personnal interpretation, you are welcome to disagree/agree/fight me! -

- Protoforms are warm marshmallows that needs hours to be able to function (aka walk/see/talk…) - they are probably to be protected by then because of their metal fragility. - They may start small (cybertronian baby size) to grow up their final size withing these hours of forming. - They look the same when forming the basic shape (1 torso, 2 leg,2 arms, a face, two eyes ect..) and develope their own identity once the basic are covered. - After five years their development is over and their shape is final - however they are still considered a child :

- They can work right fter the Sentio-Metallico cool off - I suppose they can learn to fight as well (in ROM vs Transformers, Stardrive become a knight at age 10 after 5 years of training).

“So How old a Cybertronian must be to not be a sparkling anymore ?” I still don’t know. Cybetronians can live millions of years while still acting young (source: Rodimus made before the war, aka 4 millions years ago and still act like a godhecking teen !) so: -  I suppose that their “young” phase are longer than ours, human. - BUT, knowing that they are machine that can walk and talk within hours of their creation, I kinda also want that phase to be shorter - cause machine can learn faster blahblah.

IN SHORT: I STILL DON’T KNOW MAN I’M GONNA DECIDE A THING FOR MYSELF AND YOU’RE WELCOME TO MAKE YOU’RE OWN BUT I WANTED TO SHARE ABOUT SPARKLING CAUSE THEY ISN’T ENOUGH CONTENT FOR THE CUTE MARSHMALLOWS !! - Protoform: from creation to 5 hours (approx) - Become self-sufficient - Sparkling: from 5 hours to 5 years - they body finalised it’s design and they have learn all they need to correctly function as a proud member of the Cybertronian society.