MAINSTREAM, 2011

She placed a female in the center section of an aquarium constructed with two side compartments of equal volume. She then put a single male into each of the side compartments and noted female preference by time spent in the vicinity of males, and by performance of courtship behaviors. In these particular experiments, she surgically implanted, into the tail of swordless X. maculates males, swords of the same relative length and form as in X. helleri. In some males, the swords had the same distinctive yellow color and bold black border as in X. helleri; in others, the swords were transparent (and shown in behavioral experiments to be invisible to females).

-Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf), Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009)

Transformers is currently one of the largest narrative franchises in hollywood cinema, with vast amounts of capital at stake, the elements of the story are carefully crafted to communicate clearly and effectively to the broadest possible audience. The 'good' robot's industrial-design features clean mechanistic cuts and bright colors whereas the evil robot's design is organic, scaly and insect-like, reflecting an evolutionary predisposition to associate these features with snakes and bugs and by extension danger, death and disease.

Megatron and Optimus Prime embody millions of years of evolutionary history as strains of information-species that have phase-transitioned from the biological into the cultural. Design signifiers that are cross-culturally effective and globally marketable, effluent from the main-stream.