Digital Entity Frame
From Transformers Wiki
Though they resemble other Transformers, all Mini-Cons are in fact comprised of a mass of energy known as a Digital Entity Frame (デジタルエンティティ・フレーム Dejitaru Entiti Furēmu), encoded with information that comprises their entire being, from their programming to their physical forms. This "soul" is the source of the diminutive Transformers' remarkable abilities: sustaining the Mini-Cons with self-renewing energy, altering an object's molecular structure and allowing them to Powerlinx with Bulks. A Fixer Bug is capable of rewriting a Mini-Con's Digital Entity Frame completely, erasing all their memories and turning them into the twisted servants their creator intended them to be.
All free or "renegade" Mini-Con Digital Entity Frames are connected through a dimension known as the Linkage, but without a physical form to ground them in the material world, they will diffuse into the sea of consciousness. This causes them to naturally lose access to their maker's true power, which is available to the Mini-Cons who serve him.
It is sometimes referred to as the Spark Figure or Spark Frame.
Fiction
Linkage
When free will spread into the Mini-Con's shared consciousness, their Spark Frames were cut off from Unicron's full power. Linkage Part 9 They did however retain the Servility Program that forced them to obey the Bulks they Powerlinxed with. Linkage Part 5 After being hunted down by Top Gear, a free Mini-Con was reduced to his Spark Frame and reprogrammed into a servant of Unicron. Linkage Part 2 When Redline and Falcia ventured into the Linkage to recover the Spark Frame of Twirl, they used the energy from their Spark Frames to construct a new physical form for her (which does not make her their baby). Linkage Part 7 Using data taken from a Fixer Bug and a loyalist Mini-Con, Redline was able to decipher the Master Key and unlock their Spark Frame's full power and granting them true freedom. Linkage Part 9
Cloud
The "soul" of Over-Run was able to persist despite his panel being destroyed. It merged with SARA's being so that the otherworldly entity could have access to Mini-Con energy and open a Dimension Gate back to the Cloud World. Return
