Shapeshifter Mode Lock / Western Animation

• Meatwad in Aqua Teen Hunger Force practiced turning into a life sized figure of Abraham Lincoln (he can normally only become a hotdog and igloo) only to get stuck that way for the rest of the episode, as if he pulled a muscle.
• Ben 10:
  • Ben has this happen to him a lot, since he's basically got a Black Box from outer space permanently attached to his wrist. Even leaving aside that when he uses it, it turns him into the alien he chooses (or the one it chooses instead) until the timer runs down, then turns him back human until it powers up again, there have been a number of Mode Lock incidents, generally involving a weaker alien such as Grey Matter or Ditto.
  • Kevin:
    • Kevin ends up suffering a Villainous Breakdown after Ben beats him, even though he'd previously gained the ability to turn into any of Ben's aliens at will. His anger causes him to turn into a fusion of all of Ben's aliens — what Vilgax calls a "misshapen, chaotic amalgamation" — and upon trying to shift again he finds that he's stuck that way.
    • By the time Alien Force rolls around, Kevin returned to human form in time for his escape from the Null-Void. Not long after however, he's stuck again in a form that's part concrete, metal, diamond, and other stuff.
  • Happened to Albedo, Ben's doppelganger in Alien Force, who creates a duplicate Omnitrix and synchronizes it to Ben's, only to be transformed into a copy of Ben because Ben's form is the "default". When they fight, the magnetic interference caused by the meeting of two Omnitrices causes Albedo's colors to change. When Azmuth appears to tidy up the whole mess, he disable's Albedo's Omnitrix, trapping him in his human form(which he absolutely hates). Most of Albedo's later adventures focus on him attempting to regain the power to change form and return to his original Galvan form. In Omniverse Azmuth tinkers with Albedo's new Ultimatrix to trap him in a pallet swapped version of Ben's 11 year old form.
  • A plot point in the episode "Con of Rath", wherein Ben spends basically the entire episode in the form of the titular alien (which debuted in said episode). This was due to electromagnetic interference inadvertently caused by the Lewodan Prince Tiffin, whom the crew have to escort in a peacemaking effort. This was particularly troublesome, as Rath is one of the few aliens that actually effect Ben's mind. In this case, it makes him extremely dumb and highly combative
  • Ben does this on purpose in Omniverse, using a mode lock feature on the Omnitrix to stick himself in a form known for diplomatic skills to negotiate between 2 alien races (one of which is Rath's species). Unfortunately one of the diplomats infested Ben with alien fleas, planning on ruining the peace talk by having the fleas cause Ben to explode!
  • In another episode, "The Frogs of War", Ben uses the mode lock to keep him as a member of the species that invaded the earth and exiled him. It's notable that this example the audience is unaware until shortly before he removes the lock.
• Danny Phantom:
  • This is the entire purpose of the Plasmius Maximus, which has been used on both Danny and Vlad, modelocking them into their human forms. Other weapons/containment devices have this as a side effect of sorts.
  • The episode "Forever Phantom", in which one of Jack's weapons zaps Danny and Amorpho, forcing the former to stay in his ghost form and the latter to stay in Danny's human form...even though Amorpho still manages to (with difficulty) shift a bit more before being cured. It's a Long Story.
• Gargoyles:
  • Puck is mode-locked into one shape, that of Owen Burnett, by Oberon after rebelling against his king. Given that shapeshifting is a major part of Puck's tricks... this sucks. The punishment also included eternal banishment from their homeland Avalon. Puck wanted to spend more time living as a human in the human world, and Oberon gave it to him. The only way he can get mode-unlocked is when training or protecting Xanatos's son, Alexander, who has latent magical abilities.
  • The gargoyles' own stone sleep is a variant of this, being a unique aspect of their physiology. The Magus' curse took advantage of this by mode-locking them in it for a millennium, preventing them from reawakening when the sun set each day.
• Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts has this as the danger of undergoing full, rather than partial transformation, as the shifter can lose themselves to their animal half without external stimulus to remind them of their human side. This ended up being the case for Kipo's mother, Song.
• Timber Wolf in Legion of Super Heroes (2006) is mode-locked into his half-human, half-feral form because his father tampered with his DNA too much.
• In the Looney Tunes short "Knight-mare Hare" Bugs meets Merlin the Sorceror and tricks him into transforming himself into a horse. When Merlin tries "unzipping" the putative skin like Bugs successfully did to get back to his original form, he remains a horse no matter how many times he unzips himself.
• The Love, Death & Robots episode "Good Hunting" features this prominently. As The Magic Goes Away, the shapeshifter Yen finds it harder and harder to leave human form, eventually becoming locked in it. After her Unwilling Roboticisation, she finds an alternate way to escape this trope. And her species by default has a Weaksauce Weakness that can shape-lock them, at least until they dry off.
• An episode of The Mask: The Animated Series featured a fortune-teller that tricked Stanley into giving her the Mask which she then used to power another magic Mask that gives enormous powers. She then discards the Mask thinking it's now useless and Stanley puts it on... only The Mask is stuck in the form of a stereotypical Scot (complete with kilt). He then gradually obtains the rest of his forms (starting with the most useless ones, as The Mask himself lampshades).
• Played with in The Owl House episode "Yesterday's Lie". Vee is a basilisk who has spent the past several months disguised as Luz. Unlike most magical creatures that can produce magic from their own bodies, basilisks are Magic Eaters, so she's basically running on empty when a Trauma Button induced panic attack causes her to reflexively return to her true form. She immediately tries to return to her Luz disguise once she calms down, but she only has enough magic left to get halfway there and spends most of the episode stuck in a hybrid form. While she could technically change back to her true form at any time (and actually does when she has another panic attack later in the episode), it wouldn't actually be helpful for someone trying to lay low in modern day Connecticuit.
• In Supernoobs, if Kevin doesn't use his Battle Ball to turn back into a human within three hours, his DNA will permanently change and he will spend the rest of his life as his current animal form.
• Transformers:
  • The Transformers:
    • The episode "The Autobot Run" had the Transfixatron, a weapon that trapped most of the Autobots in their vehicle modes (all land-based, all unarmed), making them very vulnerable to the Decepticons. Later episodes would imply that Mode Lock could also be the result of heavy damage, and the Headmasters were automatically stuck in vehicle mode anytime their partners (who transformed into their heads) weren't around.
    • Also in "Desertion of the Dinobots", a little bit of Phlebotinum called "Cybertonium", which all Cybertron-created Transformers (i.e.: not the Dinobots) need in order to function correctly, starts decaying, resulting in semi-hilarious malfunctions (Megatron in at one point waving his arms around wildly when trying to fly, Ironhide icing himself up). Jazz is shown as unable to transform from car mode (until Ironhide kicks him), and is later shown stuck part-transformed (robot upper body, still in car mode in lower body). During the episode, Perceptor actually says "Fortunately I am still stuck in microscope mode").
  • Beast Wars:
    • The show and its sequel series Beast Machines, not having the secrecy restriction of other Transformers series, invented excuses for the cast having to adopt and stay in alternate forms. In Beast Wars, it was that all of the robots would be debilitated by energon radiation and that organic-skinned beast modes would protect them (an excuse as good as obsolete by the second season, but by then most characters had partial vehicle modes that gave them the advantage of speed or flight anyway). In at least one instance, having serious damage to the robot body prompted the internal system to force a Transformer back into Beast Mode. It's a double-edged sword: by remaining in beast mode for too long, the beast instincts start to overwhelm the robot intelligence until they become feral. Certain Maximals who frequently remain in beast mode, notably Tigatron, are able to overcome this. After even the normal Maximals were forced into permanent Beast Mode for an episode, they too learned the trick, and proceeded to teach the Predacons a lesson in Beast Wars. Beast Machines had the Maximals stuck in beast mode until they learned how to use their new techno-organic bodies, and had to use their alternate forms to hide from the ubiquitous wardrones as their beast modes made them essentially invisible to the enemy sensors (to be clear, their enemies could still see the Maximals in beast mode in front of them, but couldn't detect them with long-range sensors).
    • Optimus Primal became mode-locked in "Gorilla Warfare" thanks to Scorponok frakking around with his cyber-bee, infecting Optimus with a virus while the bee remained latched on to Optimus and prevented him returning to beast mode. Naturally this backfired, turning the normally peace loving Primal into a Berserker. (It was SUPPOSED to turn him into a coward, but Scorponok's competency can fluctuate according to the needs of the script.)
    • There was also an episode where Megatron has a beam-like device that trapped characters hit with it in Beast Mode. This lost the Maximals a chance to contact Cybertron as the Predacons were able to destroy the device they were using to send a message to a Cybertron probe.
  • Swindle from Transformers: Animated got stuck in vehicle mode for a long time.
  • Transformers: Prime:
    • The two-part episode "Operation Bumblebee" featured Bumblebee's T-Cog being stolen by MECH, rendering him unable to transform into vehicle mode. Eventually it was retrieved, however MECH then procceded to turn on Starscream (who'd been working with them), and steal his T-Cog, leaving him stuck in robot mode.
    • Starscream then created and subsequently murdered a clone to get THAT T-Cog and installed it in himself. Bumblebee managed to retrieve his original T-Cog eventually, though it was heavily, but not irreparably, damaged in the process.
• Vampirina: Vampires get stuck in their bat forms as a symptom of batty fever.
• Visionaries:
  • In "Lion Hunt", Darkstorm uses a potion to trap Leoric in his Lion form. Unless the spell is broken by the setting of the Three Suns, Leoric will never be able to revert to human form again.
  • In "Horn of Unicorn, Claw of Dragon", Arzon, after he has developed symptoms of the Magical Plague, attempts to assume his Eagle form, only to find that he can't maintain it, effectively trapping him in human form.
  • In "The Trail of Three Wizards", most of the Visionaries become exhibits in a magical zoo, where they are locked into their animal forms.
  • In "Dawn of the Sun Imps", one of the titular Imps (who has the ability to control felines) takes control of Leoric, who becomes trapped in his Lion form as a result.
• Between episodes 21 and 23 of Wakfu, Adamaï, a young shapeshifting dragon, is stuck in Tofu form after being swallowed whole and then regurgitated by Igôle (a powerful beast reinforced by Xelor magic, which is what interfere with Adamaï's power). This is a case where the modelocked form is small and weak, Tofus being Ridiculously Cute Critter birds.

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