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from 1996 thru 2012,pick your favorite & not favorite new mold TF combiners. please no recolors nor reissues from G-1.


Shadowpanther

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from 1996 thru 2012,pick your favorite & not favorite new mold TF combiners. please no recolors nor reissues from G-1.

 

If it combines then it counts.

 

PLEASE lets not get technical,lets just count the actual toy mold. please don't get overly technical & start choosing the better recolor & listing the ugly recolors in your least favorite list.

 

Yes,3rd party combiners count.

 

My list of 1996 thru 2012 new mold combiners favorites are as follows:

 

Beastwars 1997 Magnaboss.

 

Beastwars 1997 Tripredacus.

 

Beastwars Neo Magmatron

 

Car robots/Rid JRX/railracer

 

Car Robots/Rid God-fire-convoy/omega prime.

 

Energon/classics/movie,All three 5-in-1 combiners,All the energon autobots voyager combiners. energon deluxe convoy & deluxe rodimus combiner.

 

Micron-Dentsu/Armada/energon Tidalwave/Shockwave,which is a show accurate colored armada tidalwave.

 

Energon Grimlock+Swoop combiner.

 

Cybertron leader sized optimus+leobreaker+wingsabre.

 

ROTF Legends size combiner Devestator.

 

ROTF Leader sized optimus prime & Leader sized Jetfire Combiner

 

Power core combiners,I loved all the 2packs & 5packs gift sets.

 

3rd party protector,deluxe rodimus with trailer armor that forms a voyager sized rodimus prime toy in both modes.

 

3rd party city commander,voyager sized ultra magnus+trailer armor,forms a ultra sized toy in both modes.

 

3rd party Giant in all 3 modes.

 

 

My List of 1996 thru 2012 NOT-FAVORITE combiners are as follows:

 

Car robot/Rid/classics Build team/landfill. Such a awfully designed toy in all modes. the sculpts look like their were geared towards toddlers. the combined form looked like a mess. worse combination engineering i've ever seen.

 

Armada Leader sized Optimus Prime+Jetfire+Overload. All three toys were brick-formers with limited articulation. the combined form had almost no articulation.

 

Armada,minicons trio weapons combiners & trio perceptor combiner.

 

energon trio perceptor combiner.

 

Energon leader sized optimus prime combiner. it looked like a power ranger.

 

Energon Omega Optimus. this thing a hideou,lame-0 & seemed like a last minute effort. referring to the optimus prime toy that fits inside the supreme omega supreme toy.

 

ROTF Ultimate size Devestator. looked like six toddler super heavy plastic tonka playschool vechicles that merged to form devestator. the combined mode was extremly mis-proprtions. it looked like a gorrila with long arms & short legs. the combined mode had serious egineering problems in the hips/legs section. it was a challenge to get it to stand up stable in robot mode. it had no individual robot modes to save hasbro money & to keep the toy simple so toddlers could easily play with it. it was designed as the ultimate toddler chistmas gift.

 

Armada Megatron & Tidalwave combiner. both toys were awesome on their own merits. combining them made them look like garbage. the tidalwave parts were too over sized & heavy for megatron.

 

3rd party Hercules,i'm not fond of the design sculpts in neither of the three modes. Toys in all modes are a bit over sized & out of scale for my preferred taste.

 

 

STUFF,I DON'T HATE NOR LIKE,THEY JUST FALL IN THE MEDIOCRE MIDDLE.

 

Energon 2-in-1 Deluxe Combiners. Some deluxer sculpts are just awful. some combined modes take away articulation. too much kibble in combined modes. some deluxes are decent like downshift,rodimus. some combined modes have decent poseabilty

 

Energon Optimus Prime+Wingsabre combiner in both modes. the combined modes look decent. the problem is the optimus prime toy is a awfully sculpted toy. wingsabre is a beautifully sculpted toy but has almost zero articulated moving joints.

 

Armada Overload,it's a combiner because the front basic sized truck cab/bot merges with the trailer to form a super robot & super alt mode. Personally I love the Sculpt & gimmicks in all modes. I really hate the fact hasbro made this with almost no articulated moving parts. had this been super poseable it's would have been awesome.

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So basically you love every single one of them? Sorry but need to to get technical. a Combiner is a gestalt otherwise there is way too many. and ones that just drop onto another is not a combiner thus Optimus and Jetfire is not a combination

You need to look at true combination where the individuals involved create a brand new bot altogether thus the gestalt. Optimus wearing Jetfire is like Optimus wearing an exosuit, and thus not a true combination

 

Now with that being said my favorite since 1996 would be

 

ROTF Bruticus with Fansproject Upgrades Munitioner and Explorer

 

my most disliked would be

 

Energon Constructicon Maximus

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Let's see . . .

 

The good combiners:

 

Railracer

Omega Prime, apart from being topheavy.

Megatron/Tidal Wave

Energon Prime, both with his drones and with Wing Saber (And I'll form the head!)

PCC Bombshock - he's Bruticus Jr.!

ROTF Legends Jetpower Optimus (Optimus + Jetfire) - simple yet effective.

 

The bad:

Tripredacus - just a horrible mess

Landfill - the only combiner where the components are better than the combo

Gotta agree with you about ROTF Devastator, although the legends version wasn't too bad.

The Energon combiner teams - bad feet & hands ruined the sets.

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I know the rules say no G1 reissues and w/e, but I have to say that the BBTS seacons are my least favorite combiner just because of all the quality issues with the release. I'm surprised they managed to pack all 6 of the correct bots in the same box.

 

I never had any on the beast wars combiners, had energon superion with the fans project kit, and I have a few re-releases/KOs of a few other combiners. That said, I think Rail Racer is a close 2nd for my favorite combiner simply because of how slick he looks, but he still has some problems. I never managed to get him to hold the guns very well and rapid run always has a hard time staying attached (and midnight express' robot mode is 85% legs).

 

My favorite combiner has to be Omega Prime. I absolutely adore the vacuum chrome bits and the transformations for prime and magnus are very fun, though frustrating at first. Hasbro, can we plz haz more big, shiny robots??

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Yes,I love combiners,I've been a fan of them since 1985.

 

So basically you love every single one of them? Sorry but need to to get technical. a Combiner is a gestalt otherwise there is way too many. and ones that just drop onto another is not a combiner thus Optimus and Jetfire is not a combination

You need to look at true combination where the individuals involved create a brand new bot altogether thus the gestalt. Optimus wearing Jetfire is like Optimus wearing an exosuit, and thus not a true combination

 

Now with that being said my favorite since 1996 would be

 

ROTF Bruticus with Fansproject Upgrades Munitioner and Explorer

 

my most disliked would be

 

Energon Constructicon Maximus

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Favorites:

 

TFC Hercules

Energon Bruticus Maximus (w/Crossfire 2)

RiD Rail Racer

RiD Omega Prime

BW Magnaboss

BW Tripredacus

Energon Superion Maximus (w/Aerial team Add-on kit)

 

Least Favorites:

 

RiD Landfill

Energon Constructicon Maximus

ROTF Supreme Devastator

 

Favorite non-gestalt combination:

 

Cybertron Optimus Sonic Wing Mode

 

Least Favorite non-gestalt combination:

 

ROTF Optimus + Jetfire

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Funny enough, I had not taken the plunge myself on Transformers again until the Beast Wars combiners came out. I had been buying them for my nephews, and some of the figures had gotten my attention, but the return to combiners actually lit the fire in me again. In the end, I thought the BW combiners were just TOO complicated for their own good, but the effort and the fact that individual figures were getting so much better is kinda what kept my interest going.

 

With that said, I don't think Hasbro has really gotten close to perfecting combining systems.

 

With some help from fan's project though, the Energon Superion and Bruticus were both able to be upgraded to become two awesome combiner teams. My biggest wish is that Hasbro would study their work a lot more and try to put that kind of thinking and design into some of their combiner teams.

 

It's better for me here to just shoot a quick recap of the combiners...

 

Beast Wars combiners as said above were a bit complex and not always easy to combine solidly, but did get the ball rolling again and deserves it's place for that.

 

Rail Racer was a nice idea and a popular character people seemed to like a lot. Something to me was just always a bit wonky with him though. I liked him and I didn't. I just thought there was a little too much restriction in his articulation in places that bothered me, but hey he still looks great on a shelf!

 

Build King was not bad either but is a MAJOR pain in the rear! Nice they were trying some new ideas, but it fell short in the most key area...stability.

 

Energon obviously is a large can of worms to open. So much combining going on! I thought a lot of the powerlink combinations weren't that great. In fact most of the really good combinations came from combining two of the same figures. Putting two Prowls together was freakin awesome! The 3 big combining teams Superion, Bruticus, and Devastator (calling them their intended names) had a mix of good and bad ideas going on. As I said, FP showed how close these actually were to being fantastic sets. Half brilliant, half lazy that's how I see it.

 

Movie Devastator, uh, well...yeah. Could have been a lot of fun, but Hasbro got lazy and gave us a $100 paperweight with no individual bot modes. Sad.

 

Power Core Combiners...Again, Hasbro teases us with interesting new concepts that were poorly executed. Most people hate drone limbs with no bot modes, I'm not sure if that idea will ever fly. However, if the drones were better designed with no spring gimmick and manual transformation with proper hands and feet then they would have probably held together better and been a lot more fun. They didn't do this and of course no proper hands or feet is a KILLER. That crap won't work Hasbro!!! Learn already.

 

I don't get into any of the Optimus combinations simply to say some are really cool, others not so much. It's a mixed bag there.

 

I'm also not getting into the original 3rd party stuff. That's not a really fair comparison.

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the end, Hasbro hasn't gotten it right just yet. They need a conceptual breakthrough to re-invent the combiners. Personally, I'd throw out everything ever done and start over from scratch with a monster design idea, and a resolve to make that design a reality without compromising the most important parts. Something which Hasbro does way too much.

 

I've taken bunches of existing scout class figures and came up with what could have been excellent arm/leg modes. I mean full arms that just need a shoulder to connect to and full legs that only need a hip to connect to. They'd have bending knees and elbows all I would need to have designed would be hands and a commander with the right connection points to have a massively awesome combiner. If I had the skills to make one myself, I would.

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