Combiner

Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.

Over the course of their endless wars, the Cybertronian race has developed a frightful array of weapons, but the most powerful and versatile invention of all might be the power to physically merge multiple Cybertronians into a single form—this power might be unlocked through conventional Cybertronian science, or through the energies of a mystical artifact like the Enigma of Combination. The term combiner (sometimes capitalized, sometimes not) can be used to refer to both those rare Transformers who possess this ability and the composite machine they create.

Although many different varieties of combiners exist—for instance, two or more Cybertronians might merge to form a vehicle, weapon, or some kind of useful machine, the most famous and immediately recognizable form of combination involves the fusion of five or six individual Cybertronians into a larger robot, sometimes referred to as a gestalt; more often than not, this combined form possesses its own emergent personality based at least in part on the interaction between the minds of its individual components. Introducing the technology into any of the myriad iterations of the Great War across the multiverse inevitably leads to the same result: short of a Titan, the only thing capable of stopping a combiner rampage is another combiner, and more than one conflict between the Autobots and Decepticons has spiralled into an endless combiner arms race as both sides scramble to accrue as many of these strategic-grade weapons as possible.

Although the mental merge usually dilutes the strength of a combiner's individual thoughts, to the point where many suffer from limited intellects or outright insanity, a few combiner teams like the Technobots or Breastforce have taken steps to mitigate this design flaw. But, as more than one Decepticon leader has used to his advantage, even the most dysfunctional combiner is exponentially stronger than the mere sum of its parts, and more than a match for a dozen average-sized Cybertronians.

Conceptual history

The Diaclone pre-G2 Constructicons.

The concept of combining robots is a long-standing anime trope, so it is perhaps appropriate that the story of combiners as we know them today began before the creation of the Transformers brand. In 1982, the Diaclone toyline introduced the "Construction Vehicle Robo" and "Train Robo" figures. Not only did these six-man teams change from robots into realistic construction vehicles and locomotives, they could also combine with their respective teammates to form a larger super robot. In 1985, with the Transformers franchise now in its second year, Hasbro imported the construction-themed toys to the United States and characterized them as the evil "Constructicons", who could unite to form Devastator. After Diaclone's 1986 cancellation, the next wave of combining toys saw release as Transformers characters on both sides of the Pacific. A significant step up from their predecessors, the Aerialbots, Stunticons, Combaticons, and Protectobots possessed a standardized combination scheme that allowed kids to mix and match team members as well, leading to Takara marketing them under the "Scramble City" subline on account of their ability to "scramble" limbs at will.

There's a "derailment" joke waiting to happen.

Initially, tie-in fiction treated the ability to combine as a comparatively recent invention created after the Transformers arrived on Earth, but this soon changed: the cartoon episode "The Secret of Omega Supreme" revealed that the Constructicons first combined early in the Great War; later, to accommodate the presence of the Terrorcons and Technobots, Marvel's Headmasters miniseries showed these combiners existing on Cybertron long before the exodus to Earth. By the end of the original Transformers toyline, the line had expanded beyond Scramble City: these included Mini-Cassette combiners like Squawkbox, vehicle-mode combiners like the Micromaster Combiners, and a number of oddballs like Sky Lynx and the Duocons. Given Japan's aforementioned affection for the concept, basically every Japanese-exclusive franchise would introduce new combiners, even after Hasbro eased off on the concept—perhaps most prominently, the The Headmasters franchise would resurrect the original Train Robo under the name "Raiden", and subsequent franchises would introduce a host of new combining characters like the Breastforce, Multiforce, and Dinoforce.

While the Beast Wars and Beast Machines franchises did not embrace the gimmick to the same degree as the franchises that preceded them (although the toyline-exclusive combiners Magnaboss and Tripredacus would go on to appear in various tie-in comics), Japanese-original shows from around the same time, most prominently Car Robots, introduced many new combiner characters like Landfill and Rail Racer. In 2004, riding on the success of the Armada franchise, its successor Energon spotlighted combination as one of its central gimmicks: in addition to resurrecting the Scramble City gimmick with the "Maximus" combiners (which were basically a last-minute addition to the toyline), the toyline's central gimmick allowed almost every Autobot to combine with any other Autobot by forming either the upper or lower body of a combiner. Unlike most previous depictions of the process, or even Dreamwave's concurrent depiction of the technology as a mentally and physically rigorous mechanical upgrade, this series introduced Primus's divine Spark of Combination as an explicitly supernatural force capable of instantly combining individual Transformers together.

For many years, fans referred to super robot combiners with emergent personalities as gestalts, based on the real-world term meaning, roughly, an object greater than the sum of its parts. The term remained firmly in realm of fanon for years, but between Energon design sketches, Titanium Series Menasor's bio, and a mention in IDW Publishing's Spotlight: Optimus Prime, the term soon caught on with Hasbro designers. Initially, IDW's first Transformers treated gestalt technology as an unpredictable and highly experimental technology—modern-day Autobots like the Technobots lacked combination powers, and author Simon Furman characterized Monstructor as an insane failed experiment from Cybertron's bygone Golden Age. All Hail Megatron introduced a new incarnation of Devastator, although later stories established that he was the imperfect product of arduous research.

He-who-shall-not-be-named.

Around this time, Fun Publications released a number of redecoed Energon combiner components through the Collector's Club. Tie-in fiction published in the official Collector's Club magazine detailed their adventures across the Transformers multiverse, and eventually culminated with the reveal that all five of these seemingly unrelated 'bots were fragments of Nexus Prime, one of the thirteen original Transformers who displayed mastery over energon. Hasbro would fold Nexus Prime into their definitive version of the Thirteen; when he reappeared in 2013's The Covenant of Primus, his new profile played up his status as the first combiner instead. Notably, that book established that he controlled a mysterious Enigma of Combination, but what exactly this was would not be revealed for another few years.

The 2010 Power Core Combiners toyline featured a mixture of old and new characters, who combined with static auto-transforming figures to form larger super robots. The Japanese counterpart of the toyline, United EX, declared the toys (which were redecoed from the Hasbro toys) to be new bodies for various established characters in the sprawling Japanese Generation 1 cartoon continuity, while others made appearances in movie-related media like Cyber Missions. Issue #32 of the Collectors' Club magazine expanded on their scant bio information by explaining that Power Core Combination was a "lost art"; modern attempts to reinvent the technology only created destructive monsters in what is presumably a reference to Devastator's role in Revenge of the Fallen.

Just five years later, the Combiner Wars multimedia branding again pushed combiners to the fore. To support this marketing push, IDW Publishing launched a tie-in comic series set in its primary ongoing universe... a universe that had already established combination as a forbidden, dangerous art. To get around all this, IDW revealed that Nexus Prime's "Enigma of Combination" was a supernatural artifact that could instantly merge Cybertronians together into a combiner. This reveal tied the old Spark of Combination to the idea that "true" combination had become a lost art by the modern day; furthering this revelation, Robots in Disguise #34 subtly retconned that Monstructor's creator Jhiaxus had been trying to recreate the power of the Enigma using mundane technology.

In the years since Combiner Wars, depictions of combination have shifted toward something more supernatural than scientific in nature: many modern works of media tie the process to the Enigma of Combination, arcane super-science, or exposure to exotic radiation. Many contemporary depictions of combiners, including the 2015 Robots in Disguise cartoon, IDW's various comic continuities, or Cyberverse, focus just as much on the internal struggles of the team to coordinate their efforts. For more specific descriptions of how individual stories have treated combination in all its forms, read on.

Types of combiner

Although combiners are a diverse and varied clade, not all Cybertronians who combine with smaller robots or form a larger machine count as “true” combiners. Although many Transformers, such as Powermaster Optimus Prime or Energon Landmine, can combine with parts of their alternate mode to form a larger, powered-up form, these only involve one character combining with an inanimate piece of machinery. Multi-component Transformers like Sky Lynx or Magmatron possess a single consciousness distributed over several bodies; there is only one Transformer involved, regardless of how many bodies that character may simultaneously operate, although a few “true” combiners like the Power Core Combiners blur this line.

Sometimes a smaller Transformer will attach to and enhance a larger Transformer in some way. Binary bonded partners like Headmasters, or Mini-Cons who Powerlinx with larger partners, are not considered combiners; although the components involved often a share a deep, almost symbiotic relationship with each other, their "combined" form is almost exactly the same in appearance and functionality as their non-combined form.

Generally, combiners can be divided into three primary categories:

Robot mode combiners

The majority of Transformers who combine do so by merging into a humanoid "super robot" that exponentially magnifies the strength of its components. In many cases, this robot is its own being, with a unique name and a personality formed from the intersection of multiple minds. In other instances, however, a combiner might be governed by just one member of the team, their personality so strong that the act of combination becomes an extension of their own will supported by the other Cybertronians who comprise the combiner. Sometimes, the individual components involved in a combination might not actually possess humanoid robot modes of their own: for instance, the Autobot Slamdance is the combined form of Raindance and Grand Slam, who transform from mini-cassettes into a jet and tank respectively.

While a combiner can be formed from as few as two robots or hundreds, perhaps the most immediately recognizable combiners of all are the five-man teams who made prominent appearances in the original comic and cartoon. While Devastator utilized a unique six-bot configuration that relegated nominal team leader Scrapper to the ignoble role of right leg, the "Scramble City" combiners that followed—Defensor, Bruticus, Abominus, etc.—were all based on a standardized five-member design featured in the Japanese Scramble City toyline: the team leader forms the head and main body of the combiner, while the four other team members form the limbs. These limbs are interchangeable from one Scramble City-style combiner to the next, allowing for a number of improvised combinations. The Seacons are notable for incorporating six members into the team; while any four can combine with their leader Snaptrap to form Piranacon, one member of the team transforms into a blaster for the combiner to wield. A few other modern interpretations of the characters, most notably their Combiner Wars incarnations, have also featured a smaller sixth member of the team in a support role—sometimes acting as a weapon, other times serving as a chestplate or shield.

These specific four-limbs-and-one-torso combiners and their components have also been called, varyingly, Scramble City combiners, Special Teams,^[1] fusilateral quintrocombiners.^[2] or amalgam models.^[3] Although they comprise a substantial cross-section of combiners, not all combiners adhere to this specific layout: the various Micromaster combiners, including Sixwing, Sixtrain, or Sixbuilder, feature their own standardized layout, which incorporates up to six members and also features interchangeable limbs. Other combiners like Monstructor, Generation 1 Predaking, Robots in Disguise Rail Racer, or Revenge of the Fallen Devastator all incorporate a different number of components with unique transformation schemes.

Vehicle mode combiners

Rather than combining into a larger robot, a number of Transformers can instead transform into a combined vehicle form. Unlike humanoid combiners, who generally merge into a single super robot with its own personality, almost all fiction has treated these kinds of combiners as a purely physical combination, with no kind of mental merge to speak of. This is not to say that Cybertronians who combine in this way are completely separate from one another: many works of fiction treat this kind of combination as a kind of sibling bond, sometimes shared between a literal set of twins, and the Transformers involved might share some kind of deeper link.

While some 'bots—such as Darkwing and Dreadwind, who combine into the larger Dreadwing—possess individual vehicle modes that can then merge into a larger form, others, most notably the Micromaster Combiners, lack individual alternate forms entirely: they can only transform into the front or back half of a vehicle, and rely on their partner to form a complete alternate mode.

Others

A small number of Transformers combine into objects that are neither super robots nor vehicles. This kind of combination is most prevalent among Mini-Con teams, who possess the power to combine into larger weapons and tools for full-sized Cybertronians to wield, but a small number of other Transformers and near-Cybertronian lifeforms have adopted similar configurations: Sonic and Boom transform into a set of speakers, while the Recyclons could unite to form the Prime Processing Unit.

Fiction

Generation 1 continuity family

Marvel Comics continuity

Marvel The Transformers comics

Although a number of combiner teams existed on Cybertron, including both the Technobots and Terrorcons, Ring of Hate! the ability was rare enough that Optimus Prime and his legion of Earth-bound Autobots had never encountered combiners. Thus, when Shockwave designed and built the Constructicons and imbued them with life using the Creation Matrix energy stored in Prime's severed head, they were taken by surprise and nearly defeated by the newly formed Devastator. The Next Best Thing to Being There! The Special Teams were first conceived within Buster Witwicky's mind shortly after the human had relinquished control of the Creation Matrix to Optimus Prime. Shockwave was able to view this data remotely and prepare for their development. Second Generation!

Once the Autobots rescued and repaired Optimus Prime, the group turned their attention to countering Decepticon combiner technology: although their new warrior Omega Supreme could combine his rocket and tank modules into one mighty robot, his creator Grapple judged this combination inadequate compared to Devastator's six-way fusion. To get their hands on this advanced technology, Bumblebee secretly recorded their transformation pattern, Command Performances! and the Autobots successfully reverse-engineered to create the Aerialbots. Unfortunately, they were forced to go on their first mission with only Silverbolt's personality programming completed, leaving the rest of the team and their combined form Superion indifferent towards human casualties. Aerialbots over America!

After their first mission proved a failure, Optimus Prime had Wheeljack wipe their memory and started reprogramming them with the Creation Matrix. However, Bombshell, who had gotten a lift to the Ark on Silverbolt's plane mode, had injected Optimus Prime with a cerebro-shell with which Megatron used to steal energy from the Creation Matrix and bring his newly built combiner team, the Stunticons, to life. Heavy Traffic! As this combiner arms race heated up, the heroic Protectobots and evil Combaticons became the next combiner teams to join the conflict on Earth. Afterdeath!

Megatron summoned the Predacons to Earth, Prey! and Shockwave would again call on their services. Gone but Not Forgotten! Shockwave would also bring the Seacons from Cybertron to Earth, Enemy Action! and subsequent Decepticon leader Ratbat made use of Piranacon and Predaking. Club Con! Many combiner teams—the Aerialbots, Technobots, Terrorcons, Seacons, and possibly the Combaticons and Protectobots—fell to an Underbase-empowered Starscream during his infamous rampage. Dark Star

Darkwing and Dreadwind combined to form Dreadwing. They appeared to keep their individual personalities in their combined mode instead of merging their minds. People Power!

Earthforce

The Constructicons lost the ability to combine, but attempted to compensate by constructing a separate Devastator robot on a deserted island in the Bahamas. Desert Island Risks!

Marvel Generation 2 comic

Multiple Cybertronians could combine into larger vehicle modes. Total War! The Stormtroopers under Mindset's command, for instance, could form a single "thunderjet". Swarm

Classics

In the years after Bludgeon's defeat, Megatron rebuilt the Constructicons as a five-robot combiner, a new configuration that incorporated Hightower in place of Hook and Mixmaster. Crossing Over: Part 3

After the destruction of their native universe, Prowl, Ironhide, and Silverbolt received beast mode upgrades to survive on the prehistoric Earth of a parallel universe. While in their beast forms, they gained the ability to combine into the mighty Magnaboss; this new form came in handy when they went up against Megatron and the Seacons, who had since adopted Scylla into their ranks and reforged their combined form into "God Neptune"—thanks to Scylla's influence, this new configuration proved to be more intelligent and tactically minded than the brutish hunter that had preceded him. Shattered Hope

Regeneration One

Soundwave prepared for the arrival of Bludgeon's invasion of Cybertron by having Wingthing alert the Neo-Decepticon cells to get ready, while he himself prepared to deploy Monstructor. Destiny, Part Three When Prowl deployed Omega Supreme to take out Bludgeon's Blitz Engines, Soundwave ordered Monstructor to take out Omega Supreme. Destiny, Part Four The two giants clashed and just as the invasion was halted by Rodimus Prime's defeat of Bludgeon and the Ark's annihilation of the Warworld, Omega Supreme utterly destroyed Monstructor. Destiny, Part Five

Timelines

During the campaign against the Cybertronian Empire, First Aid and Fixit rebuilt a dying Ratchet and upgraded him with combiner technology in the hopes that he'd take the ailing First Aid's place as one of Defensor's limbs. Due to Ratchet's prior experiences with combination, he remained wary of the upgrade and did not combine unless absolutely necessary. Customization class G2 Ratchet bio

Transformers '84

Although combiner technology did not see widespread use on Cybertron due to its intense energy-inefficiency, Straxus nevertheless posted Abominus to guard Project Dreadnought's headquarters in Stanix. Secrets & Lies #4

Generation 1 cartoon continuity

The secret of combination hinged on a Cybertronian's personality component; only a fully-sentient Cybertronian could combine with their teammates into a more powerful form, and if even one ‘bot lacked a personality component then the team could not combine. B.O.T. However, combiners could still function, albeit in a severely weakened state, even without a team member forming an arm. The Ultimate Weapon Some Cybertronians like Reflector could combine into a single alternate mode. More than Meets the Eye, Part 1 On Cybertron, the Constructicons were existing Transformers who were brainwashed by Megatron to become Decepticons and modified so that they could combine into Devastator and challenge Omega Supreme. After the fall of the Crystal City that they had worked to build together, Omega Supreme pursued the Constructicons for millions of years. The Secret of Omega Supreme In 1984, the Constructicons were (re?)created on Earth with the ability to combine to bolster the Decepticons' strength. Heavy Metal War

As the Cybertronian war on Earth heated up, the Autobots and Decepticons wound up constructing the heroic Aerialbots and evil Stunticons to plug specific tactical weaknesses in their ranks—a lack of air power and an inability to outmaneuver the Autobots on the road. Designed to combine, both sides eventually received personalities from Vector Sigma. The Key to Vector Sigma, Part 2 Starscream installed the Combaticons' personality components into junked military vehicles and gave them the ability to combine into Bruticus. Starscream's Brigade Later, the Protectobots became part of the Autobot forces on Earth and used their combined form to great effect on multiple occasions. The Revenge of Bruticus On one notable occasion, a group of Autobots disguised themselves as the Stunticons, and were even able to combine their myriad abilities together to create a crude facsimile of Menasor himself. Masquerade

Years later, the Predacons appeared as combiners under the command of the Quintessons. Five Faces of Darkness, Part 5 The combinable Terrorcons were part of Galvatron's troops. An intellectually enhanced Grimlock created the Technobots with the ability to combine. Grimlock's New Brain

Japanese Generation 1 cartoon continuity

A number of combiner warriors incorporated the mysterious technique known as "Scramble Power", which gave them the ability to swap and even interchange their component limbs at will to generate unique configurations for battle. Scramble City: Mobilization A smaller number of combiners were "Free Combiners", who could rearrange their bodies at will. Operation Combination A unique form of energon known as "Joint energon" could cause Transformers to spontaneously develop combiner joints. Megatronia Chapter

Precursor World hero White Gallant Convoy could combine with members of the White Order to form a powerful "Grand Prime" mode, but even this powered-up mode could not withstand the might of a Matrix-empowered God Neptune. God Neptune comic 2 During another battle with God Neptune, Purple Wicked Convoy combined with Megatron Omega to form an "Omega Hand Mode". Finale Prelude

Two dozen androids form into one, and we've only just begun!

A mysterious dimensional shockwave turned a number of Cyberdroids into combining Micromasters. A New Transformer Legend Begins!!

In the modern day, inspired by a previous incident in which several Autobots combined, Optimus Prime, Mirage, Sunstreaker, Ironhide, and Prowl initiated the "Masquerade Project" in the late 1980s, modifying their transformation cogs to adopt new combiner modes. Though the process was imperfect and unstable, they managed to combine into Optimus Maximus and defeat Slugslinger during the battle for the Transform Super Cog. The combiner was then split apart when hit by an energy shockwave emitted by Megatron. Slugslinger's Ambition

The Trainbots were a group of Autobot rail vehicles with the power to combine into Raiden; on multiple occasions, they used their combined form to tussle with other combiners like Bruticus and Predaking. The Mystery of Planet Master The Dormant Volcano Mysteriously Erupts

On one notable occasion, the combiners Guard City, Sixbuilder, Sixwing, Sixturbo, and Sixtrain all teamed up to unleash the awesomely powerful "Autobot Scrum Combination", summoning energy from their twenty-nine components and releasing it in a single devastating blast to save the Earth from Battle Gaia and the Jet Corps. Conclusion

With the help of Professor Chase, Power Core Combination was developed on Earth in the 21st century during a time when the Autobot/Decepticon conflict had largely moved away from the planet. Participants in the program—beginning with several Autobot Micromasters from planet Zone—were upgraded into new forms and fitted with newly developed Energon Matrix power sources, becoming part of a new "Master Class" subgroup. The Mighty Bolt Before long, their successful tests of the Power Core Combination drones drew the attention of a team of Decepticons under the command of Scrash, who performed a similar upgrade on themselves (dubbing themselves "Master Chaos") that would enable them to interface with the Power Core drones and steal them. Prelude to the Siege

In the year 2021, the Autobots successfully resurrected Optimus Prime as a combiner; although he'd live for only seven days as a result of his many previous deaths, he was able to combine with several of his Autobot friends to form an improved version of Optimus Maximus. Despite this boost in power, however, Optimus Maximus and his components were quickly defeated by Megatronia, a combiner composed of female Decepticons. Megatronia Chapter Meanwhile, a time-travelling Galvatron from another reality invaded this world and possessed Cyclonus's body as his new vessel. Though Galvatron planned to usurp Unicron's body in order to implement the "Grand Galvatron" scheme, the crippled god offered him an alternative; instead he would summon from across the multiverse others who shared similar thoughts of revenge, and together they would unite to become a new "Grand Galvatron". Galvatron accepted and Cyclonus was joined by Breakdown, Roller, Thrust, and a partially re-materialized Starscream into Galvatron's new body. Though Unicron ordered Galvatron to seize Cybertron for him, Galvatron planned to betray Unicron once again, and take control of his homeworld for himself. Grand Galvatron Chapter

In their new combined form, the team attacked Cybertron until Trailbreaker split them apart. Cyclonus and the rest made their way to Vector Sigma's chamber before re-combining to do battle with Sky Reign. Sky Reign Chapter With the arrival of Megaempress, the rest of the team fled, leaving Cyclonus and Galvatron at the empress's mercy as she threatened to enthrall them both. They were saved when a revived Optimus Prime took Megaempress and her soldiers on. Megatronia Chapter When Unicron himself showed up and tried to take Cybertron as his new body, Galvatron was angered and had Cyclonus attack the dark god, but he ended up blasted out of the sky and knocked unconscious. Ruination Chapter, Part One Galvatron II's spirit then left Cyclonus's body, but he remained able to combine and, after recovering, convinced the rest of the team to form Grand Galvatron once more and help defeat Unicron. After their victory, he went into space, plotting to restore the Decepticon army by becoming the next Galvatron. Ruination Chapter, Part Two

Although early Cybertronian combiners were lumbering brutes who struggled with intellectual or emotional issues, drawbacks that would be exemplified by the oafish Dinoking, the Breastforce would be the first combiner team to bypass this debilitating weakness: their combined form, Liokaiser, proved an intelligent and cunning warrior. Unite! Liokaiser Not to be outdone, the Autobots retaliated with next-generation combiners of their own: the Autobot Brainmasters could unite into Road Caesar, a perfect three-way fusion with an unbreakable fighting spirit, Attack! Leozack while the modular Multiforce could assume multiple sub-combinations or perform a six-way combination to form the mighty Landcross. Unite!! Multiforce

When the Quintessons escaped their dimensional prison, they arrived on Dinobot Island in the year 2050, where they spotted and hoped to subdue the Dinobots to use as merchandise. Towards this goal, they summoned Predaking, who had the Dinobots on the ropes till Grimlock was encouraged by telepathic messages from the Oracle of the past universe to use Earth's Angolmois Energy to manifest his heart's strength in reality. With this energy and the lending of an Energon Matrix from Grimmaster, Grimlock and the other four original Dinobots combined into the mighty Volcanicus. Soon after, Volcanicus was contacted by Spike Witwicky about the Selector revolt at Neo Scramble City, so Volcanicus's components split up to go and assist their human allies against the Cybertron Alliance. Volcanicus comic 1

The Technobots arrived as Grimlock faced down Sky Lynx, who had already defeated the other Dinobots; unwilling to hurt the humans, the six combined into Volcaticon: a new cross-factional combiner that combined Grimlock's strength and take-charge attitude with the intellect of the five Technobots. Although Volcaticon announced his intention to find a solution that would benefit the humans and Selectors alike, the Quintessons attacked and knocked the new combiner back into his components. To resist a barrage of corrosive gas bombs, the two teams reformed into Computron and Volcanicus. Volcanicus comic 2 With the Cybertron Alliance combiners on the back foot thanks to a deblitating Angolmois Energy attack and a subsequent Terrorcon assault that took the female combiner Orthia out of action, a number of Technobots, Aerialbots, and Protectobots joinined up as another ad-hoc combination they dubbed "Comperian". Quintesson enforcer Abominus thus fought fire with fire by stealing Bruticus and Menasor's limbs to become Abomenaticus. The two combiners fought till Megatron Omega threatened to take all of Earth's Angolmois Energy, so Abominus reformed to use the full capability of the Terrorcons' Angolmois-manipulating nature and shifted his focus onto Megatron Omega. Abominus comic 2

Combiner technology would persist and evolve into the distant future; Maximal combiners like Magnaboss and Tripledacus were powerful warriors, but eschewed the direct mind-melding technology of their ancestors in favour of a simpler system where each individual component worked in tandem to coordinate their attacks. The Combined Giant, Tripledacus Predacon warriors like Starscream and BB could temporarily combine into Formation Scream while in vehicle mode, and tripartite warriors like Magmatron possessed a unique beast mode that could split and recombine at will. Big Convoy, Move Out The Seacons used a quintuple combination system when they formed into God Neptune, while the Jointrons incorporated a triple combination system that directly integrated their bodies into a greater whole. Face the Setting Sun

TV Magazine comic continuity

Powerglide rescued a puppy that was juiced up on energy thanks to the Decepticons. Before it died, the puppy transferred his power to Powerglide. This temporarily energized Powerglide with Scramble Power, which he used to combine with other Autobot Minibots. The Minibot combiner was then easily able to defeat Bruticus using the "Minibot Warrior Spiral Attack". Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers #8

Wings Universe

Combining technology was the brainchild of the Decepticon warlord Deathsaurus, who had tinkered with the technology for many years before the Stealth Team discovered his fortress at Gygax. Bruticus's Wings Universe profile He perfected the technology about nine million years ago and tested his invention out on his new recruits the Combaticons, which gave them the ability to combine into Bruticus. The Coming Storm: Part 5 Later, Megatron defeated Deathsaurus to become sole leader of the Decepticons, and stole Deathsaurus's technology to augment the Constructicons so that they could form Devastator. Battle Lines, Part 5

In the year 2984, the combiners Big Rescue Force and Big Motorvator could be glimpsed milling about in the Galadria Space Bridge Outpost in the Delta Prysmos Sector. Hoist the Flag

Deviations

In a timeline where Megatron died before ever becoming Galvatron, it would be Starscream who became Unicron's herald. As the newly christened "Megascream", he bargained with Unicron to enhance his inner circle of warriors so that he could combine with them. As Unicron betrayed his minion and launched a direct attack on Cybertron, Optimus Prime attempted to use the Matrix of Leadership to destroy Unicron, but Megascream combined with his troops into a towering new form and easily crushed Optimus under his fist. Ultimately, Hot Rod saved the day by first teleporting the wounded Optimus to safety, then opening the Matrix to sacrifice himself but destroy both Unicron and Megascream in the process. Deviations

Timelines

An energon infusion from the Aerialbots gave the recently arrived Protectobots the power to combine into Defensor. Ask Vector Prime, 21/9/2015

Exposure to an arcane Autobot artifact gave Ratchet the power of combination and the unique ability to act as a "universal donor" for any combiner by acting as a replacement limb. While in an arm configuration, he possessed a unique "healing touch" that could re-energize and rejuvenate injured Cybertronians, but overusing this power by trying to heal severe injuries could forcibly disengage the combination. Customization class G1 cartoon Ratchet bio

Dreamwave Generation One continuity

What, no Terror Claws? No Cranium Regulation Unit? What kind of lame dissection is this?!

The combination process has its roots in the "mass intellect" experiments carried out by the Decepticons during the earliest phases of the Great War; building off the well-established science of mechanically combining bodies, the next step would be to mesh individual electro-neural impulses together into a unified mind. Following the failure of the planetary engine turbines, Transformers: The Ultimate Guide Megatron recruited the Constructicons to refine this technology into a viable weapon that would multiply a small group of warriors beyond the sum of their parts, but early experiments into this "cofunctional interlock" technology proved unsuccessful: the mind-merging experiments amplified stronger minds and drowned out weaker ones. More than Meets the Eye #8

After a period of trial and error, the Constructicons developed a unique "hyper vortex processor" that would preserve the minds of the individual within the combined whole. By testing the technology on themselves, the Constructicons became the prototype for all future combination experiments, but the rudimentary process left their combined form a dimwitted brute who needed all six Constructicons to agree on a single course of action to function. Despite these drawbacks, Devastator's destructive capabilities greatly pleased Megatron, and the Decepticon leader began planning for a full-scale combiner program. Transformers: The Ultimate Guide Combiner technology remained risky and unpredictable; only those rare Cybertronians with the correct predisposition and the ability to work as a team could safely undergo the upgrade, and unfit Decepticons who failed the trial period usually wound up insane or dead. More than Meets the Eye #8

Eventually, the Autobot Science Harmonium obtained combiner schematics from the Decepticons, successfully reverse-engineered the mass intellect process, and dramatically overhauled the procedure to create safer and more efficient combiners. Superion and Defensor, the combined forms of the Autobot Special Teams, utilized advanced compartmentalized neural processors that maintained the integrity of individual brainwaves while also drawing on each to create an integrated mind. Confrontation The Decepticons retaliated by turning the Stunticons and the Combaticons into combiners; as this arms race escalated, the Crisis Intervention Accord resulted in all of the Special Teams agreeing to become non-aligned parties. Transformers: The Ultimate Guide After Optimus and Megatron vanished, Ratbat and his breakaway faction of Ultracons flouted the Accords by deliberately recruiting Devastator into their ranks. Escalation As a result, the Protectobots intervened, although in the end they took him down by separating and fighting as individual robots. Despite all the advances that'd been made, the second-generation combiners still suffered from limited intellects, and Protectobots were still trying to iron out these drawbacks when Optimus Prime and Megatron went missing. Confrontation

After somehow travelling to Earth in 2002, Devastator spread chaos in San Francisco and trounced the Aerialbots when they formed Superion to take him down. Prime Directive #4 Although Devastator proved tough enough to withstand a direct nuclear blast, the individual Constructicons suffered massive damage that permanently fused them together. Fusion In 2003, Shockwave had Rumble and Frenzy release the Stunticons, who'd been deemed too dangerous to function in society, from Iacon's Detention Banks. Menasor ran amok for a while, but Ultra Magnus took down the combiner by insulting his components one by one; as his individual consciousnesses began bickering over whose fault it was that they were losing, Ultra Magnus rammed the paralyzed combiner in the chest and forced him to separate. Passive Aggression

After locating the rogue Predacons on the planet Beest, Megatron bested their leader Razorclaw, brought them back into the Decepticon fold, and rebuilt them with combiner technology. Welcome to the Jungle As Predaking, they battled Bruticus, who had recently suffered damage at the hands of Sunstorm, and triumphed. The Route of All Evil

Other groups of Cybertronians utilized a less extreme version of combiner technology—robots like the Micromaster Combiners, who combined to form a single vehicle mode, or armor-based powerups like Optimus Prime's Powermaster trailer, did not rely on mental merging. More than Meets the Eye #8

Transformers/G.I. Joe

The Aerialbots formed Superion during a battle against Cobra and the Decepticons in the Fera Islands; Wolves as he waded toward the Terrordrome, he was forced to hold his fire when Optimus noticed that Cobra was using their slaves as human shields. In response, Cobra opened fire on Superion with Shockwave's massive cannon mode; Trenches although Superion shielded his allies for as long as he could, he eventually perished. The Iron Fist

Notably, the Bruticus of this reality was not a combiner, nor even a Cybertronian; he was born on Earth in 1939 as an unholy, unliving hybrid of Cybertronian and human technology, a walking engine of destruction created to be the ultimate weapon. Wolves

The Beast Within

When Megatron and the other Decepticons held the upper hand on the battlefield, Grimlock and the four Dinobots displayed the ability to combine into a monstrous creature known only as the "Beast", an out-of-control berserker who easily slaughtered his way through the Decepticons and killed every Decepticon combiner Megatron sent to stop him. The Beast Within However, the Beast then turned on his nominal allies, and chased the Autobots around for a while before the survivors could bait him into falling off a cliff and killing himself. The Beast Within Part 2, Consequences

Hearts of Steel

After reawakening in the 19th century, the Insecticons displayed the ability to combine into a self-propelled, heavily armed railcar known as the "Insectrain". Hearts of Steel #2

2005 IDW continuity

Wubba wubba wubba is Monstructor's song.

The art of combination came easily to other mechanical species like the "omnicombinational" Ammonites, where any one member of their species could combine with any other; Little Victories although all Transformers possessed the capacity for combination encoded in their CNA, only a handful would consciously manifest this ability in their lifetime as a result of external stimuli. Dinobot Hunt The history of Cybertronian combiner technology began with Nexus Prime, a member of the Thirteen in the years before the First Cybertronian Civil War. His Enigma of Combination, an extremely powerful artifact created by Solus Prime, Historia could instantly reconfigure two or more Cybertronians into a combiner, melding their minds so that they could coordinate their actions on a higher-dimensional plane known as antespace. Unforgivable Most combiners utilized mass displacement to some degree—when their components combined, they also grew in size to the point where they towered over their fellow Cybertronians. As Above...So Below

When the First Cybertronian Civil War swept Cybertron, Nexus colluded with his ally Onyx Prime to create an army of Headmasters that fused beasts and 'bots together. The Mind Bomb Not all Cybertronians viewed combination as a gift, however: Darklander warrior Galvatron, already prejudiced against Cybertronians with beast modes, viewed combination as a perversion that "rotted away the individual", OnoffON his one-man war against Nexus Prime's armies singlehandedly drove the ancient Headmasters extinct. Eventually, Galvatron confronted and murdered Nexus Prime, stole the Enigma, and when he could not destroy it he jettisoned it into space in the hopes that it would burn up in a nearby star. The Crucible

Nova Prime led the planet out of the shadow of war and into a new Golden Age, but his early idealism soon gave way to a twisted, fascistic imperialism: inspired by an ancient legends of the Guiding Hand, and a time when "all were one", he sought to turn combination into a tool of conquest, and instructed his chief theoretical scientist Jhiaxus to create a combiner without the Enigma. The Crucible Without the reality-warping power of the Enigma, Jhiaxus's experiments yielded only a crude recreation of what once was; this stunted form of combination forcibly merged the bodies and minds of the six volunteers that Jhiaxus had conscripted to create a violently insane personality, and the newly christened "Monstructor" ran amok in Crystal City until Omega Supreme could seal him in a dimensional prison. Primus: All Good Things

Although true combination on the mental level remained out of reach, some Cybertronians discovered safer but less dramatic forms of combination, including shared "duocombiner" alternate modes. Patternism A "branched spark" telepathically linked them to a twin sibling; while incredibly rare on Cybertron, the Transformer colonists on the planet Devisiun evolved into an entire civilization of duocombiners, although they did not consider themselves "true" combiners. Windblade vol. 2 #6 The twelve 'bots who made up the Functionist Council could all combine into a single alternate mode, a religious ornament known as the Key to Vector Sigma. Bad Moon Rising

Serious research into combiner technology stagnated for millennia until the outbreak of the Great War, when Megatron, seeking to create a Decepticon superweapon, recruited Jhiaxus's former student Shockwave into the Decepticons, provided him with a laboratory and ample resources, and ordered him to continue where his master had left off. Shockwaves An early attempt involved physically rebuilding five Cybertronians so that they transformed into four limbs and a torso; humiliated by the loss of his alternate mode, right leg Ambulon defected to the Autobots and the "Combicon" project was abandoned. How Ratchet Got His Hands Back No Guns, No Swords, No Briefcases When Monstructor escaped from his dimensional prison, the Autobots apprehended him Spotlight: Optimus Prime and took his individual components into custody in the hopes that they could be rehabilitated. Jetfire and the Technobots studied them with the goal of rehabilitating them, but the difficulty of the technology meant that they didn't get the chance before the Decepticon Secret Service captured the "Monstructor Six". Spotlight: Arcee Eventually, however, Shockwave left the Decepticons to pursue his pet project, in his absence, it would be Bombshell who created the first successful combiner: by using the like-minded Constructicons as test subjects, Devastator avoided Monstructor's debilitating personality flaws but remained sluggish in both mind and body. Before the Dawn After Scrapper died, the Constructicons could still use his corpse to form Devastator, but the "dead leg" left Devastator hobbled. Kings In the years following the Surge, other Decepticons subgroups acquired combiner upgrades, but their attempts generally went poorly: the Stunticons rebuilt themselves using black market technology from Swindle but couldn't properly unify their minds, Earthworks while the Predacons didn't even get as far as combining due to their inability to agree on anything. The Iron Klaw

In the final battle of the Great War, the eldritch D-Void harnessed a mysterious energy emitted from Cybertron's core and used it to suppress the individual wills of Galvatron, his Sweeps, and every Decepticon on the planet save Megatron, then merged them all into a monstrous avatar slaved to the D-Void's will. Kings After the end of the war, Megatron learned to manipulate this same energy as part of a new plan to claim dominance over Iacon; when the Aerialbots ventured into the Cybertronian wilderness, this energy caused the group to became increasingly aggressive toward each other until they spontaneously combined into Superion, which may have been a CNA-level defense mechanism against the hostile signal. Dinobot Hunt Night and the City At the same time, Bombshell used his cerebro-shells to brainwash Prowl and turn his quarters into a secret "black room". In preparation for Megatron's impending return, Bombshell rebuilt the remaining Constructicons so that they could combine with any suitable Cybertronian, upgraded Megatron so that he could combine with the Constructicons, and used Prowl as a guinea pig to form a new Devastator under Bombshell's control. Before the Dawn Bombshell's death enabled a new, Prowl-centric Devastator personality, who ran amok and grievously injured Superion. Plan for Everything Before Megatron could trigger his own Devastator combination, the Autobots stopped him. Heavy Is the Head

United by their shared hatred of Spike Witwicky, the Constructicons saw Prowl as a kindred spirit and allied themselves with the Autobots to stay with their new leader, Second Exodus and formed Devastator once more to defeat Monstructor during the "Dark Cybertron" crisis. Black Planet While on Earth, Prowl came to rely on this new Devastator as his heavy-duty enforcer during the search for Alpha Trion, Detonation Boulevard and later the Enigma of Combination. The Obliterati However, as Galvatron foretold, the stress of repeated combination took its toll: even when not combined, the Constructicons began losing their individual quirks and finishing each other's sentences, The Mind Bomb while Prowl suffered energon "nosebleeds" and unconsciously referred to his teammates as "Scrapper". I Dream of Wires Eventually, Prowl admitted that his experiences as Devastator meant that he no longer saw the Decepticons as enemies, but as a part of him. Now and On Earth

This dramatic upswing of combiner activity sparked an unofficial arms race between the different factions vying for control of the planet. Although Cybertronian ruler Starscream and his faction of neutrals did not yet control a combiner, he revived a comatose Wheeljack and convinced him to repair the damaged Superion. The World of Tomorrow Using the Enigma of Combination that Starscream's lackey Scoop poached from Earth, Superion soon returned to full functionality with Alpha Bravo and Powerglide serving as new components. The Sum and Its Parts Superion's return coincided with the restoration of Metroplex's space bridge and a potential alliance with the lost colony of Caminus. In the hopes that he could conquer Caminus and the other Cybertronian colonies to form a new galactic empire, Starscream orchestrated the "Combiner Wars", which saw the Enigma repeatedly change hands as different factions tried to conquer or save Caminus: combatants included Superion, a rebuilt Menasor, First Contact Defensor, formed from the loosely affiliated "Protectobots", Mistakes and Mayhem and a new version of Devastator that incorporated Starscream's lackey Scoop in place of Prowl. Determined to keep Starscream from conquering the galaxy by forcibly cutting Cybertron off from the universe, Prowl pressganged Optimus Prime and several other Autobots into becoming Optimus Maximus, You, Me, and the Universe but when he confronted their personalities in antespace the four members of the combination convinced him to work with them, fight for a united future, and defeat Devastator in a galaxy-spanning brawl. All That Remains After the formation of the Council of Worlds, Arcee tried to steal the Enigma of Combination, sparking in motion a chain of events that led to six visiting Torchbearers accidentally merging into the powerful Victorion. An Uneventful Night When Cybertron opened diplomatic relations with the citizens of Devisiun, Starscream brought Superion along to impress them and offered them a place on the Council in exchange for combiner technology. Windblade vol. 2 #6

Combiners created by the Enigma possessed a high degree of mental stability occasionally manifested unusual powers, including the ability to split their bodies apart or even fire their limbs as rocket-powered projectiles. Mistakes and Mayhem Victorion displayed a number of unusual traits: not only did she possess a suite of gravity-related powers, allowing her to fly under her own power or crush objects from afar, Perihelion she proved a sophisticated and erudite thinker capable of verbally sparring with Optimus Prime. Conquerors Part 2: Lagrange However, this kind of combination also proved addictive: Defensor and Superion displayed an unwillingness to split into their components, and Prowl noted that combiners teams had trouble staying separate. You, Me, and the Universe After his arrest, Prowl taunted Optimus that a part of him would always exist in Prime's mind due to their brief mental merge as Optimus Maximus. Now and On Earth Aboard the Lost Light, Defensor was able to substitute Ambulon as a replacement limb after Rook's death, but was defeated by Star Saber shortly afterwards. Under unclear circumstances, the Decepticon combiner Liokaiser served under Decepticon leader Nickel. Journey's End

While Optimus Prime was away on Cybertron, the Earthbound Autobots discovered that Garrison Blackrock had upgrade some of his mass-produced Seeker clone troopers into tripartite combiners. Later still, Optimus brought Superion and Victorion back with him when he made the controversial decision to annex Earth. They discovered that, thanks to the machinations of Garrison Blackrock, who had previously reverse-engineered the Enigma of Combination, its energies had "infected" all of Earth's computerized technology and turned the entire planet into an Enigma—during the final battle against Galvatron and his rogue Decepticon faction, Galvatron betrayed his principles in the name of victory and forcibly amalgamated Cybertronians together to create Galvatronus and Sky Reign. It's Beginning To And Back Again To nullify this "Earth-Enigma", Superion incorporated part of the Enigma's code into his own mind, then permanently separated himself into his components, effectively killing himself. As Above...So Below Around this time, the Combaticons sought to access the mind of their former teammate Swindle, who'd supposedly dug up compromising information on Starscream's role in the Combiner Wars. To do this, they stole the Enigma and used it on themselves to create Bruticus, but their inexperience with combination turned their combined form into a rampaging monster. The Line Between Us On Earth, human dictator Count "Iron Klaw" von Rani used a copy of the extraterrestrial Talisman to suppress the individual minds of the Predacons and turn them into "Predaking". When Snake-Eyes smashed the console that kept them docile, their argumentative personalities resurfaced and tore the combiner apart. The Iron Klaw During "Onyx Prime's" invasion of Cybertron, Victorion wound up clashing with a misguided Devastator, and thanks to an extra surge of power-enhancing Ore-8 she unleashed a devastating gravitational wave that crushed Devastator to atoms. Unforgivable

During Unicron's invasion of Cybertron, Monstructor returned and fatally wounded Victorion by killing Stormclash and forcing the other Torchbearers to break apart. Road's End When the battle moved to Earth, the Aerialbots recombined into Superion, reactivated the latent Earth-Enigma by doing so, and allowed Slide, a Devisen duocombiner who'd lost her ability to transform after the death of her brother, to sub in as Victorion's new leg. Together, Victorion and Superion took on Monstructor and finally put an end to their monstrous progenitor. Ceremony

2006 IDW Beast Wars continuity

In the twilight of the Great War, Tarantulas oversaw the creation of Predacus, a combiner formed from the members of the Tripredacus Council. Dawn of the Predacus The Autobots and Maximals retaliated by creating Magnaboss, a combiner made up some of the most seasoned Autobot veterans. Beast Wars Sourcebook Although an untested Maximal would wind up taking Perceptor's intended role in the combination, Magnaboss and Predacus both played vital roles in the final battle of the war before the ratification of the Pax Cybertronia; while Magnaboss took out the 'bot who would one day call himself "Megatron", Predacus eliminated "Megatron's" trump card, Predaking. Dawn of the Predacus By the time of the Great Upgrade, peacetime society dismissed combiners as energy-inefficient and the technology was largely forgotten. Magnaboss disappeared from the public eye, but the Tripredacus Council refined the technology to create Tripredacus. Other notable combiners included Magnaboss II and Tripledacus, who participated in later Maximal-Predacon skirmishes over Angolmois Energy. Beast Wars Sourcebook

Transformers vs. G.I. Joe

To combat a G.I. Joe invasion, the Constructicons formed Devastator. In spite of being able to deter the initial invasion force, he was rammed by the Defiant, _targetmasters which killed Long Haul and took Devastator out of commission. Earth: R.I.P.

As Cybertron inched ever closer to Earth, the Decepticon/Cobra alliance attacked New York City, the Combaticons combining into Bruticus. Expelled from the Garden

During the lead-up to the final battle, the Rescuebots—a group of Autobots who'd developed a particularly strong affection for humanity—sealed their holy oath to protect mankind with a unique "Combination Lock". This combination lock allowed them all to spontaneously merge into Defensor; in the final battle, the united G.I. Joe-Autobot force fetched up against a number of combiners, including Predaking, Abominus, Menasor, and a rebuilt Devastator. Transformers vs. G.I. Joe #12 Megatron briefly combined the energies of his black hole with the Matrix of Leadership to absorb all of the Autobots into his being to become the monstrous "Mega-Megatron" until Shipwreck and Polly crashed the Nemesis into his new body and freed the captive Autobots. The War Never Ends

Beast Wars: Uprising

Nucleon considered gestalt technology to be a crude precursor to the binary bonding process that would come to define the later days of the Great War. A Brush With Infamy–Prologue A number of combiner teams survived into the era of the Builders, Maximals, and Predacons, including the Protectobots, Aerialbots, and Constructicons, but to survive on a crumbling post-war Cybertron the teams downsized into fuel-efficient Micromaster bodies. Micro-Aggressions The Constructicons retained the ability to form Devastator, but by the 24th century the team had evolved into a two-thirds Autobot unit led by Hightower. A Brush With Infamy–Prologue

Inspired by the legendary titans of old, a number of other parties would go on to acquire combiner technology: Magnaboss, the first proto-race combiner, drew upon the strength and wisdom of the Maximals who made up the Maximal High Council: Silver Bolt, Tigatron, Santon, Airazor, and Lio Minor. Not to be outdone, the 'bots of the Tripredacus Council stole combination technology from their rivals and used it on themselves to become Tripredacus. Derailment More ominously, the street gang known as the "Antares Eight"—in reality, a group of dimensionally-displaced Monster GoBots—could call upon their own personal gestalt, Monsterous. When these dimensional invaders attempted to bait the Human Confederacy into destroying Cybertron, Devastator faced off with the GoBot combiner and ultimately emerged triumphant. Cultural Appropriation

During the Vehicon Apocalypse, Devastator and Magnaboss joined the final assault on the Grand Mal.A beam from the ancient battle station hit both combiners, and though Magnaboss survived the battle with only one component lost, three of Devastator's components perished. Derailment At the same time, the Tripredacus Council used their Tripredacus form to hunt down and slay Preditron before a vengeful Ser-Ket killed two of his three components. Derailment With the dawn of the Cybertronian Parliament, the surviving Constructicons recruited Wideload, Road Hauler and Steam Hammer as replacements. The new, construction-minded Devastator who emerged would be hailed as the champion of the remaining Builders. The Inexorable March

Timelines

As the Autobot war machine came to increasingly rely on Combiners, the Autobots began taking steps to minimize their drawbacks. Most glaringly, the loss of a single member would all but incapacitate the whole; to minimize this tactical weakness, the Protectobots began drafting auxiliary members who could replace any given component when nessecary, including Rook, Skyfeather, Heatrock, and Medix. Customization class Medix bio

Of Masters and Mayhem

During the Great War, combiners played a significant role, and both sides invested significant time and effort into producing combat-ready combiners. Lively Pursuit During one such experiment, Loudpedal and Oil Slick accidentally created Toxitron, a malformed mutant who spewed an endless torrent of noxious acid. The Toxic Transformer Soon, however, Shockwave and his underlings began tampering with forces that the Cybertronian race was not meant to control: seeking to create the "ultimate combiner", he combined Thunderwing's Point One Percenter spark with the artificial Matrix of Malice, which formed the core of the terrifying Thunder Mayhem. Soon enough, Thunder Mayhem turned on his creators and rampaged across Cybertron: over the course of this one-sided war, it destroyed every other combiner, and the few survivors of this mass extinction assumed that Thunder Mayhem had annihilated Cybertron itself. Life Finds a Way

Wrecker leader Impactor began travelling the stars to assemble a team capable of taking down Thunder Mayhem and slowly assembled a new crew of Wreckers from the few surviving Cybertronians he found throughout the galaxy. Toxitron, Alpha Bravo, and Offroad were already combination-compatible,and Fractyl and Counterpunch received full rebuilds to accommodate combiner technology. Fractyl reverse-engineered the power of Thunder Mayhem's spark using a substance called "Greenergon" and implanted a supply of it into Toxitron to act as a booster when they combined. However, their combined form went berserk and tried to kill Impactor. Terrified by the prospect of unleashing a second monster on the universe, Alpha Bravo murdered his friend Offroad to stop Thunder Mayhem from ever forming again, and was himself shot by Toxitron seconds later. Deadly Aim Upon discovering the ruins of Cybertron, the Wreckers recruited Bluestreak into their team; when alien Teklaans attacked, Impactor used a design lab to modify Bluestreak for the process, and Wreckage re-emerged: with Impactor now leading the team from within the combiner's psyche, this new iteration proved stronger both mentally and physically... although Bluestreak's penchant for talk left him far chattier than the original Wreckage Lively Pursuit

The Wreckers finally located Thunder Mayhem on the planet Earth, and formed Wreckage to stop the monster once and for all. In battle with the destroyer of worlds, Wreckage's power was harnessed by a human with a genetic quirk named Elizabeth. Joined by the other Earth-bound Autobots, the heroes successfully broke the Matrix of Malice and reduced Thunder Mayhem back into his separate components. Finale

Prime Wars Trilogy cartoons

The Enigma of Combination created many combiners during the later years of the Great War, including Computron, Menasor, The Fall, Predaking, Primal and Victorion. Prelude to Transformers: Combiner Wars - Victorion Whether or not the combiners adhered to the old factions remains debatable: although Starscream pointed out that they were still made up of Autobots and Decepticons, The Council a number of combiners appear to self-identify as members of an independent faction, separate from either Autobots or Decepticons. The Fall After the end of the Great War, Optimus Prime and Megatron willingly went into self-imposed exile, and as a result the leaderless combiners fell into a period of vicious, destructive infighting known as the "Combiner Wars". The Council of Worlds came into possession of the Enigma and considered using it to stem the conflict—either fighting fire with fire by creating a new combiner army, or by simply destroying all combiners. The Council

As the council debated using the Enigma to control the Combiners, Devastator aassisted Windblade, Optimus Prime and Megatron as they attacked the Council pavilion. All of the extant combiners converged on the building, and although Devastator attempted to claim the Enigma for himself, the Council ordered Starscream to use the Enigma to take control of the combatants. A War of Giants Instead, he used it to merge himself with Devastator, Victorion, and the bodies of Computron and Menasor; his attempted "super-combination" collapsed and turned him into an unstable energy being. Darkest Hour Upon Starscream's defeat, the four other combiners were returned to normal; Victorion took ownership of the Enigma by claiming that the artefact rightfully belonged to the combiners. Destruction's Dawn

During Trypticon's rampage across Cybertron, the Mistress of Flame recruited the combiners to find and reactivate Fortress Maximus. Our Heroes Respond Computron discovered that the Titan's transformation cog was damaged but the weapons systems were intact, and so Victorion ordered him to take control of the weapons and fire everything they had at Trypticon. Overlord and Emissary When Megatron arrived at Fortress Maximus and revealed the Mistress of Flame had perished, the combiners assumed him responsible and attacked. Once Windblade arrived and the fight stopped long enough for Megatron to explain, Victorion fused with the other combiners to successfully form "Ultimate Victorion", a massive warrior comprised of spectral energy. Desperate Actions Although Ultimate Victorion fell in battle against Trypticon and wound up reduced to her components once more, all of the combiners joined in the ensuing battle. Consumed All Things Must Pass

Victorion joined Megatron and his crew on their subsequent quest to find the Requiem Blaster before Megatronus, who had already stolen the Enigma of Combination, could use it to achieve his evil goals. While exploring a marshy wilderness, the team encountered the Dinobots, who displayed the ability to combine into Volcanicus. The Swamp Predaking attacked the group shortly afterwards and demanded that Victorion turn over the Enigma, Volcanicus but they were able to peacefully talk down the ex-Decepticon combiner. Primal Not long afterwards, Overlord and Rodimus Cron successfully killed almost all of the combiners: first Computron, Menasor, and Devastator, Volcanicus then Victorion in the Athenaeum Sanctorum. Athenaeum Sanctorum In the final battle against Megatronus, Predaking attempted to seize the Enigma and wound up fatally decapitated. Saga's End

Bumblebee graphic novels

The Constructicons briefly formed Devastator during a battle for a cybertonium meteorite until the precious mineral exploded, reducing them back to the individual Constructicons. Go for the Gold

Mazinger Z vs. Transformers

As combiners, the Constructicons were the only Decepticons capable of taking on Kōji Kabuto's Mazinger Z super robot, but not even Devastator could withstand Mazinger's infamous rocket-propelled punch that instantly collapsed the gestalt back into his components.

Transformers/Ghostbusters

When Gozer invaded Cybertron, Megatron set loose every combiner the Decepticons had against the extradimensional monster, to no avail. One by one, Predaking, Devastator, and Bruticus fell. Seeing the defeat of their ultimate weapons convinced the other members of Decepticon High Command that Cybertron was doomed. Ghosts of Cybertron Part 2

2019 IDW continuity

"I'm not afraid of the mutation anymore. Not when I have this kind of power!"

The origins of the Enigma of Combination are unclear, but folk wisdom held that the artifact belonged to Nexus Prime, who had once wielded the artifact at the dawn of Cybertronian civilization. Enigmatic Although the Enigma could theoretically combine any group of Cybertronians into a combiner, only those who shared a common sense of purpose could successfully master the art of combination. In the years before the War of the Threefold Spark, a group of Cybertronians used the Enigma to try and combine, but without a clear goal their combined form became a mindless "abomination" that rampaged across the planet in search of fuel; when it became clear that the combiner could not be reasoned with, Dai Atlas and a legion of warriors finally felled the beast at Rivets Field in Iacon. Constructicons Rising, Part 1 Escape Part Three

The Enigma of Combination wound up buried in the strata beneath the region, where it remained for many megacycles until after the end of the War of the Threefold Spark, when the newly christened Constructicons uncovered the Enigma while on cleanup duty. Their supervisor Termagax encouraged them to embrace this artifact to push their potential to its fullest; although they successfully united into a combiner, Constructicons Rising, Part 1 mastering that combined form by learning to successfully merge their minds came less easily. Only by embracing the combiner's emergent personality, and learning to harness its deep reserves of primal anger, could they use their powerful new form to rebuild Iacon. Wheeljack, nervous about what would happen if the Constructicons lost control of their combined form, petitioned Nominus Prime to exile them to Mayalx. Constructicons Rising, Part 3 Nominus agreed; to ensure that no more combiners would threaten his vision of Cybertron's future, Nominus entrusted Termagax with the Enigma in the hopes that she could keep the artifact safe until such time as it would be needed. Sea of Rust I

In the years that followed the ratification of the Nominus Edict, combiner technology fell by the wayside, although individuals like Power Punch and Direct-Hit appear to possess a combined vehicle mode, Titans while 'bots like Cromar could combine with others in their weaponized forms. End of Time The only known Cybertronian to successfully crack the secret of true combination would be the mad scientist Airachnid, who used her knowledge to create a massive Combination Core aboard the Hexagon asteroid colony that could forcibly merge any five 'bots together. Light/Star

With a second civil war looming on the horizon, Rise leader Shockwave turned his attention to acquiring a monopoly on combiner technology. Sea of Rust I To this end, he recruited his former allies the Insecticons, to manipulate the Constructicons into embracing their rage; after renaming their combined form "Devastator", the combiner laid waste to the colony that they'd built and fled into deep space. Constructicons Rising, Part 4 Several cycles later, Scattershot and his Technical Solutions team fell into the Combination Core and emerged as Computron. Before their combined form could gather his wits, colony administrator Thunderwing jettisoned the entire floor from the station and launched Computron into space. However, once returned to their regular forms, Scattershot discovered that he'd somehow absorbed the power of the Combination Core. Light/Star

When Lodestar received a distress signal from Cybertron, she made for Crystal City. Though Lodestar was too weak to fight, her size alone scared off the majority of the Decepticon army and allowed her to release Computron who held off Strika's Heavies long enough for Optimus Prime to confront the Decepticon general. The Landscape of Fear The battle drained the Technical Solutions team of energon, leaving the Autobots unable to turn Computron against the rust worms or Insecticons. End of Time

Following Exarchon's return, Shockwave summoned Devastator back to Cybertron, War's End Part Two giving him instructions to meet with Soundblaster. After the combiner's size had scared off the Autobots and Decepticons in the Sonic Canyons, Exarchon sought to usurp Devastator, War's End Part Three only for Constructicons to resist him, though the strain forced them to decombine. War's End Part Four

By the time Exarchon had been destroyed, Computron had been refuelled, escorting the Autobot convoy to Darkmount. Having been given the Constructicons by Shockwave, Megatron unleashed Devastator on Computron during the siege of Darkmount. Though the Constructicon combiner initially proved stronger, Scattershot used the powers of the Combination Core to add Pipes, Flareup, Backstreet, Javelin, and Groove to the mix. Reborn as a ten-bot combiner, Computron was able to defeat Devastator but was ultimately overwhelmed by the totality of the Decepticon force firing on him, forcing him to decombine back into their components, though the sacrifice had allowed the Autobots to escape Cybertron. Fate of Cybertron

My Little Pony/Transformers

While stranded on Earth, Spike the dragon helped Grimlock defend the Ark from a Constructicon assault. Devastator easily trounced Grimlock, Spike quickly worked out how to fire the Ark's primary thrusters, and the force of the blast reduced Devastator back to his components, who promptly fled. Inspiring

During King Sombra's magical assault on Cybertron, the evil unicorn brainwashed Silverbolt and the other four Aerialbots with his mind-control magic and forced them to combine into Superion. Although the brainwashed combiner quickly defeated Grimlock and the other Dinobots, Spike and Smolder deduced that forcing Sombra to split his control five ways would weaken his magic, and taunted the individual Aerialbots by playing on their individual hangups and personality traits until Superion could no longer maintain the combination and fell apart, breaking the spell in the process. The Mightiest Dinobot

Last Bot Standing

Steeljaw's pack possessed the ability to combine into the diminutive Unstoppimus. When Rodimus stood in the way of the pack getting energon, the pack combined to hold off the Autobot but fuel-starved as they were, Unstoppimus was more bark than bite, Rodimus quickly disabling their weapons before beheading them, the shock sending their components into stasis lock. Last Bot Standing #4

Robots in Disguise

2001 Robots in Disguise cartoon

Many of the Autobots active on Earth were combiners: most notably, the three Autobots who comprised Team Bullet Train could merge into Rail Racer. Bullet Train to the Rescue The hard-working 'bots who made up the Build Team could also combine to form Landfill, but they rarely took an active combat role due to their duties maintaining the Global Space Bridge. Landfill Rail Racer proved a powerful trump card for the Autobots during the early phases of the war for Earth; seeking some powerful new warriors to level the playing field, Predacon leader Megatron created the Commandos, a team of crack warriors who could merge into Ruination. Commandos

Many combiners in this reality displayed the ability to rearrange their components at will and gain specific powers in doing so: for instance, Landfill could combine in three possible configurations: one that balanced offense and defense, Landfill a "Typhoon Mode" that optimized offensive power, Sky-Byte Saves the Day, and a "Cyclone Mode" close-quarters assault form. Galvatron's Revenge Ruination possessed two primary configurations— a ground assault "Land Mission" mode, and a "Flight Mission" form that allow him to hover. Commandos

Even Optimus Prime displayed the power to combine: when his rebellious brother Ultra Magnus travelled to Earth, he feigned compassion in an attempt to steal the Matrix, then forced his brother to combine with him. What he didn't expect, though, was that Optimus had as much control over their new "Omega Prime" form as Magnus did; his plan to steal the power of the Matrix backfired and he had to cooperate with Prime to defeat the Decepticons. Ultra Magnus: Forced Fusion!

Ask Vector Prime

In a dystopian alternate timeline, Megazarak Robo-Smashed Rail Racer and Landfill so that they became the evil Dominus Trannis and Devastator respectively. Ask Vector Prime, 2015/07/30 Megazarak slaughtered three out of the four members of the Protection Team and left their leader Hot Spot unable to combine. When Ultra Trion passed the Matrix onto him, he received new armor which gave him the abilities of his fallen comrades. Ask Vector Prime, 2015/09/07 This new, one-bot iteration of "Defensor" tried to save Dominus Trannis, but was ultimately forced to put his old comrades out of their misery, Ask Vector Prime, 2015/07/28 while Unicron plucked Devastator away from his home timeline to serve in the Universe War. Ask Vector Prime, 2015/07/30

Sky-Byte claimed that beast mode Transformers such as himself were too emotionally delicate to suffer the indignity of combining. Shark Sonnets, 2015/10/21

Unicron Trilogy continuity family

Across multiple continuities, the power-enhancing Mini-Cons possessed the ability to power up larger Autobots and Decepticons with extra weapons and abilities while physically attached to their bodies. This special bond is known as a "Powerlinx", and is not considered a "true" combination, although by the time of Energon this specific term would come to be used interchangeably with more familiar forms of combination.

Cartoon continuity

Armada cartoon

In addition to their ability to Powerlinx, a number of Mini-Cons possessed the power to combine with each other: although Grindor, High Wire, and Sureshock combined into a super robot named Perceptor, Comrade most other Mini-Cons became enhanced weapons or tools: the Air Defense Team formed the supernatural Star Saber, the Race Mini-Con Team became the impenetrable Skyboom shield, Overmatch and the Space Mini-Con Team could unite to form the devastatingly powerul Requiem Blaster. Awakening

During a battle with the Decepticons, the Autobots struggled against Megatron's new tactician Thrust and his 'henchman' Tidal Wave. Right when it seemed hopeless, Jetfire fell from the sky and combined with Optimus to form Jet Optimus. Awakening Later still, Optimus began combining with the hulking Overload, who formed a large pair of cannons on top of Super Optimus's shoulders. Overload's additional firepower, combined with the already impressive firepower of the Requiem Blaster, enabled Optimus to destroy Sideways. Origin

The Decepticons were not without their own combiner; Tidal Wave was able to combine with Megatron to form additional armour and a back-mounted rocket pack. In this form, Megatron was able to battle Jet Optimus to a standstill. Desperate

Linkage comic

The non-flying members of the evil Speed Chaser Team could form the Magnawing aircraft to transport themselves around. Linkage Part 4

Energon cartoon

Long ago, during a time when the Decepticons and Autobots were at peace, four ancient combiner robots were tasked with guarding the Super Energon Temple deep beneath Cybertron: Bruticus Maximus, Constructicon Maximus, Superion Maximus, and Superion's brother. The Autobots and Decepticons glared at one another in mutual acrimony until they became completely corroded and were unable to move. Ambition

Millennia later, following Unicron's defeat, the Terrorcons arrived on Earth to acquire energon, and Optimus Prime granted Hot Shot the Spark of Combination, a divine power imbued upon the Autobot leader by Primus, so that Hot Shot and Inferno could Powerlinx with one another and fight off the invaders. Cybertron City This new form of powerlinxing became a widespread ability among the Autobots, to the point where almost any Autobot could combine with any other to become more powerful. Spark of Combination didn't automatically make someone an expert at it, however—it took practice and both partners had to learn to synchronize their breathing. Several different varieties of combination emerged over the course of this new conflict: similarly sized Autobots could Powerlinx together, with the top half becoming the dominant consciousness with an added "Powerlinx" title (e.g. "Powerlinx Ironhide".) Megatron's Sword A few Autobots and some Decepticons combined with components of their alternate modes to form a larger "brute mode". Bulkhead

Optimus Prime was able to Powerlinx with his Prime Force drones, Cybertron City (episode) Wing Saber Jungle Planet (episode) and Omega Supreme to form his Super Modes.While Optimus Prime would become the dominant consciousness in all of his Super Modes, Omega Supreme was the only one who could continue to communicate with him, presumably due to Omega—his head-unit—storing inside his right shoulder. A Heroic Battle After their discovery, the three remaining guardians of the Super Energon Temple joined the battle; in particular, Superion Maximus fought to avenge his deceased brother, and while briefly incapaciated by the loss of his combiner limbs during his final battle against Bruticus, stole Constructicon's limbs and used them to finally kill Bruticus Maximus. Spark

Cybertron cartoon

In addition to his preexisting ability to merge with Wing Saber into an airborne "Sonic Wing Mode", United Optimus would later display the ability to combine with Leobreaker to form the "Savage Claw Mode". Savage His evil clone Nemesis Breaker could likewise form a "Dark Claw" mode for Megatron. Darkness

Cybertron comic

The Deep Space Mini-Con Team could combine into the Umbral Blaster Revelations Part 5 while the Sky Terror Mini-Con Team could form the Chaos Saber. Andromeda - Axiom Nexus News, 2015/05/19

Ask Vector Prime

In Aurex 1104.30-DB Zeta, Dr. Jones attempted to reverse-engineer the Maximus combination technology and apply it to Mini-Cons, which resulted in the creation of the Micromaster combiners Superion, Defensor, and Rail Racer . The Decepticons, however, stole this technology and used it to create their own Micromaster combiner, Devastator. During the Unicron Singularity crisis, these four Autobot and Decepticon combiners clashed in a conflict known as the Combiner Wars. Ask Vector Prime, 2015/07/31

Timelines

At the dawn of time, Nexus Prime was a member of the Thirteen and the first combiner. However, when Megatronus turned on his siblings, Vector Prime, Alpha Trion, and Solus Prime made the decision to permanently reduce Nexus Prime into five components and conceal the location of Prima's Star Saber sword. The Star Saber cut Nexus into five other robots: Skyfall, Landquake, Breakaway, Topspin, and Heatwave, who were subsequently scattered across the multiverse and lost to the ages. Ask Vector Prime, 2015/05/18 In time, however, the Caretaker supercomputer put the five components on the path to reunification, and upon recruiting the heroic Decepticon Heatwave in a mirror universe Nexus Prime successfully returned and used his powers to transform that reality's Megatron into Galvatron before departing to recover the Star Saber. Reunification: Part 6

The GoBots of Gobotron possessed their own version of combination technology: basing his designs of the transformable "power suits" of the heroic Guardians, Renegade leader Cy-Kill commandeered Earth vehicles and modified them into the mighty Puzzler. Renegade Rhetoric (1), 2015/10/16 While in Axiom Nexus, he stole six sparks Renegade Rhetoric (1), 2015/10/15 and, after recruiting a group of Predacon criminals from the Uniend Cluster upgraded them with the combination technology he'd once used for Puzzler to create Monsterous. Renegade Rhetoric, 2015/10/21 Upon returning to his home reality, he used the stolen sparks to recreate the Puzzler project with genuine living machines.Renegade Rhetoric

In a splinter reality created by Sideways and Gong, Puzzler and Monsterous would menace the Autobots during a particularly strange version of the Unicron War. Echoes and Fragments Another iteration of Puzzler would join the Thirteen Great Demon Generals after Bio Ranger Iga permanently fused his components together to ensure an unbroken existence. Ask Vector Prime, 2015/07/15

When asked who he'd combine with if he became a combiner, Vector Prime admitted that while he might merge with other members of the Thirteen, he did not feel comfortable becoming a combiner. Ask Vector Prime, 2015/09/25

Animated

Animated cartoon

Jetfire and his twin brother Jetstorm were chosen for an ambitious genetic experiment after an industrial accident nearly killed them. By grafting Decepticon coding acquired from Starscream during his time in custody onto their Autobot shells, the Autobots hoped to duplicate the Decepticons' vaunted flight abilities. When a simulated training exercise against a virtual simulation of Starscream went awry, the pair displayed an unconscious "gestalt powerlink" that allowed them to combine into Safeguard and destroy the virtual Decepticon. First (and Second) in Flight

After travelling to Earth, the pair formed Safeguard during the search for Wasp Where Is Thy Sting? and later used a combined jet mode to carry their leader Sentinel Prime to Dinobot Island. Predacons Rising

Later, the ambitious Dirt Boss recruited his former lackeys Mixmaster and Scrapper to work on something he called "Devastator." The AllSpark Almanac II

Sentinel Shouting

In his younger days, Sentinel Minor appears to have been somewhat prejudiced against combiners. Sentinel Shouting, 2015/10/07

Shattered Glass

As the Great War between the heroic Decepticons and evil Autobots escalated, the introduction of combiner technology afforded Optimus Prime and his warriors a distinct tactical advantage. To fight back, the Decepticons initiated "Operation: Combination", a program designed to refit their own warriors with combination technology. Decepticons who underwent the refit underwent a rigorous battery of psychological tests to ensure their compatibility with one another, as well as an automatic disengagement mechanism designed to protect the individual minds of their components should the combination matrix fail. The erudite Abominus, combined form of the Terrorcons, eventually emerged as the apex of combination technology, although the care involved in buffering the minds of his components left him with an extremely fragile combination matrix. Abominus profile

Unlike the Decepticons, the Autobots showed no such care for the combination process and freely abused the technology to create unstable monsters. While Computron, combined form of the scientifically inclined Technobots, was once an evil genius, his components eventually grew addicted to the process to the point where they no longer separated. Cruel and egotistical, Computron suffered severe mental damage during an ill-advised attempt to imbue Grimlock with intelligence, which permanently corrupted his parallel processing capabilities and left him a mentally and emotionally stunted brute. Although the Technobots remained addicted to combining, Computron quickly grew to despise his individual components and continually, if ineffectually, plotted to rid himself of the "parasites" who comprised his body. Computron profile

Superion, a smaller combiner, displayed the ability to freely split and recombine his body at will, which he used to flummox a parallel-universe Grimlock when the two met in battle. Memory's Splinter

After downloading his consciousness into a backup body, Ratchet upgraded himself with combiner technology. While combined, he could plant viruses into a gestalt mainframe or even seize complete control of a combiner's motor functions, but his new body's tendencies to freeze and reboot could interfere with the combination processes. Customization class SG Ratchet bio

Live-action film series

Toy bios

Knock Out hoped to undergo the "combination retrofit" process.^[4] The Aerialbots and the Combaticons could combine into Superion and Bruticus Maximus, respectively. Both combined forms had limited intelligence: Superion was seemingly incapable of any thoughts beyond "destroy Decepticons" and "protect innocents", while Bruticus Maximus, despite being both dumb and slow, could overwhelm almost any opponent his strength and nigh-impenetrable armor.^[5]

Movies

The Guardian Knights could combine into the mighty three-headed dragon known as Dragonstorm, whereas Quintessa's Infernocons could combine into the monstrous Infernocus. The Last Knight Cybertronian twins, like Skids and Mudflap, could assume separate combined forms or merge into a more durable shared alternate mode. Transformers Comic issue 2.1 Some animalistic Cybertronians, like the insectoid Microcons could combine into a razor-thin robot form designed for infiltration purposes. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Experimental combiner technology was developed by the Decepticons for combat advantage and then used on the Constructicons who were able to form Devastator. Comfort was rather decidedly not on the top of the list of priorities and, as a result, the process was brutally painful to the Transformers involved, which also made the combiners fuse in a very aggressive and painful manner. The mental and physical torture involved left Devastator only interested in causing destruction.^[6] Combiners were not limited to one combination scheme, and their final forms could vary.^[7]

During the final battle in Egypt, Jetfire sacrificed himself so that the recently revived Optimus Prime could use his parts. The combination gave Optimus a powered up, flight-capable form that he used to battle The Fallen and triumph. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Unite for the Universe

In the wake of the battle in Egypt, NEST initiated Project: Unite so that Optimus Prime could maintain this combined state. The Secret of Project: Unite Seeking to copy the project for his own ends, Starscream hired Skystalker and Ravage to aid him, and together they stole information on Project: Unite. Ambition Instigated Using the knowledge he'd gleaned, Starscream applied the upgrade to himself and grafted parts of Sideways and Bonecrusher onto his body. With his newfound power, he made short work of Bludgeon before declaring his intention to conquer the world and defeat Megatron. Bludgeon's Revenge Unfortunately for him, Starscream had failed to acquire the neural interface protocols required for Project: Unite, causing his mind to deteriorate, and he began to rashly and mindlessly attack things around him. Both the Autobots and Megatron realized they had to stop the crazed Decepticon before he did too much damage. On the Road to Destruction

Megatron attacked the powered-up Starscream himself, intending to take him apart and reverse-engineer the secrets to Project: Unite from his body. Optimus Prime couldn't allow this to happen, and had Ratchet bring in a new weapon to burn out the Unite technology in Starscream's body, defeating him and destroying his upgrades. Once Megatron had fled, Optimus lamented that the danger of their new weapons research falling into the Decepticons' hands was too great, seemingly signaling the end of Project: Unite. The Strongest Weapon

Power Core Combiners

The art of Power Core Combination was lost during the early days of the war on Cybertron. The Decepticons made an attempt to resurrect the process, but their crude "Gestalt Process" was a horrific procedure that usually cost the participants their sanity; the Autobots made more careful attempts, but even these still inflicted mental damage. As a result, "Proto-Combiners" with the potential to become a combiner were doomed to either live with a permanent sense of incompleteness or risk their sanity by submitting to these ill-conceived experiments.

All of this changed, however, when the Matrix's database was recovered by the Autobots, and (with some human assistance) the Power Core process was at last rediscovered. It facilitated perfect symbiosis between a Commander and their Mini-Con, not only enhancing the attributes of both, but also creating a mysterious bond of shared perception. With training, a Commander might graduate to having a set of drones to control. A single Commander could upload his own personality engrams into the drones and effectively be in multiple places at once. The Return of Power Core Combination! The Decepticons were able to steal the technology for their own warriors,^[8] doling out the upgrades as a reward for displays of ruthlessness^[9] or for loyalty.^[10] Because the technology was rediscovered only recently, Gestaltics researchers have yet to reach the limits of their understanding and exploitation of it. The Return of Power Core Combination!

Aligned continuity family

The Covenant of Primus

At the dawn of time, Nexus Prime was the first combiner, a 'bot capable of splitting and reforming at will. Following the death of Solus Prime and the disastrous War of the Primes that drove the original Thirteen apart, Nexus permanently divided himself into five 'bots and scattered himself across the stars.

Following the Rust Plague and the collapse of the Cybertronian empire, a fleet of refugees fleeing Neutronia discovered Amalgamous Prime's lost transformation cog. Its supernatural power mutated them into the Mutacons, shifters with the power of infinite transformation and combination. Seeking a way to cure their condition before they finally lost their individuality and combined into a single amorphous being, they traversed the galaxy in a fleet of living starships comprised of their own bodies. The Covenant of Primus

Aligned novels

The ancient art of combination was as old as Cybertron itself, although the fiercely independent Megatron despised the notion of surrendering his hard-won individuality to some greater whole. During his time at Crystal City Shockwave created several prototype combiners, and merged the five Combaticons into the savage and uncontrollable Bruticus Maximus, but their combined form proved so dangerous that all five would be placed in protective stasis and sealed away. Undeterred, Shockwave continued his experiments; while in the gladiatorial pits of Kaon just before the Great War, he experimented on a trio of Insecticons and turned them into combiners who could merge into both robot and vehicle forms.

A number of combiners attended the fateful meeting of the High Council that saw Orion Pax promoted to the rank of Prime; when war broke out in earnest, the Constructicons joined the Decepticons, by which point Shockwave had perfected his combinatorial process and used it to turn at least seven of their number into the ferocious Devastator, and the Decepticons later reactivated the Combaticons after discovering them beneath the ruins of Crystal City.

To fight back, the Autobots stole and successfully reverse-engineered Shockwave's combination process to create combiners of their own. The first, Defensor, successfully blunted Devastator's rampage when the two clashed in the Tagan Heights but wound up destroying the secret lab where Autobot scientists had created him. Exodus

The five Aerialbots aboard the Ark were combiners; their gestalt form of Superion would prove instrumental in rescuing both Autobots and Decepticons from the Quintesson-controlled Aquatron. Retribution

Timelines

Fisitron was discovered in a routine physical examination to have a rare "combination spark", which theoretically gave him the ability to combine with other machines. TFSS Fisitron profile card

Portal

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2015 Robots in Disguise cartoon

A number of combiner teams possessed a unique form of combination known as "Crash Combination": by crashing into one another at high speed, two 'bots could temporarily fuse into one. Four out of the five Stunticons possessed this ability; in addition to combining with their leader to form Menasor, they could unite to form Dragbreak Bee Cool and Heatmark. The Golden Knight

The Decepticon criminal Chop Shop was formed from five identical robots, although it's unclear whether "Chop Shop" is an emergent personality made up from the interaction of his five components, or if he is one mind spread across multiple bodies: notably, he could function without all of his components intact, and could appropriate Mini-Cons like Fixit as replacements. More than Meets the Eye

While fighting Heatseeker above a nuclear waste dump, an explosion triggered a barrage of radiation that forcibly merged all six members of the Bee Team into Ultra Bee, but none of them realized at the time. King of the Hill (Part 2) The team experienced this phenomenon again during their battle with Dragstrip at a swamp. They didn't understand how to control it, and being combined had the strange effect of splitting Sideswipe into two individuals. The Great Divide Eventually, Fixit deduced that this mutation had been triggered by radiation, but attempts to recreate the accident initially proved fruitless: one attempt left Grimlock and Drift stuck together, Get a Clue while later experiments led to the creation of temporary combined forms like Bumblearm The Fastest Bot Alive! and Sidelock. Out of the Shadows On one occasion, a bungled attempt to force the combination using mechanical assistance left the team with their minds in the wrong bodies. Disordered Personalities

Eventually, however, the team mastered their combination and used their new form to take on Menasor and win on two separate occasions. Combine and Conquer Moon Breaker To combat Soundwave, the Bee Team attempted to form Ultra Bee but found themselves unable to complete the combination without Drift. Collateral Damage

Cyclonus and his troops were able to combine into Galvatronus. They attempted to use their combined form to defeat the Bee Team only to be met with Ultra Bee. Nonetheless, the Decepticon combiner proved stronger than his Autobot counterpart until Cyberwarp's hesitation allowed Ultra Bee to triumph. Freedom Fighters

Cloud

The combiner Bruticus was an invention of the mad logician Shockwave, who incorporated the ability to combine into the (perhaps unwilling) Combaticons, a team of renegades in the Underground. The giant was utilized as part of Shockwave's many contingencies to bring about the return of Megatron for the ultimate conquest of the Spacetime World. Eagerness

TransTech

While in Axiom Nexus, offworlder combiners required a license to operate. Renegade Rhetoric, 2015/10/21

Stakeout and his Protectobot drones took part in Cybertron's Got Talent and dazzled audiences with their Power Core Combination. Axiom Nexus News Editor, 2015/05/14 After winning the Sub-Metro Amateur League Lobbing championship, the Mighty Mechanics considered moving up to the Combiner Leagues, although they'd have to be upgraded with combination technology to compete. Andromeda - Axiom Nexus News, 2015/05/28

Cyberverse cartoon

After liberating the Enigma of Combination from the tomb of Nexus Prime, Grimlock and the Dinobots accidentally activated the artifact, which merged them together into Volcanicus. The newly formed combiner spent a significant amount of time and effort learning to coordinate their actions in both their individual and combined forms, but after a lengthy training period the Dinobots took on Trypticon's crew of Mercenaries and emerged triumphant. The Immobilizers

Games

Transformers: Fall of Cybertron

Bruticus was formed by the Combaticons when they were making a last ditch effort to salvage a mission to capture a large Autobot energon transport. After the team disabled the anti-air guns, the got their dropship close enough for all five of them to depart onto the ship and combine. Bruticus's raw strength allowed him to easily eliminate the transport's crew, but the damage he did to the ship caused it to crash land. Bruticus later formed during Megatron's mission to recapture Trypticon, and later joined the fight during the Decepticon attack on the Ark before Jazz and Jetfire knocked him off. Fall of Cybertron

Transformers: Devastation

After the incident with the Ferrotaxis, Optimus Prime mused to Wheeljack about ending the war once and for all. They then both looked at a set of Combiner schematics on a computer screen, depicting Optimus Maximus. Transformers: Devastation

Transformers: Battle Tactics

A number of combiners participated in battles against both Autobots and Decepticons, but could only be recruited if all of their component members were at max level. Transformers: Battle Tactics

Transformers: Earth Wars

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Combiner list

See also: Super Mode

Combiners with two members Mega-Dinobot Decibel Legout Slamdance (G1) Squawkbox Cog (G1) / Cog (Masterforce) Dreadwing (G1) / Darkwings Stormtroopers Swarm Multiforce members Wingwaver Dashtacker

Machtackle Dreadwing (G2) and Smokescreen (G2)'s combined form / Megatron (G1) and Starscream (G1)'s combined form / Formation Scream / Stealth Bomber / Dreadwing (RID) / Gigant Sniper Sky Powered Land Powered Attack Powered

Wing Powered Drill Powered Silver and Gold Powerlinx users Safeguard (Animated) Skids and Mudflap (only in ice cream truck mode) Primestrong Beeside "Sidelock" Out of the Shadows "Bumblearm" The Fastest Bot Alive!

Skyhammer / Shocknado Dragbreak Heatmark Primelock Saberclaw Dragonstorm (only in toy form) Battletrap (only in toy form) Bumblegrim Bumbleswoop Slugtron Wheelgrim

Slamdance

Combiners formed by main bodies with power-up partners God Ginrai Victory Saber Omega Prime Jet Optimus Burning Megatron Tidal Wave and Galvatron's combined form

Optimus Prime Megaweapon Optimus Prime Fight Mode or Optimus Prime Flight Mode Optimus Supreme Optimus Prime Savage Claw Mode Optimus Prime Sonic Wing Mode

Megatron Dark Claw Mode Power Up Optimus Prime (only in toy form) Devil God Fire Convoy Transformers Legends Final Chapter "Epiloge" Purple Wicked Convoy Omega Hand Mode Finale Prelude

Jet Optimus/Optimus Prime Megaweapon

Combiners with three or more members (non-Scramble City-type) Devastator (G1) Devastator (ROTF) Predaking Raiden Monstructor / Dinoking		Road Caesar Liokaiser Big Rescue Force Landcross Big Powered Magnaboss (BW) / Magnaboss (BWII) MegaWing Galvatron		Dark MegaWing Galvatron Piranacon (Prime) Prime Processing Unit Collect and Save Tripredacus / Tripledacus Tri-Rex Rail Racer (RID) / Dominus Trannis Landfill (RID) / Devastator (Universe Ultra)		Minibot combiner Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers issue 8 Beast The Beast Within Insectrain Hearts of Steel issue 2 Cobratron Computron (SG) Abominus (SG)		Raiden Devastator
Reedman Deceptigod Abominus (Prime) / Goradora / Infernocus (only in toy form) Mighty Robot Mighty Vehicle Puzzler		Monsterous Toxitron Overmegasixwave The Waiting Game Grimstone Lazerbolt Obsidian Volcanicon		Gaiacross Gaia Scramble Megascream's combined form Transformers: Deviations Galvatronus (CW) It's Beginning To And Back Again Ultimate Starscream A War of Giants The Functionist Council Bad Moon Rising		Ultra Bee Menasor (RID) Galvatronus (RID) Dragonstorm The Last Knight Infernocus The Last Knight Ultimate Victorion Desperate Actions Fossilizer Combiner Unstoppimus Last Bot Standing issue 4 Junkasaurus

Triple Combination combiners DaiGekisou DaiKenzan GoGekisou GoGanoh

GoHishou GoJinbu GoKenzan GoSensui

Sensuimaru

Scramble City-type combiners Bruticus (G1) / Battle Gaia / Ruination (RID) Defensor (G1) / Guard City Menasor (G1) Superion (G1) Abominus (G1) Computron (G1)

Piranacon (G1)[11] / King Poseidon[11] / God Neptune Bruticus (WFC) / Ruination (FOC) Optimus Maximus Victorion / Megatronia Sky Reign Grand Galvatron

Thunder Mayhem Predacus Wreckage Volcanicus Orthia

Superion

Official mix-n-match Scramble City-type combiners Abomenaticus Comperian Autobot Super Scramble Decepticon Super Scramble Scramble 7 Ultra Prime Galvatronus (CW) (only in toy form)

Betatron Scourge Grand Prime Modulus Starscream Combiner Elita-Infin1te Inferno Combiner White Convoy Grand Prime Volcaticon

Abomenaticus

Micromaster-type combiners Barrage and Heave Blackout and Spaceshot Blast Master and Phaser Direct-Hit and Power Punch

Excavator and Stonecruncher / Retro and Surge Fireshot and Vanquish Full-Barrel and Overflow Grit and Knockout / Gusher and Pipeline Half-Track and Meltdown

Hammer and Sledge / Cement-Head and Terror-Tread Missile Master and Moonrock Oiler and Slide Power Run and Strikedown Roadburner and Wheel Blaze

Sixliner / Sixtrain[12] / Rail Racer (Universe)[13] Sixbuilder / Decepticon Sixbuilder / Devastator (Universe Micromaster) Sixturbo / Defensor (Universe) Sixwing / Berserker Sixwing / Destron Sixwing / Superion (Universe)

Sixbuilder

Mini-Con combiners Perceptor (Armada) / Bumble Perceptor (Energon) / Heavy Metal / Windcharger / Perceptor (Cybertron) / Bumble Mirror / Nightcreeper Requiem Blaster / Umbral Blaster / Astro Blaster (Armada) / Transwarp Blaster

Skyboom / Magnawing / Cosmotector Star Saber / Vorpal Saber / Energon Saber / Cryo Saber / Chaos Saber / Pyro Saber Centuritron Chop Shop

Heavy Metal

Maximus-type Powerlinx combiners Bruticus Maximus (Energon) / Bruticus (G1) (Universe) / Bruticus Maximus (ROTF) Constructicon Maximus / Devastator (G1) (Classics) Superion Maximus / Dauntless Maximus / Superion (G1) (Universe) / Superion (ROTF) Nexus Prime

Constructicon Maximus

"Omnicombinational" Stentarian combiners 16444/9 Paddox Centuritron

Centuritron

Notes

• Gestalt, a German word which literally means 'form' or 'shape', in this context refers to the psychological concept, namely 'something which is more or greater than the sum of its parts', e.g. a table being more than the timber it's made out of. The origin of "gestalt" as a fan-term is unknown; the earliest documented use is in 1998, when it was already in common parlance.^[14] Intriguingly, however, the Robots in Time series of novels published in 1993-94 prominently feature a "gestalt robot" who could split into six smaller autonomous robots, each with a different personality. If this actually inspired some Transformers fan searching for a good word to use, there is no evidence of it, but the publishing timeframe is conspicuously close to the opaque early days of the online fandom.
• Scramble City-type combiners were initially designed to be a sub-line of Diaclone called Jizai Gattai (自在合体, "Free Combination"). This goes along with their ability to interact with and attach to Metroplex and Metrotitan, the designs of which were also originally intended for the Diaclone line. Due to the fact any robot can form either an arm or a leg, the franchise as a whole very rarely enforces a "standard" combination setup to a particular Scramble City combiner.
• Fiction has almost uniformly depicted combiners as being much larger than their individual components would suggest. In perhaps the most egregious example, Dreamwave's comics present combiners as kaiju-sized monsters who loom over skyscrapers; after defeating Superion, Devastator holds one of the former's component members in his hand, the smaller robot proportionally no larger than a doll. A few attempts, such as IDW's later Robots in Disguise comic, have chalked this discrepancy down to judiciously applied mass displacement technology.

Unused concepts

He transforms into a traffic jam.

Combiners were a very popular idea during the "Generation 1" toyline and as such there are loads of scrapped combiner designs that never got past the drawing board. Among them were:

• A Scramble City-style dinosaur combiner. The body is a T. rex, while the limbs are a pterodactyl (right arm), Ankylosaurus (left leg), Dimetrodon (left arm), and Styracosaurus (right leg)^[15]
• A decidedly goofy organic insect combiner composed of a stag beetle (right leg), another beetle (left leg), grasshopper (left arm), fly (right arm), and a cockroach body.^[16]
• A cybernetic beast combiner that did not form a robot, but rather a large cybernetic monster. It is formed from a cyber bat, mole, stag beetle, and a couple of fish things.^[16]
• A fifteen (!) vehicle Micromaster combiner where the only attached parts not contained by the component robots were the large robot fists. This combiner consists of three uniformly colored teams (in a similar fashion to the vehicular Voltron of the same time period):
  • Air team (blue) — two jets, two helicopters, a space shuttle.
  • Construction team (green) — a hauler, a bulldozer, a steam shovel, a tank (don't ask), a missile carrier (don't ask).
  • Street team (red) — two cars, a motorcycle, a formula racer, a jeep.^[17]
• A simpler dinosaur combiner composed of a pterodactyl, a not-really-a-Stegosaurus, and a T. rex with a very large head. The three combine into a dinosaur thing similar to Magmatron's combined dino mode. It shares many visual characteristics with Tomy's relatively simple robot designs.^[17]

Either the smallest steamboat ever, or the largest car in existence.

• A five vehicle combiner (evidently not Scramble City-style in nature) composed of a steam engine (right arm), steam boat (torso), car (right leg), truck (left leg), and plane (left arm).
• A base consisting mostly of ramps and a hollow tower in the center that combined with 14 non-transforming cars and vans. Two vehicles make up each limb, with three crammed in the chest, two for feet, and one that slides into the tower's gun platform to form the head. The ramps would then act as an exoskeleton to contain all of the components.^[18]
• A robot formed from a truck cab and four cars with no robot modes that each have flip out weapon arrays. This may qualify more as a conventional "super robot" than a standard combiner, but we may never know.^[19]
• A "Duocon" (or rather, "Triocon", in this case) style robot formed by three cars. One car splits in half to form the arms, another splits for the legs, and a third folds in half to reveal the robot head and connect it all together.^[19]
• A Concorde jet that split into two robots, where the front portion's robot can pop out three wheels and a spare cockpit to give it a land mode. Presumably the larger rear robot could do the same.^[20]
• Two military convoy "trains", one good, one evil, of six vehicles each hooked together that combine along the lines of Devastator but with loads more guns. The robot core is formed by a tractor trailer that leads either convoy, the good one being long nosed, the evil one being flat, each with trailers that open up into small cannon platforms usable by the five smaller robots. Said trailers also become their respective combined form's handgun. The other five members each have a specific large weapon such as a missile rack or chaingun that they can also use in robot mode.^[21]

Foreign names

• Japanese: Gattai (合体, "Combination"), Gattai Senshi (合体戦士, "Combined Warrior"), Gattai Heishi (合体兵士, "Combined Soldier"), Combiner (コンバイナー Konbainā)
• French: Fusionneur (Canada, Robots in Disguise 2001 only)
• Spanish: Combina (Latin America, Robots in Disguise 2001 only)
• Mandarin: Hétǐjīngāng (合體金剛, "Combination Vajra")

References