Combiners/Gestalts

A group of Transformers that can assemble and combine their bodies into a single
robot that is larger and more powerful than the average transformer and there is two robot combiners.

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.

## Combiner list

* **Optimus Maximus**: Optimus Prime (torso), Ironhide (right leg), Prowl (left arm), Sunstreaker (left leg), Mirage (right arm), Elita One (wings).
* **Volcanicus:** Grimlock (torso), Slug (left or right arm), Swoop (right or left arm), Sludge (right or left leg), Snarl (left or right leg).
* **Menasor**: Motormaster (torso), Dead End (left or right arm), Wildrider (left or right leg), Breakdown (right or left leg), Dragstrip (right or left arm).
* **Superion**: Silverbolt (torso), Air Raid, Skydive, Slingshot, Alpha Bravo, Firefly.
* **Bruticus**: Onslaught (torso), Brawl, Blast Off, Swindle, Vortex.
* **Dragonstorm**: Stormreign (torso), Dragonicus (left arm), Steelbane (right arm), Firenstone (left leg),(wings) Skullitron (right leg).
* **Abominus**: Hun-Gurrr, Blight, Rippersnapper, Windrazor, Twinstrike.
* **Devastator**: Scrapper (right leg), Hook (upper body), Long Haul (lower body), Scavenger (right arm), Mixmaster (left leg), Bonecrusher (left arm).
* **Victorion**: Pyra Magna (torso), Rust Dust (chest plate), Skyburst (right or left leg), Stormclash (left or right leg), Jumpstream (left or right arm), Dustup (right or left arm).
* **Defensor**: Hot Spot (torso), First Aid (left or right arm), Groove (right or left leg), Rook, Blades (right or left arm), Streetwise (left or right leg).
* **Liokaiser**: Leozack (torso), Drillhorn (left leg), Fellbat (left arm), Guyhawk (righlt arm), Ironbison (right leg).
* **Infernocus**: Cutthroat, Thrash, Rupture.
* Monstructor:

* **Dinoking**:
* **Megatronia**: Megaempress, Lunaclub, Moonheart, Trickdiamond, Flowspade.
* **Machtackle/Tacklemach**: Mach and Tackle.
* **Wingwaver**: Wing and Waver.
* **Dashtacker**: Dash and Tacker.
* **Landcross**: Wingwaver; Wing (upper torso) Waver (lower torso), Dashtacker; Dash (right arm) Tacker (right leg), Machtackle; Mach (left arm) Tackle (left leg).
* **Raiden**: Railspike, Rapid Run, Midnight Express.

## 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. 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.

Fiction has almost uniformly depicted combiners as being much larger than their individual components would suggest; combiners are almost uniformly depicted as, far bigger than the sum of their 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.