I always wondered how do they merge together, I mean how do they know who goes where and who's the left arm or right leg/left leg. And usually who forms the chest and who's head do they use once the combiner has been combined? Thanks
I always thought that the best bot for each limb would be assigned during transformation when they were initially built. Preadking:- Tantrum and Headstrong are probably the strongest so they are the legs. Dive Bomb and Rampage as the quick arms, and Razor Claw as the base as he is the most balanced. Think it's been said that the all combiners contribute to the gesaults head. Hence why the Terrorcons create a dumb Combiner as their only goal is carnage individually.
Depends on the combiner. For some, such as Devestator, there is only one way in which they can combine (Scavenger is always going to be the right arm.) For the so called "Scramble City" combiners (the ones with one large robot and four smaller robots) the limbs can combine in any fashion. (Dead End can be either of Menasor's arms or legs or even Defensor's left arm.) As far as the heads are concerned, they don't use any of their heads. The gestalts have their own heads. [EDIT: If you mean which brain they use, again the gestalts have their own unique personalities formed by merging their individual processors. There is nothing really comparable in human neurology.] Now for the Powerlinx-type combiners, that's entirely up to them who wants to be on top. (But that's their choice and this is a family-friendly site.)
I recall at least one instance in Energon where the combination done was wrong... I think, both bots wanted to be the torso/upper portion.
Yellow and blue lions form the legs, red and green lions form the arms and body, and the black lion forms the head.
After reading this thread,I was wondering about the extra Seacon who becomes Piranhacon's weapon.Does he become part of Piranhacon's consciousness? If so it must be transmitted wireless to Piranhacon's head.
Whichever way the artist decided to draw it on the animation master design. Off the wall it's probably because they were programmed to know who went where or had it choreographed, they knew they had the ability to do it why wouldn't they have some kind of plan.
In the Marvel comics, to allow the Autobot Special Teams to combine Bumblebee had to go out and secretly record the combination data of the Constructicons combining. I don't think it was explained specifically how that data could actually be used for an entirely different combining team though.
Also the Super Robot/ Gestalt has a lower IQ usually (most could barely manage a full sentence, and sound like The Hulk or a Dinobot), at least in the cartoon, normally G1 (I think later Gestalts in Japan and later series had higher IQ's )
In Victory, for the Multiforce, the choice of who goes on top seems to have been already decided upon beforehand. They can switch if they ask their partner to. It also sounded like whoever was the torso was also the one in control of the combined form, no merging of minds going by the conversion between Mach and Tackle. I also wonder how the minds of the larger forms worked in Victory. Hellbat had a big secret that he had to keep hidden from the other members of the Breastforce. Throughout every merging into Liokaiser it seems like the other members never found out about what he did. Was their combination the same as it was for the Multiforce, with only one person in charge?
That was the case for all of the combiners except for Computron and Predaking. Computron maintained the intelligence of each Technobot at the cost of reaction time while Predaking ran strictly on instinct so he wasn't any less coherent than any of the Predacons. Pretty sure Leozack was calling the shots for Liokaiser.
If I recall, Devastator is so slow and clumsy because all six Constructicons are still mentally in control and have to consciously coordinate themselves. Later combiners had a separate personality for the combined form, with the toon versions being a merger of minds, while in the comics there was a 6th personality only awakened by combining (or in Piranacon's case 7th). In fact in the Marvel comics Piranacon's combination is set on a timer to disingage because otherwise Piranacon will never agree to separate into the Seacons again. Later Japanese series went with the leader having control, and the other members simply lending their bodies. One weird story called Operation Combination did it in reverse where there's only one personality, and that's the combiner, who splits his focus 5 ways when he separates. More recent shows like Energon of course just had one leader and 4 drones they controlled. So really, the rules seem to change ona case by case basis. They're not even consistent within one series, each combination appears to be unique.
Later combiners still worked the same with the merge forms taking the personalities of the components, which had mixed results. Onslaught ruled the Combaticons with an iron fist so Bruticus was much more efficient than Menasor who actually had two split personalities: One was Motormaster and the other was comprised of the other four because they hate Motormaster so much. Defensor was pretty well rounded with all Protectobots functioning well together and Superion was more instinctive because of the differing personalities of the various Aerialbots. Predaking has been covered already and so has Computron and Abominus. But, the merging of minds for the merge mode has been consistently how it worked in G1. In Energon, they weren't drones, but I do believe the combined forms were primarily ruled by the leader of that particular group. It's been a while since I've seen it so I could be wrong. I also don't know about the Japanese series.
Lets not forget that in g1 season 3 Defensor seemed to hold complete sentences, and even commented on the missing first aid.
