Personally, I think the Autobot combiner groups are trash. The Aerial bots suck, the Protecto-Bots are underdeveloped and the techno-bots more so, so what are your thoughts on a more successful Autobot combiner group.

I think a sports/super car combiner similar to the stunticons would really suit the Autobots as they have a lot of sports/super car bots

A Wrecker combiner would be beyond badass. Imagine the skills of the wreckers as a combiner. It would be legendary, a crew so powerful and skilled it could go toe to toe with the most powerful Decepticon combiner.

A crew of complete misfits, one that would make no damn sense being a crew but somehow works out out like the bad batch

 

Heresy. The Aerialbots and Protectobots are perfect.

 

....the Dinobots and Volcanicus.

(holds out arms, ready for the arrows)

 

I always thought an autobot team of constructicons or constructabots if you will seemed like a logical choice. Since they can help repair the damage the decepticons cause. Technically they already exist with the autobot build team from 2000 rid but does anyone really care about them by now? Outside of that How about a Junkion combiner? they can already swap limbs easily repair themselves and other transformers using nothing but scrap a combiner would be pretty cool a garbage truck for the main body or maybe a magnet crane and go from there.

 

You want better Autobot combiners?

(Rail Racer art is by Evan Gauntt)

 

Honestly? A lot of the combiners are on the wrong teams.

Autobots shouldn't have jets. As someone else said the Decepticons shouldn't have alt modes that build things.

 

Honestly, there's a case for nearly any combiner concept to switch factions: the Aerialbots could become a seeker gestalt, the Protectobots could be insidious infiltrators masquerading as authorities like Barricade (and Barricade would be one of them, alongside pyromaniac fire truck Inferno and ambulance Flatline). Predaking was almost an Autobot at one point, if I recall correctly.

Personally, I'd have no problem giving the Decepticons all the gestalts, forcing the Autobots into the underdog role.

 

My only major issue with the Aerialbots is the 'plane backpacks' they all have. It's like the artist forgot they were jets and not cars, so the plane parts were just thrown onto their backs at the last minute.


and no more furbait nameslaps of these guys please

 

Honestly, I just have problems with the combiners in general and how they're structured. Like Mr. Chaos mentioned, some of the teams just are on the wrong side thematically, and one of my favored ways to interpret combiners, a sort of rivalry between two teams, is only really present in the Scramble City combiners. Jets versus cars, protection versus warfare, and technology versus fantasy monsters. Then you have...dinosaurs versus construction equipment (could be spun as past versus present), a weird bird dragon thing that is only technically a combiner versus a team of predators, And Piranhacon & Monstructor against no one because the Autobots don't have that many combiners, at least in the G1 toyline. For the side characterized by cars and ground-bound vehicles, that the Autobots have a single combiner made up of cars (and it's not even a full combiner, it's 3 dudes) is a crime.

Reinvent the Throttlebots as the Autobot's primary combiner, make Wideload a large van rather than a dump truck, and replace Goldbug with Bumper. So Bumper can finally get screentime and more of an identity that's not, "The yellow guy that looks like Bumblebee! No, not Hubcap! No, not yellow Cliffjumper either!", while Bumblebee can still get his "growing up" arc in the form of Goldbug. Combined form is named Rundown, and they're the rival to the Constructicons, with the main "theme" being power versus speed. The Constructions are bigger and stronger, as is Devastator, while the Throttlebots are smaller and faster, same with Rundown. I agree that the Decepticons shouldn't have construction equipment as a team, but they're too tightly ingrained into the G1 Decepticon identity to remove them.

Aerialbots are the final combiner team, post Technobots and Terrorcons. In my mind, their creation along with the Stunticons are meant to represent how the sides have become equal in might and the Autobots are no longer a mere resistance. They're equal armies fighting for what they believe is right, and co-opting the primary "realm" of the opposing faction is that sentiment given physical form.

Protectobots are just fine and fit in well thematically, if under-explored. Rival the Combaticons.

A new Scramble-City team of aquatic vehicles to oppose the Seacons named the Aquatibots, since I think the Autobots should have ground superiority, the Decepticons air superiority, and both sides are fairly equal on the water. Leader turns into a submarine, other 5 members turn into various water vehicles. A single-person submersible, a tugboat, a cabin cruiser, a pontoon boat, and an airboat/hovercraft. Like the Seacons, they're a Targetmaster combiner, one member is left off to form a rifle. Essentially nature's sea versus man's sea.

The Technobots are boring as hell, but they're the best answer to the Terrorcons, so they stay.

The Dinobots are now the Predacon's rival, ancient predators versus modern predators. Dinobots still play the part they normally do, the Autobot's "heavy weapons unit", as it were, but they're reformatted to fight the Predacons when they come on the scene. I would name the combined form Dynomight, but it'll be Volcanicus because that's stuck with them. And their silhouette mirrors Predaking's, with Swoop's wings being removed to give the combined form a set of wings, ala Shura King.

Landcross and Liokaiser become rivals, as their rosters are the most unique of them all. Liokaiser is 3 ground vehicles and 3 air vehicles, while Landcross is 2 air vehicles (well, a jet and a shuttle), 1 sea vehicle, and 3 ground vehicles. Landcross gets the denomination of "apex" Autobot combiner, as Liokaiser is to the Decepticons.

Monstructor just kinda doesn't have a place? I guess maybe set him up against Road Cesar since they're both undersized combiners.

 

Okay, hear me out
Keep defensor, keep the altmodes, and team composition/ design elements , but have him be made of the rescue-bots.
Yes, Those rescuebots.
Think about it, the main issue with the protectebots is an overall lack of development. So, we just take the identities/ dynamics of a more developmed team and import them into a new continuity.

• Hot Spot becomes Heatwave. Minimal difference in terms of personality, though I would hope to retain Hot-spot's look, to differentiate him from Inferno.
• Blades' personality pulls a complete 180, but honestly, g1 blades hits the same autobot anti hero archtype that grimlock/ impactor/ repugnus are more suited to. That said, the classic blades color scheme is a little bit stronger, due to the red providing a little more pop.
• Streetwise becomes Chase. Given Streetwise's lack of involvement in continuities, this change is pretty much just adding blue to him.
• Boulder's Personality goes to rook, as a bulldozer has little relevance among the team theme. Rook a couple of panels of characterization at most, nobody will miss him.
• Groove takes animated prowl's personality. Given that pacifist suits blades/ first aid more, this is necessary. Also, CW Groove looks like a white animated prowl, this tweak works well.
• Thankfully, first aid needs no changes, due to him actually receiving a characterization. I recon he fits in well among the rescue bots.

By using these familiar names/personalities, this should bridge the valley of characterization between them and the combaticons, all of whom have been developed
(mostly in g1 and aligned)

 

Um...

...

...what?

 

If you take all the combiners and line then up, its perfect.

 

Well that just sound dumb.

 

Ugh. The combiner concept has been exhaustively overused already. I like the concept of teams, but not gestalts. In my opinion, Devastator should be the only one. It made sense for the Constructicons to be able to “construct” Devastator from their bodies, but I personally wish that ability were unique to them only.

TL;DR: No more combiners. It’s an overplayed gimmick and I’m sick of it.

 

Thank you so much for adding to the conversation

The Decepticons were the military and warriors of Cybertron, autobots the infrastructure and domestic. The autobots didn't have fliers. So...why exactly do the bird have a flyer combiner and the Cons the builders?

 

Cause the cons need to build things as well and Autobots need something to fight in the air, otherwise they lose at air superiority and thus lose the war. That's warfare 101.

And it's not like the Autobots don't have builders and the Decepticons don't have fliers cause they don't all come strictly from separate parts of society. It would be like say "Decepticons shouldn't have ground vehicles/troops". Even the G1 cartoon recognized this, that's why they had the Stunticons and Aerialbots built in the first place.

 

And I utterly disagree and we are going to ever come to and understanding so let this be the last we say on the matter

 

IMO that should be the rule.

But not a fundamental, extistential, universal law. The Aerialbots were meant to be the exception to the rule.