This has bugged me a little for a while so I thought I'd see what you guy's opinions are.

In most of the comics, cartoons, and artwork of a Transformers gestalt, they are way larger than they should be. The toys sometimes get the size right compared to other figures of the same individual size class, but really we shouldn't be seeing combiners towering so high that tiny enemy bots are running in fear from something that is nearly Godzilla sized to them.
We see bots like Devestator and Bruticus often looking so big that they hold other tranformers in their hands or stomp one and you can see that the lower leg of the gestalt is literally 10 times the size of the poor squished bot.
Obviously in G1 there was the silly size shifting thing, and G1 was a mess in general so that explains that, yet in most comic art and shows since then, combiners are still insanely big.

Is this totally accepted because we want them to look enormous and more frighting? To me, a combiner doesn't have to be a lumbering giant to be cool. If Bruticus was the right size, He wouldn't even be 3 times taller than Optimus. He would probably move faster and would still be quite the scary and effective monster to face. More like how he was in the TF FoC game, although I think even in that he was a bit larger than he should have been.

Its just always stood out to me how big these guys look sometimes, especially directly compared to the bots they are attacking.

 

Yeah, that drives me nuts too. A gestalt should only be as large as the sum of its parts, not the size of a freaking aircraft carrier.

 

Well, your reference pictures are mostly from the G1 cartoon and Dreamwave comics, where scale (and art quality) varied wildly. As for IDW Superion, Superion is made of planes, which tend to be pretty darn huge, so he should theoretically be the largest of the Earth-based combiners, with Menasor being the smallest.

But combiners are generally portrayed as nigh-unstoppable killing machines, so maybe some mass-shifting could be considered in play?

 

You know, I was just thinking about this about an hour ago, but laughed it off quite easily because lets face it... scale & transformers will never mix haha. Seriously though, I think its all about artistic exaggeration. They're big, so they're gonna be made to be really big, even to the point of silliness.

 

The Dreamwave comics drawn by Pat Lee are nuts anyways. Just ignore those.

 

I absolutely hate it when they grow. I wish they'd keep the size of their assembled parts. When they grow, it doesnt look cool, it just looks stupid.

 

I think combiners do mass shift a bit too much on the large side for the sakes of being huge and menacing. You can have a combiner less than 3x the height of Prime and still make him boss rush the battle field. He can be played up like a super soldier rather than a big, dumb giant.

It's something that also depends on the specific combiner too, but yeah, I think combiners need to be shrunk down a little more realistically.

 

Usually it doesn't bother me but some of those images you posted just look downright silly. Especially the Bruticus one w/ Starscream. Also that Dreamwave Devastator looks stupid, and that's before I even begin looking at the scale. DULL SURPRISE

 

i hate when people pose tiny starscreams with their FP/FOC bruticus... it makes me want to explode.

 

Dreamwave Devastator was ludicrous. Logically Optimus Prime should be about the same size as Mixmaster, no? Well, the Mixmaster foot was about 20 times Optimus' size. It was just... Stupid. Those comics had horrible art.

I mean come on, that mixer is bigger then buildings.

 

Good to see i'm not the only one thinking this is a silly issue with transformers that needs to end. Things like this might need to evolve for transformers to stick around in the spotlight. Eventually people stop thinking about how cool things they've been seeing for years are, and start wanting things to make more sense. I know I sometimes look at my collection displays and wish they looked better together, although I already keep them displayed by scale groups as much as I can.

Oh I totally agree about Superion, and I'm okay with Predaking being the largest of them too because obviously the beasts aren't normal sized, but more like building sized.
Also, there is a lot of stupid going on with just what vehicles make up most of them.
Bruticus for example... A space ship, tank, helicopter and Humvee are the same size?? Nope.
Devatator... a cement truck is the size of a massive digger?

I know scale has always been laughably bad with transformers, from toys, to comics, to shows, but I think for Transformers to become more believable and be more fun to collect, they need to get with the program on scale a bit more.

 

Yeah man lol. I know we aren't supposed to think about such things, but if Devastator was that big, where the hell do the hands and extra parts end up when not combined? Do they turn into small towns?
Takes me back to the "where does Prime's trailer go" days...

 

In Devastator's Defense, His Lower torso IS made out of a Freaking Mining Dump truck.... Which can easily flatten any normal consumer vehicle.
In Superion's Defense, He's made out of Jets.... with a body made out of a former Commercial Jetliner... which is about 3 times longer than Optimus Prime in vehicle form at least.

 

Well, look at the Marvel G1 comics, where someone like Piranacon is the same size as Galvatron, and Bruticus was a head taller than Soundwave.

The point of the combiners is to be grand and imposing. When the supposed titan composed of 5 robots is in scale with a cheerleader pyramid in terms of height, it's just not that fearsome when normal foes are firing shots that can incinerate, rust, and etc.

It's annoying, but it's a liberty that I'm willing to accept.

 

my fan-devastator is made out of four semi truck-sized vehicles for the limbs with a forklift for the head and a dumptruck for the torso. hopefully it works  

 

Marvel Comics also had this gem. The artist's just don't care.

 

I agree. It's ridiculous.

 

The thing that fails here and to other ppl who post in this thread.

** You are overanalyzing stuff that was created in the 80s. **

The stuff we all know was created to sell toys, nobody cared for scale. Now today we get new comics with more focus on the story, better artwork etc etc but it is still those same characters. So are the combiners to big? Yes I agree to that. Do I care that Blast Off would be the biggest limb of all combiners and make Bruticus look like a freak if it were to me scale? No I dont. Defensors little motercyckle leg would never hold his weight etc etc.

RID is a fine example for when scale match (except one again Ruination but he is a Bruticus mold). Landfill (Buildking) is a great example. He is big in combined form but not overly big and comes to be just a bit bigger then Megatron who is a big bot. So yes it can be done to have a combiner that is more in scale, and yes you can draw the G1 combiners so they are not so overly big in combined form but you will never ever get the scale right with the limbs unless you change their altmode and make them all be around same size.

and on the Dev remark...ever been to a mining pit?  

 

Yes, they are. Scale is always a bit relative in Transformers. Sometimes even Optimus Prime is too big, his head sometimes being much larger than a human.

 

Scale drives me nuts?...Not really.

How ever I do believe in 'less is more' and 'build-up'

If guys like Bruticus Devastator Superion Menasor Predaking were only 3 times as large than your normal bot, it would still be imposing.

Sure he wouldn't smash a building i one shot, or flatten a character with a step. But if you show a couple scenes of a guy like that knocking guys out of a fight one hit at a time, not slowing down. Then take a Lazor-bomb-missile in the face, he stumbles back a single step and keeps going it will be just as awesome.
And then later in the story when we've seen 7-8 different combiners and tryicpcon come out the size of godzilla (or however big he is) He will be even more impressive.

I've feel people have been trying to 'tell us how impress theses guys are' instead of 'showing us'. And that needs to change.