The great thing about G1 Combiners is the Scramble City type combiners because you can combine them in any combination you want to. Some of them even go above and beyond the normal limb swapping. The Seacons all have a third combined mode where they can transform into weapons for example. The Protectobots also have two axillary team members that together can form a different torso much the same way that Devestator's torso is formed by two Constructicons. The thing that sucks about G1 Combiners is that not all of them have this ability even though they still combine in the same way. There are no groups where one team member can split in half to form both arms, or form the "pants" of the combined mode for example. They all do the same thing. The only thing really preventing them from going Scramble City are the fact that the connection ports aren't universal. The other thing that sucks about G1 Combiners is that there's a lot of "partsforming" involved as in most cases the combined head, hands, feet, and other gestalt parts are actually accessories rather than being self contained parts that store away inside the individual robots. You don't see this in modern Transformers, only in G1. Sure it can some times hurt the individual figures but it also prevents you from loosing those parts. When you're missing parts the combined mode ends up looking like just a bunch of vehicles or animals stuck together rather than a robot. Plus G1 Combiners... and really G1 toys in general were not all that well articulated. They're already making better combiners that are articulated and self contained. No partsforming required. So why not remake all the G1 Combiners in the Scramble City style? They could still combine into their classic looks just with better articulation for the G1 purists. You don't have to use any of the new combined modes unless you actually want to. That being said, the new combined modes would require all the limbs to have an added weapon mode. With this would also come a new team member because what good is a weapon mode if no one can hold it? Combiners teams like the Constructicons and the Predacons would also have added modes so their limbs could be swapped as well. Divebomb's still going to be kind of an odd ball because his wings come off and clip onto Razorclaw's back to form Predaking. Because of that basically all torso combiners are going to have to include a universal clip just for Divebomb's wings. This also means that Devastator and Predaking would both have the same universal ports that all the other Scramble City combiners have so their limbs could be swapped with other combiners. Now about the torso... Devastator would be getting another new member who is larger than the existing 6 Constructicons. This new member could on his own form the torso of the combined robot. Basically he'd be like Steamhammer from Transformers Energon... in fact we could just use that character. So you could have Steamhammer be the Torso all his own instead of needing both Hook and Long Haul to combine into a torso. Again this would be optional. All the other teams currently have one larger robot forming the torso. As far as I can tell the Protectobots are the only ones to have two extra team members (Heatrock and Skyfeather) that can combine into a second torso to replace Hot Spot. So everyone would have similar added team members that can do the same. Though hopefully that can fit the theme of their team better than these two do. Heatrock is a drill tank which isn't much of a rescue vehicle... but then again neither is a bulldozer, just don't tell Boulder that. With all this being said... here are some ideas for the optional added team members. Constructicons Steamhammer (Steamroller/Torso) Dirt Boss (Forklift/Limb/Weapon) Predacons Cicadacon (Upper Torso) Sea Clamp (Lower Torso) Drill Bit (Limb/Weapon) Notes: I basically used the BW Combiners as the added team members for the Predacons. I didn't want to use the name Ram Horn since that is already the name of an entirely different G1 Character but I still wanted him to be a rhinoceros beetle so I took the name from a different Beast Wars character with the same beast mode. Sea Clamp would not form legs like the BW version, just a lower torso. Finally even though they're based off BW characters they'd have more robotic designs to fit in with the G1 Style of the rest of the original Predacons. Drill Bit would probably end up looking a lot like Bombshell for example but with the same color scheme that the other Predacons share. Combaticons Blackout (Stealth Bomber/Upper Torso) Stormcloud (F-15 Fighter Jet/Lower Torso) Blight (Police Motorcycle/Limb/Weapon) Protectobots Heatrock (Drill Tank/Upper Torso) Skyfeather (Jet/Lower Torso) Boulder (Bulldozer/Limb/Weapon) Stunticons Barricade (Upper Torso) Slicer (Lower Torso) Wasp (Limb/Weapon) Note: The original 5 Stunticons were all based on the same vehicle modes as Optimus Prime, Jazz, Mirage, Sideswipe, and Windcharger so I based these three new members on the same vehicle modes as Prowl, Wheeljack, and Bumblebee respectively. Aerialbots Jetstorm (Upper Torso) Airazor (Lower Torso) Terradive (Limb/Weapon) Terrorcons Cryotek (Upper Torso) Darksteel (Lower Torso) Skystalker (Limb/weapon) Note: These three are based on the Prime Predacons Predaking, Darksteel, and Skylynx. I changed two of their names so they wouldn't share names with other G1 characters. Seacons Sky-Byte (Hammer Head Shark/Upper Torso) Slapper (Flog/Lower Torso) Notes: Overbite is already a shark so kinda redundant to have two sharks on the same team unless I make Sky-Byte a hammer head. Frogs are amphibious so technically counts as a sea creature. Technobots Obsidian (Cybertronian Helicopter/Upper Torso) Strika (Cybertronian Tank/Lower Torso) Wheeljack II (Cybertronian Truck/Limb/weapon) Note: Obsidian and Strika were kind of introduced as older Transformers who served in the Great War, possibly as Autobots but they were never actually in the G1 continuity before being introduced in Beast Machines. This is sort of my way to retrofit them in. Also up to this point I've been avoiding reusing names that already exist in the G1 continuity. However Wheeljack created the Dinobots and Grimlock created the Technobots so I thought maybe Grimlock would of named one of the Technobots after his creator, hence Wheeljack II. This could even be the first instance of a Transformer taking his name from his ancestor which they later end up doing quite a bit.
