I voted Decepticons as well. My favorite combiner used to be Superion when I was younger, now it's Devastator! Just a beast!

 

the decepticons easily. the autobots have three combiners four if you count the Volcanicus the decepticons have about six combiner teams. Plus all the autobot combiners are flawed in one way or another apart from Defensor who just kind of very protective of humans.

The Decepticons early combiners are just big dumb destructive monsters which is more or less exactly what Megatron wanted anyway. Then they really nailed it with Predaking who's basically a perfect combinersince all his component parts love to hunt. Piranacon is similar but is flawed in that he loves to hunt so much he will do so until he runs out of energy forcing the seacons to install an auto seperate timer in him

 

I don't know about best combiner, but my favorite combiner has always been Defensor. He was the first combiner I had as a child, and the one I have fond memories of as both my parents and grand parents chipped in to get him.

 

If we're talking strictly the traditional five or six bot teams, Cons easily and that's how I voted.

But if we start counting trio combos a la Armada Optimus/Overload/Jetfire, then that's a different story.

 

I'm getting the Jujiang Superion so finally I can have Superion just step over Menasor on his way to fight Devastator... Otherwise, Cons win.

 

I think the 'Cons win this, but across the different canons and Generations is it a fair fight? To my mind (counting a combiner as a team of 5 or 6 [sorry Rail Racer, I still love you]) I would consider the combiner ranks for the Decepticons to be greater than the Autobots. Am I just remembering it wrong?

 

The phrasing of the question in the poll seems like it's asking a totally different question than what the rest of the thread would suggest.

And it's a much harder question to answer because I don't think one over all best combiner team automatically means that side should win. Like the Autobots could have one combiner someone likes more than any other but if that's the only Autobot combiner they like while there's three Decepticon combiners they like then the Decepticon side would be better over all because it has more good designs than the Autobot side.

That said a lot of my personal favorite combiners are Decepticons. Combaticons, Stunticons, Predacons, Seacons, Terrorcons.

The Autobots have the Protectorbots and Technobots which I like, and if we can count teams who weren't originally combiners, the Dinobots. I also quite like Raiden's design but I'm not too attached to him as a character due to the fact he's a Japanese exclusive.

With the exception of the Stunticons who don't have a lot of variety most of my favorite combiner teams are the ones who have all different kinds of alt modes. I like the variety in my combiners and the Decepticons seem to have far more of it than the Autobots. The Stunticons I just like because I've always seen them as evil versions of Optimus Prime, Jazz, Windcharger, Mirage, and Sideswipe. I have a weird thing for evil versions of heroic characters.

Also the Beast Combiners ALWAYS have a wide variety of different alt modes unlike the vehicle combiners which tend to be things like a team of all planes which I find to be the most boring combiner ever. The Decepticons have THREE Beast Combiners while the Autobots only have one... and they weren't even suppose to be combiners originally. The Decepticon beast combiners were actually always combiners.

So for all those reasons while the Autobots do have a few combiners I like, the Decepticons have far more interesting designs.

 

Defensor's the most stable autobot combiner overall even if he is kind of the sensitive type. Superion and Computron are both flawed though Superion tries to block out all the conflicting voices in his head which means he struggles to inovate and adapt and Computron must take every technobots opinion into consideration before acting making him slower than a 90's dial up modem.

 

Both in G1 80's toys and toon Superion never impressed me,maybe he was too slender compared to Devastator and Dinobots,from some years I appreciate him much more he's noble for colours and proportions in CW and G1 but despite this Combiner decepticons are much more beautiful as design,vehicles and memorable characters as Devastator,Abominus,Menasor. Only Autobot combiners I consider strong is Computron,in G1 toy was already big and then can deactivate with programming, connection on enemies combiners.

 

Decepticons all the way, no real CONtest

 

The Decepticons easily. They were always much cooler than Autobot combiners.

 

As a kid, when they introduced swoop and snarl I always thought they were going to be a combiner. Buuuuuutttt it never happened. Felt it was a missed opportunity back in the g1 day to take on devastator. Granted it did give the dinobots a chance to flesh out each character instead but still has that air about it. Oh well.

 

Overall the Decepticons. But my absolute favorite Combiner is Defensor. I just love his look, color scheme and the individual vehicles he's made of.

 

This is so obvious.

 

When I think of cool Autobot combiners, I have to look to TF series other than G1. JRX (Rail Racer) is one of my all-time favorites, beating out all Autobot combiners & a bunch of Decepticon combiners one on one. He’s the only cool Autobot gestalt I can think of.

 

One that gets forgotten a LOT is Centuritron (mini cons assault team), which is an amazing little guy.



As the micromasters are back with Siege, I've read a few post from others that complain about no combiners for micros, and it's like this guy has flown under the radar so much.... considering that he's amazing to do multiple alternative modes... I'll have to do that and post in the other thread. And even better, no extra parts to set aside, the feet and hands are part of the design and the weapons combine to form the combiner's weapon.... if there's anything that I wish for in combiners, this is it, he's got it all, perfection!

But for this thread, I'm going to stick to the main G1 combiners, but for me:

1. I find that any combiner that has a motorcycle is an automatic disqualify for making any sense as it's beyond just the mass shifting thing, it literally wouldn't be structurally sound. I'm willing to let a lot of ratio sizes between the 'bots go, but that's just over the top for me.
2. the individual bots need to have either an humanoid or animal form that would have an individual personality, and not a duocon, or a power-up/armour up add-on
3. the combiner must be an humanoid form, not a vehicle or such.

The ultimate best is still Devastator, and for the gestalts (scramble city), Bruticus is top with Superion. I really loved my Monstructor, but it was stolen (borrowed and never returned).

I do like Abominus as a secondary one, but the rest never appealed to me except Computron for the space vehicle thing but the motorcycle thing kills it, so I preferred it more for the individual members.

For the later series, Volcanicus should have been better, he had huge potential, but should have been done as Devastator in Titan level size (or at least much larger) with a proper engineering as the Dinobots should have been bigger, and I always regarded them as the "anti-devastator" team in many ways, taking over Omega Supreme's role as combatant against him.

It would have been interesting if they would have reconsidered all of the combiners to create new versions with the scales done correctly, for example, Bruticus's main body would have been Blast-off as a much larger shuttle, and the rest done accordingly.

And again, make the hands and feet and all "kibble" be part of the individual bots....

 

One thing that kinda sucks is how new combiners are given the backseat in favor of redoing the G1 combiners over & over.

Victorian & Volcanicus seemed like a big deal because they were new blood in an otherwise stagnant lineup. That’s one of the other reasons I like JRX so much- he’s unique in a sea of Devastators & Superions & Menasors.

Even though I really like some of the new takes on old G1 combiners, I still wish we’d see something new too.

 

...i adore all-new combiners (victorion is awesome!) but i hate when they repurpose established characters and teams into new combiners; combination should be an exceptional trait, not a ubiquitous bonus feature...

...i do my best to ignore the likes of volcanicus, orthia, and whatever they shoehorned optimus, sky lynx, cyclonus, starscream, and inferno into during combiner wars...i feel the same way about headmasters; every popular character does not need to jump onto the feature-du-jour bandwagon...

 

Leokaiser(the original G1) had one of the best combined form despite being a brick.

 

Well, my favorite combiners are Bruticus, Computron and Piranacon so my vote goes to Decepticons.