It's been a few years, and as Siege moves into its second iteration I thought it might be fun to look at some of the best figures from Combiner Wars.
For a lot of people, the only point of Combiner Wars was the gestalt forms, which if we're honest, were not always the strongest aspect of the line. While the new connective system that ran through Combiner Wars, and later in Power of the Primes, was pretty slick, it left you with gestalt figures that are often full of fiddle. Stuff comes unpegged when you move the arms, the smaller robot limbs are often awkwardly just posed out of the way with no real snap point and the too-small feet with too big of hands may have been responsible for a boom in the third party parts industry.
However, for me, the combiner aspect was always a bonus. As a kid, I never had a complete combiner — not until Christmas of 1992, when I was in high school and my friend got me a G2 Scrapper as kind of an ironic joke gift. But then we realized if we used his figures, my figure and my little brother's figures, we could have a complete Devestator, which still sits in my office to this day. We combined them and they just kind of stayed with me … sucks to suck I guess.
And wow, what a disappointment. Our entire childhood had been sold on the idea of how strong and powerful Devastator was, but once in hand, he's a figure smaller than Galvatron, Ultra Magnus and G2 Megatron.
But yeah, as a kid, it was more about the individual guys. They were all characters with personalities until the climax of each episode where they'd combine and fight for a few minutes. Or by season three, when you had entire cities running around, the impressiveness of a combined robot seemed less impressive, and they were used a lot less. Bruticus was sometimes just a guy aiming a laser gun while standing next to Brawl. Oh Akom, you RRRR ups.
Combiner Wars did one big thing right. Instead of miniature figures, it was built upon deluxe and voyager figures, which made substantial gestalts.
So, where any of them any good?
Hell yeah!
But here are some ground rules. Combiner Wars had a lot of repaints and pre-paints. A lot. So you won't find the Autobot Cars, the Optimus, the white Optimus, Galvatronus or whatever in the hell Victorian was on this list. A lot of those were inventive uses of the molds, but not what they were intended to be. Nor will you find guys like the Terrorcons, although had they been released under the banner of Combiner Wars, some of them probably would be on this list as well.
So anyway, in no particular order are my favorite individual figures from this now bygone era —
Bonecrusher — The Devestator set was the one time as a TF fan that I felt snobby about insisting on the Japanese edition. Most of the time, I'm fine with Hasbro's releases, but this was one time when I was really disappointed with the American version. This wasn't a paint app or a exclusive Japanese character. No, the American version had no individual guns, worse articulation and fewer features. Plus is cost almost the same as the Japanese edition did to import. Anyway, Bonecrusher here sports perfect articulation. His robot mode is the very best version we could ever expect of this character. He looks like an animation model jumped from the scene to the shelf, without the hooky-ness or over simplification that plague other figures that try to stay true to the cartoon. It's a very good balance. His crotch is a little tricky to get transformed right, and he has a very minor amount of back kibble, but other than that, I love everything about this figure.
Vortex — Used as a pre-color for the Aerialbots for no discernable reason, and then as a Protectobot because apparently helicopters are all the same, this mold was meant to be VORTEX. His head sculpt is perfect. His paint is spot on. His huge caliber gun is perfect for a Combaticon. His colors are perfect. They took a figure from G1 that was vague on its details and filled it with character. I like the sleek helicopter mode, and the kibble from it isn't terrible in robot mode.
Motormaster — Another guy pre-molded for no other reason than the Hasbro philosophy at the time that every mold had to be used 27 times. However, perhaps being Optimus Prime first helped Motormaster, because he was given an inventive transformation from truck cab to asshole robot. Those who remember the G1 figure know that robot sucked, even at the time. This one is almost kibble free due to how the panels fold up in robot mode. His big square head looks appropriately grumpy. However, it's the colors that sell me on this robot, as the mix of silver, black and purple is done nearly perfectly. Also, he was one of the few Voyagers with waist articulation. A few paint apps had to be added in both modes, but overall this is a figure who looks like a robot version of the guy you don't want to have a run in with at a truck stop — big, angry and tough.
Fireflight — Another just about perfect deluxe figure. I'm using the G2 version because that's what I have, but it's not all that different from the original release. Anyway, this does such a good job of being a jet, they even used it for a guy that was originally a space shuttle. It forms one of the best arms in Combiner Wars, but it's also a very solid figure in its own right. It has the standard articulation and transformation that made Combiner Wars very consistent, but it carries it off very well. Oh, and these guys scale so well with the Classics Seekers. Now that Earthrise is giving us an upscaled version of the classic mold, were all stuck with the idea of spending hundreds of dollars to replace our Decepticon Jets, but now in a scale too big to mesh with our Aerialbots. That's a discussion for another thread …
Onslaught — The only things that don't work about Onslaught are because they are carried over from his mold mate. His back guns aren't quite right, because they belong to Hotspot. He doesn't come with a hand weapon, for the same reason. The emergency lights on his knees are silly for a guy who turns into an artillery truck. He has some of the most egregious amounts of back kibble in the line. However, those things said, they did take time and care in his mold modifications and paint applications and made a solid figure that works very well in robot mode and OK in vehicle mode. I also can't decide if him or Silverbolt make for the best central body in the Scramble City lineup.
Swindle — Another guy premolded into a pretty solid figure. However, his intended use is still better. I love how the chest is an amalgamation of his animation model and his G1 self. While he didn't come with his signature shoulder blaster, he has the port for it. His head is one of the best in the deluxe class. He looks like Joe Pesci, which is appropriate considering his character. Ankle tilts, a solid jeep mold and an awesome paint job make this guy stand out. The only flaw I've found is his windscreen/jeep hood loves to snap off even at the slightest touch.
Scrapper — Yeah, remember when I insisted on the Japanese release. This is why. Elbow articulation and a gun make all the difference. This mold perfectly matches up with the Scrapper of my feeble human brain. He has a big ass bucket on his back, but I can't even count that as kibble as it's such an iconic part of his look. A lot of the Constructicons had compromises made for their robot forms. Hook's waist is weird, Mixmaster barely has a transformation and Long Haul is fat. But this guy is trim, sharp looking and ready to bring some pain. Plus he's not saddled with two wings as his weapon. This is the perfect upgrade of the G1 figure.
Powerglide — If there is a figure that is a better G1 homage, I can't name it. He's the perfect size, even though as an A-10, bah, the hell with scale, he's the perfect size! He feels just like the G1 figure, but with more joints. Yeah he turns into a gun or something stupid, but I don’t' care about that. I just like that he's the Powerglide CHUG needed. Speaking of Combiner Wars figures that don’t really combine …
Ultra Magnus — Yeah, I know. I had to double check to make sure, but yep, Ultra Magnus was part of Combiner Wars. I guess because his cab combines with his trailer? Or because he has a neat little mini figure driver that pays tribute to something that happened in comics I never read? I don't know, I don't care. This is the Magnus I always wanted in CHUG. Big and chunky, yet articulated and dynamic. Yeah, Siege is pretty neat, but this one can carry cars in the car carrier mode and I picked it up for $25 on sale. Try doing that with a Siege Magnus!
Motormaster is painful though. The mold was plainly designed as Optimus Prime first and a combiner torso second... Ugh, why did they have to plan the arm sockets so poorly?! And fail to check the feet clearance in torso mode (On Red!Optimus and the original batches of Motormaster, the robot mode feet are shaped juuust wrong enough to cause clearance issues if the legs are facing the way the instructions say to). And of course, it just figures that they would flub the arm mountings of Menasor, the combiner who - being a sword user - needs the added arm articulation of CW the most.
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