The Energon Pub

Having gotten severe combiner burnout from Combiner Wars, and having realized that I actually don't really care that much about having "perfect" renditions of most of the G1 combiners, I've been pondering this subject for a while- figures of the combiner components, except that they don't combine.

Whilst this might seem like complete and utter madness, I came to the conclusion that for some teams (notably Bruticus and Menasor) the individuals were far more interesting than the combined forms. The Combaticons, for instance, have a really good team dynamic, with amusing banter between them, and were actually a standout of some genuinely fun characters in Season 2's otherwise...lacking cast additions. However, Bruticus himself was always a kind of boring "big angry dude grrr", at least to me. Likewise, the Stunticons were a cool rogue's gallery of motorized miscreants, but Menasor was borderline cringeworthy (and also had a hideous cartoon model). So for them at least, I actually think they work a bit better as standalone characters than as a combiner team. And in the Stunticons' case, the lacklustre state of CW Menasor is all the more reason to take this approach.

With the Combaticons, I've actually got a plan for how I want to build the team; as I am a filthy aesthetics mixer, and also because pan-generational teams are cool, I'm planning on the following members...
Onslaught: Universe 08 Onslaught- pretty much by default admittedly, but he is an awesome looking toy so who cares.
Brawl: SS Brawl, who I already have and rather adore.
Swindle: I'm considering Animated Swindle, as I always liked how he looked, but I have heard he has rather awful breakage issues, so maybe not.
Vortex: DOTM Vortex, being as he is based on a pretty damn nice mold and looking fly in those colours (pun not intended).
Blastoff: The only 3P entry on the list, the old Warbotron Blastoff. He's fun and chunky, and I like his look. Technically he is a combiner component, but as I don't intend to get the others I'm happy with that.

Does anyone else have similar plans?

While I don't have similar plans, I respect the idea. After getting my CW Bruticus together I pretty much never separated him into his more interesting individual members - there's definitely something lost in the shuffle there.

This old thread from years ago has some interesting suggestions for non-combiner figures.

Personally I was among those that skipped Universe Silverbolt and Onslaught because they weren't Combiners, kind of pointless IMHO. But to each there own. CW and PotP gave me mostly what I wanted vand a little bit More with only a few omissions, hopefully selects will continue to release rarer Combiners. If I the future they make more non Combiners, thats fine, I'll already have what I wanted, and so others can have their wish as well.

I wish that we could get Siege-style non-combining versions of the combiner teams someday. Air Raid is my favorite , and it's a bit sad that I'll never get a really good version of him that isn't hampered by having to combine.