Oh boy, another wall of words about combiners! Great...
Anyway. I like combiners. They're cool concepts and look great, and they are a fun play pattern. But honestly I'm not massively invested in having 100% faithful representations down to the last rivet of the G1 combiners; partly due to their cartoon counterparts being often less interesting than their component members, and partly because IMO the interchangeability aspect is one of their coolest features. As such, I'm actually quite fond of non-standard layouts for combiners, to the point I actually didn't mind the auxiliary members of CW.
So, dear Seibertronians, what are your favourite non-standard combiner setups? I hasten to add this means anything from swapping default limb positions on standard Scramble City combiners to inter-team mixtures to integration of non-CW figures, official or otherwise- go nuts!
Myself...
>I have a bit of a history with Defensor. I originally bought the UW Defensor set, and then Blades' HFG port cracked. I initially bought Rook to replace him (thus making Defensor far more aesthetically pleasing to boot) but then Groove broke too and I had to send the whole box back (sans Rook of course). I then bought the Maketoys Defensor, who served for quite a while as a rather stellar combiner...until Groove's metal parts developed fatigue and shattered, which was a widespread problem with him. Now having 4/5ths of a combiner, I considered investing in a divergent setup for Defensor by getting CW Hotspot, Prowl, Firstaid and Groove from the secondary market, and along with Rook forming a totally inaccurate but pretty nice looking combiner. However, just as I was considering palming off my remaining MT Protectobots, I discovered Rook's combiner peg can be wedged into a socket on Defensor's leg strut, and due to his construction can fully replace Groove with no ill effects to stability (the connection is not the strongest but it's absolutely stable enough for display and has not required any modification to either figure). You could probably do the same with CW Groove too, but I don't have him and honestly prefer Rook. In fact I'd go as far as to say Rook makes a better leg than the default Groove that came with the set!
>UW Computron is a real favourite of mine, but he briefly had Nosecone replaced with CW Firefly as my first Nosecone somehow broke out of the box, though he was swiftly replaced by TFS Express' excellent customer service. Now that he has all his members present I regularly switch up his configuration- Nosecone's drill arm mode is exceptionally fun. I also find that the Moonracer mold can be converted into a rather nice combiner scaled rifle, shown here modeled by Computron. (The feet are SteamShield's Shapeways "combiner slippers".)
>Lastly, Superion. I actually really don't much care for the default Aerialbot limbs, as IMO they're some of the weaker CW molds, not helped by their mediocre vehicle modes. However, I have since realized that TFC's Aerialbots, due to their similar size, joint setup and use of Energon-style combiner ports, could be combined with CW Silverbolt (as opposed to the desultory TFC Silverbolt) with the aid of Shapeways parts, again available from SteamShield, to create the perfect Superion- the right jet modes, more impressive limbs, better extremities but with a nice and stable torso. I like this idea so much that once I've either moved out or made some space I'm going to try and track down a set of the TFC Aerialbots, buy the adapters and combine them with my CW Silverbolt, along with a few parts scavenged from the TFC Silverbolt, notably the admittedly badass SR-71 engines. Unfortunately it seemed Silverbolt was impatient to combine again and roped some friends into forming a rather makeshift gestalt. Behold, Inferion!
Anyway, now I've talked your ears off, what about you guys?
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