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Around 10 days ago or so, Amazon.com had a listing for Robots in Disguise: Combiner Force Team Combiner Galvatronus for the retail price of $29.99. That listing has since gone away, but yours truly was able to get a hold of one of the figures before the price skyrocketed, and with the figure now in hand, I would like to tell you all how the team combiners truly are an underrated gem in Transformers.

We will start with the individual robots first, before getting to the combined mode at the end. Up first, the arm bots and the female fliers of the group: Cyberwarp (yellow) and Skyjack (green). These 2 figures are interesting because they are very different from the Ultra Bee and Menasor arm limbs, which all use the exact same skeleton but with different parts. These 2 ladies actually roll up into their jet modes, and in robot mode they have a rake-ish jet nose behind their heads. The coloring is nice on them, even if there isn't much in the way of paint. The robot modes are alright, better than the other arm bots, and the jet modes are pretty cool as well.









Next up are the leg bots, the big bruisers Riotgear (red) and Treadshock (green). These molds transform the exact same as the Menasor leg bots, but they are a lot bigger and I really like the vehicle modes. These things are big wheeled bulky bruisers, and they remind me some of Bulkhead. I really enjoy them both, and I really with the Menasor legs were this size. Menasor would looks so much better with the bigger legs.







Up next is the torso bot, Cyclonus. Continuing his new combiner abilities, first granted by Combiner Wars Cyclonus/Galvatronus, this Cyclonus is a great torso bot, probably the most convincing of the 3 torso bots. The jet mode is pretty sleek, and the purple is rich and a really nice plastic color. Robot mode is pretty good too, though he continues the Motormaster trend of not having actual hands, and his robot mode head is a bit low in this mode. Overall though, he really isn't that bad, quite a decent, spiky bot with an interesting transformation.













Here we have Cyclonus with his team. I think they look pretty good together, and it's kind of cool to see a Hasbro combining Cyclonus finally get a team, since only the Takara Unite Warriors line had given him a team so far. These were some good choices, and overall I think this is the best of the 3 in terms of individual team members.





And now we finally get to the combined mode, which is a pretty sweet looking thing. Cyclonus has his shoulders swivel up and a new super Cyclonus head slams down over top of his regular head. I really like the legs on the combined form, and they are definitely my favorite of the line. The arms are cool looking, but the hands are a bit of an issue. They are really nice and spiky, but when he holds his gun, he can't really close his hands, so it looks weird for him to hold his weapon.









Speaking of the gun, here it is. It is a pretty decent mold, and he stands out as the other 2 combiners only have swords, so it's the only ranged weapon given to a combiner in the line. It can be held in robot mode and stores on top of Cyclonus in jet mode. It can peg into that same slot for jet mode in combined mode on Galvatronus' back, but mine will not stay.





Finally, here we have Galvatronus with Menasor and Ultra Bee. Check them all out together!







In summary, the Combiner Force subline really has been an underrated line. The crash combiners have been really fun, and the team combiners are pretty great too. All 3 definitely have something new and interesting to offer, and for smaller $30 combiners that aren't that complex and can't pose much but still transform, don't have leaning or stability issues. and can be combined and decombined quickly, they are pretty good.

Overall, Galvatronus to me is the more creative in terms of individual team members, while Menasor has the best overall combined mode and combined mode head and Ultra Bee is personally the coolest of the 3. They are all good figures, and between them cost less than a regular Combiner Wars combiner. they also gave us our first and second ever 5 bot combiners (Drift as a sword in the show counts!) that have both male and female transformers in them, which is pretty neat!

Final conclusion: pick up at least one of these guys. They are worth it, and they are lots of fun.

These RID combiners are *really* awful looking in this size, they really should have been made warrior size-ish at the smallest.

I ok at the arms' vehicle modes and all I see is Trypticon's spaceship mode

After looking at these images, I am declaring Combiner Force to be the true spiritual successor of G1. It shall henceforth be known as Neo-G1.

I got Galvatron because I like Galvatrons in general, but they really missed the opportunity to make the Sweeps limbs once again. I know, this isn't G1. Still, it'd have made me like this toy a lot more.

Tresob wrote:After looking at these images, I am declaring Combiner Force to be the true spiritual successor of G1. It shall henceforth be known as Neo-G1.

Not Animated or Prime?

I can see these easily being OSKOs made by Wei Jiang in the future.

Anyway, the jets look like nothing if the sort, but the cars look like the one that came with Trypticon. I think some grey jets with extra colour for the arms (from Superion) and purple repaints of Rook would work as limbs for CW Cyclonus now.

Any customisers up for the challenge?

Kurona wrote:

Tresob wrote:After looking at these images, I am declaring Combiner Force to be the true spiritual successor of G1. It shall henceforth be known as Neo-G1.

Not Animated or Prime?

Pretty sure he meant engineering-wise.

I don't see how these are underrated by adults. Well, kids can't rate this stuff or respond, for that matter. You can't underrate something that looks like a knock-off, or looks like a piece of **** (sorry for the language). If you think $30 is worth this piece of garbage, I'd rather have one good voyager or deluxe figure at the same price point. At least I can appreciate the enginuity. you know some of my combiner wars combiners are around $30 at Ross or TJ Maxx. Anyways, sorry for the ranting. They just look ugly. Seriously though. Do you really want to put these things in your collection?

these look terrible. and they take up shelf space that could otherwise be going to Generations/TLK Voyagers and leaders.

As a birthday treat, i decided to go for my first rid toy. And as watching series 2 finally reminded me i actually like strongarm, i ordered the tav version of her first figure. Since it was the dame price as hasbro stuff. So when it turns up, I'll have my first figure of this line. Who will join my classics autobot shelf. What are other peoples opinions on this figure? Does it hold up after 2 years?


And if there is a designated tav thread... Eh. I couldn't be bothered to go looking.

The gun reminds me of G1 Cyclonus' oxidizing laser.

President-prime wrote:Seriously though. Do you really want to put these things in your collection?

Yes, I actually did. I like combiners, and these guys are really fun guys. They are about voyager-ish sized, which I think is a good size for them, and as was said, they are fairly G1-ish in their engineering, with the torsos being more advanced and the limbs less so, but they are still pretty fun.

And saying you got a combiner on sale for $30 really isn't a fair comparison to these guys. That was a massive sale because they would not sell.

Also, something that's funny: the review for Galvatronus, which was posted about an hour or so after the Grotusque review, has a significantly larger amount of views.

Now if they had made these combiners in a more Combiner Wars styled fashion, with warriors or such, they would have been better, but much more expensive. As a line for kids, the cheaper and smaller combiners worked, and I still enjoy them. I find them to be more creative and a bit better than any warrior or legion we got this year. They kinda went flat there

Hey D-Max, I didnt know Cyclonus didnt have hands in robot mode, does he have slots of some markings making it look like the extremity of the arms are hands? And can he hold weapons in them?

william-james88 wrote:Hey D-Max, I didnt know Cyclonus didnt have hands in robot mode, does he have slots of some markings making it look like the extremity of the arms are hands? And can he hold weapons in them?

I would doubt it since Bee and Motormaster didn't have hands or anything I'd consider a hint of hands. Don't forget the arms can't swing forward.

PS, I hate you D-Maximus.

william-james88 wrote:Hey D-Max, I didnt know Cyclonus didnt have hands in robot mode, does he have slots of some markings making it look like the extremity of the arms are hands? And can he hold weapons in them?

Yeah, Cyclonus and Motormaster do not have hands. Bee does, but his arms can't swing forwards and they can't hold anything, and neither can MM or Cyc, so they're useless. You can say that the pin where the combiner ports swing out kinda look like hands, but that's about it.

chuckdawg1999 wrote:PS, I hate you D-Maximus.

D-Maximus_Prime wrote:

william-james88 wrote:Hey D-Max, I didnt know Cyclonus didnt have hands in robot mode, does he have slots of some markings making it look like the extremity of the arms are hands? And can he hold weapons in them?

Yeah, Cyclonus and Motormaster do not have hands. Bee does, but his arms can't swing forwards and they can't hold anything, and neither can MM or Cyc, so they're useless. You can say that the pin where the combiner ports swing out kinda look like hands, but that's about it.

Ok so how does one enjoy a robot who has no hands?

william-james88 wrote:

D-Maximus_Prime wrote:

william-james88 wrote:Hey D-Max, I didnt know Cyclonus didnt have hands in robot mode, does he have slots of some markings making it look like the extremity of the arms are hands? And can he hold weapons in them?

Yeah, Cyclonus and Motormaster do not have hands. Bee does, but his arms can't swing forwards and they can't hold anything, and neither can MM or Cyc, so they're useless. You can say that the pin where the combiner ports swing out kinda look like hands, but that's about it.

Ok so how does one enjoy a robot who has no hands?

Like I said, the pins look close enough, and these figures are primarily meant for combined mode, so that's usually where I keep them. And they're not collector oriented, and I still enjoy simple goofy guys like this who may not have all the posability and parts that a standard generations figure has, so I can make due with imagining the pins are hands, for the small amount of time they are in robot mode

Insurgent wrote:And if there is a designated tav thread... Eh. I couldn't be bothered to go looking.

TAV has been dead for about a year so this is fine

As for Strongarm, probably the second best of the first wave of Warrior molds behind Bee. I think it does the job very well, and the version you picked up has a very super nice paint job!

william-james88 wrote:

D-Maximus_Prime wrote:

william-james88 wrote:Hey D-Max, I didnt know Cyclonus didnt have hands in robot mode, does he have slots of some markings making it look like the extremity of the arms are hands? And can he hold weapons in them?

Yeah, Cyclonus and Motormaster do not have hands. Bee does, but his arms can't swing forwards and they can't hold anything, and neither can MM or Cyc, so they're useless. You can say that the pin where the combiner ports swing out kinda look like hands, but that's about it.

Ok so how does one enjoy a robot who has no hands?

The same way one enjoys Beast Wars Air Hammer.

ScottyP wrote:

Insurgent wrote:And if there is a designated tav thread... Eh. I couldn't be bothered to go looking.

TAV has been dead for about a year so this is fine

As for Strongarm, probably the second best of the first wave of Warrior molds behind Bee. I think it does the job very well, and the version you picked up has a very super nice paint job!

Cool. Happy to hear she's a good choice.

ScottyP wrote:

Insurgent wrote:And if there is a designated tav thread... Eh. I couldn't be bothered to go looking.

TAV has been dead for about a year so this is fine

As for Strongarm, probably the second best of the first wave of Warrior molds behind Bee. I think it does the job very well, and the version you picked up has a very super nice paint job!

I was under the impression that TAV was on hiatus until after the movie

Regular source of news Scottimus Prime has sent images our way of the recently released Galvatronus set from the second wave of Transformers Robots in Disguise Combiner Force spotted at the Lake Grove, NY, Toys'R'Us store! The set, featuring Skyjack, Treadshot, Cyberwarp, Cyclonus and Riotgear, was already found by the Seibertron.com community in Ontario, Canada, too - as you can see from the Sightings database right here - so do flag it up if you come across anywhere else on your travels.

Make sure to also check out our pictorial review of the set of figures, which you can find here, and happy hunting!

I may not care for these too much but I will say that Cyclonus has a kinda grumpy/cute face.