Transformers Combiners aka Gestalt Transformers

I do not have the words to describe exactly how excited I am for Fall of Cybertron by Highmoon Studios, so I’ll settle for “very excited“. I loved War For Cybertron enough to purchase it twice (once for XBox 360 and once for PC) and have played through it many times (most recently just a few weeks ago, so maybe I’ll write a thing about that eventually). I’m not here to talk directly about either of those games though, but rather use the new one as a jumping-off point into today’s topic.

War. War never changes.

When the Fall of Cybertron Cinematic Trailer launched it caused a bit of buzz for several reasons. First off it was a trailer for a new Transformers game from the only people in memory that have made a good one before, secondly the music raised some eyebrows (the song quite grew on me personally, though I don’t like listening to it outside the context of the trailer much), thirdly it had FRICKING GRIMLOCK being all fire-breathing dinosaur is gonna kick your arse and chew you to bits before roasting what is left, and lastly it introduced the series’ first Combiner Transformer (Fittingly when the song goes “The hands of the many must join as one“. I’ve heard people refer to them as Gestalt Transformers, which doesn’t quite make sense to me since ‘gestalt’ is just German for ‘shape’, so I’ll keep referring to them as Combiners) and surprisingly enough it was not Devastator, but Bruticus. This got me thinking about the various Combiners and led me to wanting to write today’s topic: Taking a look at Transformers Combiners.

Optimus Prime vs Megatron: A look at their relationship

Optimus Prime: Strong, noble, clever, idealist, charismatic, great leader, patient, self-sacrificing, always willing and prepared to do the right thing.

Megatron: Powerful, manipulative, scheming, mad, cheater, frightening leader, short temper, arrogant, narcissistic, always willing to do whatever it takes to get his way.

For anyone into comics or cartoons in the 80s, few figures are as memorable as the leaders of the two factions of Transformers; The Autobots and the Decepticons. They have always had a special relationship built on hatred, rivalry, opposing ideologies, mutual understanding and occasionally respect.

They have been at eachother’s throats for millions of years.

They have gotten to know eachother better than they know themselves, and can usually predict what the other one will do even before they know themselves, although they don’t always understand why the other one does what he does. While it often comes to physical blows between them, the mind games are just as important. Let’s take a deeper look at these two titans and how they interact.