Grave Considerations: Transformers Combiner Wars

It has been known that the Combiner Wars line would be ending at the end of 2015, and that 2016 would see the start of a new toyline. I have written on a lot of the Combiner Wars figures, and while there are still a few coming that will no doubt be covered before things are really over, I wanted to take a bit of time and discuss the line as a whole.

This was a line that gave Transformers fans and collectors an opportunity to get updated versions – quality updated versions – of G1 combiner teams. In many ways, it was a continuation years later of the “Classics” line, that one which has been resurrected on and off if not officially then in spirit for certain, from 2007. Combiner Wars carried that torch by providing representations of G1 characters in as close to G1 as possible of a fashion, and the results were generally terrific. On the whole, figures were posable and detailed, and were very good looking. The Deluxe class worked great for the limb bots and the Voyager size allowed for large, imposing looking combined forms that captured the proportions of a five robot combo so well. 

The line showed some weaknesses, though, as all things inevitably do. The hand foot guns were a cool idea, but displayed their limitations fairly early. They generally work better as hands, as when in foot mode they are a little too small and with the wider molds, like anyone not an Arialbot, they are tiny and look kinda goofy. 

Speaking of hand foot guns, it would have been nice to have greater variety among them. I recognize that the parts are tied to the overall figure, but certainly there could have been a bit more than the four or five options. For figure who came with hand foot guns that enhanced somehow their vehicle modes, like Breakdown or Offroad, it’s not that big of a deal. But the WTF pieces, such as with the Dead End parade or Mirage, it would have been neat to have something else. And I don’t mean to just cycle the missiles/Gatling gun one around to other molds; I mean something else entirely, like the ones that Swindle and Brawl come with: different enough to be different, similar to other pieces enough to be refreshing when you recognize they are so different. 

The line also included fairly random, not at all combiner figures, like the Leader class Seekers and Megatrons. These were clearly holdovers from the previous Generations line, the Classics extension that it was.

Another thing that the Combiner Wars line has gotten some grief for has been the massive number of repaints. While repaints are not at all uncommon in the world of Transformers toys, it does seem that this line got to the point of being repaint-heavy fairly early on. There are two Optimus Primes, and a Motormaster, who is a slight reworking of that Prime, which had been redone for the G2 Menasor boxed set. And Silverbolt, geez. Silverbolt, G2 Silverbolt, Cyclonus, Scattershot, impending Computron boxed set Scattershot. Not to mention a Botcon Silverbolt and a Takara exclusive Prime reuse. The limbs were not only repainted and reused, but reused in a fashion that some people disapproved of, that being the Season 1 Autobots that are now all combiners because. It was a fairly interesting idea with the Optimus Maximus or whatever his name was, the Masquerade Autobots from the G1 episode where they pretend to be the Stunticons. But why Wheeljack and Hound? Early on in the line, when this repaint modularity was first being displayed, there was talk of teams like the Terrorcons and Seacons being possible, because of the highly reusable and adaptable nature of the Combiner Wars figures. But it occurred to me the other day that in order to produce Terrorcons, additional parts would be needed, and those would effectively cancel out the easy reuse of molds.

For instance, to make a Sinnertwin would require a pretty large amount of work. Even if it shared a basic robot skeleton, say, one of the Stunticons, and was basically reshelled. Not only would the shell of the beast mode need to be made, but it would also require legs be added, which would require a lot of extra parts. You can take Dead End and replace parts of the car to make Prowl, but the new parts are just different car pieces. An animal would require additional limbs, which is a pretty big leap from just something like a new hood and a light bar.

The Legends class integration was ambitious, but very hit or miss. I would say mostly miss. Powerglide and Groove were alright, Shockwave borderline required for what he provides to Bruticus. Blackjack, and his reruns, just didn’t work. I don’t know, even now, if the problem was the result of manufacturing or design or just poor execution, but the combination between Blackjack and Motormaster never worked out as well as it was intended to. I appreciate all that they were going for, and I applaud the effort. But in this case, it just didn’t work. When the inclusion worked out so-so, as with Powerglide, it was merely ok: not vital or anything, and maybe not even the best looking, but functional. What Shockwave and Groove do/did is provide something needed: Bruticus needed a blaster that looked menacing in his hand; the still unwritten on Defensor needed something to cover his otherwise bland chest. 

I believe that the hit or miss Legends partners are going to wind up being the evolutionary step of this series, somewhat in the way Fall of Cybertron Bruticus was a few years back. In a series or two, we’ll get great integration of a Legends size figure, and we’ll look back at Blackjack and thank him for doing what he did in service of the greater cause. He’ll be the Legends toy we need, but not the one we deserve.

In regards to the original G1 combiners, Combiner Wars was a homerun. In regards to the filler waves, it was largely a miss. The every-Autobot-can-combine thing didn’t work for me, and the resulting lack of Decepticon combiners was a head scratcher. If they can remake all the Autobots, why is there not a Seeker, or at least jet mode, Decepticon combiner? They could have repainted the Arialbots into Cons and they you’d have it. Why were there no limbs for Cyclonus? The line as a whole was really lacking Decepticons, although some have theorized that this is due to the largest combiner, Devastator, being a Decepticon. I don’t think that’s a very good trade off. The main issue aesthetically for the repaint waves is that they don’t mesh well with the existent runs of Classics style figures. The ’84 Autobot cars don’t look as good as their Classics counterparts in a line up: Combiner Wars Mirage doesn’t look as good amongst Classics figures as the 2007 Mirage does. The Protectobots look fine amongst a Classics Autobots line up, because they look in place with each other. So as a group, the Protectobots work as Classics, exhibiting unity as a team, even if the team may stick out a bit from the rest of the class picture. I don’t know how much this means to people: for me, it’s not really an issue, I just doubled up on characters that I like or whose figure I thought was good enough to have a combining version of. Again many voices wondered why the line would go the repaint everyone into an Autobot route, when they could have just as easily turned some into Decepticons and made some more new characters. It would have made about the same amount of sense as all the members of the Ark crew being able to combine, after all. 

But overall the Combiner Wars figures are really good toys. They are fun to transform, they look good all around, and they offer more in that Classics vein of updated G1 characters. This is something that I really valued. Menasor isn’t just some guys that turn into cars; the team is robots that look like the G1 robots. I appreciate that. It’s always preferable to name reuses. And I know this may sound like consolation talk, but I do appreciate being able to collect combiners without having to enter the expensive third party aftermarket. While I have long admired the third party combiners from a distance, they are very expensive; so much so, that it’s just easier for me to pass on them entirely, and disqualify them from consideration, than it would be for me to justify the cost. But the ability to get Superion doesn’t matter as much if the Superion you get isn’t any good. Combiner Wars changed that: a good combiner, made up of good individual bots, for retail price. Outstanding. Fun individual toys as well. 

Again, Combiner Wars isn’t completely over, and I for one still have a bunch of things related to the line coming. I have preorders in for Unite Warriors Galvatron (supposedly shipping this month) and Computron; there’s recent Botcon photo confirmation of Liokaiser; Deluxe Groove is supposed to be shipping in May; and I’m finally biting the bullet and getting a Sky Lynx online. Once Groove arrives I’m going to write up Defensor, and I got the G2 Superion and Menasor sets recently as well. But I feel like this is going to be one of those lines that’s one of those lines: lines like Cybertron, where pretty much every entry was good, some were winners and the bad ones were the low end of decent at worst. I went mostly complete on Combiner Wars, and I haven’t done that since the 2007 Movie. The march of time would see me selling off most of my movie toys, but I think these combiners are going to be sticking around. My enthusiasm for Titans Return is pretty low, as I am only interested the Deception Headmasters and figures like Galvatron and Astrotrain. Sure, we’ll have to see what happens, as I think it’s coming this summer and there’s something about a new Transformers line in the summer that makes my heart flutter; I think that’s how I keep getting suckered in to the movie lines. We still have to wait a little to see what happens next, but what we just got is going to be hard to top.