Why is Menasor, and by extension the Stunticons, not as popular as Devastator and Bruticus? Also is it odd that I don't care for Superion? Always felt like combiners were more of a Decepticon thing

>>149476201 (OP)
Did you see the toys? Devastator and Bruticus looked way better than Menasor

They obviously went crazy with the combiners. Devastator was awesome but hard to complete because you needed six robots and there was zero chance a single store would have all of them. They remedied that by cutting down the number if robots to five and making them interchangeable so kids could mix and match with other combiners.

The stunticons and aerialbots just seemed like more of the same. Cars for the Decepticons, planes for the Autobots who previously didn't have any.

The aerialbors always looked kinda lame because they didn’t have wings in their back in robot mode . That’s always a cool visual and not having it made them look like everyone else on the Autobot side. Hell some of the cars had wings.

>>149476201 (OP)
I think Devastator and Bruticus have more episodes geared towards them, which helps make them more than a bunch of cars and a truck.

My favourite combiner is Defensor.

>>149476641
See in my mind each faction had a "gimmick" to compensate each other and ensure the stalemate. Decepticons have combiners and fliers, whereas Autobots have heavy hitters like Omega Supreme or The Dinobots. The exceptions to both would be the insecticons and Jetfire of course.

>Aerialbot Combiner
>Doesn't fly because Silverbolt is a pussy and messes with the hive mind
I can see why he's seldom used

>>149476641
I had all the guys to make Abominus. He doesn't look that monstrous though. Especially that generic head.

>>149476201 (OP)
I think Hasbro and Takara also prefer the combiners with more variety in their alt modes. Like Takara used the Combaticons three different times, the originals, Battle Gaia, and the Combatrons/Commandos

>>149476201 (OP)
Not enough sex appeal.

predaking>>>> all

>>149476817
I suppose that generally holds true. But the Autobots had jet packs they used to fly, they had the UFO guy, PowerGlide, etc. on top of Jetfire and the Aerialbots.

The worst has to be that they made the Dinobots a combiner. People wanted and it just diminishes them.

>>149477556
Is Hasbro planning on making a new line of Predacons/Predaking like the recent combiners?
>>149477702
Yeah pretty much. What they need to do is make G1 Studio Series quality re-releases of Scarr and Slash to fit with the other Dinobot figures

>>149476201 (OP)
Because a bunch of cars turning 200 feet tall is silly. Construction vehicles and airplanes, sure, those are huge things, but street cars, nowhere near as much. Even as a child I could tell that Menasor is fucking stupid, he'd be 2x as big as Optimus at most.

The best way to make Menasor and the stunticons unique
>They're insane out of the box thinkers Megatron sends on suicide missions
>They're wild, they're mean, and hard to control
>Menasor uses his combined engine power to boost his speed, short bursts of acceleration to gain an advantage
>Menasor likes to torture/play with his victims before snuffing out sparks

>>149477813

>Is Hasbro planning on making a new line of Predacons/Predaking like the recent combiners?

They've "considered it".

>>149476201 (OP)
They're just a bunch of cars, who cares.

>>149476201 (OP)
Devastator was the first so he always gets points for being the first giant combiner group. Also Constructicons being the evil geniuses of the team that build all the mad science doomsday devices they can always have some level of importance.

After that it seems like all the other combiners were never really as special. All the rest only have like 1-2 focus episodes and never mattered after that. Season 3 combiners got more of the shaft, none had a focus episode. They were just around once or twice in the background for a bit but never important.

Combaticons only seemed to stand out when they were the only combiner team they brought over to G2 so they were the only ones in existence other than Yellow Devastator in the 90s.

>>149477556
I liked him for not being the same old thing of big guy and the rest are arms and legs that plug in.

>>149478408
Combaticons are still well liked even in G1. They're like the special forces of the Decepticons.

>>149477702
Dinobots are combiner tier without combining, making them a combiner feels like something that could fight ALL decepticon combiners at the same time and tear them apart with ease. As shitty as it was, "the beast" is genuinely how a Dinobot combiner would normally go.

And in practical terms of making a dinobot combiner toy, it would be just the classic Megazord.

>>149478799
Exactly. You got it. And the two times I caught when they showed the Dinobot combiner he was a chump. Dude got his ass beat by Predaking and then by Overlord or maybe evil Rodimus, I forget. And in another on where Grimlock's smart and the Dinobots were larping fanboys he was an uncoordinated dumbass.

>>149478408
You're right about Devastator being the first combiner who appeared a year before the others being a huge factor, and he's usually the first combiner to appear in later versions of G1, with only IDW1 being contrarian about it.

Most of the other combiner teams were introduced near the end of the cartoon's second season, and got a few spotlight episodes, but by then the movie and seasons 3-4 did a 20 year time skip, and they were already old news, while the comics didn't do so much with any of them after their introduction stories.

The Combaticons' first two cartoon appearances made them seem like one of those sub-groups that had some level of autonomy and independence, like the Dinobots and Insecticons did, they start off as Starscream's personal army, then turn against him and fight off the Autobots and Decepticons at once. This probably made them stand out more than other combiner teams just being new additions to the main Decepticon forces.

The Stunticons were a cool team, and the angle that four of them are insane, and kept in line by Motormaster bullying them was interesting, but I can see why them being "just cars" makes some fans see them as mundane compared with other Decepticons. Modern versions of G1 treating Menasor as the jobber of combiners really hasn't helped, he's supposed to be dangerously insane.

On the Autobot side, the Aerialbots got more spotlight episodes than the Protectobots, who didn't even get an origin episode, and their main spotlight is in BOT, an unpopular episode. Though the Aerialbots have two problem characters, Slingshot is just a dick, while Silverbolt struggling with his fear of heights and overcoming it is supposed to be heroic, but too many fans just think it makes him a whiny bitch.

In season 3 the Technobots did get a few spotlight episodes, usually fighting the Terrorcons, who were basically handled as savage monsters with the same personality.

>>149476201 (OP)
because you just know Menasor smells like the inside of a teenage boys first car, a heady mixture of damp, mold, old weed smoke, cherry staled caramel chocolate mint vape, sweat and cheap gas station air fresheners

>>149477813
Constructicons need to be a faction in their own right, hundreds of dudes you can plug into each other to make various Devastators

>>149478956
>The Combaticons' first two cartoon appearances made them seem like one of those sub-groups that had some level of autonomy and independence

Weren't they all like that?
Combatacons lived in some fort in the desert
Protectobots lived in some secret based in a downtown fire dept
Stunticons were always just wandering around highways. Seemed like any team that were a something bot or Con were considered to be a totally unrelated group only somewhat aligned to the autobots and Decepticons.

>>149476201 (OP)
I always considered the Protectobots to be the most ignored and boring of all the combiners. Never cared about them and some more firetrucks and ambulances were bland. Autobots already had all of those.

Menasor at least gets the evil mirror image thing. They're basically evil Optimus, Sunstreaker, Sideswipe, Silvertreak, and Mirage. But also by that time cars were boring too. We already had cars the first time around and by now we were getting dinosaurs, bugs, space ships, and every other kind of fighter plane.

>>149479129
The original G1 cartoon wasn't overly concerned with making a consistent airtight continuity in a production made to market japanese robot toys to six-to-eight year old boys who were likely to break them in three days so mom and dad had to buy another one.

>>149476201 (OP)
I always liked Menasor more, he was fun.

But it always appeared to me like someone at Hasbro liked the Combatacons way more. They got G2 remakes, Stunticons didn't. They got special rerelases in the 00s when Stunticons didn't. They got updated models for combiners wars way earlier while Stunticons were more a Chinese exclusive. In comics Menasor is the weakest crappiest combiner of them all that is shown to be defeated by any other combiner.

>>149479209
>Protectobots to be the most ignored and boring of all the combiners.

No, that's the Technobots. They couldn't even be sold individually during the Prime Wars aside from a weak ass attempt at retooling Silverbolt into Scattershot.

>>149479268
>They got G2 remakes, Stunticons didn't.

They were going to, prototypes exist, but G2 was deemed a failure before they could be released.

>>149476201 (OP)
Menasor's my favorite because he's so clean looking but people like the other ones because they're 1) cooler vehicles and 2) got more screentime.

>>149477427
Him and Monstructor are my favorite combiners. So badass. I personally love the Super Robot head.

>>149479307
It's then opposite for me. I love the individual Stunticons from a design aspect, but Menasor feels horribly plain and boring, which is why it doesn't bother me when the cars get relocated to the front of his legs rather than the back.

>>149479268
>>149477433
It was policy for a while in the 2000's that they couldn't have too many similar alt-modes or colors on shelves at any given time.
It's why the Energon combiners had to compromise by only having 3 molds per team, with the last two being repaints.
So you had a Devastator homage with blue and yellow limbs

>>149479513
God those were such ass. Thank fuck for third party upgrade figures to replace the doubles.

>>149478956
>he's supposed to be dangerously insane.

The problem is that this already describes half the Decepticons, so much so that it's more interesting when one of them is smart and calculating instead of just being yet another murderous thug.

>>149476201 (OP)

>>149479784
Menasor is mentally unstable, Bruticus is dimwitted and Abominus is feral.

Don't know what to call Devastator at this point.

>>149479784
>The problem is that this already describes half the Decepticons
Not back then it didn't, even if we got a lot more psychopaths and maniacs as time went on.

>so much so that it's more interesting when one of them is smart and calculating instead of just being yet another murderous thug.
Most combiners by nature aren't that smart, so much so that they made being the one smart combiner be Computron's whole thing.

>>149479837
I thought Abominus was essentially retarded to the point of being more of a hinderance than anything, it's weird they made him and Computron suck ass on purpose.

>>149479896
>I thought Abominus was essentially retarded to the point of being more of a hinderance than anything

That's literally every Decepticon combiner except for Predaking.

Devastator and Bruticus look cool, the others don't. It's that simple.

>>149479837
Devastator is your archetypical dumb strong guy, but he's not completely retarded. His job is to be a big strong guy and demolish everything in his path, and he's intelligent enough to get the job done so long as the things in his path can't move or outsmart him.

Some takes on Bruticus portray him as being effective when he has direct supervision or clear, easy to follow orders, but is totally lacking in initiative and can't think for himself, so like Skywarp dialled up to 11.

>>149479926
Yeah but unlike them he has absolutely nothing else going on for him.

>>149479947
Abominus will never not look awesome.

>>149477556

Devastator - made from six Engineering geniuses, no idea why the gestalt is dumb.

Superion - mentally shuts out the Arielbots' individual minds to prevent problems, but leaves him simpleminded.

Menasor - Severely mentally unstable due to the Stunticons' shared hatred for their abusive leader

Defensor - unified by the team's desire to preserve life (which strangely shouldn't be the case considering Blades) so mentally sound, but high-energy consumption is an issue.

Bruticus - no idea why Bruticus is so dumb considering he's made from multiple strategic minds

Computron - Smart, but because the Technobots have to process everything before making a move, slow to act.

Abominus - feral animal because the Terrorcons favor their beastial alt modes

Raiden - no fucking clue.

Predaking - Smart and dangerous from being made from a team of hunters.

Piranacon - Sea-version of Predaking, everything from Predaking applies.

Liokaiser - no idea, couldn't get into Masterforce.

>>149480078
>Superion - mentally shuts out the Arielbots' individual minds to prevent problems, but leaves him simpleminded.
Sometimes Superion is also very singleminded about fighting the Decepticons, and can be oblivious to the damage a combiner can cause, especially on Earth.

>Bruticus - no idea why Bruticus is so dumb considering he's made from multiple strategic minds
In the cartoon he was initially quite intelligent, but Megatron had him lobotomized to make him controllable.