Combiner Wars (toyline)

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The possibilities are almost endless! Sadly, the selection of unique figures is not.

Combiner Wars is a subline imprint of the Generations toyline, constituting the first portion of the Prime Wars Trilogy.

Debuting at the very end of 2014, it saw Deluxe, Voyager, and some Legends Class figures able to form Combiner robots, primarily of the Scramble City variety that allows the Deluxe figures to be either an arm or a leg, and allowing mix-and-match combinations. The format for Legends Class was changed once again, dropping the small partner figures of the Thrilling 30 line.

The tradition of including IDW comic books with U.S. Deluxes (started by the Thrilling 30 segment) continued, whilst Legends, Voyagers, and non-U.S. Deluxes gained collector cards featuring art taken either from the Transformers Legends mobile game, or simply the toy's package art (which doubles as the comic book cover for the U.S. version). Each pack-in comic also included an expanded profile for the toy written by Mark Weber. However, due to production schedule problems, Deluxe wave 1's initial U.S. release featured the collector cards in lieu of comics. Along with the concurrently released Robots in Disguise line, Combiner Wars also heralded the return of multilingual packaging to the United States market, now in English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese. The sole exception to this was the Deluxe figures packaged with comic books, which retained English-only packaging.

Meanwhile, Combiner Wars marked the end of the Toys"R"Us exclusivity for Generations figures that had been in effect in several European markets since the launch of the original line in 2010 (which had usually resulted in only one wave per assortment ever being released in Europe). Not only did availability and distribution improve tremendously across the board—the Combiner Wars figures were even released in European markets where Generations figures had previously never been available at all! At the same time, European packaging reduced the number of languages from thirteen to a mere four (English, French, German, and Spanish), resulting in a less cluttered packaging design.

After the general retail assortments had run their course, the line was extended for several months via giftsets of complete teams featuring redecos and retools, referred to as "Collection Packs" in official promotional materials. Those sets were typically "shared exclusives" between online retailers and the online storefronts of "big box" retailers, though they were also available at brick and mortar retail in several non-U.S. markets.

The Japanese version of this line, Unite Warriors, was considerably smaller, being almost entirely boxed sets released on a very staggered schedule.

“	Courage is stronger when combined	”
—Official tagline for the Combiner Wars line

Toys

General retail

Legends Class

Wave 1 Bombshell Autobot Powerglide Thundercracker Windcharger		Wave 2 Decepticon Blackjack Huffer		Wave 3 Protectobot Groove Decepticon Viper Warpath		Wave 4 Rodimus Skywarp		Legends Class Viper.
Wave 5 Buzzsaw Decepticon Chop Shop Autobot Pipes Decepticon Shockwave		Wave 6 Wreck-Gar

Deluxe Class

Wave 1 Alpha Bravo Decepticon Dragstrip Firefly Skydive		Wave 2 Air Raid Breakdown Dead End Decepticon Offroad		Wave 3 Protectobot Blades Protectobot First Aid Protectobot Rook Protectobot Streetwise		Wave 4 Ironhide Mirage Prowl Sunstreaker		Deluxe Class Firefly.
Wave 5 Decepticon Blast Off Brawl Swindle Decepticon Vortex		Wave 6 Wheeljack Autobot Hound Smokescreen Trailbreaker

For the US market, each figure from wave 2 on came with a reprint of an IDW comic that supposedly featured the character, but that whole "featured the character" thing didn't always pan out. A comic-book-pack-in variant of Decepticon Dragstrip was later released in a revision of wave 2. Some time later, the full set wave 1 comics (which were originally solicited for normal retail) were released in a bundle at a Taiwanese comic convention, separate from the figures.

Voyager Class

Wave 1 Optimus Prime Silverbolt		Wave 2 Motormaster		Wave 3 Protectobot Hot Spot Cyclonus		Wave 4 Battle Core Optimus Prime		Voyager Class Optimus Prime.
Wave 5 Onslaught Scattershot		Wave 6 Sky Lynx

Leader Class

Wave 1 Megatron Armada Megatron		Wave 2 Thundercracker		Wave 3 Ultra Magnus (with Minimus Ambus)		Wave 4 Starscream		Leader Class Thundercracker.
Wave 5 Skywarp

Titan Class

Titan Class Devastator

• Devastator, giftset of 6 Voyager-sized figures, includes:

Constructicon Hook

Constructicon Long Haul

Constructicon Scavenger

Constructicon Bonecrusher

Constructicon Scrapper

Constructicon Mixmaster

In 2021, Hasbro re-released Devastator exclusively through Amazon, as a way for the people who missed out in 2015 to get their hands on him. There were no differences in packaging or the mold itself, it was just a straight re-release.

Exclusives

"May Mayhem" Deluxes

These were officially exclusive to online retailers and comic book stores for the United States market (although a few specimens ended up at retail stores), but were available at general retail in Hasbro's Asian markets. Not counting store-initiated imports, they were never officially available in Canada, Australia or Europe. Regardless of the markets they were released in, Brake-Neck and Quickslinger were only available in English-only packaging including comic books, whereas Groove was only available in multilingual packaging including a character card instead of a comic book.

2015 Brake-Neck Quickslinger

2016 Protectobot Groove

Protectobot Groove

Convention multi-packs

While these toys premiered at conventions (most prominently San Diego Comic-Con 2015), they also ended up available through other venues, like the Hasbro Toy Shop online store, and even at retail in international markets such as Asia and Australia. See individual entries for more information.

Devastator 2015 Special Edition Constructicon Bonecrusher Constructicon Hook Constructicon Long Haul

Constructicon Mixmaster Constructicon Scavenger Constructicon Scrapper

Combiner Hunters Arcee Chromia Windblade

Combiner Hunters Windblade

"Online exclusive" Collection Packs

Most of these box sets were "shared exclusives" sold by numerous online retailers. Liokaiser, however, was a Platinum Edition set officially exclusive to Entertainment Earth in the United States... but he was also available from other venues in other markets, and even in the United States, online retailers that got their stock from overseas carried him regardless.

Superion (G2 deco) Air Raid Firefly Powerglide Quickslinger Silverbolt Skydive		Menasor (G2 deco) Decepticon Blackjack Brake-Neck Breakdown Dead End Decepticon Dragstrip Motormaster		Victorion Dust Up Jumpstream Pyra Magna Rust Dust Skyburst Stormclash		Bruticus (G2 deco) Blast Off Brawl Onslaught Shockwave Swindle Vortex		Collection Pack Liokaiser
Computron Afterbreaker Cybaxx Lightsteed Nosecone Scattershot Scrounge Strafe		Liokaiser Dezarus Drillhorn Fellbat Guyhawk Ion Scythe Ironbison

Fun Publications

While the figures and sets listed above were all Hasbro-initiated releases, Hasbro licensee Fun Publications also branded their BotCon 2016 exclusives and the Transformers Figure Subscription Service 4.0 and 5.0 figures as part of the Combiner Wars line (including figures that weren't part of the "combiner" concept), as opposed to the usual Timelines branding for previous FunPub exclusives.

BotCon 2016

Predacus General Cicadacon General Ramhorn Ravage General Sea Clamp Predacon Tarantulas

Souvenir figures Airazor Megatron Reflector 3-pack Tigatron Unit-3

Customizing Class exclusives Medix Autobot Ratchet (Marvel Comics) Autobot Ratchet (Sunbow cartoon) Autobot Ratchet (Generation 2) Autobot Ratchet (Shattered Glass)

Other exclusives Terrorsaur (Attendee freebie) Flash Sentry (Golden Ticket exclusive)

BotCon 2016 Ravage

Transformers Figure Subscription Service

Series 4.0 (2016) Bludgeon Bluestreak Grabuge Impactor

Needlenose (with Sunbeam and Zputty) Spinister (with Shrute and Singe) Windsweeper

Series 5.0 (2017) Counterpunch Fractyl (with Scorponok) Lifeline (with Quickslinger) Megatron (with Spacewarp)

Optimus Prime (with Hi-Q) Shattered Glass Starscream Toxitron

Deluxe Class Impactor

"Special Edition" Deluxe

Special Edition Deluxe Class Blast Off

In 2018, during the course of Power of the Primes, Hasbro released three exclusive Deluxe Class figures in premium-style boxes, each with a Prime Master, to commemorate the Prime Wars Trilogy. Each figure represents one part of the trilogy, and for Combiner Wars Hasbro used the Unite Warriors Shuttler mold (instead of Takara's version of Blast Off). Special Edition Blast Off was exclusive to Amazon in North America but available at general retail in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Malaysia.

Amazon

• Decepticon Blast Off
  (w/ Megatronus)

Compatible toys in other lines

With Combiner Wars eclipsing previous attempts at combiner toys in both quantity and quality, it came as no surprise that the line's engineering would become the default method to represent combining characters in the years that followed. What began as simple cosmetic differences applied to Combiner Wars toys would soon lead to extensive retools and dedicated molds, all of which are cross-compatible with the combination play pattern.

Unite Warriors

Combiner Wars' concurrent counterpart in TakaraTomy markets, Unite Warriors consisted largely of combiners sold in box sets of one torso and four limbs, omitting the Legends Class weaponry that would characterise the Hasbro line. Unite Warriors toys featured elaborate decos to more accurately reflect each character's appearance in the original animated series. The line would omit Hasbro original characters, such as Alpha Bravo and Offroad, in favour of replicating each team's traditional members, in two cases creating brand new molds to better reflect the vintage combiners (incidentally, these "missing members" would make it back to Hasbro markets sooner or much later). As time went on, Unite Warriors would diverge even further from Combiner Wars, introducing its own exclusive combiner teams in the form of the Commandos and Grand Galvatron, as well as an original character, Megatronia. The level of divergence was most noticeable when comparing the Hasbro and TakaraTomy versions of the Technobots, which featured only two molds out of five in common!

The Combiner Wars-compatible toys in Unite Warriors are:

Torsos Convoy Tactician Cyclonus Dolrailer Grand Scourge Hot Spot Megaempress Motormaster Onslaught Scattershot Silverbolt Sky Lynx

Limbs Afterburner Air Rider Blast Off Brawl Breakdown Zombie War Breakdown Dangar Dead End Drag Stripe Firebolt First Aid Flowspade Graze Greejeeber

Groove Hepter Hound Ironhide Lightspeed Ligier Lunaclub Moonheart Nosecone Prowl Ratchet Wandering Roller Shuttler

Skydive Sling Ghost Starscream Strafe Streetwise Sunstreaker Swindle Curse Armada Thrust Trailbreaker Trickdiamond Vorter Wheeljack Wildrider

Unite Warriors Computicon.

Power of the Primes

The third part of the Prime Wars Trilogy, Power of the Primes focused on the unified gimmick of "powering up", such as gaining the abilities of one of the original Thirteen Primes or evolving to Primehood, so it of course went back to the Combiner Wars well to bring back the Terrorcons as well as other classic characters in new combiner-compatible forms. The majority of the toys in Power of the Primes were newly-designed to match the Combiner Wars system, with only a handful reusing tooling from that line.

Each Deluxe and Voyager figure includes "Prime Armor" (a fancy word for the Combiner extremities), which can house a Titan Master-compatible toy, but more relevantly, the male end of a Combiner Wars combination joint, a feature later used officially for the Selects Seacons. Since the Prime Armor also has 5 mm posts/ports that most Transformers toys share, it opens an endless world of fan modes.

Power of the Primes was the first in the so-called "brand unification" of Hasbro and Takara's Transformers ranges, meaning that, aside from release dates and ID numbers, each toy released in both lines was virtually identical, ending the long-running tradition of Japanese toys getting different paint jobs and tooling.

Combiner Wars-compatible toys in Power of the Primes include:

Torsos Elita-1 Dinobot Grimlock Terrorcon Hun-Gurrr Inferno Starscream

Limbs Blackwing Terrorcon Blot Terrorcon Cutthroat Dreadwind Autobot Jazz Autobot Moonracer Autobot Novastar

Terrorcon Rippersnapper Sinnertwin Dinobot Sludge Dinobot Slug Dinobot Snarl Dinobot Swoop Wreck-Gar

Prime Armor only Punch-Counterpunch

Power of the Primes Volcanicus.

Generations Selects (TakaraTomy)

Only forget all that about Japanese-exclusive variants being over and done with, because as soon as TakaraTomy got its hands on the Generations Selects name, it produced two full sets of Seacons that were heavily retooled from Power of the Primes molds. These were followed by distinct versions of the Terrorcons and Dinobots, making use of new decoes, retooled parts, and accessories largely to better resemble the teams' depictions in the original cartoon. Essentially, this was a revival of the Unite Warriors style of combiners, complete with three out of the four teams being sold in giftsets. Each of these releases would also be imported to U.S. markets by Hasbro Pulse.

The compatible toys from TakaraTomy's Generations Selects consist of:

Torsos Grimlock Halfshell Hun-Gurrr Seacons Turtler

Limbs Butto Coelagon Cutthroat Seacons Gulf Seacons Kraken Seacons Lobclow

Seacons Overbite Rippersnapper Sea Phantom Sinnertwin Skyulle Slag

Sludge Snarl Swoop Seacons Tentakil Terrormander

Generations Selects King Poseidon.

And all the rest

A small selection of combiner-compatible toys were sold in other lines where combination wasn't necessarily the main focus. For limb bots, this was predominantly in aid of releasing desirable characters or deco variants in collector-aimed lines—for example, the Hasbro version of Generations Selects, which directly tied into Power of the Primes and War for Cybertron: Siege.

With Unite Warriors omitting the Legends Class molds from Combiner Wars, TakaraTomy elected to release them in the concurrent Adventure and Legends (no relation) lines. This included the molds for the combiner teams' littlest members, which retained the ability to become a weapon or armour for compatible combiners, regardless of whether or not this functionality was advertised in their instructions. The outlier in this group is the later Titans Return Cosmos, a Hasbro toy, which retained limited combiner compatibility thanks to a retooled part that debuted with Combiner Wars Scrounge.

Finally, there is the unique case of Legends Godbomber, who was designed to partsform like his original 1980s toy to facilitate the contemporary Super Ginrai's "God" form. While many of his parts are connected by 5 mm ports and posts, Godbomber's legs make use of Combiner Wars-style ports; as a result, his legs can be used with any combiner torso, and his thighs are compatible with any of the limb bots (the latter of which appeared as a selling point in his pack-in fiction).

Limbs Golden Lagoon Starscream Selects Dinobot Red Swoop Selects Ricochet Selects Autobot Lancer Siege Autobot Greenlight

Weapons/Armor Adventure Dogfight Adventure Override Adventure Powerglide Adventure Decepticon Runabout

Adventure Decepticon Runamuck Legends Shockwave Titans Return Autobot Cosmos

Other Legends LG42 Godbomber Legends LG-EX Godbomber

Legends LG-EX Godbomber.

Canceled toys and unused preliminary concepts

Most standard Generations molds designed by Hasbro in the modern age include at least one alternative headsculpt as a backup for Hasbro to use should more release slots end up becoming available. Given the high degree of modularity in the Combiner Wars play pattern, many secondary headsculpts never came to fruition from Hasbro or Fun Publications.

Legends Class

Legends Class Blackjack was designed with Runabout in mind before that idea was abandoned. The toy saw release as Runabout (and Runamuck!) in TakaraTomy's Transformers Adventure line.

In an interesting design choice, Legends Class Bombshell's alternate head was based on cicada-former Venom, presumably under the modern trademark "Venin" had it been used, rather than fellow rhinoceros beetle-former Barrage.

Deluxe Class

Deluxe Class Offroad was conceptualised as a new version of Ruckus, with more Baja buggy-like vehicle modes explored in the concept art. He became his own character due to a combination name unavailability and Hasbro concluding that Ruckus as a character didn't make that much sense as a Stunticon; Fun Publications eventually redecoed the toy as "Grabuge". Incidentally, Offroad's vehicle mode initially had a 5 mm port on the truck bed, which was replaced with a bespoke tab for mounting its hand/foot/gun weapon.

Concept art printed in the pack-in comic included with Deluxe Class Wheeljack suggests he was envisioned with a head based on that of Energon Downshift.

Gray model prototypes of Deluxe Class Swindle have been pictured with a significantly different handheld weapon.

Deluxe Class Trailbreaker had an alternate head as Hoist. In early stages of planning for BotCon 2016, the Hoist tooling was proposed for the Shattered Glass Autotroopers army builder set, while the Trailbreaker head would have been used as Shattered Glass Checkpoint as the customization class figure.

The original line art for Deluxe Class Blast Off suggests he was intended as a redeco of Firefly before the choice was made to use the Quickslinger head.

A Deluxe Class Sideswipe was floated by Fun Publications as a straight redeco of Breakdown (à la Animated Sideswipe and Breakdown sharing a mold).

Before Deluxe Class Shattered Glass Starscream was chosen as the final Figure Subscription Service figure, Fun Publications considered making Sunstorm from the tooling. Ultimately, they decided to go with a character which was more Fun Publications-themed than e-HOBBY-themed.

Voyager Class

Voyager Class Cyclonus had an alternate head as Starscream. Presumably, the Galvatronus-style Combiner head would have been redecoed in homage to Starscream's iconic crown from the 1986 movie.

Voyager Class Motormaster had an alternate head as Nemesis Prime. (In the 2010s, Hasbro tried really hard to establish Nemesis Prime with a different face design from Optimus Prime.) Fun Publications proposed making this Nemesis Prime, with the horned Menasor-style Combiner head as some kind of Unicron. However, e-HOBBY rendered this concept largely redundant with Unite Warriors Grand Scourge. Thus, Fun Publications opted instead to make a Combiner Wars incarnation of Universe Toxitron. At one stage, the Menasor-style Combiner head was planned as "Toxo-Zombie" (at right) before the Optimus Maximus-style head was spliced in for the finalized Wreckage.

Voyager Class Hot Spot had an alternate head as Inferno, which ultimately came to fruition from Hasbro in Power of the Primes.

Voyager Class Onslaught had an alternate head based on Armada Demolishor, which was never used. Onslaught was also intended to be released with a cartoon-accurate tan chestplate for Bruticus with a silver chestplate as a running change; saner heads prevailed, and only the silver version made it to release.

Other

Deluxe Class Rook had an alternate Brawl head that had presumably been in the pipeline for longer than the dedicated Brawl mold. There were plans to use this head to make Ironclad (by Hasbro) and Shattered Glass X-Brawn (by Fun Publications), but both fell through. Ironclad's fictional appearances also suggest that Hasbro initially floated a version of Collection Pack Computron that made use of the Legends Class Groove mold as Afterburner before gaining access to TakaraTomy's Deluxe-sized Groove mold for the finalized Deluxe-sized Afterburner.

Each Voyager-sized member of the Titan Class Devastator multi-pack had an unused head tooling based on an Autobot construction vehicle, namely Wedge (Bonecrusher), Grimlock (Scavenger), Hightower (Hook), Heavy Load (Long Haul), Scoop (Scrapper), and Quickmix (Mixmaster). The combined form would reportedly have been based on Landfill/Landfill, though whether or not it had a new head is unknown.

Notes

Advertising is stronger when using social media

• Early in the toy line's life cycle, Hasbro advertised the figures with two "movie" style posters published on Facebook, alternatively depicting Superion and the Aerialbots, or Menasor and the Stunticons. The same artwork was later used for the posters included with the "Generation 2" Superion and Menasor Collection Packs. While awesome in their own right, none of those posters were ever featured at public transport stations, so there was still room for improvement!

Clues hidden in a stock photo. What's next? Alternate heads depicted in instructions?

• The existence of Legends Class Huffer and the name of Blackjack were first revealed by a stock photo of Menasor released during San Diego Comic-Con 2014. What appeared to be a plain white background was, with color correction, revealed as a Mac OS screenshot displaying filenames for those two characters. Blackjack could easily be identified as the then unnamed black-and-purple car revealed at SDCC, whilst Huffer's toy was later announced at New York Comic Con.
• In addition, Legends Class Rodimus and Skywarp were accidentally revealed prematurely in January 2015 via official product listings, including stock photos, on the public Hasbro website. This was almost a month before even the wave 3 products of all the main assortments (including Legends Class Groove, Warpath and Viper) would be officially revealed at Toy Fair. Hasbro quietly pulled the listings for Rodimus and Skywarp from their website and then pretended to "officially" reveal them at BotCon 2015, a whole five months later... by which time they had already been released at retail in Singapore. Whoops.
• The Hasbro product code numbers for the first three waves of Legends Class figures suggest that a different release order was originally planned: Wave 1 would have included Huffer instead of Windcharger, who would have been the sole new figure in the subsequent wave (or, more likely, simply a revision wave), and Blackjack would have been released in the next wave alongside Warpath, Groove and Viper.
• The limb robots substituted out of Combiner Wars Superion, Menasor, and Defensor, namely Slingshot, Wildrider, and Groove, also happen to be the same members whose Kre-O incarnations were sold separately from their teams. Coincidence? Probably.

Like most Deluxe Class figures, Swindle was available with a comic book in the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, and Asia (left), and with a character card in Canada and Latin America (center) as well as Europe (right).

• No wave 2 products of any size classes of Combiner Wars were ever officially released in any European markets, with the sole exception of Legends Class Blackjack, who was eventually released as part of a revision of wave 4. Even Motormaster, who was re-released as part of wave 4 of the Voyager Class assortment alongside Battle Core Optimus Prime, was omitted from the European wave 4 case assortment in favor of Silverbolt and Hot Spot. Hooooowever...
• In several instances, Deluxe Class figures appeared in certain markets in packaging not intended for those markets, oftentimes as imported overstock. Those instances include:
  • In the United States and other markets that got most Deluxes in English-only packaging including comic books, the wave 1 Deluxes were initially only released in multilingual Canadian/Latin American packaging including character cards. This was due to production scheduling problems, and even though Hasbro originally intended to re-release all four figures with comic books (packaged samples exist), ultimately only the comic book version of Dragstrip was released as part of a revision case of wave 2 that saw limited distribution. On top of that, clearance stores such as T.J.Maxx eventually stocked the multilingual Canadian/Latin American character card versions of the wave 4, 5 and 6 figures in late 2016.
  • Canadian retailers such as Walmart and Toys"R"Us stocked the wave 4 Deluxes in English-only packaging including comic books even before the "proper" multilingual packaging versions with character cards instead of comic books became available.
  • In the United Kingdom and Slovakia, the wave 2 Deluxes (specifically the revision case including Dragstrip) appeared during "silly season" in late 2016 at chains such as Guess How Much! (United Kingdom) and Dráčik (Slovakia) as gray imports in English-only packaging including comic books, making this the first time these figures (minus Dragstrip) were available at European retail, long after the fact.
  • In early 2017, gray imports of the wave 4 Deluxes in English-only packaging including comic books also appeared at Intertoys, a Dutch chain with stores in Germany, where they warmed shelves alongside their counterparts in regular European packaging sans comic books. According to the multiple (!) import stickers, these truly went around the world, via China and then the United Kingdom, before ending up in continental Europe!
• Overall, this means Canadian/Latin American packaging is the only packaging version all general retail Deluxes were officially available in.
• Three promotional campaigns were run in Asian Toys"R"US markets during the release of the first four waves of Combiner Wars and the release of Titan Class Devastator.
  • In the first campaign, buyers who purchased any four Deluxe Class figures from waves 1 and 2, received a free G1 toy-esque upgrade sticker sheet for the Aerialbots and Stunticons. These sticker sheets only applied to the figures of those waves, so the later inclusions to the teams (Quickslinger and Brake-Neck) never received any stickers. Optimus Prime was also not included in the sticker sheet.
  • In the second campaign, buyers who purchased any four Deluxe Class figures from waves 3 and 4, received a free G1 toy-esque upgrade sticker sheet for the Protectobots and the Optimus Maximus components. Like above, the later Protectobot inclusion to the line (Deluxe Class Groove) never received any stickers. Cyclonus was also not included in the sticker sheet.
  • In the third campaign, buyers who purchased Titan Class Devastator, received a free G1 toy-esque upgrade sticker sheet for the set itself.
• Reflecting on the success of the line, design director John Warden praised the cross-compatible play pattern across all the size classes, and the fact that the line caught the attention of many lapsed fans and kids alike. However, he also criticised the line's heavy reliance on redecos of the same few molds, and the hollowness of most of the plastic parts.