Combatron (BW)

The name or term "Combatron" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Combatron (disambiguation).

The Combatrons are a Predacon subgroup from the Beast Era portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.

"Hey, I am the leader, not you!"

The Combatrons (コンバットロン Konbattoron) are a group of Predacons who transform into military jet fighters and that's about all they have in common. Rather than act as a team of four who work together, they prefer to operate as two pairs who work separately. Starscream and BB are elitists with exacting standards and ambitious schemes, who can also combine, while Dirge and Thrust are unreliable slackers who can't take anything seriously. Each duo competes to outshine the other in the eyes of their Emperor of Destruction, and as a result, they tend to exert a greater effort in sabotaging each other than in engaging the enemy. As for the Maximals, they're perfectly happy to let the Combatrons cancel each other out in battle.

Exposure to Angolmois Energy recreates the Combatrons into the Cyborg Beasts (サイボーグビースト Saibōgu Bīsuto), freakish fusions of animal and machine that are more powerful than their former incarnations.

The Combatrons/Cyborg Beasts consist of:

• Starscream/Hellscream, fighter jet/cyborg shark
• BB/Max-B, stealth bomber/cyborg dog
• Dirge/Dirgegun, fighter jet/cyborg bee.
• Thrust/Thrustor, fighter jet/cyborg velociraptor.

They are sometimes also known as "Cyber Beasts", in which cases Gigastorm is included as their leader.

Fiction

Beast Wars II cartoon

The Combatrons were under the command of Galvatron and Megastorm as they went to Gaia in order to drain the planet of its energy. The New Forces Arrive! The Predacons soon located a massive Gaian computer, and used its data to scan themselves alternate modes based on weapons from Gaia's past. The Combatrons took the forms of various jet fighters (or in BB's case, a stealth bomber). White Lion, Run!

Eventually, the Combatrons were all upgraded into Cyborg Beasts.

Beast Wars II manga

This is what happens if you overdose on something, kiddo.

The Combatrons were kicked into a hot spring after they served the wrong drink to Gigastorm, who became furious. After enjoying the hot spring for a while, they found that they were upgraded into the Cyborg Beasts. Hellscream noted a sign from the Autorollers warning that the hot spring was an Angolmois Energy-processing facility. Recover the Bonds Lost!

2006 IDW Beast Wars continuity

When coming into contact with Angolmois Energy, Megastorm was transformed into the more powerful Gigastorm. He set out, creating a new subfaction within the Destrons, the Cyber Beasts. To fill up this subfaction, Gigastorm exposed BB, Dirge, Starscream, and Thrust to Angolmois Energy, transforming them into Max-B, Dirgegun, Hellscream, and Thrustor. Beast Wars Sourcebook

As Magmatron surveyed the apocalyptic future Shokaract was destined to usher in, he saw Dirgegun engaged in furious combat with several other Predacons. The Ascending #1

Maximals and Predacons alike rose up to confront Shokaract, but he unleashed his own warriors: Hellscream, Max-B and Thrustor, along with Antagony and Hardhead. The Ascending #3 These heralds battled the Cybertronians being led by Lio Convoy and Big Convoy, but it was ultimately a treacherous underhanded sneak attack by Ravage (combined with a grenade or two) which ended the threat of the Cyborg Beasts and their allies. The Ascending #4

Toys

Beast Wars

• Combatrons (1998)
  • Starscream and BB
  • Dirge
  • Thrust

The Combatrons are redecos of Generation 2 and Machine Wars toys. Starscream and BB were sold together as an Ultra Class package, whilst Dirge and Thrust were sold separately as Basics Class toys. The four Combatrons did not share any specific gimmicks, although Starscream and BB could combine while Dirge and Thrust were flipchangers.

Starscream and BB were also released as a two-pack in Korea by Sonokong in their Beast-War line and later re-released in new packaging as Stealth Saber and Victory Bomber, respectively in their Car Bot line.

• Cyborg Beasts (1998)
  • Hellscream
  • Max-B
  • Dirgegun
  • Thrustor

The Cyborg Beasts are retools of four American Beast Wars toys: Cybershark, K-9, Waspinator, and Dinobot. All four were sold separately as Deluxe Class toys and had no related gimmicks.

• Gigastorm (October 1998)
  • ID number: D-22

Part of the ninth wave of Beast Wars II toys, Gigastorm is a redeco and partial retooling of the original Transformers line's Trypticon, giving him a new dino-mode nose-horn as well as removing the metal ball-bearings from the outsides of the legs. He transforms from a Ceratosaurus-thing to a base-form-thing, to a battle-station-thing. In base-form-thing mode, he has a lifting mechanism that can send smaller vehicles rolling down his ramp.

Gigastorm lacks virtually all of Trypticon's accessories, only coming with Gigascouter, a redeco of Full-Tilt.

Sonokong also released this figure with no differences other than the packaging in Korean Beast-War markets.

Notes

• The Cyborg Beasts are never referred to as such in either their original toys' packaging or the cartoon. The name was primarily used in the Beast Wars II manga and other print media, originating from material published ahead of the toys' releases.
• A longstanding fan belief led IDW's Beast Wars Sourcebook to declare Gigastorm both a "Cyber Beast" himself and their leader. Though he did play a pivotal role in upgrading the Combatrons into the Cyborg Beasts in both the cartoon and manga, Gigastorm himself was not a Cyborg Beast in any of the original Japanese fiction.