Gestalt (Transformers)

Transformers technology refers to various technologies in Transformers series of comic books, films, animated series, and other media. The term refers to unusual processes, such as the departure from the standard Transformer ability to change between two different forms, as well as technology utilized by the Transformers in-series.

The term "Combiner" refers to a sub-group of Transformers able to combine their bodies and minds into a singular, larger, more powerful super-robot (the process is referred to in Computron's Marvel tech spec as "combinatics"). The term "Combiner" comes from the sub-group's ability to "combine" into a larger robot.

Combiner technology has its downsides as well, the primary one being that the combined robot can only do what all of its components agree upon. For beings such as Devastator, that is typically wanton destruction and nothing else. There is a flipside to this: Computron's main problem is that every problem must be worked out to every conceivable solution; even with Computron's enhanced computers, this is a time-consuming task, which for example led to his quick defeat by Abominus (another Decepticon Combiner) around the time of the Hate Plague.

The term "gestalt" was adopted by small minority of fans as the catch-all name for combining Transformers. Although not officially employed on any merchandise by Hasbro, it appears that the term is recognized by them for its use in the fandom, although it is generally passed over in favor of the more widely used term Combiners in fandom. It may also be noted that the US Marvel Generation 2 comic issue #9 uses the term "fusilateral-quintrocombiners" for 5-member teams such as the Combaticons, (and presumably other "Scramble City" style-combiners).

In the American animated series, and various comic incarnations, many Transformers have the ability to change size during transformation, a glowing outline occasionally appearing around their bodies as they do so. Notable examples include Megatron, Soundwave and his operatives Ravage, Rumble, Frenzy, Laserbeak, the transporter Astrotrain and the Autobot Blaster. Long since regarded as a source of confusion, such technology first received a full-scale explanation in the final issue of the Generation One version of Dreamwave Productions' More Than Meets The Eye series, which focused on many different aspects of Transformers technology and other information. In IDW Publishing's Transformers: Escalation it is also mentioned that it takes considerable power to accomplish this feat. During Optimus Prime and Prowl's conversation, it is hinted at that the technology is old, but has not been in use for some time. Megatron and Soundwave are the first Transformers in this continuity to display mass displacement. Although used in the animated series quite often, mass displacement was not utilized by any of the Autobots or Decepticons in the 2007 Transformers film, as the producers claimed that they considered it a form of "cheating". This claim is contradicted however, when the film depicts the Allspark displacing mass when it reduces itself from its Hoover Dam filling size to one that Sam is capable of carrying around. In Transformers Prime, Predaking, a Predacon gets bigger when transforming into his alt mode ( read: dragon ), as well as fellow Predacons Darksteel and Skylynx, from the series finale movie Predacons Rising.

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