Okay... so is that the one exception (and they are only used when formingg the combiner, fresh with no damage), or could you do that all of the time? In other words, can you have one combiner card at the front with some non-combiners as your fighting team, and the rest of that combiner team as "extra character cards at the back", to then be activated when forming the combiner, as it appears to be with Optimus Maximus?
(is all of this stuff covered in their rules updates on facebook, and I should just keep up with them?)