Gestalt, does it bug anyone else?

[kup]

Oops! Almost misposted something that was meant for another board.

Anyways as a kid I knew them as combiners but now I know them as both Gestalt teams and combiners. I don't really mind usage of any term but Gestalt refers more to the combined form while combiners is more to reference the actual combining team.

[jacksplatt11]

I have called them combiners for as long as I can remember, but I first noticed gestalt being used probably 5 or so years ago, saying combiner just always felt more comfortable to me though

[Bartrim]

I'm not saying ones right or wrong but I definitely prefer the term combiner. I can understand where you are coming from as on some international forums I've seen some fan boyz have an absolute spaz over the term.

[GoktimusPrime]

I used to call them Combiners until 1990 when Hasbro officially used the term to describe the Micromaster Combiners. Thus the term "Combiners" came to refer to multiple robots who combine to become one alt mode. Officially it was used for the Micromaster Combiners but the term could also be applied to Reflector and others like that.

As a result the fan-term "gestalt" was coined by a German-speaking fan in 1994 and it spread from there - basically so that we wouldn't confuse gestalts with combiners. The term "Combiners" was not officially used to describe gestalts until 2001 when Hasbro classified the RiD gestalts as, you guessed it, "Combiners," causing a whole new level of confusion for fans!! Why... it's almost as if Hasbro wasn't paying attention!

I like the term "gestalt" because it's less ambiguous than "Combiner." When you say gestalt, fans know precisely that you're talking about a sub group of Transformers who unite to form a super-robot, e.g.: Constructicons --> Devastator. Thanks to Hasbro, the term "Combiner" has become confusing and ambiguous because officially it can now refer to either multiple Transformers who combine to form a single alt mode or a team of Transformers who combine to form a super-robot.

If someone says "G1 Combiner", I immediately think of the G1 Combiners, not the G1 gestalts. Thinking of "combiners" as gestalts is counter-intuitive for me now because I've been used to calling them gestalts for nearly a decade and a half now. (-_-)

The term "gestalt" has now entered official currency btw (reference)

[TF76]

I noticed that in the comic too, why i think the word started to bother me, is how some people considered it to be correct name and calling it a combiner (when it always was known as that.) is now wrong and they get so rude about it.

Thanks

[jaydisc]

I, too, have been put off by those attempting to correct people for allegedly incorrectly using the word "combiner". I think the term/word gestalt seems a bit pretentious as well.

[roller]

i hate the word 'The' man i wish i could find an alternative to that word, but what?