Who is your favourite G1 Gestalt?

[GoktimusPrime]

As with the previous polls, we're just looking at G1 and just with what was your personal favourite toy as a child. Mine is Defensor. Devastator was a pretty easy gestalt set to complete being the cheapest to complete (thanks to not having any expensive boxed figures; the other being Monstructor). But Defensor was definitely my favourite. It's the most aesthetically pleasing to me and I've always loved how it has a self-contained head; arguably the first G1 gestalt to have a self contained gestalt robot part. Devastator's feet are formed from Scrapper and Mixmaster's vehicle parts, which is cool in itself, but they're more like incidental gestalt parts. Defensor's was the first explicitly purpose-made part made for a gestalt which was contained in the robot rather than being a detachable accessory.

As an adult, Lio Kaiser is my favourite G1 toy (even though I don't own one), but it's not a toy that I was exposed to when I was a kid, so I have no childhood memories or impressions of this toy (so it doesn't count for me).

Due to the 15 option poll limit, all the Micromaster gestalts have been lumped into one option, and there's no separate option for King Poseidon (which, toywise, is virtually identical to Piranacon anyway, and since this poll is exclusively concerned with toys, we can consider them as being one and the same)

[Ode to a Grasshopper]

Never had him as a child, but yeah...Predaking. And he still is at that.
Made from animals/beast-formers? Check.
Has a sword? Check.
Kick-ass wings? Check.
Huge and imposing and powerful-looking? Check.
And then there's always this...this one moment/scene made the Predacons/Predaking my favourite characters as a kid.

Back in the day I managed to pick a loose complete G1 Predaking up as a poor student from a market...I was eating those awful Mi Goreng noodles for weeks to cover the cost but it was worth it dammit. I don't normally 'do' doubles of characters/molds, let alone triples, but the Predacons are a rare exception - I've got the G1 Predacons, MMC Feralcons, and if TakaraTomy ever makes MP Predacons I'll get those those too.

Toy-wise I rather like Hasbro Combiner Wars Defensor as well. I expect MMCs Feralcons to be great, but to see an official, compromised-by-price-point gestalt team like the Hasbro Protectobots turn out to have decent robot, vehicle-mode, and combined-mode forms is pretty clever IMO. I also really appreciate the variety of molds (the Stunticons and Aerialbots all look a bit too same-y for my liking), not to mention Groove being at least slightly more to scale in alt-mode.

[GoktimusPrime]

I personally didn't know anyone with a Predaking as a kid, probably being such an expensive set (since every member is a dearer boxed figure). I knew kids who had individual Predacons and who cooperatively could've formed Predaking, but I didn't know anyone who actually owned the entire set. I never had any of the Predacons, because my thinking was that I could collect 3 carded figures from another team for the price of a single Predacon. And I knew it was a set that I could never complete, so I never bothered starting.

I only finally owned Predaking when it was first reissued. I did grow up playing with other kids' Predacons, but I never saw them all at the same time to form Predaking (because these friends of mine weren't mutual friends of each other). If only we had a social media platform in the 80s...

Bob Smith
3 June, 1986 at 12:00
This week I got Divebomb, Razorclaw and Headstrong!
👍 You liked this.

David Yamamoto
11 July, 1986 at 2:00
Just got Tantrum and Rampage and the latest Kylie Monigue album. She's never going out of style!
👍 You and 15 others.

Suggest Friends for David
Does David know any of your friends? Help him find them.
Bob Smith [Suggest Friend]
Sydney, NSW

Gokuu
1h
My said that you guys can come over to our place this Saturday. Bring your Predacons and let's form Predaking! Uh oh, I gotta get off the modem cos dad wants to make a phone call. :/ Bob; David
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👍 Bob Smith and David Yamamoto

[MayzaPrime]

I wanted to vote for Menasor cause he was my first complete combiner... but Predaking is my pure favourite

[GoktimusPrime]

Remember guys, we're voting for who was your favourite as a child, not necessarily who's your favourite now as an adult. Adult me would vote for Lio Kaiser, but child me would've voted for Defensor (and thought, "Who's Lio Kaiser?" ), so I voted for Defensor.

[DaptoDog]

I personally didn't know anyone with a Predaking as a kid, probably being such an expensive set (since every member is a dearer boxed figure). I knew kids who had individual Predacons and who cooperatively could've formed Predaking, but I didn't know anyone who actually owned the entire set. I never had any of the Predacons, because my thinking was that I could collect 3 carded figures from another team for the price of a single Predacon. And I knew it was a set that I could never complete, so I never bothered starting.

I only finally owned Predaking when it was first reissued. I did grow up playing with other kids' Predacons, but I never saw them all at the same time to form Predaking (because these friends of mine weren't mutual friends of each other). If only we had a social media platform in the 80s...

Bob Smith
3 June, 1986 at 12:00
This week I got Divebomb, Razorclaw and Headstrong!
👍 You liked this.

David Yamamoto
11 July, 1986 at 2:00
Just got Tantrum and Rampage and the latest Kylie Monigue album. She's never going out of style!
👍 You and 15 others.

Suggest Friends for David
Does David know any of your friends? Help him find them.
Bob Smith [Suggest Friend]
Sydney, NSW

Gokuu
1h
My said that you guys can come over to our place this Saturday. Bring your Predacons and let's form Predaking! Uh oh, I gotta get off the modem cos dad wants to make a phone call. :/ Bob; David
👍 Like 💬 Comment ↷ Share
👍 Bob Smith and David Yamamoto

Haha I finally got a toy as a kid that you didn't Gok!

One of the my best friends was moving back to England and so my mum bought a complete G1 Predaking from him for all of $20 to give to me at Christmas (would have been about 8 or 9). Still have it displayed to this day, he's a glorious figure.

But I actually will vote for Computron. Still remember getting Afterburner from my Godparents which led to the hunt for the rest. And Scattershot was the biggest pain to find. I love Computrons colour scheme and bulk, I love the alt modes of the individual bots, and I particularly love Scattershot. For his time he was and remains a great Transformer. The bot mode is fantastic with pretty good articulation. And his alt mode is sublime, I loved playing with his pop-out cannon.

EDIT: What the? Where is Computron on the poll???? Surely he deserves a slot above Japanese only gestalts that few would have gotten?

[GoktimusPrime]

EDIT: What the? Where is Computron on the poll???? Surely he deserves a slot above Japanese only gestalts that few would have gotten?

Mea culpa! This board doesn't allow me to edit polls so any Computron votes will need to be manually done so via replies on this thread. Je suis désolé.

[DaptoDog]

Mea culpa! This board doesn't allow me to edit polls so any Computron votes will need to be manually done so via replies on this thread. Je suis désolé.

Haha no worries. Curious to see how high he ranks given the buzz so far for Unite Warriors Computron.

[GoktimusPrime]

Haha no worries. Curious to see how high he ranks given the buzz so far for Unite Warriors Computron.

It shouldn't have any bearing on this poll since we're only looking at our childhood favourites. The one thing I loved about the 1986-87 gestalts was the way that I could mix and match the limbs between teams. Here's a photo of me (blue collared shirt) taken in January 1988 where I've mixed my Technobots and Protectobots to form a hybridised Defensor.



I don't remember why I didn't bother attaching Defensor's parts on. I know that I had them because I still have all of them even today. I must've just been ceebs.

[DaptoDog]

It shouldn't have any bearing on this poll since we're only looking at our childhood favourites. The one thing I loved about the 1986-87 gestalts was the way that I could mix and match the limbs between teams. Here's a photo of me (blue collared shirt) taken in January 1988 where I've mixed my Technobots and Protectobots to form a hybridised Defensor.



I don't remember why I didn't bother attaching Defensor's parts on. I know that I had them because I still have all of them even today. I must've just been ceebs.

Nice childhood shot! Some of my favourite photos are one's of me opening up a Transformer or other toy on Christmas day. I actually never did mix up Scramble City Combiners, preferred to keep them in their designated teams.

Yes I know it's about what we liked as a kid, I'm just curious if a lot of people love G1 Computron, which is driving the anticipation for the Combiner Wars / UW update.