Combining Mecha/Headscratchers


 * Invariably, the combined mecha will be far more powerful than the individual parts. If characters (should) know this, the question is why they don't combine right from the start? It would make fights a whole lot easier.
 * Individual mecha can flank. Once the enemy is weakened, the combined mecha can overpower it.
 * Very true. Besides, individual vehicles can surely move faster to the battlefield than a giant robot.
 * In Power Rangers, they actually do 99% of the time.
 * The footage of the individual mechs doing anything before combining tends to get cut in the process of being changed from Super Sentai.
 * There may be a trade off. In Transformers, all the gestalts were a lot stupider than any of the individual tranformers that combined to make them.
 * Only the first one, Devastator. The later ones got progressively smarter on the whole.
 * I seem to remember Menasor and Superion being quite stupid. Then again I'm going by the G1 cartoon. Other versions might have been different.
 * Bruticus was also exceptionally dumb.
 * They got progressively smarter sure, but progressively smarter than Devastator! Most were still not the sharpest tool in the box. and when we eventually got smart ones, like Computron, he was just a tool.
 * Devastator may not be the best example. His left and right hands hated each other. I think just solely based on teamwork, the Autobot's gestalts were smarter than the Decepticon's ones. Autobot teams were more willingly to work as a team and share. Decepticons usually backstabbed each other.
 * Generally, the more the components of the gestalt like or dislike each other, the more or less intelligent the gestalt is. Decepticon gestalts, being formed of psychopaths, selfish bastards, and other evil robots usually means they don't work well together and the gestalt is mentally less than the sum of its parts (the exception being Predaking, as the Predacons work extremely well together and are united by their love of the hunt). Autobot gestalts are generally a bit smarter since they can work together better (of course, they can be too smart; Computron can freeze himself up by over-analyzing a situation and trying to decide on a course of action).
 * You could say they're waiting for an opportunity to combine, but Transformation Is a Free Action...
 * I've always noticed that when a mecha is combined (Especially in Super Sentai) The parts are totally out of scale with what they would have been in individual form. Now, I know that this is because it's actually a guy in a suit, but it still bugs me.
 * Transformers combiners tend to be worse. Consider Bruticus, whose right arm (a space shuttle) should logically be much larger than the combined form. Then again, this is par the course when it comes to scale in Transformers.