Combining Mecha

"Form feet and legs!"
"Form arms and body!"
"...and I'll form...the head!"^note In the original version, it happens without anything being spoken.

"Constructicons! UNITE!"

— Scrapper, The Transformers: The Movie

When two or more independent mecha^note Or other vehicles, but mecha are most common can combine to make another, larger mecha. It can be a decent way to hide a really big robot in plain sight, by breaking it up into pieces.

After the merge (accompanied by the stock Transformation Sequence), the new mecha will have powers and abilities greater than the sum of its parts. Combining Mecha are frequently a metaphor for Team Spirit and/or The Power of Friendship because of this.

It's common to find these in the same places as Transforming Mecha — indeed there are many that can do both, and combining may be considered a type of transformation in itself due to reconfiguration of the component mecha often being required. A frequent source of Technology Porn.

Who controls the combined form, and where the crew ends up after the merge, also varies. In some settings (such as Voltron) the crew remains in their separate individual cockpits (with the leader responsible for most of the robot's control), while other settings like Super Sentai and Power Rangers transfer the heroes to a central "bridge" area in the core of the mecha and they control the robot as a group (again, usually under the leader's direction).

In most cases each mecha comprises one specific piece of the resulting robot, with the group's leader (i.e. The Hero) forming the robot's head or torso in the process — after all, the leader is the 'head' of the group, so why not have them become the literal head of the combined form? This also eliminates the requirement for more than one Transformation Sequence, since the component mecha will always form the same result in the same manner. On the other hand, some mecha can mix-and-match their configurations to form any part of the combined robot, and it doesn't necessarily matter who forms which piece.

In many series, if a team of mecha is revealed to have a combined form, expect to see the individual mecha's abilities reduced to So Last Season status, with the mecha rarely used for anything other than their ability to combine. This is certainly the case with, for example, most Super Sentai and Power Rangers series, where once the team's Megazord is revealed (usually within the first couple of episodes, sometimes inside of the Pilot Episode), they will never use anything less. (Probably because hiring People in Rubber Suits to fight the Monster of the Week is a lot less expensive than the Stop Motion or CGI required to animate individual mecha doing the same.)

In cases where the mecha are sapient beings with no outside pilot (such as Transformers), the resulting personality of their combined form is frequently some manner of collective consciousness formed by the component members — this merged mind is often the result of whatever its component members can actually agree on, usually resulting in little more than a mechanized Dumb Muscle whose vocabulary consists primarily of one-syllable words and who can only focus on one task at a time: For the good guys, this creates a Gentle Giant; For the bad guys, this simply results in breaking and smashing stuff. Lots of stuff. And killing people, don't forget the killing. In either case, a change in the team's roster can alter their combined form not just on a physical level, but on a mental one as well.

In any case, it's often unclear where the necessary parts to operate this new robot came from^note sapient machines get more leeway with this due to not needing a cockpit, but are not excused entirely from these concerns — all the physical implausibilities of Transforming Mecha apply, to a greater degree.

More often than not, the legs-and-feet component of a combining robot is not as cleverly disguised as the other parts. It may appear as a giant, rectangular machine with obvious foot-shaped parts protruding from behind. ^note However, if each leg is a separate component, this is generally less of an issue. In contrast, the head of the combining robot is almost always hidden in some sort of recess; in the Transformation Sequence, it usually emerges from said recess as a final step.

If the vehicle is a single thing to begin with but breaks apart to fight, you could be looking at Detachment Combat.

Note that there is a reason we don't have these in Real Life: whatever purpose the combined form is meant to serve could more easily be achieved by building a separate, additional robot.

Sub-Trope of Rule of Cool, for the above reasons. See also Mecha Expansion Pack. Can be seen as the mechanical equivalent of Fusion Dance, and combiners made of sapient mecha generally qualify as both. See Totem Pole Trench and The Worm That Walks for similar tropes involving living things.

Not to be confused with Merging Machine.

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Examples:

All of the following

• Super Sentai, and therefore Power Rangers, of course. 40+ years of the former and 20+ years of the latter with at least 2-3 super robots per season mean everything's been covered. Everything. For the purpose of simplicity, Power Rangers terms will primarily be used here — Super Sentai has few cross-series terms like 'zord,' without which this becomes a lot harder to describe.
  • To expand, the first Sentai, Himitsu Sentai Gorenger, and its successor, J.A.K.Q. Dengekitai, never had mechas; both featured team vehicles, but they did not have giant monsters to fight in an equally giant robot. It was on the third Sentai (dubbed a Super Sentai), Battle Fever J, that the series had a mecha (an idea taken from Spider-Man (Japan)), and even that mecha wasn't a combining mecha. It was only until Sun Vulcan that they introduced the combining mecha idea. And even then, it was usually two or three machines combining. The eleventh Super Sentai series, Hikari Sentai Maskman, was the first to give each member a personal robot that shared his or her theme. "Great Five" was so named because it was the first robot to actually be made from five components.
  • The most common system is: each of the five Rangers has a Zord corresponding to whatever the series' general "theme" is. They combine into a humanoid Megazord, which handles the fighting for the early parts of the season when the villain decides to Make My Monster Grow. Then Sixth Ranger comes with his Transforming Mecha (or own separate set of Combining Mecha) which becomes a Mecha Expansion Pack which doubles the power of the ensemble. However, the variety of Zords mean there's no combining scheme we haven't seen.
  • Group of vehicles to giant robot? Pick a series, any series, with a vehicle theme, or the Super Sentai that predate the Zord-per-Ranger rule (the 2-3 Zords were usually a giant plane-thing and 1-2 giant ground vehicles.)
  • Group of humanoid robots to giant robot? This is perhaps the least-seen scheme, but it happens. Despite never doing it before, three seasons in a row had two set of Zord-per-Ranger, one of them humanoid: Kakuranger/Power Rangers season 3 with Shogun Zords/Giant Beast Generals who formed the Shogun Megazord/Muteki Daishogun (it was the first set of Zords in Japan, second in US), then Super Zeo Megazord/OhBlocker, then Turbo Rescuezords/Victory Rescue Vehicles, who were vehicle-to-humanoid Transforming Mecha as well as being able to make Rescue Megazord/VRV Robo. Super Zeo Megazord and Titan Megazord/MagiKing many years later even managed to have completely symmetrical formations rather than the Voltron-style one-on-each-side.
    • Note that this case usually involves Your Size May Vary: any humanoid robot will be roughly same size as the monster, so five robot as large as the monster will combine into a Megazord… as large as the monster.
    • You may choose to count the times Megazords combine into bigger Megazords, but it's rare for it to truly work that way (instead, the two Megazords' component Zords can recombine and make a larger formation.)
  • Group of animal robots to giant robot? Pick any of the numerous series with an animal theme.
  • Group of vehicles to bigger vehicle? Rare, but a few Megazords have a vehicle mode as well as a robot mode. If the components are themselves vehicles, you get five Time Jets becoming the Time Force Megazord Jet Mode/Time Jet Gamma, or Operation Overdrive's/Boukenger's Battle Fleet Carrier/GoGo Voyager (whose components only exist in Stock Footage, sadly).
  • Mix and Match? Timeranger/Time Force again. There's the speedy Time Robo Beta/Mode Blue, the strong Time Robo Alpha/Mode Red, and the too-expensive-to-CGI-often Time Jet Gamma/Jet Mode, all with the same components. Also, Magiranger/Mystic Force and Ninninger/Ninja Steel each had a dragon formation and a Megazord formation. The first two Megazords also had a tank mode and a robot mode.
  • Mecha Expansion Pack? More and more recent series have "auxiliary Zords" that can replace limbs to add new powers. Every year starting around 2000, both shows tend to feature a wide range of individual animals or vehicles who would start doing this with the base combined mecha. At times like this, instead of "GATTAI!" (combination), get used to "BUSOU!" (armament.) This began with Hyakujuu Sentai Gaoranger whose claim was that there were one hundred potential mechas (only a quarter ended up in the show, but others were designed and planned). Once they acquire enough of these, they usually end up combining together to form a second complete mecha such as DaiTenkuu in Samurai Sentai Shinkenger/the Samurai Battlewing in Power Rangers Samurai; or the DaiTanken of GoGo Sentai Boukenger/Dual Drive Megazord of Power Rangers Operation Overdrive (presented as a 'quick and dirty' emergency combination of the spare vehicles once too many of the usual vehicles had been damaged). Sometimes they all pile onto the main mecha at once. Also, some Sixth Ranger mecha do this with the combined robot of the other Rangers.
    • Parodied in Samurai Sentai Shinkenger/Power Rangers Samurai when the Origami, in their emblem forms, attempt to "combine" by stacking one on top of the other. The formation isn't very effective. A limited release of the toy robot later comes with extra parts to recreate this scene.
  • Gets a bit silly in Shuriken Sentai Ninninger / Power Rangers Ninja Steel. The initial Megazord configuration is unusually mismatched, where the individual mecha components have no apparent overarching motif (a humanoid karate robot, a dump truck, a dragon, a bullet train, and a dog). For Ninninger, it was said to represent the "Cool Japan" movement (even though it used a European dragon), while Ninja Steel justified it by having each Zord based on something from each Ranger's civilian life.
    • And then there's the Mecha Expansion Packs consisting of an elephant, a UFO, and a shark-themed submarine that turns into a surfer. And don't get us started on the Sixth Ranger's cowboy ninja robot that rides a bison-themed ATV. And then there's the giant lion castle for the mid-season upgrade and the T-Rex that only appears in the movies. At least the end-of-series six-piece mecha has thematically linked parts representing The Four Gods...except for the panda and the black carp for the other two members of the team.
  • They are even examples that overlap between variants. Besides the vehicle-to-humanoid transforming Victory Rescue Vehicles/Rescuezords mentioned above, the individual Zords in Go-onger/RPM and Goseiger/Megaforce cover both animal and vehicle motifs because they're animal-vehicle hybrids. And sometimes, a single series has different sets of combiners with their own themes (like the three Gingaman/Lost Galaxy Megazords made up of animals, aircraft and road vehicles respectively).
  • A common variation is for a piece of an individual mecha to not actually become part of the Megazord but to become its weapon. For example, ZyuMammoth/Mastodon Dinozord's head becomes a shield, two of the Mega Voyager's vehicles partly form a shield and missile cannon, bits of the Chouriki Mobiles/Zeo Zords become interchangeable battle helmets, and so on. Elephant in Hyakujuu Sentai Gaoranger / Power Rangers Wild Force is a rare mecha fully turned into a weapon (it is an extra mecha compared to the standard Megazord).
    • Oddly, most Megazords will rarely use weapons made of sub-mechas parts, and always use a sword which is not part of these mechas. In Gosei Sentai Dairanger, Dairen-oh has a spear made of red robot staff and Phoenix' tail. It uses the spear once, and that fight was Adapted Out in 'Power Rangers''.
  • A rarer variant of this occurs when the Red Ranger's Zord can change into a humanoid robot, which then forms the Megazord by "wearing" the rest of the team's Zords as armor. So far there are only two examples: Gosei Sentai Dairanger's Dairenoh (AKA the Thunder Megazord) and Tokumei Sentai Go Busters's Go-BusterOh.
• The Chouseishin Series, which borrows a lot from the Sentai genre, has featured each of the three types.
  • The Chouseishin in Chouseishin Gransazer are mecha capable of transforming from animal-themed modes to humanoid ones, and can combine together with a humanoid base mecha called Guntras to form a dragon-like mecha called Dai Sazer.
  • The Genseishin in Genseishin Justiriser each combine with a dragon-themed base robot called Riseross to give it stronger and more specialized abilities.
  • The Ryuuseishin in Chousei Kantai Sazer X are the result of one of Sazer-X's spaceships combining with a humanoid mecha called a Core Caliber.
• Machine Robo / Gobots:
  • Group of vehicles to giant robot?
    • Puzzler is a group of 6 cars that can both transform on their own and combine into a giant robot. It's notable for having everything necessary for the combination built-in; no kibble needs to be added.
    • Machine Robo Double is a sub-line that features 2 vehicles that can combine into a giant robot.
    • Commander Robo is a jet that combines with 2 tanks to form a giant robot.
  • Group of humanoid robots to giant robot? Devil Satan Six (better known in the US as the Renegade Monsterous) is a group of six humanoid monsters that combine into giant robot.
  • Group of animal robots to giant robot? This is very prominent in Machine Robo Mugenbine.
  • Group of vehicles to bigger vehicle? The aforementioned Commander Robo has an alt-mode like this.
  • Mix and Match? Also very prominent in Mugenbine with most of them having 3 modes: animal, vehicle, and giant robot. You can even combine many different sets to form an Ultrazord-like combination.
  • Mecha Expansion Pack Augment?
    • Baikanfu from Revenge of Cronos is probably the most notable example of this.
    • This is also very prominent in Machine Robo Rescue, where the core robot will combine with 4 other ones to form limbs for a bigger robot.
  • Other? More difficult to classify were the Power Suits, which involved robots wearing individual power armor combining with a fighter plane piloted by another robot to form a larger robot.
• Transformers has had Combining Mecha in nearly every permutation imaginable over the years; see examples in the individual folders below.
• Magic: The Gathering has the Mechtitan Core, which can combine any four artifact creatures and/or vehicles with itself to form the Mechtitan. Even just using other vehicles could mean anything from other mechs to trains to sailing ships and stagecoaches. Regular artifact creatures include everything from robot owls to roughly humanoid but tiny myr to titanic humanoid engines of war to whatever the heck this thing is. And then, in the same set as the Mechtitan Core, there are cards like that robot owl that can convert from creatures to equipment...which would allow you to give the Mechtitan you assembled from two mechs, a cyborg boar and a hoverbike a mechanical add-on (although how a robot the size of a building can wield a pair of lizard swords designed for humans is a mystery for the ages). And, just for yuks, with the Transformers Universes Beyond cards, you can also use it to combine Transformers; sadly, the lineup announced for that release is short on typical Transformers combiners, so you can't make Devastator...although Ultra Prime remains on the table.

Group of vehicles to giant robot

Anime and Manga

• Albegas is made up of an α robot (piloted by Daisaku), a β robot (piloted by Tetsuya) and a γ robot (piloted by Hotaru). It's also aided by a Gori-Robot which Goro pilots, which is considered the unofficial fourth part of Albegas.
• The Getter Robo series, which is the Trope Maker for the combining giant robot, though there had been combining robots as early as Astro Boy. The Getter and its successor robots are assembled from three aircraft that combine in midair at high speed, and the order in which they combine determines which form the robot takes.
• GaoFighGar in GaoGaiGar, which was identical to the original, but with a transforming hovercraft instead of the robot lion. (See animals-to-humanoid.)
• Space Runaway Ideon featured three transforming component vehicles that could combine to form the eponymous Ideon itself, including:
  • Sol-Amber/Ideo-Delta making up the arms and head.
  • Sol-Vainer/Ideo-Nova making up the torso.
  • Sol-Conver/Ideo-Buster making up the waist and legs.
• Combattler V ^note Pronounced "Combattler 'Vee'". and Voltes V^note Pronounced "Voltes 'Five'". (similar designs, from the same anime director). Combattler was the first such mecha to have a combination sequence that could actually be visibly followed (and as Bandai had become a sponsor, not coincidentally reproduced in toy form).
• Zambot3: Zambot was formed by the combination of three vehicles: an aircraft, a tank and a terrestrial support vehicle.
• Dairugger XV (known in America as the Vehicle Voltron series).
• Genesis of Aquarion and its Sequel Series Aquarion EVOL has three fighter planes called Vectors combine into one huge robot with special abilities depending on which Vector forms the head, just like the aforementioned Getter. One forms the head, torso and arms, one forms the pelvis, legs and feet, and one forms a set of wings that attaches where the abdomen would be.
• Tidal Wave in Transformers: Armada, who is composed of three ships called the Dark Fleet, that can also form a larger ship, and become a Mecha Expansion Pack Augment for Megatron.
• Hilariously parodied in The Big O episode 18 "The Greatest Villain", when Simon Beck uses a megadeus that combines from three smaller vehicles. Roger straightens his bow-tie while he waits for them to finish gattai-ing, and then the action turns into a beautiful homage to Raiders of the Lost Ark... See the whole thing here.
• Gunbuster is formed from 2 spaceships.
• The sequel, Diebuster has the mecha in question formed from HUNDREDS of monster-like ships.
• Xabungle from Combat Mecha Xabungle and later the Walker Gallier are each formed out of two vehicles.
• Dai-Guard has a realistic take on this; at first, Dai-Guard must originally be carted to the site and assembled from its component parts. It later receives an upgrade that allows the sections to move on their own and assemble the mech automatically; however, they are not equipped with weapons or anything else that does not serve simply to transport Dai-Guard, and must return to their "parts" form to assemble the machine.
• Mechander Robo from Gasshin Sentai Mechander Robo did not become a combining mecha until the second half of its own series, at which point it was rebuilt as four vehicles that eventually combined to form the eponymous mecha itself.
• Super Combining Magical Robot Ginguiser featured three transforming mecha and a jet that could all combine to form the titular Ginguiser itself.
• One Piece: after parodying the idea of combining mecha, Franky would play it straight after the Time Skip. The newly-constructed Black Rhino FR-U 4 motorcycle and Brachio Tank V can be combined into a giant robot shaped like Franky. It pretty much does nothing in its initial appearance, being mostly used for gags, but the Punk Hazard arc shows it really is a force to be reckoned with.

Fan Works

• Kaiju Revolution: Much like their Heisei counterpart, the M.O.G.U.E.R.A units can divide into a flying jet and a large drilling vehicle. Unlike the Hesiei M.O.G.U.E.R.A however, they spend most of their time in their sperate components and only come together when needed.

Film

• Devastator from Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen, comprised of the Constructicons. This is a blurry case regarding the vehicle to combined robot category, as the individual vehicles may have had their own transformations but we only see Devastator combine with the components as vehicles. There are other Decepticons in the movie with the same vehicle designs but WITH individual robot modes, many of whom are seen fighting elsewhere or explicitly killed and thereby could not form Devastator. Palette Swap is not uncommon in the Transformers franchise, and Devastator component robots can also be seen in Transformers: Dark of the Moon.
  • Meanwhile, the toyline isn't helping matters; the $100 "Supreme" Constructicon Devastator goes vehicles-to-Devastator with no individual robots, but it also has its own screen inaccuracies like omitting the smaller excavator that partially forms the left arm. On the other hand, there's a set of all seven Constructicons available in the "EZ Collection," smaller Legends class toys that can form both individual robots and a combined form. Studio Series would do the same as the Legends class assortment years later at a larger scale, but this time with 8 components. Word of God is that Devastator is one robot who had to be split into multiple vehicles because nothing on Earth was big enough.
  • Movie Arcee was intended to be three motorcycles that combine into one robot. The combined form was originally going to appear in the movie, but was ultimately cut.
• The MOGUERA unit of Land Moguera (top) and Star Falcon (bottom) in Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla.

Live-Action TV

• The robot kaiju King Joe from Ultraseven. Its normal form is a cluster of four self-piloting spaceships that form its chest, its head and arms, its waist, and both of its legs, but they can combine into a Humongous Mecha in order to fight. As one of Ultraseven's most famous enemies, King Joe has reappeared in many later shows since then.
• Daibaron from Ganbaron is another rare pre-Super Sentai example in a toku series.^note Although, Himitsu Sentai Gorenger came out a year prior, Super Sentai did not introduce their first Combining Mecha until Taiyou Sentai Sun Vulcan in 1981. However, the mecha does not have as much screen time as you would expect.

Podcasts

• Sequinox features one during the dimension-hopping adventures in arc 2 that led them to a Power Rangers-themed world. The mecha are a jet-ski for Summer, a snowplow for Winter, a flower delivery van for Spring, and a hearse for Autumn.

Tabletop Games

• The sample combiner in Mekton Plus is a tank, a submarine and a plane combining into a humanoid.

Video Games

• The Valhawk (a plane by default) and Valstork into the Valguard in Super Robot Wars W. Then, both of those plus a Valhawk-sized mecha named Arm Arcus and another battleship, the Arm Stora, into the ludicrously powerful Valzacard.
  • The Elebus and Simurgh combine into the Simurgh Splendid and Earthgain and Vyrose combine into Super Earthgain in Super Robot Wars 64.
• In World of Warcraft, the fight against the boss Mimiron in the Ulduar dungeon goes through four distinct phases: the first against the Leviathan Mk. II (a miniature version of the tank fought as the first boss in the instance), second against the VX-001 Anti-Personnel Cannon (a turret with two guns on the side), and the third against the Aerial Command Unit (a helicopter). The fourth phase consists of fighting V0-L7R-0N, a combination of the three which looks like a giant mechagnome.
• In Brave Saga 2, Shizuma has a motorcycle, a jet, an armored fire truck, and an amphibious Bullet Train that could combine into 3 different robots called Saber Varion, Ace Varion, and Max Varion.

Web Original

• Skippy of Skippy's List implies that he went around claiming that the US Army had one, as he had to be told:
  191. Our Humvees cannot be assembled into a giant battle-robot.

Western Animation

• The Venture Brothers does have one legitimate (read: not made-up) Mecha, Jonas Venture Jr.'s Ventronic, which is most definitely a Voltron parody.
  • Also, During a Fake Action Prologue, similarly we see Hank and Dean "Form up" (or to be more accurate, one sits on the others shoulders) in order to form "Mecha-Shiva".
• Parodied in Robot Chicken with a sketch where Voltron's combination sequence takes an agonizingly long time to finish (as well as the group having to start over after messing up the sequence) while the monster proceeds to destroy the space station.
  • For those curious, it was the vehicle Voltron used in this sketch, which as its Japanese name (Dairugger XV) suggests, has over a dozen parts. (Perhaps ironically, though, their combining sequence in the original Dairugger/Voltron series is actually shorter than the more well-known Lion Voltron, due to not having to transform each piece before combining, they just all join together at once, in under 30 seconds)
  • Another sketch has the evil giant monster challenge Voltron to a dance battle. And it was awesome.
    Commander Keith: We just got served, team!
    All: VOLTRON REPRESENT!
• Multiple Transformers groups do this, most famously the Constructicons, who form Devastator. Generation 1 (Original) Devastator was formerly used as the picture for this page.
  • From the original G1 series alone there were the Constructicons (Devastator), Stunticons (Menasor), Combaticons (Bruticus), Aerialbots (Superion), Protectobots (Defensor), and Technobots (Computron). And that's not even counting the Japanese-exclusive teams (Trainbots, Multiforce...) or the subsequent series. Technically, the combiner teams could be classified as either "robots into mecha" or "vehicles into mecha", but since most of them had to transform into vehicle forms before combining, "vehicles into mecha" seems more accurate.
    • Aside from Tidal Wave, mentioned above, the truest example of this form in Transformers would be the Duocons: two vehicles (one land and one air in both cases) combining into a single robot, with no robot modes for the individual vehicles. Blaster's micro-cassette team of Raindance (cassette/jet-fighter) and Grand Slam (cassette/tank), who combine into the robot Slamdance also counts. Interestingly, each of these was different from the other - the Duocons were a single robot (both mentally and physically) split into two vehicle modes, while the cassette combiners were two individual beings (with a cassette and vehicle mode) that combined into a unified robot with it's own personality.
  • Transformers: Animated is a special case regarding Transformers, as there was only one combiner robot, and he was formed from only two components: the Twins Jetfire and Jetstorm, who symmetrical dock to form Safeguard.
  • The Transformers: Last Stand of the Wreckers
    • Subverted:
      Rotorstorm: Wreckers, COMBINE!
      (beat panel)
      Rotorstorm: Well, I thought it was funny.
    • What's really great about that moment is that there are exactly five Wreckers present — the number needed for a typical Transformers combiner.
    • And Overlord himself is a one-mech combiner, with his top half forming a jet and his bottom a tank. His eventual death comes from his component parts being sent to the beginning and end of time respectively.
    • The toyline for Transformers: Fall of Cybertron would later actually give the Wreckers a Combining Mecha form called Ruination, who was a remold of Bruticus from the same line. (Sadly, this did not include a "Fall of Cybertron" version of Rotorstorm himself.)
  • Of particular note is the Power Core Combiners toyline, which features combining as its central gimmick. However, its combiners aren't what TF fans are used to; instead of five separate mechs, each combiner is composed of one mech and a number of drone vehicles that only transform for the sake of the combination.
  • Transformers is another series that gives us a number of types. Vehicles/beasts to robot, check. Humanoids combine, check — though if it doesn't involve a return to vehicle mode it's usually a two-bot combiner. Vehicles into vehicle, check — again, typically applies to two (Dreadwind and Darkwing become Dreadwing, which is a jet with no robot mode. Jetfire and Jetstorm combine one way to become Safeguard's robot mode or another to become Safeguard's jet mode.) Interchangeability, check, some obscure Japanese stuff even shows off that the "Scramble City" style combiners can not only shuffle around who's which limb, but also trade limbs between combiners. Expansion pack... many versions of Optimus Prime can combine with one other bot to become Optimus Prime [Something] Mode, so the story treats it that way, though the combinations are involved enough you'd think it was "two become new robot" rather than "Optimus is wearing Wing Saber" to look at them. RID's Omega Prime, though, is the only Optimus combo to be treated as not exactly either of his components. Heck, there's even a few really weird ones, like three vehicles/humanoid robots combining into weapons for larger robots to use (the Star Saber, Requiem Blaster, and Skyboom Shield from Transformers: Armada), and a couple really off-the-wall instances of animals combining into a larger animal (Sky Lynx from G1 and Magmatron from Beast Wars Neo, the latter's organic beast modes resulting in a particularly bizarre combined alternate mode.) Even some cases where two Transformers have separate robot modes, but must combine to form a vehicle. And then there's Six-Gun, made mostly from Metroplex's guns.
  • After many years, Optimus Prime has finally gotten in on the 5 Transformers combining into 1 larger Transformer action in the Combiner Wars story arc and toy line. He can now combine with Ironhide, Mirage, Sunstreaker, and Prowl to form Optimus Maximus. As Prowl was immediately imprisoned for his crimes afterword then escaped to do his own thing, it was only a one-time thing.
  • Sky Lynx from G1 is an interesting case. He's one Transformer with two bodies that each have a robot mode and a vehicle mode, and both modes have combined modes. Also unusually, none of his modes are humanoid robots- he's a space shuttle and space shuttle ground transportation vehicle that transform into a "dino-bird" and two-tailed lynx, respectively, and the combined robot mode resembles a dragon.
• Parodied in Titan Maximum, down to the letter. (While they have shown the animation of the transformation sequence, most times they cut away to observers commenting on how long the transformation takes.)
• Parodied in VH1 Illustrated where George W. Bush suggests building 5 giant robots that can combine to form a even bigger robot to fight (fake) nuclear monsters.
• One episode of Mighty Man featured a Humongous Mecha whose pieces were disguised as Chinese Ships (called Junk).
• The Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go!! Super Robot has this one. As well as about every other Super Robot trope... Inverted in that the Super Robot is usually seen as one big robot, and only rarely separates.
• In Steven Universe, the starships of the four members of the Great Diamond Authority; White Diamond, Yellow Diamond, Blue Diamond and Pink Diamond; are capable of joining together to form a single giant humanoid robot, with each ship controlled by its respective Diamond, or all four controlled by White Diamond exerting a priority override. Pink's ship is shaped like a pair of legs up to the waist (complete with high heels), Yellow and Blue's ships are each shaped like an arm (Yellow's ship forms the right arm, Blue's forms the left), and White's ship is shaped like an armless, legless torso and head stylized in the image of her bust. White's ship also functions as the capitol palace of the Gem Homeworld while not in use.
• Kingdom Force: Alpha Mech is formed from Kingdom Force's vehicles, the Kingdom Riders. Luka's red aerial gyro Kingdom Rider 1 forms the head and torso; Jabari's yellow speed vehicle Kingdom Rider 2 forms the left leg; TJ's green digging machine Kingdom Rider 3 forms the right leg; Dalilah's orange crawler Kingdom Rider 4 forms the right arm; and Norvyn's blue snowplow/submarine Kingdom Rider 5 forms the left arm.
• The Bots Master has Jungle Fiver. Like the Transformers, five vehicles that can themselves become giant mecha can all combine and transform into a giant robot. Unlike the rest of the Boyzz Brigade which is made up of human-sized sentient bots, the five vehicles are usually manned by five pilots (usually the Sports Boyzz and Blitzy) and Jungle Fiver is not sentient itself.
• Dexter's Laboratory: Dexter and his family used a robot like this to finally defeat Badaxtra in the season 2 finale.

Group of humanoid robots to giant robot

Anime and Manga

• The Symmetrical Docking pairs in GaoGaiGar, and Big Volfogg in the same series.
• The original Astro Boy manga (which predates Getter Robo by a good 20 years) had two of these. First there was Gadem, a group of 47 androids who combind to form a giant centipede (although he was later redesigned as a collection of magnetized gold particles in the remake) & one story even had Astro himself becoming part of a combiner made up of other humanoid robots in order to fight a giant snow leopard who was actually a combination of billions of electricity eating space amoebas.
• Magic Knight Rayearth has a variation with its three Legendary Mashin (Rune Gods). The Mashin are Humongous Mechas that initially have the appearance of a dragon (Seles), a phoenix (Windam) and a lion (Rayearth). When the three spirits merge, the result is again a Humongous Mecha with all three Magic Knights inside.
• Happens all over Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, with combination being the special and rare ability of the protagonist's Mini-Mecha.
  • The eponymous Gurren-Lagann is a double subversion: when Kamina first screws his Gurren into Simon's Lagann, Leeron protests that it makes no sense to combine the mecha, and the results seems to be just one mecha with another drilled into its head. Then comes the Transformation Sequence.
  • Lagann's special ability is that it is able to fuse with other mecha. In fact, Gurren Lagann itself is a fusion of no less than six mechs: The three Gunmen that were combined into Gurren, Lagann, A bit of the Enkidu (Viral's Gunman- specifically the helmet), and a flying Gunman.
  • In the second movie, Lagann-hen, After Lord Genome converts the Infinity Big-bang Storm after Tengen Toppa versions of the ENTIRE Dai Gurren-dan's ganmen appear (Kittan is the only one who died before this as the Mauve Shirts were spared in the movie. Nia also gets to use her own ganmen) they AGAIN combine to form the SUPER Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann which resembles a body made of spiral power more than an actual mecha. Not just any body either — it's an enormous Kamina on fire with Simon's shades and the Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann for a face.
  • Gurren-hen has this in Clipped-Wing Angel form with the Dai Gun Doten Kaizan, a combination of the 4 Generals Flagships. It fires one volley of missiles, then gets promptly Giga Drilled.
  • Lagann actually combines with several other mechs in the various incarnations of the show- for example, it fuses with what is eventually the Dai-Gurren during the Volcano battle, and in the Manga, Yoko fuses it with her own mecha.
  • The combinations of mecha reach MIND-BOGGLING EXTREMES as Gurren Lagann finds new ways to transform. First, the regular Gurren Lagann, combines with Arc Gurren to form the metropolis-sized Arc Gurren Lagann. Then, both machines are hooked up to a drill-powered energy plant inside the Super Galaxy Gurren Lagann to transform it into the lunar-sized mecha of the same name. And then... it goes Over 9000 with the Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann- and that behemoth dwarfs GALAXIES. But even that isn't the biggest mech! In the second movie adaption, the combination of the former mech and the equally-sized Space Gunmen creates the Super Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, a GOD-SIZED CELESTIAL ENERGY MECHA NO SMALLER THAN 1.8% of the ENTIRE UNIVERSE. With that, it is the undisputed king of this Trope! You may pick up your jaw now... Try not to have an aneurysm on the way out.
• At the end of episode 25 of IGPX: Immortal Grand Prix, Team White Snow combines their three mechas into a giant behemoth mecha.
• Rokushin Gattai!
• Kaimeiou, Rikushinou, and Kuuraiou combine to form Space Emperor God Sigma in this way. TRIPLE CROSS!
• The football-themed UFO Warrior Dai Apolon has a combining mecha made out of three humanoid mecha, which when combined were piloted by main-protagonist Takeshi, who was a football player. It also came with three UFO support craft piloted by Takeshi's friends to provide Dai Apolon cover fire, or if the other two mecha are not combined with the main character's, can combine with two of the three support craft so the other two can be piloted.
• Mashin Hero Wataru Series: Kokku's Mashin, "Boddie," Gorotsuki's "Lefta," and Gyakku's "Righta," join together to form "Gattaida." The hint is in the name.
• Getter Robo:
  • Getter Saint Dragon seems to be made out of large quantities of various Getters.
  • OVA Getter Robo Armageddon has an army of Getter Robo Gs combine into Shin Dragon.

Fan Works

• Code Prime:
  • At the beginning of R2, the Constructicons and Combaticons arrive and help the Decepticons finish off the remnants of the Britannian Empire. When Lelouch asks about Autobot combiners, he’s told that the Aerial bots can combine, but only two of them, Silverbolt and Air Raid, are present, and they don’t know what happened to the other three after Cybertron went dark. When he proposes a hypothetical combination of Bumblebee, Strongarm, Sideswipe, and Grindcore, the Autobots shoot it down by pointing out that they lack the Combiner technology, as Combiners are very rare among Cybertronians.
  • In Chapter 20 of R2, the Black Wyvern unit locates the Enigma of Combining. A relic created from Nexus Prime, the first combiner, that contains a fraction his power. When the Black Wyverns get cornered by Steeljaw’s pack, as well as Akito's brother Shin, the Relic reacts to Leliah's Geass, and with it, it allows the Alexander Valiants that the Black Wyverns pilot to combine into a new Knightmare that they dub the Hercules.

Toys

• BB Senshi Sangokuden uses demonic possession to explain the combining of living robots: Shiba-En's summoning of Shuu Neue Ziel leads the demon to grab him, both his brothers, and a robot-shaped artifact to form Senjin Gasshin Shuu Gundam.
  • Before this, in the SD Gundam Gaiden Kikoushin Densetsu card series and Gunpla kits, Elgaia, Mercarius, Aquarius, Jupitarius, Orphelis and Gigantus can combine to form Ultra Armor God Gungenesis, the combined form of the 6 Armor Gods using Elgaia as the core. All six components were based off Godmars. The Armor Gods could also combine with Elgaia's Evil Counterpart, Chaosgaia, as the core to become Dark Armor God Gungenocider. The rereleased box set also introduces a seventh Armor God, Arteia, which can combine with the others to form Gungenesis Final.
• BIONICLE sets had this as their earlier gimmick for you to buy all 6 sets, where you can combine three particular sets (although since they all shared the same template, any set could be subsituted for the "right" one you didnt have) into one giant "Kaita" model. Since they all looked like robots, it's safe to say they go for this trope. Also overlaps with Fusion Dance.

Video Games

• In City of Heroes, two Hercules Class Titans can combine into a Zeus Class Titan.
  • And as an unfortunate beta tester memorably discovered, an allied Hercules Titan can also successfully combine with a player to form a Zeus Class Titan.
• The SRX (Super Robot Type X) in Shin Super Robot Wars, Super Robot Wars Alpha series, and Super Robot Wars: Original Generation series.
  • Of particular note is that the three Real Personal Troopers that make up the SRX are all Real Robots, each specializing in different combat roles when separated from each other like almost any other team of real robots. The R-1 is a general-purpose transforming melee unit, while the R-2 Powered is a heavily armored artillery unit, and the R-3 Powered is a high-speed psychic sniper unit. So in a way, if the Super Robot Grungust and the Real Robot Huckebein represent their respective mecha genres solo, then the Real Personal Trooper mecha and their combined SRX form are said genres when based on the group.
• Xenogears, generally a Super Robot game, featured one combining mecha with Dominia and her compatriots.
• This was later given a homage in the Xenosaga games with Erde Kaiser. In Xenosaga 1 and 2, Erde Kaiser was created from various parts which then combined into one big robot (in episode 1 the parts could actually be summoned in battle). In episode 3, Kaiser starts off already assembled.
• The final level of The Wonderful 101 features the astronomically gigantic Unite Ultra Platinum — a combining mecha made up from Platinum Robo (itself humongous mecha the size of a city) and 200 of hijacked enemy mechs — Gah-Goojins.
• Gotcha Force features four different component robots — Machine Red, Machine Blue, Cyber Mars, and Cyber Atlas — that can combine if one top-half robot (Machine Red or Cyber Mars) and one bottom-half robot (Machine Blue or Cyber Atlas) are active while Power Burst is activated. The possible combinations are named after The Four Gods for a reason, as they have absurd firepower (boosted by the ridiculous reload speed buff under Power Burst), an all-blocking shield that covers their entire front half, and a Wave-Motion Gun to really ruin their foes' day. While actual player use of them falls under Awesome, but Impractical for several reasons (mostly, difficult to control during multiplayer and too expensive to use in single-player), they work as very effective bosses for certain levels during the main single-player campaign.
• Super Bomberman: In Super Bomberman 3, the Five Dastardly Bombers merge into a large mecha called Gattaida for Buggler to ride for the final battle. They do this again in Super Bomberman R, only this time the resulting Great Gattaida is much more gigantic.

Web Original

• In Ilivais X, prototypes Q through U combine to form STRUQ, which, in alphabetical order, are the head, body, legs, right cannon arm, and left blade arm. Though the individual mecha are very incompetent when in humanoid form, with the exception of Q.
• Parodied in Team Service Announcement Fake Players. Several AI controlled players, i.e. "bots", combine to form a single bot with people for legs and arms.

Western Animation

• Again, the Transformers combiner teams, as listed above. Depending on the series and combination, though, the process isn't perfect, as it turns out creating a single composite mind from five or more very different robots isn't exactly easy.
  • Energon has this as the main gimmick for the Autobots. Just about any two Autobots were capable of combining with one another, with one forming the upper body and the other forming the lower body. Whoever was the top half was the one in control of the combination.
• Mighty Orbots is a combination of types: the components are independent robots, but their human leader and his assistant enter inside, as their craft becomes the united form's control room. Once achieved, the pair control the movements of the united form, while the robots operate their specific internal functions at the command of their leader.
• Sym-Bionic Titan has the main characters form the title Titan by connecting their 2 sets of humanoid armor, plus the autonomous robot Octus, to form an actual humanoid robot.
• Legion of Super Heroes (2006) has possibly the ultimate example: after his Face–Heel Turn, Brainiac 5 takes control of his entire species — composed of metamorphing robots linked in a Hive Mind — and when challenged by the Legion, turns all of them into a single gigantic battlebot.

Group of animal robots to giant robot

Anime and Manga

• Golion (in America, the Lion Voltron).
• Digimon Fusion has this as its core gimmick setting it apart from the preceding Digimon series, referring to the combining process as DigiXrossing. A majority of component Digimon don't look robotic (nor do most of the resulting combinations beyond the main characters), but the combined forms of lead Digimon Shoutmon were clearly designed with classic combining mecha styles in mind.
  • While not robots per se, the Advance Hybrids and Ancient Digimon for Takuya, Kouji and Kouichi from Digimon Frontier were also clearly designed in this fashion, as amalgamations of the Human and Beast Spirits they were composed of. Susanoomon (an Omegamon expy) was similarly an obvious amalgamation of Kaiser Greymon and Magna Garurumon.
• Genesic GaoGaiGar. A dolphin, shark, two moles and a bird thing were substituted for the vehicles, going the opposite way from GaoFighGar.
• GUN×SWORD has the El Dorado V. Despite being crewed by senior citizens, it easily surpasses all other examples on this list when it comes to being fueled by hot blood. In their debut episode they struggle against the Villain of the Week since the El Dorado V is incomplete (one of their original members died years ago and her former mecha is still in the hangar). Vaan's contribution to the battle is to use Daan to throw said mecha at the El Dorado V, completing it. The fully restored El Dorado V easily wins.
• Dancougar probably has the most extreme version of this. Each of the robots can transform between animal, vehicle AND humanoid forms, and they can all combine into a giant robot.
• In The Red Ranger Becomes an Adventurer in Another World, the Maximum Kizuna Kaiser is formed from the Kizuna Beasts of all the Kizuna Five. Tougo is able to summon them all on his own so long as he has someone he's bonded with helping him, but it can't run at full power without the rest of his team.
• Magmatron, of the Japanese-only Transformers series Beast Wars Neo. Unlike most of the examples from Transformers, Magmatron was actually one individual that could separate his body into three smaller dinosaurs with no other modes, making him the purest example of "group of animal robots to giant robot" in the franchise. The dinosaurs could also combine to form a bigger dinosaur with three heads.
• The central premise of the anime Zoids: Fuzors.
• Gundam Build Fighters Try introduces the Tryon 3, which is a Super Robot-ified version of the ZZ Gundam formed by three animal mecha: the RikuTryon (lion), SoraTryon (eagle), and UmiTryon (Manta Ray).

Comic Books

• The non-canon Beast◊ of the Transformers comic The Beast Within, formed by the Dinobots. TFwiki put it best when they said "This is a monument to all your sins."
  • That said, the Dinobots eventually would get a proper, canon combined form in Volcanicus, toy and all.

Fan Works

• In Code Geass: Paladins of Voltron, at the Battle of Narita, the arrival of the Lions turns the tide against Britannia’s favor. But they catch them completely off guard when the Lions combine into Voltron, which proceeds to almost completely annihilate the forces sent there to eliminate the JLF. Lloyd Asphund is the only Britannian who isn’t shocked or horrified at the sight of the machine, and geeks out at the sight of Voltron.

Music

• The team in the MC Frontalot song 'I'll Form the Head' pilot 'Bright-colored robotic space rhinoceri' with 'fully articulated tusk, jaws, and hips'. Unfortunately, they're too busy arguing about who gets to be the head to actually fight anything.

Video Games

• The Final Boss of Mischief Makers was a humanoid robot formed from a wolf, ape and eagle. Those could also change into a vehicule mode.
• In Robo Army, one boss is a pack of Robot Dogs that all merge together before you fight them.

Tabletop Games

• The Mekton Mecha Manual has the God-Griffon VX, formed from the God-Fang V and the God-Wing X.

Western Animation

• The Beast Wars toyline featured Magnaboss, a combiner made of an elephant, an eagle, and a lion, each with an individual robot mode, and Tripredacus, who was similarly composed of a cicada, a lobster, and a beetle. The three components of Tripredacus appeared briefly on the cartoon, though they looked nothing like their toys because of budget constraints. Magnaboss did show up on Beast Wars II, though.
  • They were preceded by the Predacons (Predaking) and the Seacons (Piranhacon). The Terrorcons (Abominus) and the Monster Pretenders (Monstructor) may count, but they're more monster than animal. Soundwave's micro-cassette team of Beastbox (cassette/gorilla) and Squawktalk (cassette/parrot) who combine into the robot Squawkbox also counts.
• Six of the Pink Elephants from Dumbo actually combine into a large monster made entirely out of Pink Elephant heads during the song "Pink Elephants on Parade."
• Voltron: Legendary Defender, like its predecessors.

Group of vehicles to bigger vehicle

Anime and Manga

• Science Ninja Team Gatchaman has this, but even moreso with Gatchaman F's GatchaSpartan, which is made from five different machines each piloted by a member of the Gatchaman in a near similar manner to the below mentioned Gattiger.
• The Legioss and Tread fighters from Genesis Climber MOSPEADA could merge into a bigger aircraft, and each could independently become a robot.
• The Thunderbirds in the anime remake (2086) which actually made some sort of sense. It's quicker to move the smaller vehicles by strapping them to the sides of the heavy lifter than to send them all independently.
• The 15 "small" vehicles of Dairugger XV (the "other" Voltron series) could not only combine into one gigantic robot, but also combine (in three specific groups of five) into three larger vehicles.
• Each unit in the Brave Series The Brave Express Might Gaine has a train form. Each of the different "teams" (Might Gaine, Might Kaiser, the Bombers, and the Divers) are also capable of taking on a combined train form, which, along with Might Gunner's train form, can lock together to perform their ultimate (and sadly, only used once) Finishing Move, the Joint Dragon Fire. Given the fact that the hero of the series is a teenage train magnate, this is about as surprising as finding sand in the Sahara Desert.
• Gattiger in Supercar Gattiger is formed by combining its five component cars — the Center Machine, Left Machine, Right Machine, End Machine, and Back Machine.

Asian Animation

• Tobot Galaxy Detectives: Two characters, Commander Universe and Tank Guy, are able to combine into a more powerful robot called Invincible, when Tyler uses Galaxy Weapon 1 to initiate it.

Comic Books

• Arguably, some incarnations of the Fantastic Four's Fantasti-Car, which could separate into sub-vehicles for each of the Four.

Film

• The alien aircraft in Battle: Los Angeles can combine to form a powerful battle platform.
• The Bamboo Technology battleship in Moana separates into several smaller warships of various kinds.
• In Thunderbirds Are Go, the Zero-X is a hybrid between a reusable spacecraft and a reusable launch system composed of five different vehicles: a tank-like command module, a rocket-like main body, two flying wing-like lifting bodies, and a drone nosecone which serves as a temporary heat shield — the lifting bodies and nosecone are only used for atmospheric takeoffs and reentries, while the command module detaches from the main body once it reaches its destination.

Live-Action TV

• Team Knight Rider had Plato and Kat, two sentient motorcycles that could combine to form a "high speed pursuit vehicle".
• The Rescue Vehicles from Tomica Hero Rescue Force.
  • Done the same way in the sequel Tomica Hero Rescue Fire.
• Every entry in the Tsuburaya Dinosaur Trilogy (Born Free, Izenborg and Koseidon) stars some sort of truck/tank Military Mashup Machine which splits into two parts. The rear part usually transforms into some sort of VTOL-like vehicle (an independent vehicle carrier in Born Free), while the front stays as a combat-ready machine.
• Ultraman Dyna has the Super GUTS aircraft, Alpha-go, Beta-go and Gamma-go that can combine to the GUTS Eagle.
• Ultraman Mebius featured similar technology. GUYS' Gun Winger and Gun Loader jets could combine into the Gun Phoenix. Later on, they add a third plane called Gun Booster into the mix to form Gun Phoenix Striker.

Toys

• In 1987-1989, G.I. Joe had the Battleforce 2000 subline, which featured six different vehicles that were each actually two parts- one part was the main vehicle, the other part was a stationary weapon platform. While that alone would have been enough to qualify for this trope, the six individual weapon platforms could be combined together to form the Future Fortress, a large, heavily armed base.

Video Games

• In Aegis Wing, when two or more player ships come within a certain range of each other (you can tell because a line of dots show up with a blue X in the middle), a player can press X to flip and connect to the other guy. The one who initiated the merge becomes an omnidirectional gun turret, while the mergee steers and fires the forward gun.
• Two Player Mode in Blasteroids can have one player with a ship in Speeder mode (small, fast and maneuverable with little armor or firepower in exchange) combine with the other's ship in Warrior mode (large, slow but heavily armored) to form the Starlet: The Speeder becomes a player-controlled Turret that has firepower increased for its role but loses the ability to move independently (the Thrust button instead firing large blue shots), while the Warrior body becomes the Spiaret, losing some of its firepower but gaining maneuverability in exchange.
• In Wing Commander: Prophecy one common enemy fighter is the skate. They are able to form a "cluster", capable of laying mines, launching torpedos, and carrying out bombing runs with a cannon that can damage capital ship components. Needless to say, it's safest to knock apart any clusters and destroy the individual ships before they can combine.
• Star Conquest has modular ships where the base block ship, usually a gunship or destroyer, has smaller craft like shuttles or fighters attached to it to make a more capable specialized ship.
• Star Force has an enemy like this called Larios, which is a core that summons other fortresses to combine with it. Destroying the core before the fortresses combine with it is worth a bonus 50,000 points.
• In Dogyuun, player 1 can fuse with player 2 to combine into a larger plane. This allows the players to get massive firepower, but it also comes with a price- if it gets hit, both players lose a life.
• In the 7th installment of Metal Slug, you have to fight The Union, a huge tank made of three smaller individual units — a Head Tank (labeled 01), a VTOL (02), and a Slave Tank (03), each of which have a vulnerable core. They start off merged, but during the battle they will keep merging or separating from each other meaning that you have to move around to avoid getting crushed, all while each of the units attack you. This keeps on happening until every core on the trio is destroyed.

Western Animation

• The T-Sub (later T-Ship) from the Teen Titans (2003) cartoon, similar to the Fantasti-Car above.
• A small handful of Transformers combine into larger alt modes instead of larger robot modes. Dreadwing is probably the best example, being a combination of the jet modes of Decepticons Dreadwind and Darkwing that formed a large, more powerful jet (though depictions were ambiguous about whether Dreadwing was a distinct personality like other combiners or just the two of them working together). Of course, they all had their own robot modes anyhow... save for Tidal Wave, who was a big robot, a big ship, or three small ships.
• The concept was parodied in an episode of ReBoot when the characters piloting the individual animal-mechs (in this case, insects) first couldn't figure out how they were supposed to arrange themselves to form the giant robot, and then when they did, the resulting robot looked nothing at all like it had been formed from the components that made it up.
• In Thunderbirds Are Go (2015)'s Grand Finale, the spaceship Zero XL (an homage to the 1966 Thunderbirds Are Go film's Zero-X) is designed to carry the space-retrofitted Thunderbird 1 to 4 vehicles^note Technically, Thunderbird 4 is docked inside Thunderbird 2, as usual to space, and is partially powered by their engines. Once the Zero XL travels to space, it can dock with the Thunderbird 5 and transport them all in Faster-Than-Light Travel, and can also also deattach most of them.

Mix and Match

Several combinations, each of which has a distinct merged form.

Anime and Manga

• Vandread: A different merged form for each girl's Dread fighter when joined with Hibiki's Vanguard mecha, plus one big gestalt robot with all four. Usually the combinations were metaphors for sex, with Hibiki's robot merging with a female's fighter and the sum being greater than the parts. The operators would sit in positions indicative of the relationships. However, for the final form involving a male, three women, a malfunctioning robot, and an alien lifeform (praxis) all lumped together, perhaps the writers dodged the orgy metaphor and went with something like friends working together to save the day.
• Getter Robo. The first combiner robot, with three separate combinations depending on the order of its three component vehicles.
• The same idea was taken further with Lightspeed Electrogod Albegas (the "lost Voltron" — plans to be incorporate it as a third chapter were scrapped, but Voltron-branded toys were still distributed in America); its three component robots had six combinations.
• X-Head Cannon, Y-Dragon Head, and Z-Metal Tank from Yu-Gi-Oh! can each combine with one other of those three to create XY-Dragon Cannon, XZ-Tank Cannon, or YZ-Tank Dragon. Or, they can all combine together to create XYZ-Dragon Cannon. In Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, V-Tiger Jet and W-Wing Catapult were added: these could combine with each other to form VW-Tiger Catapult. That could then combine with XYZ-Dragon Cannon to form VWXYZ-Dragon Catapult Cannon, the most blatant version of this trope in Yu-Gi-Oh. GX also features Assault Cannon Beetle, a monster which uses an identical set-up to XYZ.
  • The card game takes things with the VWXYZ lineup up a notch. In 2016 it introduced A-Assault Core, B-Buster Drake, and C-Crush Wyvern, which can combine to form ABC-Dragon Buster, which itself could then combine with XYZ-Dragon Cannon to form the A-to-Z Dragon Buster Cannon. (Another monster, Armed Dragon Catapult Cannon, was released a few years later, but it's more of a living creature wearing VWXYZ-Dragon Catapult Cannon as armor, so it doesn't really count.)
• In Sonic X, Dr. Eggman has creations called Bang, BaBang, and BaBaBang (admittedly, he had trouble coming up with the names) that combine into two forms, the EggFort 2 (which bears a suspicious resemblance to the Starship Enterprise), and the Humongous Mecha E-99, the Egg Emperor (or Eggsterminator in the dub). Additionally, his robot henchmen Decoe and Bocoe had a few combination features of their own (although the one featured in episode 48 was pure fantasy, and the monster they were facing off with appropriately reacted when its expectations were crushed).
• Zettai Muteki Raijin-Oh's featured combination sequence merges the humanoid Ken-Oh, the lion Juu-Oh, and the avian Hou-Oh to form Raijin-Oh. Bakuryuu-Oh and the OVA's one-shot Castle Raijin-Oh, however, falls under Transforming Mecha.
• In Gaiking: Legend of Daiku Maryu, the skulls of the Daiku Maryu and Daichi Maryu, and the crest of the Tenku Maryu all combine with the respective Parts 1 and Parts 2 units to form Gaiking, Vulking, and Raiking, respectively. Gaiking can combine with any of three support vehicles to form either: Buster Gaiking, giving it a BFG; Sky Gaiking, allowing it to fly; Diver Gaiking, allowing it to operate underwater; or finally Triple Gaiking, in which all three of the support vehicles combine with it at once. Finally, later on in the series, the strongest parts of each of the mecha — Daiku Maryu's skull, Raiking Parts 1, and Vulking Parts 2 — can combine together to form a robot with ten times the Flame Power of the original Gaiking, called Gaiking The Great.

Comic Books

• The Transformers (IDW):
  • The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye introduces the omnicombinatorial Ammonites, in their individual forms they are tiny but any number of Ammonites can combine together in any configuration.
  • The Transformers: Combiner Wars: The series was billed as a Vehicle to promote the new Combiner toyline (featuring Menasor, Superion, Defensor and Devastator). Combiners have been an important part of the IDW continuity, especially for Decepticons, and the sheer amount of destructive power they hold is something Starscream wishes to use to expand his empire.

Toys

• Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse and his friends get their own combining mecha. That is, they pilot mecha modeled after themselves alongside Steamboat Willie as "Ace Willie" and Pluto's dog house, and they can combine all eight of these mecha into the larger, stronger humanoid King Robot Mickey & Friends.

Video Games

• The Choukijin in Super Robot Wars, based on The Four Gods.
• In Contra Hard Corps, one of the stages had your character(s) fight against an aeroplane robot, a sea-urchin robot and a dolphin robot as the minibosses. After the three get their asses handed to them (and escape), they merge together to form a large running robot, a robot bird, and a robot-tank hybrid respectively before attempting to merge one last time and exploding spectacularly instead. The boss, is in fact similar to Gunstar Heroes Seven Force.
• In the Final Fantasy XIV raid "The Burden of the Son", the raid boss is a mecha of this variety. The fight starts fighting against Onsalughter, a quadrupedal robot that looks like a smaller version of the boss from the eariler "The Burden of the Father" raid, which goes down quickly. Then four humanoid robots, Blaster, Brawler, Swindler and Vortexer, that you fought one-by-one in "The Cuff of the Son" show up for a rematch, this time fought two at a time. Then all five use this trope to form Brute Justice, and the fight truly begins. Naturally, the whole fight (including the background music) is an homage to Voltron and other anime of its era.
  • All the names of the robots are also homages to the 1985 Transformers super-robot Bruticus, formed of Onslaught, Blast-Off, Brawl, Swindle, and Vortex.
  • The Alexander raid series pulls out this trope yet again in The Epic of Alexander (Ultimate); Brute Justice suddenly appears, disassembles, and the components then combine with Alexander Prime. Cruise Chaser then swoops in and transforms to form the robot's head. The result is Alexander the Assembled, who is much more humanoid than its previous form.
• Ground Control 2 has the alein race using bio-technology, allowing them to combine to form totally diffrent units.
• Ganbare Goemon 3 had the Big Bad, Jurokubei, use a huge lion mech flanked by two small snake mechs, eventually the lion would become a torso with head and legs while the snakes became the arms, creating a giant samurai robot. It then glides up to Impact, drawing it's swords threateningly... then the incompetent cross-dressing second in command, Bismaru, flies in his nun-head escape pod and lands right on top of the enemy mech, offering no benefit at all and making it look plain ridicuous. Jurokubei is left wailing about how Bismaru ruined his big scene.
• Mega Man 11 has the Robot Master Impact Man, who is formed from three piledriver robots called the Impact Brothers, any one of whom can assume control of the combined form. In addition to a humanoid form, they can combine into a three-sided drill or (with the Power Gear) combine with other piledriver robots to form a giant jackhammer.

Webcomics

• Gofotron in the "GOFOTRON: Champion of the Cosmos" storyline (starts here) in Sluggy Freelance, a parody of Voltron. It consists of six sections. Including the crotch.

Western Animation

• The Seacons, Generation 1 Transformers latecomers, used the usual "four limbs plus the commander as torso" combination, but actually had six members; whichever subordinate was left out could transform into a gun for the combined form.
  • The aforementioned "four limbs plus the commander as torso" configuration was actually used for several combiners starting in the second season of G1 — called the "Scramble City" combiners after a Japan-only OVA that heavily involved them and showed off the limb-switching gimmick. They were originally the Aerialbots/Superion, the Protectobots/Defensor, the Stunticons/Menasor, and the Combaticons/Bruticus, and season three would add the Technobots/Computron and the Terrorcons/Abominus. They could use the four smaller robots as limbs completely interchangeably — even switching arms/legs between teams (at least with the toys). Behold Abomenaticus! (Takes parts from Abominus, Menasor, and Bruticus.)
    • This would be revisited with the toyline for Combiner Wars (mentioned above).
    • And in Transformers: Energon, there were three combiners that worked like this, named in homage to G1 combiners: Superion Maximus, Bruticus Maximus, and Constructicon Maximus. They couldn't interact with the G1 toys but they could interact with each other in the same ways that the G1 Scramble City combiners could. In a similar vein, almost every Autobot in Energon had the Spark of Combination; any two Autobots of similar size with this ability could combine into a (slightly) larger robot.
    • The toys even represented this with a more one-size-fits-all transformation, as each Autobot could turn into the legs or the torso. The potential combinations were many — far more than the show could feature.
    • The Japanese-exclusive Multiforce also did this. They could also all combine into a single large robot.
  • Transformers: Robots in Disguise had non-Scramble City types that could still take on different configurations, as well as the Scramble City-type Ruination, who had two preferred formations.
    • Of course, since Ruination was a redecoed G1 Bruticus, this should not be surprising.
  • Transformers likes this. A sub-line called the Micromaster Combiners consists of pairs of robots who combine to form single vehicles. Though each had a specific partner, one of the selling points was that any two Micromaster Combiners could combine, even if the resulting vehicle was... unconventional◊. Or, for that matter, outright insane◊.
    • This was later played on and deconstructed in the second film. Skids and Mudflap have the combined form of a 1930's ice-cream truck. However, during the opening chase scene, they take a corner too sharply, split apart, and careen into a wall.

Mecha Expansion Pack Augment

A smaller mecha simply attaches to a larger one, usually as a weapon or a bit of armor.

Anime and Manga

• Mazinger Z is the first example — the robot is powered by dropping a small aircraft (the "pilder") onto its head. And then it is combined with a Jet Pack to allow it fly.
  • Great Mazinger is also powered by a small aircraft docks on its head.
  • UFO Robo Grendizer combines with a space ship to shape a starship. It also combines with different Jet Pack to allow it move on space, underwater or underground.
  • Shin Mazinger took this up a notch with the God Scrander which allowed Mazinger Z to transform into a giant fist.
• Lagann of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann has the power to hijack and combine with any other significantly sized machine, and can even combine those combinations. First with the Gurren to form the Gurren-Lagann, and that with the city-sized Arc-Gurren battleship to form the Arc-Gurren-Lagann, and finally that with the moon-sized Hyper-Galaxy DaiGurren to form Hyper-Galaxy Gurren Lagann. Kamina literally cites the Rule of Cool Rule of Manly Spirit as justification, and haphazardly shoves his partner's mech into his by the drill protruding from the bottom of it in the third episode, looking incredibly stupid for his efforts until it actually works. Unlike most other instances, the combination is incredibly kickass.

  Viral: How is he suddenly able to power up like this?! All he did was tack on the mini-Ganmen!!

  • However it's subverted/parodied in one instance of the manga, when Kamina decides combining them the same way every time isn't "artistic" and tries to form "the Lagann-Gurren".
  • There's actually a subtle, and really bad pun in that Simon, whose name is based on below is on the top and Kamina whose name roughly means above (it's a series thing; everyone lives underground), is on the bottom of the Gurren Lagann combination. Told you it was a bad pun.
  • Amidst all of this, one of the lesser known one was Gurren Lagann's wings, which is literally another stolen mecha (one that Simon skewered) and morphed into it's engine and wings. Unlike other examples, this was a rather permanent addition (It was removed once, but to be used as a makeshift weapon).
  • You all forgot to mention when the Chouginga Gurren Lagann combines with the hotblood of the Dai-Gurren Brigade to form the mech the series was named after. The resulting combination erupts through the center of a galaxy it stands on top of, is constantly on fire, and has like 13 heads, including one IN THE MOUTH OF ANOTHER.
    • Taken even further in the second movie, a recap of the second part of the series. Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann is torn apart, but the dozen+ pilots are able to form their own individual giant mecha on the same scale, then combine those. Words cannot describe it, so watch it in action.
• Certain Gundam series had Combining Mecha of this type, most notable among which are the original Gundam, where the combined forms were added due to merchandising concerns.
  • Most notable: Gundam ZZ's Gundam was formed by three fighters, and Gundam SEED Destiny had the Impulse which was made up by variable fighter jets. In Gundam 00 the 00 Gundam can also be powered up by enabling the 0 Raiser as a kind of attached catalyzer, making the 00 Raiser.
  • Victory Gundam had not only Victory Gundam as a combination of three fighters, but some of the atmospheric mobile suits had an upper torso that could turn into a helicopter, and a separate "leg unit" that followed the cockpit around which would be attached to make a full mobile suit. When the main core fighter of the victory Gundam was upgraded to include boosters that act as beam cannons when it combines with its fighter limbs, it becomes the V-Dash Gundam, or if it has a different head, the V-Dash Hexa.
  • In some sort of weird variation of this, the S-Gundam from Gundam Sentinel has the components and trappings of a Combining Mecha, including separate cockpits, but is usually piloted by one human pilot and a very advanced AI.
  • Zigzagged in Gundam Build Divers Re:RISE: all four of the main cast's robots have expansion packs of some description, and their ultimate combination requires all of them to separate their respective cores from the expansion packs, after which the main character's Core Gundam combines with the expansion packs of the other three robots to form a huge Gundam. This plays out more like a traditional Super Robot combination than an expansion pack, because the Core Gundam is small enough that it only forms the head and a small part of the upper body, with the rest of the body being formed by the expansion packs. In addition, unusually, the other three characters are still able to move and fight in their respective core robots or fighters.
• The Brave Series (which GaoGaiGar hails from) does this with incredible frequency. Every single series has the main hero mecha combine with at least one larger support vehicle to form his main "super" robot mode. This form then almost always mid series gets a second robot who combines with it as well to form a "Great" form. Additionally, one of the secondary mecha teams usually gets an extra member (who becomes additional armor and weapons). From Brave Express Might Gaine onwards, there is also typically one mecha in the series who forms a weapon for the main robot. Usually this is a gigantic cannon, but on some occasions, it takes the form of a huge sword or the legendary Goldion Hammer in Gao Gai Gar.
  • GaoGaiGar, where several vehicles combine with a central lion-robot to make it larger and more powerful. (Original only — later versions from FINAL replaced the core or the peripherals.)
    • Oddly on its first appearance they were still working on some of the sequence and it ended up banging the parts up pretty badly.
• Gravion, likewise has four vehicles combining with a central bot.
  • In Gravion Zwei, the second season, there is a second mecha with also four vehicles upgrading the central bot. The vehicles cas be swapped between the two bots, and one of the bots can be upgraded by the eight vehicles and the other bot.
• In Den-noh Coil, Satchii and its copies can dispatch spherical patrol units, equipped with beam weapons. These can be re-assembled into pre-allocated slots, enabling the base unit to fire them all at once. Satchii differs from the other examples by being purely virtual, but since most of the show's characters dwell in cyberspace it is still considered a major threat.
• Blocker Gundan IV Machine Blaster combined the concept of Mazinger Z with Super Sentai — instead of one robot with a piloted aircraft that would attach to it, there was a team of four, each robot with its own piloted aircraft that formed the robot's head.
  • Also note that, while the Blocker Gundan IV mecha lack the ability to combine with each other compared to most other mecha teams, they could, at the very least, perform Combination Attacks, which you can see in Joint Weapons 1, Joint Weapons 2, Joint Weapons 3, and Joint Weapons 4.
• The Magnemite, Beldum, and Klink lines from Pokémon actually do this to evolve.
• In Tomica Hyper Rescue Drive Head Kidou Kyuukyuu Keisatsu, the main Drive Head robots can combine with Support Vehicles, resulting in getting new equipment such as a pair of wings or stronger weapons.
• In the anime series, Captain Earth, the Ordinary mecha forms — which are mostly used for surface combat — can combine with three larger, stronger modules to form their larger, more powerful Impactor forms for space combat.

Film

• The Heisei era Mechagodzilla in Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II could dock with a futuristic aircraft called the Garuda for extra firepower and flying capability.
• Transformers: Dark of the Moon had Optimus Prime with a trailer. Said trailer could either become a mobile armory or a flight pack. Both were overflowing with dakka.
  • Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen has Optimus combine with Jetfire, but not in a traditional way. Jetfire, already critically injured, actually killed himself so that his armor, weapons and flight capabilities could be grafted onto Optimus as a Super Mode, as Optimus himself was in a weakened state. Fans theorize the components were later repurposed into the trailer.

Literature

• In Halo: First Strike, the UNSC frigate Gettysburg is attached to the much larger Covenant carrier Ascendant Justice because Cortana needs to combine both ships' reactors in order to make multiple slipspace jumps in quick succession.

Live-Action TV

• Toku hero Denkō Chōjin Gridman would had this as a gimmick, being able to wear one of two combining mecha as armor. (That's Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad in the West.)

Tabletop Games

• This is effectively how the Chimerae in the Visions expansion of Magic: The Gathering work. Each chimera is an artifact creature that can be sacrificed to put a token granting its own power, toughness, and special ability (flying, trample, vigilance, or first strike) on another chimera. If you combined one of each of those chimerae together (just make sure you never sacrifice the one you put the first token on), you'd end up with an 8/8 monstrosity with all four of the above-mentioned abilities. Amusingly, since the rules text don't specify artifact chimerae, it would become possible to attach the Visions creatures first to Mistform Ultimus, then the changelings in Lorwyn and Morningtide (in both cases, we're talking about creatures that count as every creature type at once — chimerae included), and finally actual, biological chimerae in Theros.

Video Games

• The Huckebein MK III in Super Robot Wars could combine with the R-Sword into the Huckebein Boxer, or be combined with the AM Gunner ship to form the Huckebein Gunner.
  • SRX also had an addon in the form of the R-Gun, a mecha whose main purpose is to transform into a huge gun. It was decent on its own, but could perform the ridiculously powerful Heaven And Earth One Shot Sure Kill Cannon combo attack with SRX, an attack so powerful that in at least one game, it could kill the final boss in one shot.
• Rush and Treble to Mega Man (Classic) and Bass, respectively.
• An Awesome, but Impractical example of this is Nod Avatar Warmech from Command & Conquer: Tiberium Wars. It would literally rip pieces off of allied vehicles to upgrade itself; in the end you could have an invisible Giant Robot with dual lasers, with a flamethrower and stealth detectors for good measure. This is somewhat worse that it sounds, since not only do you have to sacrifice a unit for every Avatar you upgrade, it takes time and micromanagement away from a better purpose (like using your tanks AND Avatars to crush your enemies). It could be somewhat useful, however, if your opponent is also Nod, because you could make your Avatar stronger and instantly destroy their vehicles.
  • It's strong armor does make up for the traditional NOD weakness where their tools can dish out the pain but can't take it. Of course multiplayer is too fast paced to ever get the upgrades done but in the campaigns you can just turtle up untill you are ready to unleash the unstoppable mecha goodness.
• In Xenogears, Jessiah's Buntline Gear transforms into a mecha-sized handgun for his son's Renmazuo... with the cockpit as the bullet.
  • Hey, he made sure to fix that little design flaw before he piloted it.
• The Sturmvogel from Einhänder. Once you damage the main body enough, it calls in an armored unit to attach on top, starting the second part of the boss fight.

Western Animation

• The Mini-Cons from Transformers: Armada were mostly this.
  • To confuse the matter, several Mini-con teams could combine into something larger — Perceptor was the main three Minicons combined into a robot, but other teams could combine into Transformer-sized weapons; the Star Saber, Skyboom Shield and Requiem Blaster.
  • Also in Transformers Armada, Optimus Prime's combinations with Jetfire and Overload (sometimes at the same time) and Megatron's combination with Tidal Wave were exactly this. This also showed up in several other series:
  * Masterforce - Ginrai + Godbomber (aka "God Ginrai")
  Victory - Starsaber + Victory Leo (aka "Victory Saber")
  * Robots in Disguise - Optimus + Ultra Magnus (aka "Omega Prime")
  * Robots in Disguise - Optimus + his vehicle mode's rear section (aka "Battle Mode")
  * Armada - Optimus + Jetfire (aka "Jet Convoy" and "Jet Optimus" at different times; see Inconsistent Dub.)
  * Armada - Optimus + Overload
  * Armada - Optimus + Jetfire + Overload
  * Armada - Optimus + his vehicle mode's rear section (aka "Super Mode")
  * Armada - Megatron/Galvatron + Tidal Wave
  * Energon - Optimus + Wing Saber (in a "Flight" configuration and a "Lots of Guns" configuration)
  * Energon - Optimus + Omega Supreme (aka "Optimus Supreme")
  * Energon - Optimus + drone vehicles contained in his vehicle mode's rear section (aka "Super Mode" Again)
  * Energon - Optimus + Omega Supreme + super mode drones
  * Cybertron - Optimus + Leobreaker (aka "Savage Claw Mode")
  * Cybertron - Optimus + Wing Saber (again, aka "Sonic Wing Mode." This name is not used in Energon.)
  * Cybertron - Optimus + his vehicle mode's rear section (aka "Super Mode.") (Yet Again.)
  * Cybertron - Megatron/Galvatron + Nemesis Breaker (aka "Dark Claw Mode")
  * And in the second movie, Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen - Optimus + Jetfire (again)
  * And in the third movie, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Optimus + his vehicle mode's rear section (as usual.)
• In Transformers: Generation 1, Megatron turned into a gun which was wielded by other Decepticons, usually Starscream, of all 'cons in what could be most bland combination ever (Gun Combined with person to become person with a gun!!!)
  • Megatron is usually thought to be unable to fire on his own, but he is seen firing himself in the opening sequence and once ever in show, suggesting he can when he really, really wants to. Maybe it's aiming that's the problem.
  • The Headmasters, Targetmasters, and Powermasters, in which mobile suits for human(oid) partners became the heads, weapons, or engines for larger Transformers, respectively.
  • In the Japanese post-G1 sequels, Headmasters were smaller Cybertronians from the planet Master linking up with giant non-sentient robot suits called Transtectors (basically, think of the cartoon version of Scorponok and Fortress Maximus. The larger robots that Zarak and Spike/Cerebros combine with would be called Transtectors in Japan.) Powermasters were called Godmasters and were humans in mobile suits^note They're donned Power Rangers style by the use of Master Brace wrist devices and a transformation call linking with Transtectors. Headmaster Juniors were also suited human sidekicks linked with Transtectors. Targetmasters were Master robots partnered with real, living Transformers.
  • The toyline for Transformers War For Cybertron introduced the C.O.M.B.A.T. and F.O.S.S.I.L. systems, which were toys that could be broken down into pieces that could be used as weapons by other toys. For example, Paleotrex can be disassembled and stuck into the 5 mm connection ports on so many other toys that TFWiki has a page just for them, allowing you to equip other characters with things like a big sword made out of dinosaur bones.
• The Bots Master has Twig. He serves as ZZ's personal bodyguard and can transform into a component of a car. He can also merge with the car and transform into a bigger robot.

Other

• The 1989 Japan-only line of Zoids had Shoteagle, Gorgolauncher, and Thundercannon which plugged into larger "grade up" types after transforming into a BFG.

Other

Anime and Manga

• Parodied in One Piece, where, to fight the massive zombie Oars, Franky, Chopper, Usopp, Zoro and Sanji "combine" (really just stand on each other) into a massive humanoid figure dubbed "Pirates Docking 6: Big Emperor". It didn't do anything besides add extra comedic value, because Robin refused to "dock in" as the left arm, claiming that it would be "too embarrassing". In the anime, this is followed up shortly after with "Pirates Docking 3", with only Franky, Usopp and Chopper "combining". However, compared to "Big Emperor", "Pirates Docking 3" was marginally more useful by tricking Oars to punch himself in the face once.
  • In One Piece: Unlimited Cruise 2, they do this again, with Luffy and Brook joining in.
    • And then there's Chapter 636, where they play the trope completely straight, with the Black Rhino FR-U #4 combining with Dinosaurs Brachio Tank #5 to form the humanoid "Iron Pirate Franky Shogun".
  • At least, One Piece protagonists are physically strong enough to "combine". Normal people, on the other hand... courtesy of Sluggy Freelance, see here.
  • Similarly done in the LIVE-ACTION Hong Kong film Holy Weapon (1993). The Seven Virgins are played by some of Hong Kong's most famous actresses. And they actually fight. Don't miss it!
• Gekiganger 3 from Martian Successor Nadesico, which includes both a Mix-And-Match style robot (an Expy of Getter Robo) and two augmentations for its Mid-Season Upgrade, Gekiganger V (Dragonganger and Spaceganger).
• Getter Robo is the ultimate example of Combining Mecha as it is capable of combining with absolutely anything, mechanical or not and transforming them into mecha. This has included living people, nuclear missiles, THE DINOSAURS, Mars and other planets and eventually an entire freakin' GALAXY.
• Astro Ganger: Astroganger is an unusual case of a human needing to fuse with a robot. He does so using his magical pendant.
• The Scavengers team from Battle Angel Alita: Last Order ends up being cannon fodder when Toji just punched the crap out of them once they combined like Voltron with a series of Electromagnetically accelerated punches. To make it even worse, their appearance did not last 2 panels.
• In Super Dimension Fortress Macross, the title's vessel was originally a Supervision Army gunship capable of space travel. When it sliced away Macross Island and a bit of the surrounding ocean, the submersible landing vessel and aircraft carrier Daedalus and Prometheus were taken along for the ride, and somehow attached to the Macross ship. Then they reconfigured the vessel to turn into a Humongous Mecha, with these ships taking the place of its arms. In the visual continuity sprouting from Macross: Do You Remember Love? the Daedalus and Prometheus were replaced with two ARMD defense cruisers that were already in orbit when the Macross folded into outer space.
• Anime only MÄR characters, the Flat Sisters: Grave, Allegro and Moderato form Rotkappchen Waltzer, what looks like a giant rag doll.
• Kotetsu Jeeg, from the creator of Mazinger Z and Getter Robo, has an interesting version: the protagonist is a cyborg who transforms into a giant head, which then combines with man-made parts to form a Humongous Mecha. In the Revival-slash-AlternateUniverse sequel Koutetsushin Jeeg, a transforming motorcycle forms the head of Koutetsushin Jeeg, which otherwise functions exactly like its precursor.
  • Which was probably the inspiration for the Headmasters of various Transformers series, which were people in special Powered Armor that lets them turn into the head of a Transformer to make it stronger. There's also the Targetmasters (gun) and Powermasters (engine).
• The Meklord Emperors from Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds, made up of five different types of monster cards ('Core', 'Top', 'Guard', 'Attack', and 'Carrier'). The 'Wisel' cards form a giant humanoid, the 'Skiel' cards form a giant bird, and there's supposedly a third set which has yet to be revealed. They can be powered up by using stronger versions of the individual cards. They can even be mixed between two different creatures, i.e. creating Wisel with a Skiel Carrier card produces a Wisel with wings where it's legs should be.
  • As of episode 110, the 3rd Meklord Emperor, Grannel, has been revealed, taking the appearance of a giant gold golem-like creature.
  • It has the form of a tank, with a cannon.
  • The duelists who wield the Meklords can also do this, combining with their Duel Runners. Then the three duelists themselves combine into one person named Aporia, and so do their Runners — and then Aporia combines himself with the unified Runner.
• Future Robot Daltanious, which was originally intended to Voltron, involves a combination of a humanoid robot, a lion, and a vehicle — the same types of mecha used by Albegas, Golion, and Dairugger, the shows that did become Voltron.
• In the two-part Kid Icarus short "Palutena's Revolting Dinner" from Studio Shaft, the vegetables (brought to life thanks to a rejuvination potion) fuse together to form a giant vegetable creature.
• A mildly weird case in BBK/BRNK, in that the components are weapons rather than smaller mecha. The result is still a Humongous Mecha, though.
• Spoofed in a Galaxy Angel episode, where the Angels repeatedly try (and fail) to form a combined robot to fight a giant monster. At the end, Volcott decides he's going to send a robot that's already combined, prompting an angry Ranpha to ask why he didn't do that from the start.

Asian Animation

• Boonie Bears: Not in the show itself, but the company Lingdong produced a toy based on the series that consists of Briar, Bramble, and Logger Vick's truck, which can all be assembled into a large mecha-looking thing.
• Mechamato: The group of cone-like alien robots called the Cone Konchos can assemble themselves to form a humanoid giant comprised of robotic cones, though they fall over at first because one of them, who formed their left leg, is late to assemble with the others.

Comic Books

• A short anthology story, penned by Neil Gaiman, has the inhabitants of two sleepy backwater villages somewhere in southern Europe fight out an annual mock-battle, in which they climb on each other's shoulders and form a massive human-shaped entity. The "combined mecha" of each vllage, each made up of hundreds of people, then fights out a mock battle, the movement of its "arms" and "legs" dictated by a bizarre series of ropes and pulleys directed from the "brain". This all goes tragically wrong one day when the super-mecha, a sort of massive flesh golem, collapses under its own weight, with massive loss of life and injury. Neither village ever recovers from the loss of so many of its best young people.
• Gold Digger, the Vaultron Force are a knockoff/parody of Voltron, except they're robot shoes that turn into a Humongous Mecha, and since the shoes are piloted by leprechauns the "Humongous" Mecha is the size of an average person.

Film

• Long before anyone did this with robots, four of the spirits from 13 Ghosts merged into a spinning wheel of flames in the 1960 film.
• In Pacific Rim: Uprising, this gets deployed against the mecha, when a Brainwashed and Crazy Newt unleashes a tide of tiny Swarmers that merge three kaiju into the giant "Mega Kaiju".

Literature

• Undefeated Bahamut Chronicle has an unusual example. Rosa's Drag-Ride Gorynych can combine with the wreckage of destroyed Drag-Rides, temporarily reaching Humongous Mecha proportions. In this state, known as Devil Machia Mode, she can go toe to toe with a Ragnarok and win.

Video Games

• Bomberman Generation features the Civil Engineering Brothers (a sentient forklift and bulldozer) combining into a large robot well over five times Bomberman's size, complete with a flashy Transformation Sequence.
• In Kingdom Wars 2 from Springcomes, the setting is a fantasy world whose highest tech achievement are Steampunk and [1] gizmos such as the Goblin copter. But from another dimension comes the legendary unit Mark Seven and the superlegendary Undine. Mark Seven is a stationary defense turret that fires Energy Balls from where it's been deployed while Undine is an android swordswoman with a high tech sword and incredible partying skill. However if you move Undine into Mark Seven, they'll combine to transform Undine into Flying Firepower as she flies around in jet boots and her hands are replaced with an Arm Cannon each, as they shoot even deadlier energy balls than Mark Seven did before.
• No More Heroes: Travis Touchdown's favorite show Pure White Lover Bizarre Jelly is about three magical girls with mecha that combine to form Pure White Giant Glastonberry.
• No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle has a version of the Glastonberry built for himself in the event that he's ever staring down a giant robot.
• This was the main gimmick of the Capcom Shoot 'Em Up Side Arms: by picking a certain power-up, one player could combine their mecha with the other player's to form a more powerful mecha controlled by both.
• As an April Fool's Day joke, Blizzard showcased a new unit for the Terrans: The Terra-tron, which is formed by combining ALL OF THE BUILDINGS IN THE AREA into a huge mecha. It is loaded with shout-outs to other famous uses of this trope, just listen to its dialogue.
• The special infected in this Left 4 Dead Fan Art.
• In The Matrix: Path of Neo, the final boss is a giant Agent Smith constructed by all the Smiths from various debris, topped with giant sunglasses ripped from a billboard.
• It's not necessarily mecha (But embodies the trope well enough), but in Gensou Shoujo Taisen You (a Touhou fangame based on Super Robot Wars), The Fairies of Light (Sunny Milk, Luna Child and Star Sapphire) and the Prismriver Sisters parody this trope by combining into a singular unit by grouping up. In the case of the Fairies of Light, it is done in a scene that parodies Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.
  Sunny: If that's how they're gonna play it, we have to use our trump card!
  Luna: We have a trump card?
  Sunny: Isn't it obvious?! We combine!
  Luna: We can combine?!
  Keine: You can combine?!
  Sanae: They can combine!
• In Mario & Luigi: Dream Team, Earthwake, one of the giant bosses is one of these composed of buildings.
• In the Sonic the Hedgehog series, Eggman's Egg Mobile is his most versatile creation, able to be fitted with any number of armor, weapons and tools, as well as slot into various giant machines Eggman creates to use as a control device.

Webcomics

• Parodied again in this Nedroid comic, along with Hot-Blooded mecha animé in general.
• Also parodied in this The Perry Bible Fellowship comic.
• When Wonderella gets lazy, "Faerie Force is GO!"
• Both parodied and played straight in Operator: After forcibly combining his opponents' mech with his own [unusually, an irreversible process that forced the other guy to abandon ship], Griff later has a dream about 'combining' that is a direct Shout-Out to Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.
• Paranatural features humans attempting to combine into a mecha form, in this case three bullies standing on each other's shoulders, a.k.a the "Friendship Fusion!"

Web Original

• In the /v/ Rage Flash a mecha is made out of Video Game Systems, but it collapses in a Puff of Logic because:
  Concoles can't combine you FAGGOT

Western Animation

• Megas XLR has two, entirely different, examples:
  • In the first episode (and the Lowbrow pilot), several Glorft robots combine into a giant humanoid mecha. This is followed by several of those mecha combining into an even bigger mecha, repeating for several iterations, with Gorrath's spider-like mecha docking at the center of the resulting gigantic abomination. It's just as ridiculous as it sounds.
  • In the episode Bad Guy, the S-Force possess five animal-themed mecha that can combine in the typical Voltron-esque fashion. This inspires Coop to combine Megas (a humanoid mecha) with the S-Force's mechs. Note that none of the robots involved are designed for this, meaning Coop just shoved Megas' limbs into the the asses of the other robots, then slammed the hawk-mecha onto its back. Ironically enough, this does actually give Megas access to all the S-Force's abilities and powers it up enough to defeat the bad guy.
    Ender: I thought I was evil, but that's just mean.
• The Senior Citizen Squad from Codename: Kids Next Door are somehow able to form a humongous mecha out of a cane, a walker, and a wheelchair.
• Joe and his wheelchair buddies from Family Guy have the power to form Crippletron, a mecha made from all of them stacked into a single being that, ironically, can walk. It can also shoot parts of itself as missiles.
• In the fight on Celebrity Deathmatch between *NSYNC and The Backstreet Boys, the latter boy band combined to form the "Backstreet Beast". This would later be parodied by the Robot Chicken sketch "Enter the Fat One"; Britney Spears "combines" with fellow artists Christina Aguilera, Avril Lavigne, Jessica Simpson, and Jessica Simpson's sister as the Final Boss, while Joey in turn gains the power of his bandmates' souls and grows to an equal size to defeat the girl-monster.
• In The Venture Brothers, the Venture twins' overactive imagination during a witness testimony in a court case against the Monarch culminates in them combining together to form "Mecha Shiva", which they reenact in the court room. Really it's just Dean sitting on Hank's shoulders while they wildly wave their arms.
• The villains of The Fairly Oddparents Halloween Episode were four pumpkin-like robots called the Jack O'Bots who formed into one big machine called the Pumpkinator (or rather, the four popular kids wearing the costumes when Timmy made his wish).
• Anubian in Huntik is a monster that acts like a Combining Mecha. Five flying bug-eyeball-things combine with a torso to create the creature.
• Dexter's Laboratory has a parody of this in one episode — all of Dexter's family members control a different section of the combined robot, and thus are out of sync until they figure out how to work together. In fact, they even have to switch places early on because they had no idea how to properly use the individual limbs.
• Regular Show has a quartet of ducklings that when Mordecai and Rigby are helpless, they fuse to become a giant anthropomorphic eagle that can upgrade.
• Adventure Time had the episode where the Magic Man turned Finn into a giant foot. Eventually, he convinced the Magic Man's other victims (who had been turned into various body parts) to join forces so they could kick his butt and force him to return them to normal.
  Jake: ...and I'll form...the pants.
• The three magic totems in Paw Paw Bears played this role.
• Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go!: The Super Robot can split into six combat vehicles and reform whenever the Hyperforce wants it to.
• Duncan of Total Drama found capturing a raccoon to be more difficult than anticipated (even with his chainsaw), when a swarm of them combine into a giant raccoon-bot, complete with Glowing Eyes of Doom.
  Duncan: Well that's more than meets the eye...
• The Patrick Star Show: "The Star Games" ends with Patrick and his family combining smaller robot parts to pilot a giant mech in order to fight off a coffee cup that Squidina accidentally mutated into a dinosaur with time-travel shenanigans.

Real Life

• One proposal for solar-powered high-altitude drones that could perform the tasks of communications satellites involves launching several smaller drones, which would link together at their wingtips at high altitude to form a flying relay station with a wingspan of 400 feet or more. By doing this, "replacement" drones could be added as old ones wore out, and the entire system could remain airborne for years.
• Technically, most forms of spacecraft docking are the combination of two or more autonomous spacecraft to a bigger one. Noticeable examples are the modular space stations Mir, ISS and Tiangong; and the Apollo lunar orbit rendezvous process which involved the separation of an autonomous spacecraft and lunar lander, and the subsequent re-docking of both parts.

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