>>7180182I've owned 11 from this list at one point and have only kept 5 of them. I haven't been completely satisfied with any of what I've picked up, especially for the price you pay. Of that 5 I've only kept 2 of them in part because of their combined mode, but not solely because of it.
From what I've owned, I can recommend Quantron, Giant, and Guardia from Maketoys. When combined they're super solid even if they are somewhat limited in poseabilty or the most intuitive toys. They are somewhat a mixed bag as robots with more winners than losers IMO. Quantron and Giant can typically be found on deep discount. With Quantron, I would hunt down the shadowfisher addon pieces.
I give a slightly less high recommendation for Gravity Builder, Poseidon, and Feral Rex. They are fairly stable, but have trouble under their own weight. I liked the bots of the GB team but there was so much afterthought bits that didn't lock into place that it turned me off from the set. Rex is love or hate, with the design and proportions not working for me in the long run. Poseidon is extremely configurable and fun as robots/beasts but really expensive without ebay flash sales and has a lot of difficulty incorporating all 6 members.
From what I haven't owned but handled/observed, IF's War Giant is a fun little guy with some tolerance issues with the individual bots and won't break the bank. The Toyworld/Zeta combiners that aren't the dinobots are really only worthwhile in combined mode, but thanks to the extra partsforming they are big, imposing, and fairly stable.
