Dear Vector Prime,
Can two Combiners swap team members to change their equipment or gain new properties?
Dear Fastidious Fusilateral,
When multiple bots merge, each constituent lends their own special onboard technology and mental faculties to the result—so any rearrangement will produce a different personality and abilities in the combiner.
For example, if the Protectobot Hot Spot and the Aerialbot Silverbolt swap their respective teams, then Defensor would gain the ability of short-range flight, while Superion would gain a weak forcefield. This has in fact happened on one occasion, when Silverbolt—suffering a particularly bad bout of acrophobia—asked Hot Spot to take his place. The other Protectobots did not recognise this new combiner at first, and referred to him as "Hyperion". After they merged with Silverbolt to form "Suppressor", both combiners proved an awkward match against the unbridled ferocity of Menasor and Bruticus, which illustrates the main problem with scrambling combiners: any strategic advantage to be had by a non-standard configuration is simply negligible, compared to the single-mindedness made possible by an experienced team who are accustomed to one another’s company.
In my personal files, I have a copy of the so-called "Theseus Archive", which purports to catalog every single possible combination, each with its own name. Now, let us see, we have… Abomenaticus… Betatron… Comperian… Gaia Poseidon… Scramble 13, Securitas… hmm. You know, looking through the full list now, I realize most of them have certainly never been formed—well, except for in the author’s mind, that is. Look at this one, "Swindlor"—Swindle is listed for every single limb! That can’t be right. Or here: left leg, Blast Off, right leg, Groove! Why, he would be so unbalanced, a single step would send him toppling to the floor. And if there truly was a combiner containing both Blot and Skalor at the same time, well, I should think the author would’ve passed out before writing it down!