COMBATICONS

The Combaticons were originally known simply as the Renegade Decepticons - five turncoats who refused to follow Megatron's rule in the years prior to the fateful voyage of the Ark. As punishment, Megatron has their personality components removed from their superstructures. While the superstructures were destroyed, the components were kept in the Decepticon detention centre on Cybertron, where they remained for over four million years.
A year or so after the Autobots and Decepticons were reactivated one Earth, the traitorous Decepticon, Starscream was cast out of the Decepticon ranks by Megatron, who possessed little tolerance for him. Dumped on an island in the Guadal Canal, Starscream shortly uncovered a collection of old World War II vehicles, some of which reminded him of other Decepticons. Hitting upon an idea, he traveled to Cybertron via the Decepticon spacebridge, and broke into the detention centre, stealing the personality components of the Renegade Decepticons. Returning to Earth, he inserted a personality component into each of the vehicles, creating the Combaticons - Onslaught, Blast-Off, Brawl, Swindle, and Vortex. The Combaticons were unwilling to follow Starscream, and only obeyed his commands as he had not equipped their new bodies with the means to recharge themselves. He promised them he would give them energy absorbers if they worked for him. The Combaticons attacked the dedication ceremony for a monument to Optimus Prime, and captured the Autobots, Jazz and Cliffjumper. After a battle with Megatron and the Decepticons, which ended in a draw as the Decepticons retreated, they also captured Dirge and Thrust. Despite the fact that this only gave them four energy absorbers between them, the group somehow recharged themselves, and engaged in battle with the Decepticons again. This time, the Constructicons merged into Devastator, but then the Combaticons combined into Bruticus, and almost destroyed Devastator, until the Stunticons arrived, merged into Menasor, and caught Bruticus off-guard, and defeated him. Megatron then commanded Astrotrain to take Starscream and the Combaticons to an asteroid floating in space, where they would be imprisoned, exiled from Earth, forever.
The five Combaticons each transform into a heavily armed combat vehicle. Each have their own special weapons and abilities, and combine their forms into the gestalt warrior, Bruticus.
ONSLAUGHT
Onslaught is the leader of the Combaticons. He transforms into a truck, with a double-barrelled cannon turret in rear. Onslaught is also the Combaticon tactician, always coming up with extravagent and detailed plans, but tending to prefer to let his Combaticon subordinates act them out for him. He dislikes the brutishness of fighting, prefer to wage battles of wit - but his plans so often fail that he finds himself with no other choice. He forms Bruticus's torso.
BLAST-OFF
Blast-Off is an egomaniac. He loves to show off and proclaim his superiority in a battle situation, and will pout (or would, if he had a mouth) should his bodywork be damaged even in the slightest. He transforms into a space shuttle, capable of interstellar flight and eight-month orbit. In robot mode he is armed with a synapses-scrambling ionic blaster. He forms Bruticus's right arm.
BRAWL
Brawl is the primary muscle of the Combaticons. He loves to destroy. His solution to every problem is "Annihilate it!". He transforms into a heavily-armoured tank. In both tank and robot modes, he is armed with two sonic blasters in addition to his main cannon turret, which fire high-frequency waves of sound, disorienting and damaged his enemy's audio sensors. He forms Bruticus's left leg.
SWINDLE
As a rule, you should never trust Swindle. He's a deal-maker, and more frequently, a deal-breaker. He can twist any situation to his advantage, with his back-stabbing, mercenary-minded personality. He'd sell the Decepticons out to the Autobots if he thought he was getting a good deal. He transforms into a jeep, and is armed in both modes with a concussion cannon and a scatter blaster. He forms Bruticus's right leg.
VORTEX
Vortex is a master of stealth. By his own admission, he "loves sneak atacks". He transforms into a helicopter. In this mode, he can use his rotor blades to create poweful wind funnels to suck in and hold his foes. This ability makes him an effective interrogator. He forms Bruticus's left arm.
BRUTICUS
Bruticus the Combaticons' gestalt form. Starscream gave the Combaticons the ability to combine so that he would have a weapon to battle Devastator, and Bruticus proved he was morethan capable of taking down the gestalt Constructicons. However, Menasor caught him off guard. When Bruticus was formed for the first time, he displayed a lack of intelligence and a lack of proper use of constructive grammar. One assumes this is because it was the first time the Combaticons had ever merged, and had not yet perfected their mental link, because in later appearances, Bruticus seemed quite intelligent. Bruticus has immense strength, and is equipped with two cannons on his back, although it is unclear if they can be used as offensive weapons.
While on their asteroid prison, the Combaticons turned out to be as traitorous as their creator. Neither Starscream nor the Combaticons could stand eachother, and Starscream left them on the asteroid, trying vainly to return to Earth, while Blast-Off towed the asteroid and the other Combaticons to Cybertron, where they initiated a hostile takeover, overthrowing Shockwave and reprogramming the Decepticon spacebridge into dragging Earth into the sun. It took the unlikely team up of Megatron, Optimus Prime, and Starscream to stop Bruticus and repair the spacebridge. At the end of the battle, it seemed as though Megatron destroyed Bruticus, but he had really employed Starscream's suggestion of using a hologram to trick the Autobots into thinking Bruticus had been terminated.
The Combaticons resurfaced shortly thereafter, now under Megatron's command, having been reprogrammed. After a battle with the Protectobots, Swindle remained the only functioing Combaticon, and had to recover the various parts of his teammates, which had been taken by students and used in a science project to create a robot called B.O.T. He succeeded.
The Combaticons were not present at the Autobot City Massacre of 2005, but were seen several times during 2006, in the midst of battles. Swindle once stole Metroplex's transformation cog, and foolishly tried to blackmail Galvatron. Needless to say, the plan didn't work in the slightest. The fate of the Combaticons following the restoration of Cybertron's Golden Age is unknown, but it seems likely that a team as wily and cunning as the Combaticons would still be functional, out there, somewhere, plotting.