I've thought about this a bit, and I still don't really have a preference. Sometimes I like things like RID Landfill (a walking bag of Skittles), and sometimes I like things like, uh... RID Landfill (yellow/black). In fact, what I REALLY like is having options.
I guess overall I gravitate toward a middle ground; for this I'll repurpose the term from the original post and call it "unified" -- analogous or related colors. I might suggest that the original post is more about rainbow vs.
uniform color schemes (with the examples of Devastator and the RID2001 Ruination redecos -- the exact same colors on 5/6 bodies). Unified would be not one color scheme applied to five bots/parts, but they're not five distinct, disparate colors. I like it when a combiner team can look like a team and not a clashy mess colorwise. (It helps if the color scheme itself is a proper color scheme with (preferably) more than two colors (+the neutrals). I'm not really into a straight-up monochromatic Reverse Evolution/Berserk/Red Mode (hilarious that they just gave up on naming that last one) approach.)
The G1 combiners can kind of be arranged on a continuum from uniform to rainbow (or, at least, distinct): (Retroactively)
The Beast Volcanicus, Devastator, Piranacon, Predaking, Computron, Superion, Defensor, Menasor, Bruticus, Abominus, Liokaiser. But everything kind of hits the fan with the turn to G2, except for Superion perhaps (who has a lot of unifying blue and red).
- G1 Defensor does something interesting with the four limb bots largely sharing the "emergency vehicle" colors and the torso bot mostly being a distinct powder blue (that highlights the center-of-the-body-ness and works well with the mostly-white limbs).
- G1 Menasor is also interesting because technically, it's five distinct color schemes, but they all gel well enough because more than half the team is analogous shades of black and white (white, gray, silver, charcoal, black). Robot modes are likewise distinct colorwise. It does all become somewhat moot because as Menasor, it's almost entirely gray/silver (whether the show/frame approach or the leg-bots-chests-forward toy approach).
- G1 Bruticus is one of the better ways of having a "unified" color scheme that isn't uniform. The five all have earth tones/cool colors for their main colors (blue-green, gray, olive drab, tan, brown) and neutral secondaries. There's a cohesiveness to them despite how each member is clearly not any other member colorwise. This is lost in G2, although the purple camo is trying its very best to cohesive-ify them. It does come back for pre-camo RID2001 Ruination, with orange/red appearing across the team/combined mode and general spread of cool colors (blue/green/forest green); Baldigus is similar but with different pairings of colors (Dangar's desert tan working with Dolrailer's browner shade of green).
- G1 Abominus kind of pushes this the most, but manages to stay visually cohesive because of them each having shades of blue and violet/purple (and Sinnertwin and Cutthroat being shades of yellow).
- Liokaiser has 3 of 6 parts being analogous cool colors (Jaruga kind of disappears), but the other two don't work together well enough to land a Bruticus level of cohesion. The white/light gray on everyone does bring the whole picture together.
- Post-G1, Victorion is firmly in the uniform colors camp while Orthia is closer to the Bruticus/Abominus/Liokaiser end of things. Lots of red and orange tying things together, and the other two limbs are cool colors that break up the warm ones in good proportions.
- UW Megatronia is an interesting approach of very distinct colors reined in by a heavy application of a unifying neutral. The team or the combined form looks great because of a strong base of black tying everything together -- but the individual colors are also in muted/less-saturated shades that look good side by side. I will always be salty that I never seriously went after this when it was new, and now it's definitely well out of my budget range.
So in the end I think a team that has this vibe works best for me. But then, of course, I'll want a redeco of them that gives me the other option... although it'd help if the
vehicle modes were distinct, because a team of Stunticons that was all the same crash test dummy yellow with black accents would be a little bland (and a team of Aerialbots that was all blue with white accents would be like dazzle camo).
I have overthought this.
