Yeah, the Dragon/tiger split is far more one of magical/physical, rather than offense/defense. I'd say go with dragon on left, tiger on right. In close combat, the tiger does the melee assaults, while the dragon projects a shield of force. In ranged combat, the dragon reconfigures to some sort of semimystical ranged weapon (if you're straight tech, then flamethrower or beam weapon) while the tiger parries. Have the reconfiguring and/or shield charge-up take a few moments, so you can explain why it doesn't just hop back and forth between ranged fire and force shield. Alternately/additionally, it might work well for the dragon to be more powerful, but have a somewhat limited battery that recharges relatively slowly. Tiger should be more generally durable and physically stronger, but dragon should have more finesse/techniques. That sort of thing.
Random thoughts for fitting an additional critter in
- relegate the turtle to just legs and possibly hips, reduce the amount of body the crane covers (perhaps having it be a somewhat smaller mecha overall) and have something else (horse/pig/ox?) form the chest.
- Have the last animal be snake, and have it move around the body, reshaping itself to attach to and reinforce individual pieces and supercharging the effect of that piece. Attaching to the turtle gives you armor and durability. Attaching to the crane significantly ups the flying ability (perhaps giving it the ability to fly in the first place, perhaps increasing speed/duration/maneuverability/whatever). Attaching to each of the arms significantly improves the attacks or special abilities of that arm.
- switch up the arm and weapon thing. Have three arm forms (dragon, tiger, and snake, say) and have each of them also have a weapon form. Thus, every time it transforms, the pilots pick which arms and which weapon, and you can have the bit in midbattle where they struggle to reconfigure so as to bring the correct powers to bear. It also lets you have some cool moments if/when the robot gets disarmed, where the weapon changes back into robot form and goes back into the fight. As another potential cool bit, have the left arm be a defensive configuration, and the right arm be an offensive configuration. Each arm serves the role of offense, defense, and weapon in somewhat different ways, giving a number of interesting permutations to deal with. It also lets the characters slowly figure out/develop/enable their various transformations, which is always cool, and it lets you bring the fifth pilot and robot in a little later in the series
- As a bit of an aversion of the traditional, have the fifth robot be separate from the gattai - but have it be *tiny*. Make it a rabbit or something - reasonably durable, but depending far more on agility, not entirely weak, but depending on being able to get up close and personal with the enemy's vulnerable spot in order to do any real damage, and often most useful as a distraction. Have it not be strongly associated with the gattai - just something that was put together out of much the same personality, and piloted by the team Smart Guy (he put it together himself). Possibly female (to fit in the Wrench Wench bit), and enough younger than the rest of the cast to serve as little sis. The cool thing about this is that when it gets down to humanscale combat - well, a lot of times the rabbit can join in still in the mecha, at which point it's by far the toughest and strongest thing on the field (but is, amusingly, not that maneuverable, because the hops it normally uses are too long to use for normal mobility, and imprecise enough that she can't jump into the melee for fear of hurting her friends
Random thoughts for fitting an additional critter in
- relegate the turtle to just legs and possibly hips, reduce the amount of body the crane covers (perhaps having it be a somewhat smaller mecha overall) and have something else (horse/pig/ox?) form the chest.
- Have the last animal be snake, and have it move around the body, reshaping itself to attach to and reinforce individual pieces and supercharging the effect of that piece. Attaching to the turtle gives you armor and durability. Attaching to the crane significantly ups the flying ability (perhaps giving it the ability to fly in the first place, perhaps increasing speed/duration/maneuverability/whatever). Attaching to each of the arms significantly improves the attacks or special abilities of that arm.
- switch up the arm and weapon thing. Have three arm forms (dragon, tiger, and snake, say) and have each of them also have a weapon form. Thus, every time it transforms, the pilots pick which arms and which weapon, and you can have the bit in midbattle where they struggle to reconfigure so as to bring the correct powers to bear. It also lets you have some cool moments if/when the robot gets disarmed, where the weapon changes back into robot form and goes back into the fight. As another potential cool bit, have the left arm be a defensive configuration, and the right arm be an offensive configuration. Each arm serves the role of offense, defense, and weapon in somewhat different ways, giving a number of interesting permutations to deal with. It also lets the characters slowly figure out/develop/enable their various transformations, which is always cool, and it lets you bring the fifth pilot and robot in a little later in the series
- As a bit of an aversion of the traditional, have the fifth robot be separate from the gattai - but have it be *tiny*. Make it a rabbit or something - reasonably durable, but depending far more on agility, not entirely weak, but depending on being able to get up close and personal with the enemy's vulnerable spot in order to do any real damage, and often most useful as a distraction. Have it not be strongly associated with the gattai - just something that was put together out of much the same personality, and piloted by the team Smart Guy (he put it together himself). Possibly female (to fit in the Wrench Wench bit), and enough younger than the rest of the cast to serve as little sis. The cool thing about this is that when it gets down to humanscale combat - well, a lot of times the rabbit can join in still in the mecha, at which point it's by far the toughest and strongest thing on the field (but is, amusingly, not that maneuverable, because the hops it normally uses are too long to use for normal mobility, and imprecise enough that she can't jump into the melee for fear of hurting her friends