well that was the coolest part i thought, the bird/shuttle half (though the lower half/lynx walked and rolled when in shuttle mode, but yeah i hated how they often made some transformers separate components, like omega supreme (gestalts aside..the combiners like devastator and bruticus etc) he was massive though
i liked more the triple changers, like astro train and blitzwing (they transformed into 2 different vehicles etc, atrotrain was obviously a train..and a shuttle..while bliztwing was a jet and a tank. (they were also in the animated movie near the beginning, blitzwing was in the first strike on the city, and again just being missed by getting ran over by prime. astrotrain was also there, being the shuttle they escaped in

offhand, when prime showed up im pretty sure he shot i think it was soundwave, thundercracker, one insecticon (shrapnel i think) the jets, ramjet, dirge, or thundercracker..maybe both, i think both as they are similar but one had gold wings, and dirge did.
but thats where i started disliking the series, because they had to kill off alot of chars to make room for new (and new lineup of toys) especially autobots but hardly any decepticons (mainly insecticons but since they were clones..who cared)
phased out megatron to become galvatron,
bombshell (i think) became cyclonus, though people say its skywarp.
and thundercracker was scourge i think.
various others were swoops (kickback,dirge, ramjet? etc etc)
oh and starscream died, but he kept appearing throughout the series anyways.
sorry i talk too much again

i just love transformers lol
as for umm who the jet combiner was..it was most likely superion, and the other was probably menasor..since well he had a small semi with trailer that was like primes' and a lambo like sunstreaker, even an f1 racer like mirage.
heck i even had some go bots...but they always lost

mainly they just were fun to have cuz they were cheap, and some were ok..while alot were stupid. they usually met untimely deaths and got beat up alot, though i did like the huge versions they released later, those ones sometimes won
http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1808795