How long have we been waiting for an official G1 Quintesson toy? The time seems immeasurable…
… well, not really. Thirty four years. 34 damn years since Transformer fans first saw those 5-faced tentacles monstrosities passing judgement on Lithone and Cybertronian alike, having their victims thrown into the Sharkticon tank. And we’ve wanted a toy ever since!
The Quintessons have had a varied history in Transformers lore depending on the source. In the G1 cartoon they were the creators of the Transformer race, having been rousted from Cybertron when their creations rebelled. In the Aligned continuity they were cousins of the Transformers – the children of Quintus, one of the first 13 Primes. Most fans these days tend to lean towards the latter.
We’ve had a few Quintesson toys in other Transformers continuities. In the Energon cartoon we got an Alpha Quintesson figure and in the Movieverse we got a tiny Quintessa toy that came with her combiner bodyguard Infernocus. Earlier year in Cyberverse we finally got a non-transforming Quintesson Judge, albeit based on the Cyberverse design rather than G1.
But now we finally have what we have been waiting for – and it even transforms! Geewunners put your drool-bibs on as we look at the Earthrise Quintesson Judge.
Judge Mode
A thing of friggin beauty! Beautifully proportioned and G1 through and through. They simply got everything right, from the tentacles to the light beam to the five faces of darkness. You can see each face by pushing a small handle on the side of the figure which makes it spin – so cool!
He has slight articulation via being able to position the tentacles and open and close some of the mouths. And admittedly there isn’t much else you can do with it after that besides make it spin. He can sit in a chair to pass judgement…
… and he can hold his pistol.
But overall the Judge looks great and it would be difficult to pass for any rabid fan of the 1986 movie.
Prison Mode
Well you get those that complain when a ‘Transformer branded toy doesn’t transform’ so I guess they had to put a transformation in. Admittedly the chosen altmode is not a bad idea given the history of the characters. The Quintesson’s main body turns into a guard town and the chair and inner core of the robot turn into a prison cell.
The prison cell is proportioned so you can just fit a Micromaster or Battle Master character into it.
So I’m going to give the creators of the figure points for effort here. But to be honest it doesn’t look fab and I can’t see many people having this toy displayed in Prison mode rather than Judge mode.
Transformation
I’m not sure you could even really call it a transformation – it’s a cross between partsforming and folding stuff either up or down really.
Overall
As a Geewun fan I would have been happy for them to leave the transformation gimmick out and simply have this toy as a Quintesson Judge at a lower price point so that I could get several. But that’s just me. For kids and casual fans of the franchise this figure may be easy to pass up, but for your G1 enthusiast it is simply a must have that we have waited oh so many years to finally receive!
Got something to say about this figure? Pop it in the comments section below!
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