The Quintessons have been a part of Transformers lore since the much-beloved 1986 animated movie. They went on to feature heavily in season 3 of the G1 cartoon as well as make appearances in the Marvel, Dreamwave and IDW comics. In non-print media the only outings we have seen for these multi-tentacled menaces have been the character Alpha Q in the Energon cartoon and a passing reference by Swindle in the Animated cartoon. Therefore I was very happy to see them crop up in the live-action movie series.
In the 2017 movie The Last Knight, we are introduced to one of the Transformers creators – Quintessa, who has herself a big beefy enforcer named Infernocus. Later in the movie we see that Infernocus is actually a combiner – made up of 6 identical Infernicons. Thankfully, unlike many characters, Infernocus has been blessed with an actual toy so today we will be looking at the The Last Knight Infernocus figure.
Unlike the movie, where there are six identical Infernicons that make up this gestalt, the toy is made up by five different figures. Four of these are recolours of toys from the Beast Hunters Terrorcon Predacon team that make up Abominus. Each of these figures has remained essentially the same, except for a uniform black & red paintjob and the removal of their individual weapons.
Rupture
Thrash
Gorge
Glug
These reworked figures serve reasonably well in their new roles as Infernicons, though with the exception of their colour schemes they do not particularly resemble their counterparts from the live action movie. However an added bonus to them is that unlike the movie they actually have alt-modes – monstrous beasts that adds a lot of extra play value to the set.
Skulk
The torso component character from the Terrorcon Predacon set – Hun-Gurrr – has been replaced by a brand new figure Skulk. Unlike the limb component characters, Skulk does not have an alt-mode. This is in my opinion is forgivable. Hun-Gurrr, the previous torso character of the set, was the same size as the limb characters which made Abominus look rather silly. Skulk is over twice the size of Hun-Gurrr and adds much needed bulk to the set, making their combined form of Infernocus approximate in size to Voyager-class figures. On his own Skulk looks pretty cool and works quite well as a representation of Infernocus on his own when put alongside smaller figures, especially his master – Quintessa.
Quintessa
Quintessa herself is a very small translucent figure and is the only toy representation of this major character from the live action movie. She has nice little details but when I ordered this set I didn’t realise quite how small she was. Make sure you put her somewhere safe as the potential to lose her is extreme!
Transformation
The individual figures are relatively simplistic. Combining the Infernicons into Infernocus is quite fiddly. Due to the colour schemes of all 5 figures being so uniform black it can be hard to ascertain which piece you are putting where. Also the set does not lend itself to the relatively simplistic combinations from sets like from Combiner Wars such as Computron and Sky Reign. Don’t get me wrong – you wont have an aneurism of frustration here but at the same time it can be fiddly.
Overall
This is actually quite a nice figure and I am very pleased with it. Unlike the Terrorcon Predacon combiner from Beast Hunters I will be keeping Infernocus in his combined mode. Given the sparsity of official Quintesson-affiliated figures from the toyline over the past 31 years I’m very glad to add him to my collection.
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