During the Combiner Wars toyline, many G1 fans were screaming for the line to be widened to include the creature themed gestalt groups. Well with Predaking on the way and the latest offerings available now, Power of the Primes has come through on this score. And in Wave 2 of POTP we get to see a group that was last featured in the Predacons Rising line – the Terrorcons*
(Note: There were already zombie robots called Terrocons in that line so the actual Terrorcons were referred to as ‘Predacons’ – confusing eh!)
Today we will be looking at the two first Terrorcons to be released – Rippersnapper and the Terrorcon Leader – Hun-Gurrr.
Rippersnapper
Robot Mode
The colours are quite strong here and I like the fact that he can either have his guns mounted on his back or hold them as hand weapons. Besides that there is nothing really inspiring about the figure, since he is yet another retool of the much used CW limb mould so looks very much like every other bot. You can place his shield on his chest, but frankly that looks stupid.
Land-Shark-Monster Mode
A very nice update of what was a weird toy back in G1 and never made much sense. I really like the silver on his teeth that makes them stand out. His legs are moveable and do provide some poseability . As long as not looked at directly from the back, his shield actually adds some colour and bulk that works for him with the guns attached. I have no idea why his teeny bio on the back of the card refers to him as a ‘Ground Attack Specialist’ since he is supposed to be mainly a shark, albeit a bipedal one.
Hun-Gurrr
Robot Mode
Like the G1 toy, the robot mode suffers from being a bit bland without a great deal to recommend it. Don’t get me wrong, the proportions are fine and the colour scheme is, well, G1 accurate, but he just isn’t very striking. The arms are a bit bulky but not overly so and can have Abominus’ feet attached to them to provide arm cannons. Legs, arms and head can all be moved about with ease to put him in a variety of poses on his rather comically dainty feet.
Two-Headed Dragon Mode
Wow – this is where he shines! It’s like he magically bulks up, looks like he could almost be Leader-Class rather than Voyager-Class. His necks are HUGE but can be moved about to a variety of poses and given the joints just behind the heads and at the base of the necks Hun-Gurrr can be made to take on most any pose you like! There are only two things that detract from this mode: the chest armour for Abominus is on his undercarriage and given its strong pink colour is very visible from the sides. The other is that while his back legs are big and chunky, his forelegs are tiny! They really don’t look like they belong on the same creature. The Feet/Cannons can be put on his thighs for extra firepower and look ok but not fantastic there. Despite these few quibbles, I am extremely pleased with his beast mode in general.
Abominus
Sadly the pattern continues of them spreading Combiner Group characters over a couple of waves in order to keep you coming back to the toy isle in your local store, so so far I have only been able to make his head and arm. I’d say he is shaping up to look quite good when finished. I am extremely disappointed that the Takara Tomy versions of the Terrorcons are going to be identical to the Hasbro versions (much like Trypticon was). Part of the appeal of the Unite Warriors line was it was in many ways subtly different to Combiner Wars so you didn’t feel ripped off buying a second lot in order to have both the Gestalt and the Individual Bots for your display. One can only hope a slightly altered gift set of all 5 characters comes out one day down the line.
Fake Rubsigns
I got such a delighted surprise when I looked upon the bonce of Rippersnapper to see a rubsign there! But very soon it became apparent it wasn’t real. I call this a tease rather than a nostalgic nod to the Cons of yesteryear.
Overall
While the robot modes are not particularly inspiring, I really dig their monster modes and if you are a G1 fanatic then it will be hard to bypass these two characters, certainly worth picking up!
Got anything to add? Would love to read it in the comments section below!
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Interesting that they gave Rippersnapper a ground attack function. I wondered what they’d do, since his G1 bio says direct to the face that he is a terrorist. To be honest, I’m still surprised they had the balls to call them Terrorcons. I thought for sure that would change. I’ve got me eyeballs on the TTmal 5pack, with a fingers crossed they have something special in there. Especially since it quite a bit cheaper to find theme separately at not ttmall shops…
Ohhh, I had not even heard of that 5-pack! Keep us updated! I bought the CW and UW versions of each combiner group because they were slightly different but have been forgoing the TT versions of the Terrorcons as they seemed the same as the Hasbro versions. If the 5-pack has differences I might be up for it 🙂