We have a VERY special review today. Aside from collecting just dinosaur figures, I also collect Batman, Transformers, Zoids and a whole bunch of other things. My Transformer and Zoid collection heavily focus on dinosaur shaped robots, leaving very little space for other items. Now, Transformers which is owned by Hasbro/Takara has specialized in releasing toys for everyone. Zoids is kind of dead. Now, I am a big fan of Third Party Transformers (not made by Hasbro or any mainstream company) which are fan made. I have the entire set of Dinobots from Fall of Cybertron, which we will soon review, but about a month ago I accidentally saw this Trypticon figure that had the aesthetics of a Zoid. I asked myself "is this a custom Zoid? If so, it is very good, including the Trypticon homage!". I was wrong. This is not a Zoid model kit. It is a Transformer, again, based on the Decepticon city Trypticon, which has been famously known as a Godzilla type monster. I jumped the gun, swallowed hard and $140 it was on its way. I have always known that third party stuff is awesome (not for kids, by the way), but this is... I am profoundly impressed and moved even by the amount of engineering that went into this toy. For $140, this is worth every single penny. I thought I was impressed by the 3p Dinobots. Nooo nononon...I was wrong. This is something else. And I'm not even done tinkering with it! Therefore I've decided to split this into three parts while I continue looking at it. This is essentially an unboxing and first impressions review. Afterwards we'll look at the ship mode and then the city playset mode. Unholy Cybertronian creation, here we go.
Wow. What did I just get here. Even the box is beautiful, with a black and white detailed specs of the beast within on three sides. A Super Deformed Megatron is printed on the back. This line has two figures: Diabolus rex (Trypticon) and Metroplex, the Autobot city with a Super Deformed Optimus Prime. Personally I don't care for the Super Deformed look, and some claim Diabolus rex to be Super Deformed. Uh...all I see is a next generation Zoid here. Therefore I have no idea what y'all are talking about. This is the best of both worlds. It has one of those open up lids where you can actually see the beast within, and the underside of the lid has pictures of all its modes and some of the cool things it can do. Apparently it lights up. I did not know that. Even the inside of the box is cool, featuring the monster in a purple haze.
It has an instruction sheet, easy to follow. It states that it needs 2 LR44 1.5v batteries. Are these like the A76 batteries I'm so used to when dealing with dinosaur toys? Who knows. Guess I'm going on a trip later to find out.
This is one heavy dinobot! The feet are die-cast, and who knows what else is die-cast! The plastic parts are very high quality, even better than modern Transformer toys. This has a better feel than a Zoid because Zoids often feel extremely fragile. Obviously if you drop this it will break because of how heavy it is, but it seems to be highly durable for what it has to do. It comes with a ton of weapons/thrusters, a tiny ship/command module and a Super Deformed Megatron.
This is Generation 1 Megatron, except super deformed and highly articulated. It can't move its waist, but it can still pull off some cool poses. It is very well engineered despite being so tiny. Imagine if all Minicons were this articulated! It has a ton of attitude.
This figure is super articulated, so you can pose in as many dinosaurian possible poses you can. The tail is kind of stiff, but that's ok. It has tons of 3mm ports along the body where you can place the weapons it comes with, or if you want to get creative, Energon weapons from days past, Minicons, Mechtech weapons, etc. It's really cool that it can do this. The 3mm ports are now a standard across real Transformer lines and across 3p lines, so there is some unity there. The details on this thing are unbearably good. There are all sorts of printed on labels all over the body, which truly gives it that Zoid feel. I never had Trypticon (I'm not that old) so I can't tell you if it had labels or not (probably did). Opening the jaws will make the eyebrows raise up, which is cool. It reveals a double cannon that is hinged so it can be posed in a limited angle range.
Pushing the orange crest forward causes the window on the top of the snout to open up and reveal a cannon. That is really freaking cool. Now, I might have broken it on mine...So I have to manually open and close it. Beware! Don't open the window unless you've read all the instructions! Whatever, it works better now.
You can click on the feet backwards and bend the tail so it will look like the old fashioned Trypticon with the tail dragging Godzilla stance. I hate this look, but that's just me.
The better standing motion gives it so much more movement and poseability!
Most theropod type Zoids have their command module on their head...or have several command modules. This robot's head is a weapon, so the command module is this ship like plug on with a forward facing gun, a single pieced pair of wings that can rotate about 200 degrees which have two beg holes. Why don't we give it some actual weapons?
Now this thing and its weapons have tons of ports, so you can configure the weapons in any way you wish. That is probably the best thing about this figure; its ability to be customized. I followed the instructions for the pictures, which are attached this this odd neckbrace, as well as the legs. I don't know what to make of these cannons. The double mounted cannons (4x) are articulated and can point in all manner of directions. the missile pods which I attached to the legs have a movable post, and have thruster like vent parts on the back (Gun Sniper, anyone??), which can be placed on all manner of positions. Then there's the thruster like middle guns which are nicely detailed, and then there are the big "guns". Double mounted Charged Particle Cannons, maybe? I don't know. It's up to you, really. Fire at will!
Personally I've turned all the cannons into thrusters so it can travel as fast as it should! Autobots, Maximals, beware. You are all in danger of extinction! Part two will highlight the ship mode, the light up features if I find the necessary batteries, so wish me luck. Whew. This toy is...I love it how I bored y'all with Hero Mashers and suddenly put up a masterpiece for your enjoyment. That's just the world I live in. A bit of everything! Spared no expense!
