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Combined form of the Tripredacus Council:
Cicadacon, Ramhorn & Seaclamp
Series: Beast Wars
Allegiance: Predacon
Categories: Combiner
Function: Battle Master
Year: 1997
The ultra beast Tripredacus mounts its attack on the Maximal fortress in the dead of night, calling upon and combining Cicacon's plague-like destruction, Ram Horn's tenacity, and Sea Clamp's crushing power. Emerging from the bowels of the earth, Tripredacus summons its forces to form an incredible weapon of destruction. Sea Clamp's concealed linkage system connects Cicadacon's chopping rotor blades to Ram Horn's powerful drilling motor, creating a mega-missile launcher the Predacon team uses to slash its slimy way into battle. With power and lethality multiplied three times over, Tripredacus prepares to overtake and rule the robotic jungle.
Robot Modes: The Tripredacus team consists of three robots. The first is Cicadacon, who kind of reminds me of Waspinator a bit. He is the only one of the three who manages a fully humanoid robot mode without seeming out of proportion and I'd call him the best of the three. Then comes Sea Clamp, who leaves no doubt about his alternate mode. His overly long arms end in lobster clamps, giving him a cool, but off-kilter look. Finally there is Ramhorn, the strangest-looking of the three. I kind of like his head, but the rest of the body is a bit too weird for me. Anyway, all three are decent robots with the high Beast Wars standard of posability and detailing.
Beast Modes: The beast modes of the three Tripredacus members are a bit mismatched, as Cicadacon and Ramhorn transform into insects (a cicada and a ramhorn beetle respectively), while Sea Clamp becomes a lobster, which is a much bigger animal. Apart from that, though, no complaints on this front. All three beast modes look quite realistic and are decently detailled. Nothing too special, but good.
Combiner Mode: While its three component robots are nice, Tripredacus really shines when combined into a single robot form. The resulting gestalt manages both decent posability and a wholesome look, the only slight drawback is his fragility, as he falls apart a bit too easily (though that might simply be a sign of age on my figure, not a general problem). Tripredacus normally carries a three-piece missile launcher assembled from the single weapons of his component robots, but since I only have Ramhorn's weapon, that's all he carries right now. Bottom line, Tripredacus is great when combined, with some minor faults.
Missing Parts: I'm missing Cicadacon and Sea Clamp's weapons, which make up two-thirds of Tripredacus' combined weapon.
Remarks: Beast Wars featured but two combiner robots and Tripredacus is the worse of the two. That isn't to say he isn't good, quite the opposite. The individual robots are nice, the beast modes are okay, and the combined robot is quite posable and very nicely done. It's just that I like Magnaboss' look a bit better, that's pretty much it.
Unlike his Maximal counterpart, Tripredacus actually did appear in the TV series, but only in the form of the Tripredacus Council, three shadowy robots who didn't really look like their toy incarnations (apparently the animators didn't get the toy specs in time, or so I read) and never combined. They were the ones who sent Ravage to the Beast Wars planet, prompting the greatest of all Beast Wars episodes, "The Agenda". All in all, a nice toy and a good catch for Beast Wars fans.
Rating: B-
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