Generations Skullgrin

Remarks: Skullgrin is a repaint of Darkmount, so this review will focus on the differences only. The main one being the fact that Skullgrin got a new head, one that pays homage to the original G1 Skullgrin’s Pretender shell, depicting a horned demon of some kind. While not as elaborate as that of the Pretender, the new head looks mighty fine to me, scary to boot, and just fits very well into this figure. The paint job was redone in Skullgrin’s original colours of a deep burgundy and grey with some black added for contrast. Overall a very nice paint job that, together with the new head, fully succeeds at making this figure look quite different from Darkmount, despite being identical in every other way.

Skullgrin was one of the Decepticon Pretenders and never appeared in the original G1 cartoon series. He did play a role in the comic books, especially in the one titled “Monstercon from Mars”, where he stumbled into a Hollywood movie and was offered the role as leading monster, which he gladly accepted. In the Japanese Masterforce series, meanwhile, he was called Dauros and one of the main cast of Destrons (at the beginning of the series, anyway). We haven’t seen much of him since, though.

The Generations toyline has made wide use of the practice to design one figure with multiple heads for use as different characters right from the start, so recasting Darkmount as Skullgrin does not appear forced. While I personally like Darkmount better, that’s mostly because of my fondness for the comic character Straxus. Skullgrin is a fun figure, though, and you should at least consider getting one version of this excellent mold. Slight point deduction for being “just” a repaint, but otherwise: no complaints. And many thanks to my buddy James for getting Skullgrin for me.

Rating: A-