G1 Terrorcons

Robot Modes: The Terrorcons are a rather typical G1 Combiner Team (the so-called Scramble City Combiners), featuring one large leader figure, which is Hun-Grrr, and four smaller team members. Let's start with the leader. Hun-Grrr is about Deluxe-sized by today's standards and probably among the most posable Transformers from that time period. He can turn his head, move his arms at shoulders and elbows, and has full leg movement. The latter is mostly because his legs turn into the necks of his beast mode, but more on that later. As a result Hun-Grrr is a pretty great figure and his look is also quite cool (though one has to get used to the dragon-head-feet). So a definite thumps up for Hun-Grrr, one the best Combiner-Team-Leaders in Generation 1.

The remaining four team members, Sinnertwin, Blot, Rippersnapper, and Cut-Throat, are sadly also quite typical for their kind. They're pretty much statues in robot mode, able to move their rather short, stubby arms at the elbows and that's it. Well, I'm not sure if it's shoulders or elbows where Cut-Throat is concerned, the joint is kind of the middle there. Anyway, all four have the bits of their beast modes hanging off their bodies, which make them look even more ungaingly than they already are. So the bottom line is, the four team members are pretty much useless in robot mode. Best to leave them in beast mode.

Alternate Modes: All five of the Terrorcons transform into robotic mythological beasts of some sort or other. Starting once again with Hun-Grrr, who becomes a four-legged, double-headed, wingless dragon. I suspect that this figure was at least partially the inspiration behind Cybertron Scourge / Galaxy Force Flame Convoy. Okay, Scourge is three-headed, but there are a lot of similarities there. Hun-Grrr's two necks are very articulate and the rest of the body is doing pretty well, though. So just as in robot mode, an excellent figure here.

Much like it was with the Seacons, the smaller team members of this combiner team here do a lot better in beast mode than they did in robot mode. Cut-Throat transforms into a harpy-like bird creature, which includes leg and wing movement. Rippersnapper (who has one of the coolest names in all of Transformers) becomes a kind of shark with arms and legs, both of which are articulate as well. Blot transforms into a gorilla-like monster, whose long arms feature shoulder and elbow joints, and his legs move as well. Finally Sinnertwin transforms into the love child of Hun-Grrr and a tiger, another two-headed dragon-type creature with a somewhat feline look, as well as four moving legs and a tail.

So the bottom line here is, all five Terrorcons do pretty well in their beast modes, all of which can also be armed with the weapons they carry. My personal favourites are Hun-Grrr, followed by Rippersnapper and Blot, but all five do pretty well here.

Combiner Mode: The Terrorcons combine into Abominus. Hun-Grrr forms the torso (though you don't really see much of him because of the huge breast plate) while the other four become the arms and legs. There is no particular order as to which smaller member must become which limb, though I do prefer Cut-Throat and Sinnertwin as the arms. That way Cut-Throat's wings don't get in the way of the leg movement and you can imagine Sinnertwin's forked tail as a kind of claw-weapon for Abominus.

Abominus is more posable than the average G1 combiner, thanks to the great leg articulation of Hun-Grrr. So Abominus can actually pull off some dynamic poses, something not many G1 Combiners can. You can attach most of the beast-mode weapons to the limbs, thereby arming him quite nicely. So while Abominus is not the best-looking Gestaltrobot in G1, he does pretty well.

Missing Parts: Sadly I'm missing quite a few parts here. Hun-Grrr's rifle, as well as the robot-mode guns of all four team members are missing, plus the beast-mode weapon of Cut-Throat. Thankfully all the parts for assembling Abominus are present and accounted for, as well as most of their beast-mode weapons.

Remarks: The Terrorcons appeared without explanation near the end of the G1 cartoon series in the infamous episode "Grimlock's New Brain". They were also among the "primivites" recruited in "Call of the Primitives" and had smaller appearances in other episodes, including the series finale "The Rebirth" and the Japanese Headmaster series. None of them ever stood out as characters, though, and it wasn't any better in the comics.

As toys the Terrorcons are a mixed blessing. They have pretty good beast modes, but except for Hun-Grrr their robot modes are a waste of material. Their combined mode Abominus is also quite good, though he's not in the running for best G1 Gestaltrobot by any margin. So at the end of the day I'd say the Terrorcons are nice if you can get them for a good price, a good catch for Combiner fans such as myself, but they're not among the must-haves of G1. Good, but not spectacular.

Rating: B