Botcon Mudfighter (Cybertron's Most Wanted)

with Thrasher

Series: Botcon Exclusives
Allegiance: Waruder
Categories: Deluxe
Function: War Riders
Year: 2015

All is for the Hive!
There are four main types of marauder drones used by the Waruder hive consisting of the onyx and purple Parasite drones with their Ripper pilots, the yellow and burnt orange Mudfighter drones with their Thrasher pilots, the crimson and pewter Storm Rider drones with their Crusher pilots, and the white and purple Paralyzer drones with their Buzzer pilots. While each drone has their own specialties, their overall mission is the same - swarm, devour, and carry digested metals back to feed the rest of the aplary.

The larger drones are more or less simple techno-organic host shells that the smaller insects control as protective exo-armor. The shells are able to convert between insect and robot mode to suit the task required. The venom from the shell's stinger attacks both organic and technology based biological systems alike, numbing neural pathways and seizing motor control. The pilots themselves can convert into miniature versions of the shells' modes and, if desperate, they can also change into a third, ranged weapon mode that the larger shell can operate. However, this hand-held mode risks the pilots becoming detached from the larger insects, and rendering the shells largely useless as they have no intelligence or instinct of their own.

Remarks: Mudfighter is part of the Waruders set from Botcon 2015 and a repaint of Generations Waspinator. Since I’ve already reviewed Waspinator, as well as fellow Waruder Storm Rider, just a few short words on the differences. Mudfighters paintjob was changed to two different tones of orange (though the tech specs calls it yellow and “burnt orange”) with the wings now a translucent green. If this paintjob seems familiar to you, it’s a homage to another Waspinator repaint, the Fox Kids Transmetal Waspinator. Also, Fun Publications apparently intended to repurpose this toy to portray yet another Waspinator repaint, Beast Wars Buzz Saw. Finally, the figure WAS repurposed to serve as the Shattered Glass version of Waspinator himself. Man, that’s a lot for a simple repaint (which, if you want, could also serve as a Beast Wars Bumblebee).

No changes to the actual figure and it comes with a Minicon partner, who, according to the Botcon comic, is actually the larger mech’s pilot. Trasher is, of course, a repaint of YET ANOTHER Waspinator, the Waspinator Minicon from Thrilling 30. Like all of his fellow Waruder Minicons, he is named after one of the Dreadnoks from GI Joe. So bottom line: a nice repaint of a good figure. Certainly not a must, but if you can get him (or the set) for a good price, like I did, he is worth getting.

Rating: B