Beast Hunters Abominus (Predacons Rising)

Prelude: Many thanks to my buddy Caked-Up who sent me this Abominus set as a gift. You rock, Jim! Abominus is, of course, a combiner made from five individual robots, all of them Legion class. So I’ll be taking a short look at each individual figure before taking on the combiner himself. Here we go:

Hun-Gurrr: The team leader of the group (not officially called Terrorcons in Prime continuity, but an obvious homage to the G1 Terrorcons) is a stocky translucent red and grey robot who carries a purple war hammer as a weapon. Detailing and articulation is standard for the size class. He has ball-jointed arms and legs, but no knees or elbows. Resemblance to G1 Hun-Grrr (the Prime version got an additional vowel, it seems) is superficial at best, they have a similar head and dragon-heads as feet, but that’s it. Like his G1 predecessor, though, Hun-Gurrr also transforms into a two-headed dragon. The dragon has much the same articulation as the robot and looks pretty cool, too. So bottom line: as good a figure as you can expect at this size class. No complaints.

Twin Strike: This guy was originally called Sinner Twin in G1, but either that trademark was not available or people thought it wasn’t politically correct or something, no idea. Anyway, this is another fine-looking Legion-class robot in yellow and turquoise with a purple crossbow. Articulation is identical to Hun-Gurrr. Twin Strike appears to have knee joints, but they go the wrong way and are only used for the transformation. Resemblance to the G1 predecessor is much stronger here, though in Twin Strike’s case the beast heads become the arms instead of folding onto the back. Twin Strike transforms into a two-headed, two-tailed dragon-dog that looks pretty cool and is actually better articulated than the robot, as the front paws have knee joints. So here, too: a very nice Legion-class figure, no complaints.

Blight:Blight (originally Blot) is a powerfully built robot in blue and grey with yellow highlights. Unlike the first two Terrorcons he actually does have knee joints. He carries a purple rifle and generally I must say that he’s my favourite Terrorcon. Resemblance to G1 Blot is strong, though the G1 figure was basically a box with a little head on top, so Blight is far superior here. Blight transforms into... you know, I’m really not sure. Some kind of cross between a big ape and a dragon, I’d say. It’s more or less the same beast as G1 Blot transformed into, but far better articulated and detailed. So bottom line: my favourite individual Terrorcon.

Windrazor: This guy used to be called Cutthroat, which was probably a bit too violent or something, I don’t know (at least they kept some reference to ‘cutting’ in there). Anyway, Windrazor is probably the closest to a direct G1-homage among the team as he looks virtually identical to his G1 predecessor, just better articulated and more detailed. He carries a purple crossbow (same as Twin Strike) and has his beast-wings hanging off his arms. I like to imagine he will unfold them and use them as cutting tools. He transforms into something closely resembling a Pteranodon, again a very close match to his G1 predecessor. The wings are nicely articulated and overall the beast mode looks pretty cool. Not my favourite Terrorcon, but a nice Legion-class figure, too.

Rippersnapper: The only Terrorcon to keep his original name completely unchanged (not even an extra vowel). He comes in an aquatic colour scheme and carries a purple war hammer (identical to Hun-Gurrr’s). Articulation is standard, detailing is quite nice, and resemblance to his G1 counterpart is... vague. That trend continues in beast mode. Where G1 Rippersnapper became a shark-like thing on two legs, Prime Rippersnapper is more your standard two-legged dragon, though he still retains something of an aquatic look. Overall probably the one who least resembles his G1 predecessor, but still a good Legion-class figure apart from that.

Combined Mode: Hun-Gurrr forms the chest of Abominus, Blight and Rippersnapper become the legs and Twin Strike and Windrazor form the arms. You can switch the legs left to right, same with the arms, but legs can’t become arms or vice versa. Hun-Gurrr unveils a new head for Abominus, the rest of the combination is pretty straight-forward. There are numerous ways you can adjust Abominus’ “feet”, personally I prefer the version pictured above with Rippersnapper providing big “toes” for maximum stability.

Seeing as all his component robots are the same size, Abominus appears very stocky with huge arms and legs when compared to his torso. The figure’s articulation is only slightly better than that of his components in that he has ball-jointed arms and legs, but no knees and only limited elbow movement. He comes armed with a huge weapon assembled from the five smaller weapons of his components, forming a big double-bladed axe. Overall his look is clearly that of a combiner, you never doubt he is comprised of multiple components, but I like it. Resemblance to the original G1 Abominus is miniscule at best, but apart from that he is a very nice combiner robot given the size.

Remarks: Prime Abominus and his component robots didn’t appear in the Prime TV series (like most of the Predacons), but he did score an appearance in the pilot episode of the Japanese Transformers Go! series. Okay, he was mostly there so that the heroes of the story could blow him apart over and over again while showing off all their funky special attack moves, but that still gave him more air time than 90 percent of the other Predacons got. There are currently two versions of this figure / group out, the normal retail version where you buy all the Terrorcons individually and this Target-exclusive set where you get all five together. The Target version here got the translucent plastic and slightly different colour shades, but are otherwise identical.

Just about the only bad thing I can say about Abominus here is that he’s relatively small. Being made of Legion class figures, the combined robot is about the size of a Deluxe Transformer (though broader than most of them). At least some of the component robots are scheduled to be released as Deluxe-class figures (the new, “easy” Deluxe class, meaning the exact same design as the Legion figures, just bigger), but there is no word yet whether these can combine into a bigger Abominus. For now, we got this one here (and his non-translucent counterpart) and I like him a lot. Recommended to all who don’t mind the relatively small size.

Rating: B+