Rise of the Beasts Skullcruncher (Battle Master)

Prelude: For a guy who didn’t appear in the Rise of the Beasts movie, Skullcruncher is doing pretty well with two figures in the Rise of the Beasts toy line (and being the only Decepticon representative). One of them being a Beast Battle Master, which is probably my favorite kind of Rise of the Beasts toy type. So grab your beast-shaped weapon of choice and prepare to say go!

Beast Mode: At first glance Skullcruncher in beast mode could easily pass as a Beast Wars figure. He actually bears a strong resemblance to Beast Wars Basic  Megatron, with his ball-jointed legs, long tail, and opening maw. And if you know me, you know me as a Beast Wars nut, so this dose of nostalgia is definitely a point in Skullcruncher’s favor in my book.

Skullcruncher is an almost entirely organic-looking crocodile and his play value is mostly restricted to what I already mentioned above: you can move his four little legs and open his maw, that’s it.  He’s a cute little fellow, though, and can easily help fill out a Beast Wars diorama. He’s big enough to munch on Mini-Cons or other Battle Masters, too.

So bottom line for the beast mode, pretty good with a heavy dose of Beast Wars nostalgia.

Weapon Mode: If you remember the aforementioned Beast Wars Basic Megatron, you might remember that his crocodile tail became a blaster. Well, in Skullcruncher’s case the tail plus the rest of the crocodile becomes a blaster. The transformation is pretty straightforward and the resulting blaster still has several visible animal parts, primarily the legs, visible to the beholder. A 5mm handle makes it compatible with most Transformers figures past and present, while a hole in said handle means it can also attach to Mini-Con Powerlinx sockets. The muzzle is compatible with many blast effect parts, too.

Not much more I can write here. Skullcruncher becomes a cool-looking blaster that can be wielded by just about any Transformers figure and look good doing it. That’s really all I want and expect from a Beast Battle Master and Skullcruncher gets full marks here.

Remarks: As mentioned above, Skullcruncher does not actually appear in the Rise of the Beasts movie, which makes the question where he belongs rather academic. His packaging labels him as a Decepticon, actually the ONLY Decepticon in the entire Rise of the Beasts line (and no Decepticons appeared in the movie, either). His packaging artwork, however, shows him being wielded by Optimus Prime, an Autobot, and his other figure, the Beast Combiner, is packed with Optimus Primal, a Maximal, so take your own pick what faction symbol you’d prefer on him. According to a designer, Skullcruncher was designed with the Actionmaster companion Gatorraider in mind.

I am not sure what exactly it is about the Beast Battle Master, but amidst a rather mediocre Rise of the Beast toy line (including the Studio Series figures based on the movie) they stand out to me, simply because they are freaky and fun. So I will collect the full set and outfit whichever figure I think looks best with beast-themed weapons. If that’s a thing you can see yourself doing as well, then this little guy here is definitely worth a look. Plus you can probably get most of the RotB mainline figures for dimes at some dollar store by now.

Rating: B+