Friday, February 11, 2022

Transformers Kingdom Golden Collection Terrorsaur review

The on-screen Predacons were pretty much close to what they would look like in the TV show, especially when it comes to them being made with synergy in mind while also having the Kingdom realism for the beast modes. It's something I appreciate because while the cartoon beast modes were expressive, I do like the realistic look of the Beast Wars guys for their animal modes without sacrificing the designs of the characters. It does make me wonder how that'll be tackled in Legacy because judging by the G1 characters like Skids and Dragstrip, they don't feel as well-engineered as the Deluxe Autobot cars we're used to seeing. Maybe Terrorsaur was a sign of how that'll be handled as we'll get to because he's now the focus of the review!


Here is Terrorsaur in his beast mode. Stock images didn't really do any favors for the guy because the bottom portion looked very rough in comparison to what Airazor had, which I'd say was tackled a little better. While the use of red does hide the parts better, the figure doesn't have that much of a refined bottom portion for the beast mode, making it look rather amateur and outdated of an undercarriage. The top portion does have all of the nice sculpted details that help complete the look of the beast mode, and I do have to give credit for making the beast mode both look like the cartoon and also have a bit of realism to it, though kind of like with Tigatron, it does have a closer look to the cartoon. Terrorsaur's articulation consists of a neck swivel and hinge, an opening beak, wings that can pose on multiple hinges as well as on the swivels that help the outer portions of the wings hinge up and down. Of note, not only are the wings of mismatched colors, but the outer portions of the wings do not stay on that well, which is rather annoying since that wasn't the case with Airazor.


For a beast mode comparison, here is Terrorsaur next to Airazor. It is said that Terrorsaur is a retool of Airazor, and I can sort of see that because they share the same integral structure and engineering, though these two certainly feel like two separate toys, kind of like the helicopter versions of Studio Series Drift and Dropkick or Thrilling 30's Sandstorm and Springer. That being said, Airazor's plastic quality is nicer overall than Terrorsaur's; he just feels a little cheaper than most Kingdom figures, and it's not like I expected him to be as good as the figures of the past 20 years, but something that makes him feel as good as the other Kingdom Beasties.


And for another comparison, here he is with the other Season 1 Predacons. Terrorsaur adds quite a nice bit of color breakup since his blood red helps him stand out from the mostly purple team. Okay, Blackarachnia's black but still. It makes me look forward to seeing the weird color combo of Tarantulas as well as the additional red of Inferno because I can't wait to complete this team. 


Transformation is almost identical to that of Airazor's, with the same leg transformation and torso transformation, though unlike Airazor, Terrorsaur's chest is a faux part of the back since he doesn't have the flipformer gimmick anymore. As a result, he does not have the beast mode head on his chest as it is now on his back like it is with the character model. Of that note, because he doesn't have the flipformer gimmick where the head hinges on the back like the old toy did, he does not have his wings upside down. The resulting robot mode looks very show-accurate, and I have to give credit to the designers for making this figure as separate from Airazor as they possibly can. The chest, the colors, the new wings, and the new accessories keep him as unique as they can with the budget that they have, and it's something I greatly appreciate given how far they've come with that. Now with all that said, Terrorsaur's robot mode is very show-accurate, and it's no surprise how it has the blend of the cartoon aesthetics and the realism of the beast mode. It even has the forearm spikes that help him further distinct from the missiles that Airazor has. I have to be honest and say that the figure's red plastic can look either pretty good or a little cheap, but the silver paint apps look so zestless on him. I think if they were a little shinier, or if the plastic they were painted on was a little less cheap, then they'd look nicer than they currently look. IDK, it's hard to explain. Think of it as a comparison between the nice silver plastic of Kingdom Shadow Panther and the same zestless silver Terrorsaur shares with Ravage. Also, If you notice the ankles, I had to use superglue because those joints were as loose as the wing tips (though they don't come off). It was especially a problem for the beast mode since it was so top-heavy.


Head sculpt is very accurate to the character design, especially with the inclusion of a white face, though I do feel his eyes were meant to be red. It's not a dealbreaker, but it is something that does deviate from the cartoon. The sculpted details on the head could be a little better defined, though. His articulation consists of the same joints found on Airazor: ball-jointed head, shoulders that move front and back, in and out, bicep swivels, elbow bends, waist swivels, hips that move front and back, in and out, thigh swivels, knee bends, and ankle pivots. His sole main accessory is a gun with a red tip unpainted like the handle, and no, that's not phallic, but moreso in reference to the way it looked in the show.


And now, here we have an interesting inclusion in the form of the Golden Disk. This is the same one included with the Autobot Ark, specifically, the Vok version. It's in a slightly different shade, and it appears to have the error of having the Sounds of Earth etching on the back instead of more alien symbols; there were two versions of the Golden Disk in the show, btw, with one of them being taken by the original Megatron at some point with the intent of telling Decepticons from the future to use transwarp technology if they find it so they can find the Ark, use its Teletraan 1 codes, and kill Optimus Prime so the Decepticons can win the Great War.


His only reuse so far is a toy-accurate version of himself. Meaning he has a whole lot more blue and black instead of having the red broken up with silver. The green spots also add to the color breakup, though the gun reverts to being bare red plastic. The ankles are still loose.


Now as part of the Beast Ears Again subline, Terrorsaur gets a cartoon-accurate deco that looks worse than the original version. The unpaintable plastic parts leave the upper arms, torso, and thighs as gray rather than silver, and his hands aren't black. He amusingly came with a repaint of Core Class Rattrap.


For a size comparison with the figure he shares engineering with, here he is with Airazor in robot mode, and yeah, I can definitely say that the two figures manage to be different enough from one another while reusing some parts here and there. The forearms, lower legs, and maybe the hands are the same as with Airazor, but it's pretty cool how little was reused between the two figures. And it's something quite common these days (and going back to the comparison I made, the lower legs being the same doesn't bother me as it does with Drift using Dropkick's legs in Studio Series). 


And here he is with the other Predacons from Season 1! It's still amusing how Megatron manages to remain the tallest member of the team, and it makes me wonder how tall Tarantulas and Inferno will be. Either way, Terrorsaur does fit in pretty well with the others, though not only does he feel kind of cheap like Waspinator does, but he also has a little more of a rigid feel to the design in terms of beast mode aesthetics without having the same organic look to him that the others have, especially Megatron. That doesn't necessarily make him a bad toy, per see, but it may result in him feeling a little jarring all around. I'm not sure if he'll be back in stock because of the four Golden Collection releases, he's been the one with the most amount of spotlight due to him being a heavy retool as well as a main character instead of a repaint based on two obscure G1 repaints, an SS-86 repaint based on an obscure Action Master, and a canceled version of Tigatron that, while nice-looking, does feel just as obscure.


Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐ and a half out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

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