Twinstrike
Yes we all know it's Sinnertwin but they couldn't use the name for some reason. A yellow and green two headed four legged hydra dragon. Job done. But Transformers doesn't have a good history of beasts in sizes smaller than basic and to even attempt something like this in a Legion is incredible. While the original had a yellow body, necks & heads and green limbs this mixes the colours up adding yellow panels & feet and a green top to the back.Whereas the Legion cars generally have three 3mm peg holes Twinstrike is covered in them: one on both of his knees on his rear & front legs, one on each knee of the front legs two on his back and one in each jaw. That makes FOURTEEN in total. Get your Cyberverse weapons out and tool him up! Twinstrike also has a pair of 5mm pegs on the inside of each lower rear leg: they're a bit useless for weapons expansion but will be used later....
Speaking of Cyberverse Weapons .... Twinstrike comes with what's described as a Piston Hammer: a big grey hammer with a 3mm peg on the bottom to hold. Yes Twinstrike has der happy shtick. This year Hasbro have worked to increase the playability of the Cyberverse weapons so on the top of the hammer is a 3mm peg, there's another peg on one side of the hammer and an opposing hole opposite it and a peg on the back of the hammer head. That means you can peg the Cyberverse weapons together to form larger weapons. It also means that the Hammer can be held as something approaching a gun mode as well.
They've gone back to opaque coloured plastics for the weapons this year, a mixture of similar greys over the range which will please those that like more realistic weapons, but since these are packed with several toys (Prowl & Blight also have the Hammer mould as the Justice Hammer/Affliction Hammer) a different colour, preferably a different clear colour would help distinguish them.
But on the other hand Twinstrike's is a different grey from that used on the other Terrorcons who are all a Uniform colour! So when you combine them together you get a weapon that's a uniform colour apart from on piece! Either make them all different or all the same, just one different feels wrong!
Beast articulation is a little limited: ball jointed rear ankles and ball jointed hips on each leg make up the majority of the articulation. The tail bends up and down but essentially that's part of the transformation. There are ball joints at the base of the beast necks which you can use to bend the necks down or out to the sides but the way they're constructed, with the ball bellow the neck rather than behind it, makes it impossible to raise the necks.
Transformation: Fold the rear legs back behind the toy. Turn the rear feet round so the 3 beast toes point back as heel spurs and the sloped robot foot faces forward. Stand. Pull the thigh armour out to the sides and rotate down at the knee to form the lower leg armour. The front beast hips/shoulders, which are connected by a bar through the toy, fold back and up 90 degrees. Fold the necks down and then fold the base of each neck, a separate piece previously held in place by the shoulders, out to the sides. Fold down the chest and flip the head up. Close the chest. Raise the front beast legs up behind the back and fold the tails up onto the back.
For a Legion that's quite a complicated Transformation! The only slightly annoying bit is that opening the chest up exposes the bar between the shoulders through the body. At that point it's possible for the bar, shoulders, fore beast legs and robot head - attached to the middle of the bar - all to come away as a unit.
The robot mode reveals the reasoning for the ball joints under the beast necks: sideways on they've become the arms, with the jaw becoming the hand on each arm. The look of the rear legs is transformed by the armour now covering the lower half turning it from something bent twice to a straight leg, albeit with the animal frame visible underneath. The chest has got some purple flashes of paint on it, a nice homage to the purple in the tail on the original Sinnertwin. Articulation is ball joints at shoulders, hips and ankles which isn't bad at all.
Now at the point Twinstrike was solicited by Hasbro all we knew about the Beast Hunters toyline was those initial toys. Of course the Sinnertwin connection was quickly made and speculation began as to if there were other Terrorcons and could they combine to form Abominus? The answers were yes and yes! Twinstrike serves as an arm for Abominus which basically is his beast mode: the pairs of pegs on the inside of the rear legs lock into holes on Hun-Gurrr's arms. Both he and Windrazor have these pegs in the same places so can be swapped to serve as either arm. They can also, just about, be used as legs and I've even seen a picture of an all Twinstrike limbed Abominus.
Top top toy especially at the Legion size class. Well worth your money even without the combining gimmick.
Twinstrike is a Beast Hunters Cyberverse Legion Wave 1 toy shipping with Bumblebee, Smokescreen & Airachnid. He's numbered 002 and his function is described as Assault Infantry.
Hun-Gurr
With the original Terrorcons Hun-grrr & Sinnertwin were basically the same looking toy albeit in different colours at different size classes. With all 5 Terrorcons now being Legions it's a bit hard to have them both as exactly the same toy so Hun-Gurrr's changed a bit beyond acquiring a U in his name. He's gone from being a four legged Hydra Dragon to a two headed one which seems a good move: it's close to his original look but just different enough. He's also had a colour change switching from grey & off white to off off white & red.Articulation isn't bad in this mode: both heads bend, the necks are on ball joints, the fore limbs are joined by a bar through the body so move together, the hips are ball jointed and there's a thigh swivel.
Hun-Gurrr comes with the Dragon Tooth Saw, the serrated blade weapon found with both versions of Smokescreen and with Soundwave. It's got a 3mm peg to act as it's handle, another sticking out of the rear of the gun, one on the top and a fourth out of the side along with a 3mm peg hole on the opposing side of the gun and another at the end of the barrel. Since the barrel is hexagonal sticking a round hole in the middle of it does make it rather Shockwave like! Both of Hun-Gurrr's dragon heads have a 3mm peg hole running through them, plus there's a further two one each side of each leg and another on each ankle. Oddly there are none on the body, one on the back or between both necks would have been nice.
Transformation: Fold both heads back and up to form the robot's feet and stand with the top of the robot facing you. Fold the tail down onto the robot's back and the beast arms up besides the tail. Swing the beast legs down to form the body and turn out to the sides so the hand holes face forward.
Proportionally he's wider than the original quite slim version which is quite odd but the "beast heads as feet, necks as legs, rear legs as arms, beast back as body" configuration used here exactly matches that for original Hun-Gurrr so there is some similarity to the original. His ankles bend, the hips & shoulders are ball jointed and there's an extra bicep swivel that most Legends toys don't have. 3mm weapons can be held in the hands (or feet) plus on either of the two plugs on the front or backs of each arm.
To turn Hun-Gurrr into the body of Abominus start by opening the chest up and folding the small robot head into it, in turn raising the large head, and then closing the chest, but lower than before so it pegs into the tail. Fold each foot so it points down and each arm so it points up and turn round so the Abominus head is facing you.
Like the creature and the robot is OK but somehow lacking compared to Twinstrike
Hun-Gurrr is a Beast Hunters Cyberverse Legion Wave 2 toy shipping with Soundwave and Smokescreen's repaint Prowl. He's numbered 007 and his function is described as Berserker Infantry.
Windrazor
Another name change here as Cutthroat becomes Windrazor, a name first used on a G2 Decepticon Jet. But apart from that this toy is essentially a more organic version of the original in bird mode with all the colours in approximate the same places with a green body and legs, cream feet, head and wing the last of which is heavily overlaid with purple to match the original. Articulation is top notch, easily the best for Legends class: bending ankles, ball jointed hips & "shoulders" at the base of the wing, a ball joint mid-way along the wing "arm", a pivot that allows the wings to unfold, and bending joints at the head and the base of the tail & neck.He's got 3mm post holes on both sides of each knee, another on the top of the wing pivot and his robot 3mm grip hands are visible as claws on the wings/ There's a pair of 3mm pegs on the inside of each foot which, like Twinstrike, can be used to attach him to Hun-Gurr as either arm.
The weapon he comes with is the Tornado Bow, which originally came with Bumblebee as the Eagleshot Bow (and is found in a larger functional form with Deluxe Beast Hunters Bumblebee) and Airachnid. There's a peg underneath the weapon to hold it plus another at the back and one at the side with a peg hole on the opposing side and at the front. Held by it's handle it's a sideways on crossbow but held by the side peg it can be used conventionally.
Transformation: fold each shoulder forward. Fold the the wings to the side and slide one half of each wing over the other. Fold the bird feet up & forward to form the front of the robot's legs. Fold the beast head down into the chest and the robot head up from the back. Fold the beast tail up into the back.
Windrazor's robot mod looks fab, again a thinner and more organic version of Cutthroat's robot mode. The bird head is again part of the chest but the wings have now moved and are hanging off the lower arms which are posed at a 90 degree angle. Articulation is good again: the bird's ankle joints are effectively lost in transformation but the ball jointed hips & shoulders remain. The ball jointed elbows don't allow for much up/down motion but they do allow the lower arms & wings to be turned either in or out as you like.
Top toy: I'd be happy to have this sitting with my Beast Wars toys or repainted as Swoop.
And the dinobird mode, with wings folded back, forms an arm for Abominus.
Windrazor is a Beast Hunters Cyberverse Legion Wave 3 toy shipping with his teammates Predacon Rippersnapper & Blight. He's numbered 008 and his function is described as Inferno Stormer.
Predacon Rippersnapper
Nearly there with the name this time, just the addition of the word Predacon to keep it in use. You know that's kind of odd, Rippersnapper is a Terrorcon not a Predacon. I can take Predacon as a descriptor for this new faction or for the old Beast Wars faction but seeing it here used alongside a Terrorcon member that forms part of Abominus.... just wrong.The original Rippersnapper was..... well lets call it a mutated shark/piranha/fish thing. There's a distinct fishy vibe going on there. That's lots in the new one. Yes it's a two legged beast in approximation of a Tyrannosaur but the general vibe I'm getting from it is more 1990s Godzilla than Rippersnapper. Sorry. Still at least the colours are sort of right with sea blue limbs and a greyish body. Articulation is limited to ball joints at the hips and independently turning arms.
On each hip is a 3mm peg hole. Two more can be found on the inside of each leg plus the jaw once again has a 3mm hole through it. There's a c-clip in the end of the tail that can sort of hold a 3mm peg so you can get away with trying to extend his tail with the Electrocharge Bow he comes with, the same weapon that's found with his team mate Cutthroat. I could have done with these in different, preferably clear, colours to work out which belonged to who!
Transformation: fold the back of the fin/hump backwards. Split the head and fold each half of the face back before rotating the head halves backwards to form the robot's feet. Pull the underside of the beast body away from the robot legs and rotate the robot head out the back of it. You can try to prevent the robot head falling off but my advice is to accept it will happen and have the tweezers ready to help reattach it. Fold the underside of the body back so it's wrapped round the underside of the tail and forms the robot's chest. Fold the rear of the fin back onto the top of the tail and lock into the robot chest.
Rippernsapper's robot mode reminds me of something though for the life of me I can't work out what. It's certainly not the original Rippersnapper as apart from the colour placement nothing else seems similar with wildly different shapes, limb lengths and beast part destinations. Ball joints at the hip & shoulder as even plus a pivot at each ankle. The shoulders also swing back at the body. He's got 3mm peg holes hands as you'd expect but there are also holes on the inside of his wrists, his shoulders and the outside of each knee & foot.
Rippersnapper forms one of Abominus' legs. His limb mode is the back of his robot mode with the arms folded in across the chest and the feet pushed together
Rippersnapper is OK. I'd think better of him but I've played with Twinstrike and Windrazor which are so much better than he is!
Predacon Rippersnapper is a Beast Hunters Cyberverse Legion Wave 3 toy shipping with his teammates Windrazor & Blight. He's numbered 009 and his function is described as Predacon Grunt.
Blight
That's Blight spelt B-L-O-T ! How could they loose that name? Ah Blot, one of the great "What is his Alt mode" toys? The same is true of this update though there's a big hint of Squeezeplay in their albeit with a more Tyrannosaur like head, complete with the 3mm peg jaw all the others have, and a yellow crest running down his back. Again there's something of a 90s Godzilla vibe here. Articulation isn't bad: Ball jointed shoulders and hips as per normal plus a bicep swivel and opening hand claws. In addition to his mouth there's peg holes on the shoulders and both sides of his elbows. I can take his odd beast mode OK but what annoys me is seeing his robot mode hands sticking out the sides of the beast mode feet! Rippersnapper builds the hands into ankles, I can't see why the same wasn't done here.Blight's weapon is the Affliction Hammer. Fab name. It's the same mold as Twinstrike's Hammer but cast in the uniform plastic used for both the bows and Hun-Gurr's gun.
Transformation: Fold the head back onto the beast's back. Raise the arms above the body and twist the bicep swivel 90 degrees. Open the claws out and stand on the open claws. Fold the hands out of the beast feet. Swing the beast legs down to the sides to act as arms. Fold the head up.
Once again beyond the colours there's little relation between Cyberverse Blight and the original Blot. Blot was a lump, Blight's more a big bruiser with the Affliction Hammer adding to his thug like appearance. In fact the combination of dark blue with that head almost says Soundwave more than anything else. Essentially in this mode he comes down to having ball joints at shoulder and hips but not a lot else. There's a 3mm peg hole in each hand, one on each hip, and one on each side of each knee.
Blight is the only limb to have a significant Transformation in limb mode: Fold the beast head off his back so it points down. Peg each leg into the side of the beast head. Turn the arms in across the beast chest.
Like Rippersnapper, just not as good as the toys that make up the arms. He's OK, it's just that Twinstrike & Windrazor are very good.
Blight is a Beast Hunters Cyberverse Legion Wave 3 toy shipping with his teammates Predacon Rippersnapper & Windrazor. He's numbered 010 and his function is described as Savage Destroyer.
Abominus
To assemble Abominus clip the pegs on Windrazor & Twinstrike into the holes on Hun-Gurrr's arms. Open the chests of Rippersnapper & Blight up, push Hun-Gurrr's Beast heads into the chests and lock the 3mm bars on Hun-Gurrr's legs into the C-Clips in both toys. Close the chests up and stand.At least that's the plan. I've found it difficult to get the Blight leg to stay on but I think the knack (My Sharona) is to push the tip of the head into the body so the body closes up better.
Combined together the robot is around the size of a deluxe class Transformer. He towers over Cyberverse Legions with Commanders coming up to his waist. It won't win any fans for those whom articulation king: the legs are solid and though the hips are ball jointed effectively all they do is allow you to adjust the balance of the top half. The arms move at the shoulders and unlike some others who own a Cyberverse Abominus I've managed to pose it with the arms outstretched. There's also an elbow of sorts on each arm where the robot that makes them up bends at the hip.
Although the head, body and legs don't exactly scream Abominus at me I think this toy works quite nicely as an updated Abominus mainly due to the influence of having the two most recognisable components Twinstrike (Sinnertwin) and Windrazor(Cutthroat) prominently displayed as the arms!
The 5 individual weapons can be combined together to arm Abominus or attached as individual weapons to the exposed peg holes. Unfortunately a large combined weapon does tend to unbalance the toy a bit !
In many ways the combined toy is a reflection of the individual parts. Twinstrike and Windrazor are superb both as close updates to the originals and toys in their own right. Hun-Gurrr reminds you of the original but Rippersnapper & Blight deviate from their predecessors somewhat. Oddly the closeness to the original is reflected by how well they work in the combined form.
For toy galleries see:
http://snakas.blog95.fc2.com/blog-entry-3065.html
http://snakas.blog95.fc2.com/blog-entry-3051.html
http://snakas.blog95.fc2.com/blog-entry-3054.html
http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/transformers-feedback/869969-tf-prime-beast-hunters-cyberverse-abominus.html
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