Predaking Part II - Rampage

Here's part two of my Welcome to 2010 Predaking reissue review.

Rampage forms Predaking's right arm. Or if you want to be cartoon accurate, he forms Predaking's left arm. Either way, he's an arm.

According to his bio, Rampage apparently has ADD. And the only thing that calms him down is TV. Reminds me of one of my cousins.

Like anyone who isn't a Prime, Megatron, Galvatron or Starscream, Rampage wasn't really developed in the US cartoon. I'm not so sure about the Japanese Headmaster series as I've yet to watch it. Yeah, I'm not a real fan in the eyes of many based on that last sentence. I just haven't gotten around to it yet.

Rampage fares better, as far as development goes, in the comics. To me, he's famous just for getting the tar knocked out of him by Apeface. It helped that Apeface used his own dismembered arm to do it. Other than that, there isn't anything of note that happens to him in the Marvel run. Probably because the Underbase powered Starscream destroyed him. And the rest of the Predacons.

No, kitty, that's my pot pie!

IDW's use of Rampage has been preferential to me. With Razorclaw trapped on a barren asteroid with Starscream, Rampage essentially takes command and the Predacons align themselves with China. It actually makes sense to me that the Preds would choose China. It's nice to see Rampage in charge, at any rate.

Rampage's alt-mode is that of a tiger. If I'm being totally honest, he doesn't look like a tiger to me. He looks more like, well not a panther or a jaguar, but maybe a combination of the two? At second glance, the head is more reminiscent of a female lion to me. I could be wrong or an idiot, however.

Other than those issues, I like his beast mode. The rear legs are awesome to me. They're shaped the correct way, and the thrusters on the hind legs look cool. It just adds emphasis to his jumping abilities. Great little touches like that make his "tiger" mode awesome.

I don't know if Rampage went through several designs before what we actually got, but it seems as though he was supposed to rotate at the waist at one point. Or maybe it's the way the plastic attaches to the die-cast or I just got one that was poorly constructed; I'm not sure since I never owned Rampage before this version was released.

I remember reading about how the original script for TF:TM called for an Autobot combiner group called Ani-bots or Zoo-bots or something like that. Anyway, from my understanding, these guys were turned into the Predacons. Looking at Rampage's head, it's apparent that he was going to be an Autobot, at least to me. He just has a face that screams Autobot.

Up next - Part III!

Apeface beating Rampage pic is from the TFWiki.