Holy Grail Part V - Predaking!

Finally, down to the big guy. Predaking is one of those characters who should kick a lot of tail, but just never did a whole lot. I mean, the first time he ever won a fight across any continuity was against Bruticus in an issue of the old Dreamwave series. Reading his bio, I get frustrated whenever he gets defeated as easily as being taken down by one shot by Pointblank in the Headmaster cartoons.

Predaking is a being who loves the thrill of the hunt. Not like how a redneck puts on a bunch of camo and sprays doe urine everywhere kind of hunter. More like "The Most Dangerous Game" by Richard Connell kind of hunt. You'd think he'd be better at it. I'm beginning to wonder if writers think of him more like a Goliath type who must be overcome. That would be great if he was utilized that way in a proper manner. But come on, Pointblank took him down in one shot!

Maybe, it could be that the writers looked at Predaking and laughed. I'm not saying that Predaking is a horrible figure, mind you. The more I think about it, the more I think I may have built Predaking up in my head that when I got him, I was destined to be disappointed.

Lets look at him:

Majestic, yes? It's not just his height that stands out. He's bulky; a good kind of bulky. Predaking looks like you don't want to mess with him. I'm not too keen on his arms sagging so much, but after looking around the Internet, this appears to be because of the weight of the die-cast parts. The all-plastic versions don't have this problem.

The wings on his back really look great. To me it makes him look more menacing, like a winged version of death and doom. His fists even rotate!

The only major problems I have with Predaking are his head and sword. I think a lot of people have these same issues. The head just seems too compact. When Predaking is depicted in the fiction, his head antennae are long, the toy's are short and even with the top of the head.

The sword. Man the sword. Predaking uses Razorclaw's sword and it is woefully short. It's...it's just wrong. I never display Predaking with his sword. It looks like me trying to use my one-year old's training fork.

The small head and tiny sword actually have me considering buying the CrazyDevy upgrades. I'm not a big fan of third party stuff, but something needs to be done about the Predaking aesthetic look. It's just criminal how these two things have lowered my opinion of this great figure.

Overall, Predaking is an awesome and imposing figure. He towers over every other gestalt and looks like he could destroy anything in his path. This is a figure that I would love to see updated as a Classic or a Masterpiece. Other than the head and sword, I think this is a must buy for all.

Predaking Part IV - Headstrong and Tantrum

I was struggling to come up with anything to say about Headstrong, so I've decided to combine posts on Predaking's legs. However, I really don't have a lot to say about these two, so I'm going to power through this post. Gotta get to Predaking!

Headstrong's a rhinoceros, a very good looking one at that. They've replaced his yellow hide with the gold flake and it does look better than the original. Just looking at him, I wouldn't mess with him. I would like for there to be a tail, but no matter, the rhino mode looks great. Add the dual cannon blaster on, and I wouldn't even look at him in the eye if I saw him the wild.

His robot mode is...well ugly, yes, but I want to say that it's a rhino that stood up and discovered that it had a humanoid head. His feet are little pieces of black plastic that just jut out from the red hind quarters of the rhino. There's a stabilizing fin in the back that must be flipped out so he can stand. His robot mode is frankly a mess.

Tantrum fares a little better in my eyes. The metal flake paint, again, looks great. The bull mode is solid. Just let me say that with all of the Predacons, the animal modes are for the most part exquisite. Again, I'd like to see a tail, but I won't quibble over it too much.

Maybe I'm just biased since I've had this guy since I was a kid, but I really like the robot mode. Tantrum is tall and his arms are really poseable. Unlike Headstrong, he has actual feet! Yay for feet!

Original on the left

I actually have an original all plastic version to compare with, so I'll just shit up and let the pictures do the rest. Up next - Predaking!

Predaking Part III - Razorclaw

So I've covered the left and right arms of the Welcome to 2010 Predaking reissue. I'm basically just disassembling my Predaking and doing posts. That means that the torso is next. Here goes my Razorclaw post.

Razorclaw's profile is pretty awesome. It's so awesome, that I'm just going to copy it directly from the TFWiki:

Know that when the Predacons are on the hunt, their leader Razorclaw is all business. Every drop of fuel in his system and every thought in his processor are dedicated to the task at hand, and he often lies in wait, completely motionless, for long stretches of time. Fools confuse this for laziness. Many of them have become his prey.

Like all the Predacons, Razorclaw revels in the hunt. And the only thing he appreciates more than an easy kill is one earned in battle with worthy prey. In these situations, Razorclaw prefers to face his foe with honor. It costs him little to give them a well-earned moment of dignity, as their ultimate fate will remain the same.

Awesome, right? It figures that the ultimate predator would be the leader if the Predacons. If only this had been exploited in the U.S. cartoon or the Marvel Comics. Well, the G1 run. I actually liked what Furman did with him in the G2 series.

The best use of Razorclaw so far has naturally been in the IDW comics. First Simon Furman established Razorclaw's sense of honor during "Stormbringer" then Mike Costa added the survival of the fittest angle in the relaunched G1 comic. Truly a great Decepticon.

Such a great character deserves a great toy. Razorclaw missed the boat on that. Badly. Don't get me wrong, I don't hate the figure, but I don't live it either.

Razorclaw was definitely designed with the intention of being Predaking's torso first, in my mind, and a Transformer second. It works for his alt mode, which is gorgeous. I mean look at it:

Gorgeous, isn't it? The wide body, the mane, even the legs are beautiful. It screams "King of the Jungle". I don't think a better lion has been released in other toy lines. Maybe the original Leo Prime, but I doubt it. I really like the change from yellow to gold plastic. Just comparing the Welcome to 2010 version to pictures of the original, the gold just seems to go better with the black.

If only that awesome lion mode translated to an awesome robot mode. The main thing I dislike about this mode are his arms. Razorclaw has the shortest, stubbiest arms I've ever seen. To me, he should have had arms that elongate like Divebomb or Rampage. They just throw off everything about him.

Because his arms are so short, it just throws everything off. I think that if Razorclaw's arms were just a tad longer, he could hold his cannon. They're just so out of proportion for his size! I'm so unnerved by them that I almost never put him into bot mode.

Taking everything into account while looking at this figure, I can't help but be a little let down. Razorclaw possesses perhaps the best lion alt mode of any ever released, but when coupled with his so-so robot mode, a lot is taken away. Maybe it's just me.

Does anyone know what the TFwiki was parodying on Razorclaw's profile? 

Up next, Headstrong!

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.

Holy Grails - Predaking Part I

All of this talk about Encore Fort Max has really had me thinking about my collection. I've seen, on various sites, people talking about how Fortress Maximus has been something of a holy grail for the average collector. This hasn't been the case for me since I still have the one I got when I was 11, but I'm by no means stating that I'm not the average collector. My collection is far too small to claim otherwise. Since I still have my Fortress Maximus, I had another holy grail - Predaking.

There's an old phrase from when I was a kid - "You're a liar!" It was primarily used whenever someone tried to brag about a toy that they owned, but no one else had ever seen. I used this a lot whenever kids would talk about how they had a Unicron or Spike and Sparkplug action figures. Tit for tat, it's been used on me as well. The last time I had ever called someone a liar over a Transformer was on a kid who claimed that he had Predaking, 1986 I think. Naturally, when prodded, the kid produced Rampage, but nothing else.

My cousin had a Tantrum that I confiscated a few years later from him for neglect, but other than those two examples, I had never seen any other Predacon in person. Since he was never featured in the comics, save for issue #25 of the Marvel run, I promptly forgot about him.

Fast forward to the Dreamwave comics and his appearance in two issues and I all of a sudden had an appetite for him again. Searching eBay, I knew I couldn't get him just yet. But luck was on my side when I saw a preorder for for a reissue! If memory serves, BBTS had him for $175, so that was a definite purchase. Unfortunately, I had to cancel the order, so I missed out on him. I tried to find the reissue after that, but by then it had skyrocketed to $500! I just can't stomach paying that much for something so recent on the secondary market.

Thankfully, Takara decided on a New Year's version of this massive guy. This time, there wouldn't be a cancellation of an order. There were differences between this version and the others. The main differences being the changing of yellow to gold and the addition of metal flaked paint. Still, holy grail attained.

I've decided to break Predaking into several posts, focusing first on the individual Predacons and then on Predaking himself.

First up is Divebomb, Predaking's left arm. There's a lot about Divebomb that I don't know. Character development on the cartoon was not exactly a thing for combiners back then. Everyone knew that the combined form was the real draw. Sure a line might be uttered by some team members now and again, but it was rare for Predacons to get any real dialogue.

Divebomb got most of his character development fiction-wise in the Marvel UK run which I've never read. I knew that the issues existed as a kid thanks to the Marvel US run's letter pages. I have yet to read a UK issue. Thanks to the TFWiki, I've come to understand that Divebomb took his name from Swoop. That right there tells me more about Divebomb than I had ever known about him based on 16 years of fiction that's he been a part of. As an aside, I find it pitiful that the comics always focus on the same few characters with so many others out there. Thankfully, this has changed recently with the great More Than Meets the Eye and Robots in Disguise series. Skids is all of a sudden cool!

Divebomb transforms into an eagle according to his wiki entry. Honestly, I could've sworn it was a condor before I found that out. I know the head is all wrong for a condor, and that eagles are actual predators, but condors are cooler.

EEEAGLLLE!

Divebomb's eagle mode is pretty great. Well, it's pretty great standing up. Once you try to put him into a standing position problems arise. I can't seem to get him to lay flat.  Looking at him, his backpack/wings just look too big to me. It just seems out of proportion to me. I realize that it's a design thing, since the wings come off for Predaking, but I'd still like for them to have a thinner profile. However, the wings have articulation, which is awesome, as does the head.

The eagle head forms a type of helmet in robot mode. I actually like the chin strap look on Divebomb. It reminds me of a knight's helmet. Combined with the wings, he's very impressive in robot mode. I'd dare say that he's the best looking Predacon. And at least his name wasn't reused for a crab.

Eat it, Swoop

Well, that's it for this post.  See you soon for the post on Rampage.