General Information:
Release Date: October 2015
Price Point: $169.99 (Price varies depending on retailer)
Retailer: Limited Release (Amazon.com, Bigbadtoystore)
Accessories: Full-Tilt car/robot, Full-Tilt blaster, Treads x 2, Brunt cannon, Towers/Brunt body x 2, Blaster stands x 2, Blasters x 2, Radar dishes x 2, Radar stands x 2, Ramps x 2
Official images and text below in italics are from Amazon.com:
Trypticon doesn't just want to defeat his enemies - he wants to completely obliterate them from existence. If it's a bot he's battling, he wants to reduce them to scrap. Once they're scrap, he'll melt them down to sludge. Cities get reduced to rubble, then stomped to dust. Once he gets going, there are few forces in the universe that can stop him - among the Autobots, only the mighty Metroplex can stand against him in battle. Add the ultimate Autobot foe to your Transformers adventures with this Platinum Edition Trypticon figure! This 3-in-1 Decepticon bot-stomper is bad enough in dino mode, where he actually walks toward the target of his rage. When the battle is truly joined, he can convert to battle station mode with 2 cannons. But that’s not all! He converts to city mode, with loading ramps for your Decepticon Full-Tilt and Brunt figures! It takes a village to take on the Autobots, and your Trypticon figure has the blasters, scanners, and allies to obliterate anyone in his path! Transformers and all related characters are trademarks of Hasbro.
In 1986 the concept of Transformers who could become bases. The Autobot base was a blocky robot named Metroplex (who recently received the Titan Class treatment). To counter Metroplex, the Decepticons created the savage Trypticon! Trypticon was not a robot but rather a dinosaur who transformed into a battle station and headquarters for the Decepticons. A stripped down version of Trypticon was given some retooling and a new deco as Gigatron in the "Beast Wars II" series. Now, over fifteen years after that series aired Trypticon has been reissued as part of the "Platinum Edition" series with all his parts this time.
Packaging:
Trypticon is packaged in a large window box with a flap that covers the window. The flap has gorgeous art showing Trypticon attacking some generic robots. The artwork is by the talented Ken Christiansen with colors by Volta. Open the flap and Trypticon is inside in his T-Rex mode. To the right are his accessories including his mini-vheicle Full-Tilt. The background inside has a schematic pattern showing off G1 characters including Megatron and Unicron. The back of the box shows off Trypticon in his other modes and includes a write up of the character in multiple languages. The box is a beautiful piece of work and it feels solid, which is important given the weight of the figure and accessories.
Trypticon includes several accessories that can be combined into a character known as Brunt. Brunt is formed from the following parts:
- The radar dish/weapon connector pieces
- The two towers included for the city mode
- The central tower from the city mode
To assemble Brunt, you connect the radar dish/weapon connector pieces to the smaller tower piece, forming the front of the vehicle and its treads. The other tower connects to the back. You then attach the cannon/tower to the tower piece in the back. Swing the cannon down so it points forward.
The parts in the front look like the front section of a tank or ATV. The center has headlights sculpted into it. The pieces on the sides are designed to look like tank treads, complete with armor on top and curved, non-working treads on the bottom. The tank turret has a round base with a long cannon. The end of the cannon has three barrels, one large one and two smaller ones underneath. There are additional details including deep cut lines and layers of armor. Overall the sculpting looks very cool.
Almost all the parts used to form Brunt are cast in purple plastic. The only exception is the end of the barrel on top which is cast in translucent orange. There are two stickers that get featured in this form, both of which are found on the sides of the treads. They look like parts of a locomotive wheel complete with a bar connected to a circular section in the front. The sticker features yellow, blue, silver and red colors, adding a nice splash of color to the vehicle
Brunt rolls on four small wheels on the bottom. Each of the city mode towers have two small wheels. His other feature is built into the cannon. At the base is a switch. Move it to the "on" position and the translucent orange barrel lights up. The cannon can swivel up and down but it cannot turn side to side.
Being a reissue, there are differences between this version of Brunt and the original. First, the cover of the battery compartment (which houses a AA battery) has a screw in it now to keep it in place. In the G1 version the panel just opened and closed with a snap. Also, the hinge joint that allows the cannon to move up and down moves smoothly now instead of ratcheting as the G1 version does. While this does seem to indicate mold degradation (not shocking given the age of the tooling) the cannon manages to stay in position and doesn't droop down. I was very relieved to see this. Neither of these changes really affects how much I like the toy.
Full-Tilt
While Brunt is basically just a bunch of spare parts forming a tank-like vehicle, Full-Tilt is more of a "regular" Transformer with two distinct modes. He is packaged in robot mode. His design is a pretty simple one, but for a glorified accessory he's actually really nice. His head sculpt features a round helmet section with angled eyes and a mouthplate. His chest has some nice line designs along with a beveled panel on his torso. His waist has a belt-like design on it leading to his curved legs. His arms are blocky leading to thick fists.
Full-tilt is mostly cast in purple plastic with black wheels showing on his shoulders and legs. Splashes of color are provided by stickers. He has two Decepticon symbol stickers. One is in the center of the torso, the other is upside down on his legs since it is meant for the vehicle mode. He also has colorful stickers on lower legs. they are silver with yellow, blue and red machinery details. There's something delightfully retro looking about these stickers and they match up in theme with the stickers on Brunt's treads. I appreciate that continuity between Trypticon's agents.
Full-Tilt has limited articulation. His arms can move up and down and his legs can swing back. Like his G1 counterpart his arms still lock into place with a satisfying "click" as you move them and his knee joint is strong so he doesn't go flopping around. He's very stable. Full-Tilt's weapon is a dual barreled blaster that attaches to the side of either forearm. The peg still holds nice and tight against the forearm.
To transform Full-Tilt, detach the weapon, straighten out the arms and swing the legs up. The attach the weapon to the top of the vehicle. Sure this may seem simple, and it is, but keep in mind he's really more of an accessory to Trypticon than a figure that was meant to be sold on its own.
In vehicle mode Full-Tilt is a Cybertronian car. The front of the vehicle extends out a bit on either side and features curved headlights sculpted into the top. The front features a curved cabin section with a rear window in the back. His "doors" look more like armored sections on the sides that can take firepower or impact from enemies. The rear section has a fierce looking engine sculpted into it. Overall this is one cool looking little car and as a kid, I loved the idea of having a Cybertronian vehicles in my Transformers army.
This vehicle form relies heavily on stickers for color detail. The same stickers from the robot legs feature prominently on the top of the vehicle. A Decepticon symbol is set right in the front of the cabin section. The rear window has a metallic purple sticker on it and the front section in between the headlights has a sticker featuring silver, blue and red details. I really like the way the stickers look against the dark purple. They add a splash of bright color that looks fantastic.
Beast Mode:
Trypticon's design is a fascinating snapshot in time that captures a combination of factors: the understanding of dinosaurs at the time, toy design of the era and G1 Transformers aesthetics. Trypticon's "robot" form is actually based on a Tyrannosaurus Rex. However, you'll note from the photos that he is set in an upright position with his tail dragging behind him. At the time he was designed this was how paleontologists understood T-Rex posture. However over the years scientists changed this to a more forward pointing posture, but Trypticon can't achieve this pose. As odd as it sounds, it doesn't really matter. The fun factor in this toy actually partly depends on this posture, more on that in a bit.
From a design perspective, Trypticon is rather chunky, especially on sections like his torso and tail. He is meant to be a fully mechanical dinosaur, so there are no organic looking bits. He does have some more dinosaur-oriented design elements such as squared off teeth in the mouth, three claws on each arm and a series of plates running down his back (which probably owe their inspiration to another dinosaur inspired character. He is has layers of rectangular armor all over his body and some curved panels on the legs. There are also sections with sculpted bits of machinery such as tubes on the back of his head and vents on his tail. Trypticon also features some nice layered detail like a set of gears on the inside of his upper legs with a translucent panel over them. Really, you could spend a lot of time staring at the sculpted detail on this figure and constantly find something new.
Trypticon is cast mostly in a dark grey plastic with other sections done in teal. Smaller parts are cast in purple such as his claws and parts of the head. He also has light grey plastic on his neck area and the cannons that swing over his shoulders. All the wheels visible in this mode are cast in black plastic. Translucent orange plastic is used on the head and legs. This is a rather unusual set of colors in the pantheon of Transformers (you won't find many other Transformers combining these colors) but it looks great. The dark grey is a nice canvas for the other, brighter colors to contrast against. Several parts are vacuum metallized with silver. This includes his feet, the weapons built into his head and part of the shoulder cannons.
Plastic colors are just one component of Trypticon's deco. A lot of the extra details on this figure take the form of stickers! This is another element of the G1 era that is on heavy display on this figure. From head to tail there are plenty of stickers to check out on this figure. All these stickers were pre-applied for this release. Among the more distinctive ones are:
- There are two tube like shapes on a sticker right on his nose, which are no doubt meant to resemble nostrils.
- The left side of the head has a heat sensitive rub symbol that reveals a Decepticon symbol.
- Trypticon's eyes are gold stickers.
- The torso section has a large Decepticon symbol in purple and silver.
- The legs have several stickers that have silver, yellow, red and blue colors.
Trypticon has seven points of articulation. These aren't your usual ball joints. For instance, his jaw can move up and down (he is a dinosaur after all) and his lower fingers can move on each hand. He also has a neck hinge that allows his head to move up and down. The light grey platform that his head sits on can turn around in a circle. He has two rectangular cannons that can swing from the back to flank his head. Inside is a purple cannon barrel that you can extend out.
In terms of non-articulated functionality Trypticon has an orange panel on his head that flips up. Inside is his "hypno-beam" which you can extend out a bit. There are two large pegs on the torso that allow you to attach Full-Tilt in vehicle mode to form armor. Install the required C batteries and you can activate Trypticon's walking mechanism. You can see a demonstration of Trypticon walking in the video embedded below. This is easily one of the coolest features of this toy and I love the "stomp" noise it makes as his feet crash down onto the ground.
While they are not immediately obvious, there have been several changes from the G1 version of this figure. These include:
- The battery compartment is in the tail. On the G1 version the cover just slid off when you pulled on it. However in this version a screw has been added to keep it locked in place. The screw is inside a hole at the end of the tail and you need a small screwdriver to remove and secure the cover.
- Above the tail, towards a base of the back an oval "Caution" safety sticker has been applied warning of possible entanglement with the moving parts (so be careful!).
- On the left side of the tail there is a flat indentation where the Hasbro trademark information has been printed in black. On the G1 version the trademark information was actually sculpted as raised letters.
- Further down the left side of the tail are the letters "CE" printed with a symbol of a garbage can with an X through it. You can read more about this symbol here.
- The button that activates Trypticon's motorized features used to be a small black switch, but on this version it is a much larger purple switch.
- The purple pieces on his feet have some odd added plastic that keeps the feet from being able to stand completely flat. The purpose of this retool is unknown.
Transformation to City Mode:
- Push the "Hypno-Beam" into the head and push the orange panel down.
- Close the mouth.
- Swing the shoulder cannons on the back up so they are pointing back.
- Rotate the light grey panel around so the head is facing the back.
- Holding the panels that form either side of the chest, swing the sides out.
- On each leg, there is a black tab on the top. Push it to the side and swing out the outer half of each leg.
- Lay the figure down on its back, then swing out the grey piece in the front to form the end of the main ramp.
- Pull up the platform at the top of the main ramp with the two large pegs on it.
- Attach Brunt's cannon/turret to the two pegs to form the central tower.
- Attach the L shaped pieces to the underside of the discs at the end of the extensions on the sides.
- Connect each of Brunt's tread pieces to one of the radar dishes, then connect these pieces to the sides of the main ramp.
- Attach the two building/tower pieces from Brunt to the sections on either side of Trypticon's neck.
- Attach the ramps to the sections on either side of the central ramp.
- Flip out the two helipad panels.
City Mode:
Trypticon's dinosaur mode is impressive for sure but for me the City Mode is what really makes him distinctive. Thanks to the way his body and legs spread out, he really does look like a sprawling base. While he is around the size of a modern day "Supreme Class" figure (with a lot more bulk and accessories) in reality the sculpted details on this figure hint at a much larger base. Here are some of my favorite details and design elements:
- The towers on the left and right sides have beveled layers of details with small rectangular windows suclpted into them. Even better, the two have different designs. If you consider these are basically representing skyscraper style buildings Trypticon's scale really comes into focus.
- Along the sides of the central ramp and the area where the helipads are located you'll see a ton of details ranging from raised triangles to grooves in various shapes including rectangles and circles. Many of these details look like the machinery that runs the city of Trypticon.
- If you look at the ramps on the sides, they have a sticker in the center that looks like a dividing line and lights. If vehicles are supposed to travel on either side of these central lines that is consistent with Trypticon being absolutely gigantic even by "Transformers" standards.
- Towards the front of the main ramp you will see translucent yellow eyes on either side, suggesting that when Trypticon transforms his head "actually" becomes the front of the ramp. The shape of the ramp even resembles the shape of Trypticon's head which is kind of fun in my book.
The City Mode isn't just about sculpted details, there are a bunch of stickers that provide additional detail. Among my favorites are the hazard stripes and the word "Helipad" on the two helipad platforms. I also really like the "light strips" on the three ramps, they add to the verisimilitude of this being a functioning city. On the sides of the main ramp there are some machinery details towards the front and there is a huge Decepticon symbol at the top of the main ramp in purple and silver. All the main colors from the beast mode carry over into this form, with grey being the feature color on the sides and the teal making up most of the central ramp. Most of the color detailing comes from the stickers.
Some of Trypticon's play value is obvious. He has three ramps. The two on the side allow you to have smaller G1 vehicles hang out or be pushed to roll down the ramp. The center ramp is different however. Put a vehicle at the top (ideally Full-Tilt since he's light) and then press down the button on the back of the central tower and the purple panel will push up. This causes the vehicle to slide down. This works better with some figures than others. Want some more fun? Turn on the power switch on the tail/ramp and now the radar dishes on the sides will spin around! Transformers really don't have fun little features like this anymore, and it's great to see the same mechanisms used for his walking action used in this mode.
There is one feature of this figure that you really can't take advantage of with only the toys on the market in 2015. Specifically this involves the "L" shaped pieces at the ends of the city. The G1 "Scramble City" Decepticon team leaders Onslaught and Menasor both have base modes that can connect to these pieces effectively "extending" Trypticon's ability to accomodate Decepticon warriors. This feature was not really advertised much in the G1 era and it was never utilized in the G1 cartoon but I find it one of the coolest "Easter Eggs" in this set.
Trypticon's City Mode is one of my favorite aspects of the character and to this day I find myself loving it.
Transformation to Battle Station Mode (Starting in Beast Mode):
- Push the "Hypno-Beam" into the head and push the orange panel down.
- Close the mouth.
- Swing the shoulder cannons on the back up so they are pointing back.
- Rotate the light grey panel around so the head is facing the back.
- Holding the panels that form either side of the chest, swing the sides out.
- Push the "U" shaped purple parts on the beast mode feet down.
- Lay the figure down on its back, then flip out the two cannons in front.
- Swing the shoulder cannons down and pull the purple cannon barrels out.
- Attach Brunt's cannon/turret to the two pegs to form the central tower and swing it down to point forward.
Battle Station Mode:
Trypticon's Battle Station mode is basically just a variation on the City Mode, but it totally works. With the legs set as weapons instead of well...whatever they are in City Mode, his cannons pointed forward and his helipads folded in, he really does look like a city on "lockdown" getting ready for battle! Most of the details visible in City Mode are the ones you'll see here with some minor variations. For instance you now get to see the circular silver sticker on the underside of the helipad panels and the U shaped pieces from the beast mode now reveal themselves to be cannons protecting Trypticon's flanks. The same goes for the rest of the deco. Most of it was already visible in City Mode, though you do get to see vacuum metallized silver on two of his cannons which adds a nice splash of color.
Technically speaking this Battle Station is a mobile one. Running along Trypticon's spine are four wheels and in the front of the Battle Station Mode are some more wheels. You can use these to roll him along the ground, but I wouldn't suggest doing it on anything other than a soft surface like carpeting. Why? Well, while there are wheels on the middle section, there aren't any on the beast mode legs, which the base rests on. If you go dragging this along a hard surface there's a good chance you'll scratch something up.
The same mechanism that allows the radar dishes to move in City Mode also allows the weapons to rotate in this form. As with the City Mode it adds life to the Battle Station, which I love!
Final Thoughts:
Full disclosure: I went into this review already loving this toy. He looks great in each mode, he's super fun to play with and he is a solid feeling toy. it's also worth noting that this is the first time Trypticon has been reissued (Gigastrom had retooling, a different deco and was missing most of the accessories). While his list price on Amazon.com has fluctuated here and there he's about $158 at the time I am writing this review. A couple weeks back it went down to $102! If you want to get this figure, definitely keep an eye on the listing and act before he's out of stock This really is one of those pieces that I think every fan should have in their collection.
