General Information:
Release Date: April 7, 2016
Price Point: Free attendee exclusive with Primus package
Retailer: Fun Publications (Botcon Exclusive)
Accessories: Blaster
The theme for Botcon 2016 was the "Dawn of the Predacus", riffing off the "Beast Wars" Combiner character known as Tripredacus. The story told the tale of the fall of the Decepticons and the rise of the Predacons, featuring many Maximal and Predacon characters in their "pre-Beast Wars" forms. Botcon had played with this theme before in 2006 with the "Dawn of Future's Past" set, featuring vehicular forms for many Beast Wars characters. Interestingly this year's set seems more aligned with Hasbro's mass release figures, being labeled as "Combiner Wars" instead of "Timelines". That places this set of figures under the "Generations" banner instead.
Terrorsaur is based on the sculpt that began as
The base sculpt for this figure was first released as Air Raid and more recently was repainted as G2 Air Raid. There is also one more version coming out in Japan as Armada Thrust. This makes the sculpt one of the least used sculpts in "Combiner Wars" so far. Check out those previous reviews for a detailed look at the figure. This review will focus on the changes made to the figure for this release.
Packaging:
Terrorsaur is packaged in a sealed plastic bag along with tech specs and weapons. He is labeled as the "Botcon 2016 FREE Attendee Figure". The figure itself is in an additional plastic bag inside the larger bag.
Accessories:
Oddly, Terrorsaur only includes one accessory: the dual barreled blaster cast in the same red as the figure. There is no hand/foot/weapon piece included. When you picked up your Primus package, you were given one extra hand/foot/weapon piece, but that seemed to go with the boxed set. He is of course, compatible with any of the Combiner Wars hand/foot/weapon pieces so it's not a huge deal if you have extras lying around.
Vehicle Mode:
In "Beast Wars" Terrorsaur was one of Megatron's "fliers", an aerial warrior whose alternate form was a pterodactyl. This is of course meant to be a "pre-Beast Wars" Terrorsaur so he winds up having an aerial mode more suited to Cybertron: a jet fighter. It's a great choice since it's not hard to picture Terrorsaur as a jet fighter in his earlier days.
Terrorsaur does not feature any retooling in this mode. What he does have is a really creative deco that alludes to his "Beast Wars" self but stands on its own at the same time. The base color is red, but not a deep red. It's more of a lighter shade that looks more like the color Terrorsaur was in the animated series. His paint colors really show a ton of thought with some great ideas.
The first deco that catches my eye is a camouflage pattern on the wings. This may just seem like some type of military homage but in fact it is a callback to some patterns on Terrorsaur's body in "Beast Wars". Orange is used on the edges of his wings and stabilizer fins and the nosecone. This is significant because of the pattern. The orange on the nosecone is overlaid with a black outline and a design that looks like teeth on the sides. This Nose Art is a direct reference to Terrorsaur's beast mode, which featured an orange beak and gnarly looking teeth. Silver is used on the sides and gunmetal grey is used to paint a gorgeous trim on the edges of the wings and stabilizers. The gunmetal is a reference to the color used on many of Terrorsaur's robot mode parts and weapon in "Beast Wars". It's absolutely stunning how much of Terrorsaur's "Beast Wars" design is referenced in this mode. It's a very impressive deco and I love how much it draws on the character's history.
The weapon included with this figure fits nicely on top or on the sides.
Transformation to Robot Mode:
- Detach the accessories and set them aside for now.
- Swing the cockpit up, back and bend it at the hinge and connect it to the section behind the robot head.
- Swing the wings forward and up.
- Swing the robot arms out to the sides then up.
- Swing out the front and back halves of the robot legs.
- Pull the lower leg halves down, then push them together.
- Split the lower leg sections in the middle.
- Swing the horizontal fins from the vehicle mode back.
- Attach the weapons to the hands.
Robot Mode:
Terrorsaur's robot mode features a brand new head sculpt. The design is based on his animated appearance and it looks fantastic. He has a diamond shaped crest on top, a curved "helmet" section and a face in an "H" shaped opening on the helmet. His expression looks like a snarky one, as if he is up to no good (which he generally was). Fun Publications managed to size the head just right so it is proportional with the rest of the body. The result is a great looking figure from a sculpting perspective.
The red color from the vehicle mode features heavily in this mode, but there are a couple silver parts including the thighs and shoulder joints. Silver paint is used on the waist, face and shoulders. Silver is also found on the lower legs, including two triangles on the knee area that callback to similar details on the animation model for Terrorsaur in "Beast Wars". Gunmetal grey is used on his lower body, fists, mid-body and shoulders - also calling back to his "Beast Wars" CG model. Finally his eyes are painted yellow, also inspired by his TV show model. I really like this deco, but I have to say that the vehicle mode deco is much stronger. I think a bit more dark coloring would have helped to break up the red a bit, especially in the chest area. Still don't get me wrong, Terrorsaur looks great and you can tell some love went into this deco.
The joints on my Terrorsaur are about as tight as those on my Air Raid.
Transformation to Arm Mode (Starting in vehicle mode):
- Detach all weapons.
- Transform the fist piece into the hand. Flip out the four fingers that are sculpted together, then swing the thumb up to the side you want to form.
- Swing the horizontal stabilizer fins up.
- Swing each robot arm out to the side.
- Open up the halves of the robot legs and swing them down, then reconnect them together.
- Swing the cockpit section up and back.
- Swing each wing up, the swing them in so they flank the cockpit section.
- Swing the shoulder sections up, then fold the forearms up, bending the arm at the elbow. There are notches on the forearms that align with the tabs on the missiles from the vehicle mode.
- Swing the robot head down to reveal the limb connection piece.
- Attach the hand to the bottom of the feet.
Arm Mode:
It's almost odd to talk about an arm mode since Terrorsaur doesn't come with a fist piece, but if you were to use one he looks good. Sure there are other "Combiner Wars" limbs that are red in color, but not this particular shade. The trim on the wings and orange on the beak help add some color splashes that make the arm look distinctive. If you have a variety of hand/foot/weapon pieces to choose from I'd recommend picking a silver one.
Transformation to Leg mode (Starting in robot mode):
- Detach all the accessories.
- Take the fist/foot piece and push in the fingers (if they're out) and swing the thumb back to form the heel.
- Swing the jet cockpit piece back.
- Swing the head back and point the connector piece up.
- Swing each rear half of the legs back, then swing the legs up on the knee hinge and reconnect the pieces together (as if you were forming the vehicle mode).
- Swing the shoulders down.
- Swing each robot arm down to the sides, connecting the notches on the forearms to the tabs on the sides of the legs.
- With the cockpit sections facing front, attach the foot piece so the rocket launcher details are facing the same way.
Leg Mode:
Most of what I said for the arm mode goes for the leg mode, except that you lose a lot of color variety with the silver thighs being hidden. Still there are enough silver and gunmetal grey bits showing to keep it from looking dull.
Final Thoughts:
Terrorsaur has an amazing looking vehicle mode and a very strong robot form. It's very clear someone spent a lot of time looking at the character's CG model in "Beast Wars" for inspiration and that is deeply appreciated.
