Only official products were purchased in July of 2018. No 3rd or 4th party products. Most figs come from the Power of the Primes line. That’s the flavor of the month.

Also, with the exception of the Terrorcons, everything came in pairs. Read on below.

• Power of the Primes Blot, Walmart, $16.82

• Power of the Primes Sinnertwin, Walmart, $16.82

• Power of the Primes Cutthroat, Walmart, $16.82

• Power of the Primes Alchemist Prime, Target, $4.99

• Power of the Primes Alpha Trion, Target, $4.99

• Power of the Primes Outback, Target, $9.99

• Power of the Primes Cindersaur, Target, $9.99

• Studio Series Jazz, Walmart, $19.87

• Studio Series Lockdown, Walmart, $19.87

• Cyber Battalion Jetfire, Walgreens, $17.99

• Cyber Battalion Sideswipe, Walgreens, $17.99

Blot, Sinnertwin, Cutthroat

Power of the Primes Terrorcons were featured back in this post. Read all about them there. In short, I highly recommend them. If you can only get one combiner team from the Prime Wars Trilogy, get this team.

Alchemist Prime and Alpha Trion

I have mentioned that I really like Prime Masters. They are inexpensive, fun, adds play value to other TFs, and is a great homage to their G1 roots. Alchemist Prime and Alpha Trion continues this trend. G1 purists will immediately recognize their shells as Submarauder and Landmine. Sidebar: the only other time I have mentioned Submarauder is in this post. Landmine was never mentioned on this blog, til now.

There’s really not a whole lot to say about Prime Masters, because they’re all kind of the same. I’ll just let the pics below do the talking.

Outback

Power of the Primes Outback is a repaint of Titans Return Brawn. Read that review for all the details. As for mold variations, the only difference is the head.

In G1, Outback was also a repaint of Brawn. Outback appeared in G1 Season 3. I personally don’t remember him all that much. Get this toy if you don’t have TR Brawn, is a G1 completist, or if you feel for the character. I’ll present some pics of Outback here, in robot and alt modes.

Cindersaur

Power of the Primes Cindersaur is a repaint of Power of the Primes Slash, which I sort of reviewed here. I recommend Slash, and so I recommend Cindersaur as well. Cindersaur gets a new head mold. Other than that, these 2 molds are exactly the same. This smells like another Hasbro cash-grab repaint. The raptor alt mode bears no resemblance to his G1 monster form, other than being a bipedal beast. I can’t comment on the G1 accuracy of the new head mold.

If you already have Slash, then should you skip Cindersaur? That may be a wise choice if you are basing this purely on the toy. Keep in mind, however, that Cindersaur was a G1 character, while Slash was not. Though Cindersaur never made it to the G1 US cartoons. Cindersaur is part of a little known sub-group called the Firecons. The only other time I even mentioned Firecons on this blog is in this post. Will Hasbro release updates to the other 2 Firecons? That all depends on what else they can find to repaint.

Pics below.

Jazz

I have already reviewed Studio Series Jazz, so I won’t repeat any of that here. To summarize, I give him a weak recommendation: this is a fun figure with a nice paint job and an awesome alt mode, but ruined by a robot mode with way too much back-kibble and small size. Read that review to get all the details.

Here I will show off SS Jazz with the cardboard movie backdrop.

Lockdown

At first glance, Studio Series Lockdown looks like he may be a slight tweak off of The Last Knight Hot Rod. But comparing the two side by side, it’s obvious that SS Lockdown is a brand new mold. In fact, I wrote that Hot Rod post after I received SS Lockdown already, and in the post I mentioned that this is brand new.

In robot mode, SS Lockdown resembles his movie designs. He’s not that poseable, and I don’t like that the hands are molded onto the forearms/car-side-panels. But he makes up for it with the amount of detail. He also comes with two weapons: a sword, and a retractable claw type thing. He’s got very little kibble. The side robot profile below shows that the back cleans up very nicely.

Transformation to alt mode follows the same scheme that TLK Hot Rod does, so I won’t go into too much detail. I like the way the alt mode comes together though. This figure works just as well as TLK Hot Rod does in alt mode. Below are some comparison pics: SS Lockdown on the left, TLK Hot Rod on the right.

In short, I recommend SS Lockdown. This figure is several times better than Age of Extinction Lockdown. If you already have AoE Lockdown, sell that figure and get this one.

Jetfire and Sideswipe

I was first introduced to Cyber Battalion when I was in Shanghai. Me and Gemini were exploring the city, when we found a Toys R Us inside one mall. Of course we had to stop by. I purchased Cyber Battalion Starscream on the trip.

I opened the figure after I got back to the States. Cyber Battalion Starscream is definitely on the simple side, but I thought the figure wasn’t too shabby. He’s fun to play with, is very durable, and most importantly, scales nicely with other CHUGs. It’s possible that last point only applies to Starscream (and other Cyber Battalion Seekers, if they exist). For CHUG, he’s too small as a deluxe. But he would be the same size as Megatron at voyager. So this Cyber Battalion size is perfect. I looked forward to possible Cyber Battalion releases in the US.

As it turns out, Cyber Battalion figures would be released in the States as Walgreens exclusives. Why Walgreens is getting into exclusive TF action is beyond me. And the term Cyber Battalion is never used in the US; the boxes simply say Transformers with a Generations logo in the corner.

I bought Jetfire and Sideswipe from Walgreens, because my impression from Starscream is positive. I hate to say it, but Jetfire and Sideswipe aren’t very good. Jetfire is a slight remold of Starscream. This mold as Jetfire just doesn’t work. It makes Jetfire way too simplistic. And the scale is completely off; Jetfire should be much, much bigger. And as for Sideswipe, he feels too big to be in Cyber Battalion scale. This is a very simple Transformer, even more so than Jetfire and Starscream. At this size, with this minimal complexity, I feel like I’m playing a Fisher Price Transformer. Also, he does not come with any weapons. Articulation for both is a non-priority. Maybe the target audience of these figs is preschool to 1st grade. Mature collectors need not bother.

As of this writing, I have already sold these 2 on eBay, so I’m not adding them to my TF Count. Gemini has Jetfire. He agrees it sucks, but he kept it for his son to play with. I’m thinking I should have kept these for my baby girl. On well.

I mentioned that all TFs came in pairs, other than the Terrorcons (which came in 3). All pairs were bought on the same trip to their respective store. In case it wasn’t obvious enough, these are the pairs:

• Alchemist Prime and Alpha Trion – Target
• Outback and Cindersaur – Target
• Jazz and Lockdown – Walmart
• Jetfire and Sideswipe – Walgreens

Will this ever happen again? Who knows. Everything was actually bought in store this month. That’s becoming more and more rare, given the internet shopping age that we live in.

Transform and Roll Out.
 

First came Combiner Wars. Then came Titans Return. Now we are at Power of the Primes, the third and final installment of this toyline. Collectively, the three arcs form Transformers: Prime Wars Trilogy.

There is a backstory to each of the toy arcs. The link above to the Wiki page explains more. Toy-wise, Combiner Wars focused on Combiners (duh) and Titans Return put an emphasis on Headmasters (called Titan Masters). Power of the Primes kind of merged both of these gimmicks. This toyline features Prime Masters that are similar to Headmasters, but at the same time many combining figures are also introduced.

The Terrorcons are one of the last Combiner Team that Hasbro would release as part of the Prime Wars Trilogy. I was kind of waiting for HasTak to release this group, since they did release their opposite number, the Technobots. And it was worth the wait! HasTak has obviously learned their lessons from doing all the previous Combiner Teams. In my opinion, the Terrorcons are the best Combiner Team that uses the standard Combiner Wars mold (Aerialbots, Combatcions, etc). I say this for many reasons. Let’s start the review.

Each Terrorcon is sold separately. They are packed in their robot modes.

Hun-Gurrr

The awesomeness starts with Hun-Gurrr. This is the leader of the Terrorcons, and he forms the body. Hun-Gurrr is famous for saying “Hun-Gurrr hungry” in the G1 episode “Money is Everything”. I never tire of hearing him say that. So dumb yet so direct.

Hun-Gurrr is a heavily modified remold of Combiner Wars Silverbolt (who was also reworked into Cyclonus and Scattershot). But seriously, so much is reworked for Hun-Gurrr that you can argue this is a unique mold of it’s own. All the jet pieces you would find in any of the previous molds are gone, and are now replaced with new monster bits. He gets a new head mold for his robot form, and also a new head for the combined mode.

Both modes look good. Transformation from robot to two-headed monster is on the simple side, but that’s always been the case with Silverbolt and any of the derivatives. The main difference here is that the feet and legs form the twin heads with long necks. So instead of tucking them under where the wings would normally go, you leave them out and about to gobble up unfortunate Autobots.

I have said before that of all the Prime Wars Trilogy combining body figs, the Silverbolt mold provides the best stability in combined form. That is still true here. But Hun-gurrr ups the game even more. Everything properly tabs into place. I’ll go into this more later in the combined form. But in its individual modes, Hun-Gurrr provides tab connectors where there should be. Not only does this provide stability, it’s a confirmation that you’re doing the transformation right. Hun-Gurrr is hands down the best Prime Wars combiner body fig produced, because all 3 modes work.

Blot

Blot is the stinky foot soldier of the group that the other Terrorcons try their best to avoid. He transforms into some kind of big purple bipedal type monster.

Of all the PotP Terrorcon limbs, Blot is my favorite. For starters, I think he has the best looking robot mode, because all the monster bits are best hidden when compared to the other limb Terrorcons. I also like his color scheme of purple and dark blue.

All the limb components share similar transformation motifs. But within that same framework, Blot is the most unique. His legs fold backwards to form the monster back, instead of simply collapsing into the body. I love his fist-to-claw transformation. You flip the fist backwards, and that would rotate out the middle claw. Very very cool. In robot form, the monster head is neatly hidden on the robot back. For transformation to alt mode, the monster head comes up and out, while the robot head goes underneath.

I think this is the most unique looking monster in the group, so I like him. The placement of the over-the-shoulder weapon in monster form is also G1 accurate.

Cutthroat

Cutthroat is the bloodthirsty one of group, with a crazy and barbaric fighting style that even other Decepticons find disturbing. As a sidebar, why is it that every beast subgroup has to have a flyer? Dinobots have Swoop. Predacons have Divebomb. Pretender Monsters have Wildfly. And Terrorcons have Cutthroat. In sitcoms and dramedies of eras gone by, there is often a token black guy. Cutthroat is the token flyer.

PotP Cutthroat is an ok fig. I say that because he could have been great, if not for one flaw. And it’s that the bird head piece (and sometimes also the bird mouth piece) will unavoidably come off during transformation. I have transformed this guy back and forth 5 or 6 times now, and that head will come off each time. This is because the side pegs that hold in the bird head is super loose, while the assembly that the head sits on is super tight to rotate up or down during transformation. I have come to just take the bird head off during transformation, then re-attach.

Other than this flaw, the fig is not too shabby. The face sculpt is amazing. I think this is pretty accurate to either the G1 animation model or the G1 toy box art. I also think this face sculpt would work great for Thunderwing, if they wanted to make a figure of him in PotP. The rest of the fig in robot form is well-proportioned.

Transformation to bird beast is fairly obvious, so I won’t describe it. Again, the bird head coming off is an issue. Other than that the fig is solid. The wings transform well and has no tolerance issues.

There’s nothing too surprising about the alt mode. It’s pretty much the kind of bird monster alt mode you would expect from a $15 toy. It’s functional and it works.

Rippersnapper

Rippersnapper is some kind of amphibious mechanical fish monster with arms and legs. His Tech Spec Bio mentions a massive inferiority complex, but I’m quite sure neither the cartoon nor the comics went into that.

I like PotP Rippersnapper. Overall he reminds me of Blot, but he’s different enough to not feel like buying a repeat figure just to complete the group. Both his modes seem very G1 accurate, and I like his overall color scheme. In robot mode, I like how he still has the monster claws on the back of his hands. Very Wolverine like.

There are no surprises to the transformation. If you look at both modes and mentally imagine how the transformation would be, that’s how it is. The only unexpected piece is the monster’s tail that hides into the legs, which needs to be flipped out for alt mode. An obvious transformation does not mean that it’s not fun or it’s poorly done. Rippersnapper is a well constructed figure. Both modes look good.

I really like the design of Rippersnapper’s alt mode. I think out of all the limb components, this is my favorite monster in terms of appearance. The twin guns on the monster shoulders is very G1 accurate. The mouthpiece can be opened, and unlike Cutthroat, it does not constantly fall off. The monster mode is surprisingly articulate. Balancing the monster on two legs is not hard at all.

Overall, Rippersnapper is another fine addition to the Terrorcon group.

Sinnertwin

Sinnertwin is the second two-headed monster of the group. His Tech Spec bio mentions he likes to patrol the Terrorcons’ lair in the hopes of finding something unwelcome then killing them. Feels like another garden variety Decepticon. Strangely, nothing is mentioned in the Tech Spec Bio about the twin heads. I guess after Hun-Gurrr and Twinferno, another two-headed monster is not such a big deal.

PotP Sinnertwin is okay all around. He’s not bad, but not great either. This wacky green and yellow color combo warrants a visit by the Cybertron fashion police. In robot mode, there’s not much that stands out for Sinnertwin, other than the colors.

Transformation to monster mode is also pretty straightforward. However, he doesn’t seem to be constructed as well as the other Terrorcons. Blot and Rippersnapper are constructed well. Cutthroat has the one construction flaw of the bird head, but other than that, the rest of the fig is solid. Sinnertwin feels slightly off, for the entire fig. What I mean is that there are parts that should snap together or tab into place, but the pieces fall just short of coming in sync with each other. On my copy, the monster head won’t completely rotate and snap into place on the body, the legs don’t completely snap together, the tail has the same problem, and I can’t seem to fully rotate the robot legs to align completely with the body. There are tabs and grooves to help you locate where the pieces should go, but I can’t seem to fully get them there. Overall it doesn’t impair the functionality of the figure, but it does present itself as a minor distraction.

In alt mode, Sinnertwin is another monster with a cool design. I like the twin heads. They each have a working jaw, though getting them open takes some prying. The color scheme in monster mode works better than it does in robot mode.

Most buyers of PotP Terrorcons are looking to buy the whole set. But if for some reason you’re not, and is making purchase decisions on the individual merit of each figure, then I would recommend Sinnertwin as the last one to buy. The minor build issues irk me, and that color scheme is not doing it for me.

Below I present all the Terrorcons in their hideous monster forms.

Terrorcons, transform and merge into… Abominus!

Abominus

This is one awesome looking Combiner. Check it out!

It all starts with Hun-Gurrr. He is based off of the best Prime Wars Trilogy combiner body, so the combined form has the best stability. Not only that, HasTak improved on it by providing proper tabbing for all pieces of the body transformation. This gives the combined body extra support. The result is a stable Abominus that stands up well in the classic A-stance. Not only that, he is actually somewhat posebale in action stances.

Transformation to Abominus requires no extra pieces, other than the hands and feet. Hun-Gurrr comes with the two feet pieces, or you can elect to use the individual combiner pieces that comes with the limb Terrorcons. For the hands you must use the individual combiner pieces. The Abominus chest shield is built into the Hun-Gurrr figure, and will be wholly formed through the transformation to body mode. I cannot commend HasTak enough for the engineering designs on Hun-Gurrr.

The limb components are on par with other Prime Wars Combiners that have come before it, but the superior body figure means they can be better connected in the combined form. Also, there are no tolerance issues for attaching the hands or feet to the limb Terrorcons, as there were for some of the previous Combiners.

Abominus has got a great new head mold that pays homage to the G1 figure.

If you can only get one Combiner Team in the Prime Wars Trilogy, the Terrorcons are the team to get! This is the final evolution of the Prime Wars Combiners, and HasTak has corrected many of the flaws that plagued the previous Combiner teams. The Terrorcons may not be the most recognizable of the G1 Combiners, but if you’re reading this blog, the Terrorcons must mean something to you.

Terrorcons… Transform and Roll Out!