By now, all third party Transformers collectors are familiar with the Feral Cons by Mastermind Creations, an homage to G1 Predacons. The 5 standard Feral Cons combine to form Feral Rex (Predaking).

However, MMC manufactured a sixth Feral Con named Felisaber. Felisaber is a yellow repaint of Tigris (Rampage) with some minor mold tweaks. I know what you’re thinking… “There are only 5 Predacons!” Yes you are right. Maybe this is just a ploy for MMC to sell more toys. But MMC did give Felisaber a backstory. Felisaber is an homage to Catilla, an Autobot Pretender Beast who appeared late in the G1 toyline. The robot head mold, the yellow mechanical saber tooth tiger alt mode, and the tiger helmet with the Pretender shell looks, all point to the fact that Felisaber is Catilla. I don’t know much about Catilla as a character since he arrived way too late to be included in the US G1 cartoons, but he did make appearances in the G1 comics. Apparently, Catilla used to be a Decepticon. And MMC extended the story so that Felisaber was once part of the Feral Cons.

With Felisaber in the mix, all six Feral Cons can combine to form the Ultimate Mode of Feral Rex. In this mode, Felisaber replaces Talon as the left arm. Talon then goes on the back of Feral Rex, acting kind of like a backpack or booster. As of this writing, there ain’t a whole lot of pics of the Ultimate Mode up on the web. Worry not my fellow TransFans! I have Felisaber and I have combined my Feral Cons into Feral Rex Ultimate Mode! Feast your optics on the pics below.

In the Ultimate Mode, Feral Rex does look more balanced. However, he becomes extremely back heavy. Talon is now fully on the back, as you can see in the pic below.

Personally I’m not a big fan of the Ultimate Mode. It’s not in the official TF canon that Predaking has a Ultimate Mode. And as for the MMC figures, Feral Rex easily falls backwards in this mode, making poseability a lot more challenging. I would buy Felisaber if you are a fan of Catilla. Or if you really like the Tigris figure. Tigris is my favorite of the standard 5 Feral Cons, which is why I bought Felisaber. But I would not buy Felisaber for the Ultimate Mode. Feral Rex is already an amazing figure without him, and Felisaber really doesn’t add anything to the combined form in my opinion.

Before I end this post, here are some pics of the Feral Cons individually in their robot modes.

Feral Cons… Transform and Roll Out.

Things cool down a bit in September of 2014. Only 3 TFs this month.

• Generations Thrilling 30 Rattrap, Target, $14.24

• Mastermind Creations Leo Dux, tfsource.com, $109.99

• Mastermind Creations Tigris, tfsource.com, $79.95

I think for the first time ever, all my purchases in a single month are figures where the alt modes are animals. Reminds me of the G1 episode “Call of the Primitives”.

Rattrap was a nice find. His release was 4 or 5 months before this, and at the time he was quite rare. As a fan favorite he’s snatched up quick. So of course online dealers spared no effort jacking up the price, sometimes at well over $40. I first saw this Rattrap figure at BotCon, back in June of 2014. Price dropped a bit by then, but at the con he was still about $25 at the cheapest. I like Rattrap, but I don’t like him enough that I want to pay any markup for this figure. So I was quite pleased when I found him in store this month. The figure itself is not too shabby. As of this writing, I only transformed him once from robot to rat. I remember the transformation was somewhat complicated. I need to spend some more time with this figure.

Leo Dux (Razorclaw) and Tigris (Rampage) from Mastermind Creations round out the rest of the figs this month. These are the last two needed to form Feral Rex (Predaking). Now that I have all 5 Feral Cons (Predacons), I think my favorite is Tigris. I feel he is the most fun to play with, and I really like both his modes. He’s also got some cool accessories. Leo Dux is cool too. Robot mode is especially nice, but the lion mode feels somewhat bulky.

Primitives… answer the call! Transform and Roll Out!

Happy New Year! I usually do these new year’s posts right around the turn of the year, either on New Years Eve or New Years Day. But of course life gets in the way, and so here is the annual New Years post delayed til the end of January. Better late than never I always say.

I’m conflicted as to how I feel about 2014. For starters, we had another TF movie. Age of Extinction was quite the paradox in movie history. It was the highest grossing film worldwide for 2014, yet that the same time Rotten Tomatoes report a lowly rating of only 18%. And compared to previous movies, I would say that the AoE toys as a whole are rather disappointing. I think Hasbro recognized that most mainstream fans may be sick of another Michael Bay full-length feature, and in response did not make as many toys. Personally I don’t think I can take anymore “Bayhems”. I sincerely wish another director would take over the franchise. Asking for popular and proven sci-fi action directors, such as J.J.Abrams, Joss Whedon, or Christopher Nolan, is probably out of the question. And the movie studio would not want someone who would take a dramatic departure from what Bay has laid out. Though a little outdated, this article suggests 6 directors who could potentially take over the TF movie franchise. I would add Justin Lin (of Fast and Furious fame) and Brad Bird (Mission Impossible 4) to this list.

2014 also saw a record number of 3rd party transforming robots offered. If you’re only into official Hasbro and Takara products, this wouldn’t matter to you. But if you’re reading this blog, chances are you are at least familiar with what I’m talking about. Just a few years back, all you had to know as far as the 3rd party scene was FansProject and TFC Toys. Those days are long gone. There are probably about 50 3rd parties out there, all doing its own thing and wanting a piece of your hard-earned TF dollars. And there appears to be no slow down. I sometimes fear that the market for 3rd party products are near saturation. Let’s face it: this is a niche market. Third party figs are expensive. Having so many companies vying for a piece of the pie… I don’t know how sustainable this is.

OK, now let’s look at some statistics for 2014. Here is the break down:

• 21 figures from Age of Extinction
• 8 figures from Transformers Prime
• 4 Masterpiece figs
• 1 figure from Fall of Cybertron
• 32 figures from Generations Thrilling 30
• 2 TFCC or convention exclusive figures
• 25 Third Party products

That’s a grand total of 93 figures for the year. It comes to 7.75 figures a month. Just slightly more than 2013. Notice there are 25 3rd party products! 25! That’s gotta be a record for me. I wonder if this trend will continue in 2015.

I’ll end this post with a few collection pics of some of my favorites from 2014.

Age of Extinction Grimlock, Slash, Slug, Strafe, and Scorn.

Maketoys Paladin Chaos (tribute to The Fallen)

Masterpiece Streak. Released in 2013, but actively played with in 2014. Shown here holding his standard rifle and a pistol from a Gears of War figure that I no longer have.

Age of Extinction Drift and Hound

Masterpiece Wheeljack and Bumblebee

Generations Brainstorm and Jetfire

Mastermind Creations Feral Rex (Predaking), looking awesome combined!

Happy 2015! Transform and Roll Out!