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KFC Toys Kingzilla and Komodus Quick Review

April 12th, 2021 Comments off

The Horrorcons are one of my most treasured subgroups from G1 Season 4. They are both Triple Changers and Headmasters, successfully combining the two gimmicks. My cousin had both Apeface and Snapdragon, and I was super envious since I had neither. I remember playing with his Apeface quite a bit, but not Snapdragon. I also remember buying Apeface for my best friend at the time. Those were the days.

The jet modes of both G1 Apeface and Snapdragon are really good. But their other modes left a lot to be desired. In robot mode, both of them look like they are wearing diapers with legs that are way too short. And in beast mode, both figures suffer from having way too much bulk in the main trunk section. Even for G1 standards, all modes other than the jet modes were horrible (pun intended).

When I started collecting TFs again in the modern era, I knew Hasbro would update the Horrorcons at some point. And they did. We saw WFC Siege Apeface in 2019, and WFC Earthrise Snapdragon in 2020. It took them longer to do the Horrorcons than I thought they would, but better late than never.

As much as I loved the Horrorcons, it would be absurd to expect HasTak to make official Masterpiece versions of the duo. So it was inevitable that a 3P company would attempt it. Enter KFC. This is Keith’s Fantasy Club, and not the famous fried chicken chain. KFC released their takes on MP style Horrorcons, around 2017. And as far as I know, they’re the only 3P to attempt it thus far. Are Horrorcons not as popular as I thought? Am I the only TransFan that like them? The horrors!

I acquired KFC Kingzilla (aka Snapdragon) in 2020 on a sale. Prior to that, the only KFC product I have are these E-Nergeon Cubes. They’re not bad, but this product alone is hardly an indicator of the quality of KFC’s offerings. Kingzilla is my first real figure from KFC. So how good is Kingzilla? Let’s find out. But first let’s first take a look at the box and what’s inside.

Box and Contents

Front of the box.

Back of the box. Gotta love this bio. Riches! Fembots! TFs apparently value much the same things humans do.

Look at all the stuff inside! Kingzilla comes with:

  • 2 rifles
  • a magnetic metal plate for Komodus to stand on
  • 2 chest blast or flame thrust effects
  • extra face for KFC Kingorilla (Apeface), attached to Kongor (Spasma)
  • 2 extra red parts that I assume is a fix or enhancement for Kingorilla
  • bio card
  • instruction book and comic

Another accessory is a stand to be used in jet mode. I didn’t actually try this. Kingzilla is a heavy figure, and I’m not entirely sure this stand can fully support the weight for an extended period of time. But don’t say KFC doesn’t love you. They included everything but the kitchen sink in this package. Bravo.

Robot Mode

I always start with the mode that the figure comes packed in.

That is one awesome looking MP style Snapdragon. This is a big and beefy figure. The colors are G1 accurate. Materials used on the figure is superb, with high quality plastic and die-cast. Kingzilla really has presence, he impresses by appearance and size alone.

Smart observers will notice that the above pic does not show the figure in a standard traditional A-stance. And that leads me to the first very noticeable issue with Kingzilla. See below.

The legs are on ratchets, and this is the first position swinging outwards. It’s way too wide! Quite a few TFs share this problem. Generations Jetfire is the first figure that comes to my mind. Someone should coin a term to describe this problem.

The pic above shows the legs perfectly straight. So it’s either this, the super wide A-stance, or some kind of modified action stance to have Kingzilla posed in a standing position. This issue does mark down the figure a bit for me. But on the bright side, this is about the only real weakness with this figure. It’s all good news from here.

Looking at Kingzilla from the side. The obvious distraction here is that huge backpack which makes up the jet mode nosecone. But it doesn’t bother me that much. Notice the super long heel spurs, which provides great stability for the figure.

Another shot of the side, with the arms raised, to get a better look at the sides of the body and legs.

Back of the figure. A bit bulky, but I like how it looks.

As I look through these pics of the robot mode, I realize almost all of them has Kingzilla holding the 2 rifles. So here I offer a pic without the rifles, in his wide A-stance.

Pretty good face sculpt. This is how I remember Snapdragon looking, in the animation.

KFC did not forget the chest tech specs that was a feature on all G1 Headmasters. The specs automatically come up upon inserting the Headmaster. Seeing this unnecessary but nice gimmick brings me back to the 80s. I yearn for the 80s.

Kingzilla in an action pose. There is quite a bit of articulation points in robot mode. However, some issues hinder the overall articulation. A lot of the joints are on ratchets, so it does limit the positioning. The bigger issue, however, is that this is a large and heavy figure. There are poses that are achievable, but the figure won’t hold it due to its own weight. The big backpack also makes the figure back heavy, limiting poses where Kingzilla is leaning backwards.

Here is Kingzilla with those chest blast effects. I guess Snapdragon did this somewhere in the G1 animation, though personally I don’t remember it. Kudos to KFC for including it. Nipple blast action never gets old.

Now for some size comparisons.

With MP-36 Megatron. I like how these scale. In the wide Kingzilla A-stance, Megatron is actually a bit taller, if you compare where their eyes are. But Kingzilla is overall bigger, buffer, and beefier. That’s how I would expect these 2 to scale.

With WFC Earthrise Snapdragon.

Before we get to the other modes, let’s take a look at the Headmaster Komodus (Krunk).

Komodus looks pretty good. I can’t say how close he resembles the G1 toy or cartoon, since I don’t pay close attention to the Headmaster Nebulans.

Here is Komodus with the magnetic stand. I don’t detect any magnets when Komodus is placed on it, so it’s possible this is not magnetic at all. Now that I think about it, I’m not sure where I learned that this is supposed to be magnetic. Not a big deal, I can’t see myself using this accessory often.

I’m very pleased with the robot mode overall, though it is my least favorite mode of the 3. The obvious weakness is that super wide A-stance. The big backpack could turn off some fans as well. But he’s got way more positives than negatives in this mode. He’s a big, imposing figure, built with solid materials. Superb construction with tight ratchets. Nice paintjob with G1 accurate colors. Enough articulation at most of the joints that need them.

Jet Mode

The instructions start off with going from robot to jet first, so that’s the mode we’ll look at next.

That is one sleek and awesome looking jet!

Here we see the jet in another angle. It’s very G1 accurate, as far as the shape of the jet. KFC opted to use a dark silver as the overall color, instead of Snapdragon’s G1 off-white. Some fans bash this decision, but I personally don’t see it as a big deal. Maybe KFC will release a repaint later with more G1 accurate colors. If this was Hasbro, I know they will.

Looking at the jet directly from the front. From this angle you almost don’t see the wings. Kingzilla is a long jet with wings way in the back. Kinda reminds of the Cobra Night Raven S3P from G.I.Joe Real American Heroes.

Looking at the back of the jet. From this angle, you can easily see the wings, rear vertical stabilizers, and main thrusters. I should have took a pic where the flame effects are used on the thrusters. Notice the rifles are attached under the wings.

Underside of the jet. It’s pretty clean. The bulk of the body is nicely incorporated into the jet as part of the overall transformation scheme. This is partly due to the original G1 design.
It was obvious that the G1 toy designers prioritized the jet mode first, and Kingzilla adheres to that same overall G1 scheme almost to a fault. The landing gears are deployed in the above pic. The two rear landing gears on the legs can be a bit tough to deploy and retract.

A cool gimmick of Kingzilla (and Kingorilla too) is controls that light up inside the cockpit. The pic above shows it lighted. I love this gimmick.

Here is a shot of Komodus sitting inside the cockpit of Kingzilla in jet mode. Notice the controls are lighted too. The lights are activated by the black switch, to the right of Komodus, at the base where the cockpit opens. Opening the cockpit will automatically flip the lights on. The black switch is accessible from the outside too, without having to open the cockpit.

for size comparison, I’m reusing a pic I took when I did the DX9 Gewalt review. Here are these 2 figures together in jet mode.

Kingzilla’s jet mode is my favorite of the 3 modes. I honestly see no weaknesses with this mode. It’s nice and sleek with no bulk. All parts come together well with solid construction and no dangling parts. The jet mode balances well on the 3 landing gears. The controls light up gimmick, though unnecessary, is too cool to ignore. This jet mode gets an A+.

Dragon Mode

It’s not clear to me what Kingzilla’s beast mode is supposed to be. But since his name is Snapdragon, I’m gonna go with dragon. Whether this is a walking komodo dragon, a mythological dragon, or some kind of future space T-Rex type dragon, your guess is as good as mine. All I know is Kingzilla looks quite fearsome in this mode.

That is a great looking interpretation of Snapdragon in beast mode. It’s very G1 accurate, as far as overall look and colors. The twin cannons on the back screams G1. The purple neck attachment that Komodus connects to really nailed the G1 cartoon look. The way that the jet nosecone bends up as the dragon tail is so G1 it’s criminal. If I have one complaint about this mode, is that the dragon arms are a bit skinny. In these pics they look ok, but they look skinnier in person. Construction of these arms also feel somewhat flimsy, when considering that the rest of the figure is so robust and solid.

A shot of the dragon from the side.

Kingzilla dragon back view.

Close up of the dragon head. Komodus looks great as the head of the dragon as well. The jaw can be opened and closed, ready to bite on hapless Autobots, or anyone foolish enough to challenge Kingzilla.

Size comparison of Kingzilla in dragon mode with MP Megatron.

With Siege Snapdragon, both in dragon modes.

Kingzilla terrorizing WFC Earthrise Airwave. Why would these 2 characters ever be together in the entire TF-verse? They wouldn’t. Airwave was handy on my desk when I needed a victim for Kingzilla.

One aspect of Kingzilla I didn’t mention til now is the transformation engineering. In short, this figure is not at all difficult to transform, especially for a figure of this size. Some modern day MP style TFs go overboard with the transformation complexity. Not Kingzilla. This is a figure where any decent TransFan can quickly figure out the transformation scheme of all 3 modes without looking at the instructions. And on top of that, all 3 modes look pretty damn good. This is a testament to the design engineering achieved by KFC.

TL;DR

In summary, I highly recommend Kingzilla. He’s a big and solid figure, scaling well with other MPs, official or otherwise. He’s well built with excellent materials, much of the figure is composed of high quality plastic and die-cast. Construction of the figure is superb, with tight joints and ratchets. Design and colors of the figure screams G1. He comes with plenty of accessories. The figure has several interesting gimmicks. All 3 modes look great without a super complex transformation.

Kingzilla is a figure you need in your collection. If you can find one now, buy it.

Transform and Roll Out.

 

Categories: Pics, Toy Reviews