Review: #154
Name: Abominus
Brand: Transformers
Allegiance: Predacon
Line: Prime - Beast Hunters
Year of Release: 2013
Size Class: Legends
Variations: a clear Target exclusive version and a Japanese version
TEAM MEMBERS:
Abominus is a combiner (in Legion class no less!), made from five components: Twinstrike, Windrazor, Blight, Rippersnapper and their leader, Hun-Gurrr.
The common theme of this set is that they all transform into dragons/monsters. They look nice as a set and each individual toy in their own right are great figures.
They don't share as many similar elements in robot mode though.
One of the things that could be improved upon is that if they could all have unique weapons. Since Blight and Twinstrike share the hammer mold and Windrazor and Rippersnapper share the gun mold. Different weapons with give them some more character.
While I would consider Rippersnapper to be the weakest individual in the team, they are all amazing. On a side note, I keep referring them to Terrorcons but they're never officially stated as such.
TRANSFORMATION:
Being such small figures, don't expect for there to be a lot of manipulation of parts. Windrazor and Twinstrike, who form the arms, are basically their beast modes. Both of them have pegs to attach to Hun-Gurrr, who form the torso. Hun-Gurrr is basically in robot mode with his back to you, his arms up, dragon feet down to expose clips joint and combiner head flipped up. While Blight and Rippersnapper are in robot mode, legs clipped together, arms tucked behind (using dedicated joints) and in Blight's case, the arms peg into the chestplate and the monster head flips down and pegs to his legs. I'm really impressed with Blight's leg mode because of all the dedicated pegs and holes. It is interesting to see how the thought that went through the designer's mind when they created this. It is a decent concept.
COMBINER MODE:
You're either going to love or hate Abominus. On the one hand, he's more of a your typical five-robot combiner. On the other, his proportions are the biggest thing that's going against him.
He's actually quite well formed and not a major mess of parts. Okay, maybe he does get a bit busy, especially the arms but I think for this size, this is forgiveable.
Basically, the legs are well formed, the only problems are the arms. Since all five components are Legion sized, this naturally means that like Generations Bruticus, his arms are disproportionally huge. It doesn't help that Abominus doesn't have proper hands/fists. Instead, using Windrazor's head as a hand and Twinstrike's beasts heads and legs as the other.
The head sculpt is great, although it doesn't scream Predacon/Decepticon to me, it seems more heroic although I think you can just make up the spiked teeth or it could just be my imagination.
As mentioned, there are no kibble that sticks out his back but he feels a little bit flat from the torso up in this aspect.
Don't let pictures deceive you, Abominus is only roughly Deluxe height. This is what makes him awesome though and once you hold him in hand, he looks a little bit... cute.
So, in comparison with the other Legends sized combiner, Devastator. Abominus is not as cleverly engineered as Devastator, but Abominus' component figures are lightyears better. Also note that Devastator has two figures (or three, if you count Mixmaster, but he only really forms the head) forming the torso.
The official weapon (taken from the Target exclusive, as the individual releases make no mention of the combined form) is this huge axe-like weapon. This is also the reason why Windrazor's and Twinstrike's heads have a 3mm peghole.
This weapon feels too long and unwieldy for Abominus though and doesn't suit him much at all.
A better weapon set is if you split them into three, forming two axes and use Hun-Gurrr's weapon as a shoulder gun. This also gives you the benefit of 'balancing' the figure, since Twinstrike's feet cover up most of the right shoulder, while Windrazor doesn't, which looks odd. What's also interesting is that all the weapons are the same shade... except Twinstrike's hammer, which is a lighter grey, very odd that they went for this.
Articulation is limited to the balljointed hips and swivelling shoulders. While it is possible to lift the shoulders out, due to the weight, it just sags down again. You can make the Windrazor arm outwards thanks to Windrazor's hip. You can also position Windrazor's wings as a shield, and fiddle about with Twinstrike's limbs for different finger positions. Abominus lacks knee joints and sometimes, Blight's and Rippersnapper's arms can get in the way.
Still, this is a fabulous combiner mode, but truth be told, it does feel like an afterthought, especially in regards to the arms. The way you use Hun-Gurrr's back as the torso is a neat aspect and Abominus will look impressive on your shelf.
OVERALL:
More combiners are always welcome. Abominus is basically icing on top of the cake considering the cleverly engineered component figures. Sure, there are some aspects where it feels like the combining gimmick was an afterthought but on the whole, it was executed well. You can't expect toys as small as these to have the complexity of a Deluxe combiner. In a nutshell, highly recommended, even if you have to search high and low for some of these figures.
-------------------------------
Watch out for the Transformers reviews found on this page here! Thank you for your continued support!