Phil's Terrorcon reviews

[Philip Ayres]

Yeah he's coming. But there's a few Terrorcons before we get to him...

[Philip Ayres]

Rippersnapper

In 1987 the Special Team/Scramble city combiners returned for a second year with one new team for each faction. Each team obeyed the new theme for the sides so the Decepticon Terrorcons were animals like the Headmasters & Clones. The Terrorcons have a slight mystic/nightmare leaning to their choice of Beast Modes....

Rippersnapper is a shark, but a shark with Dinosaur like arms & legs making him appear almost Tyrannosaur like. Most of his body is a slightly off white with blue limbs. The limbs turn where the shoulder or hip meets the body, and the tail bends up slightly. On his back is a dual barrelled weapon with a shark's fin in the middle. Apparently this is a twin, ground-to-air, voice-guided missile launcher. Mounted on a 5mm peg it can be removed and used as an extra hand weapon for Abominus. Because Rippersnapper's robot arms are along the front of his body he can use his hands to hold & store his robot mode gun in beast mode.

Transformation: Remove the back mounted weapon. Pull on the body to extend it, fold the legs and the tail back. Fold the beast head onto it's back. Fold back the beast arms then fold up the robot arms and place his cyclone gun in his hand.

Rippersnapper's robot continues the same colour themes as the beast mode. Most of the toy is an off white, but the upper legs, arms, chest centre and head are the dark blue. The arms, like several others amongst the Terrorcons are very short and bend at the top, but because the top is so low down the joint is effectively at the elbow. He holds his grey Cyclone gun in this mode, but can't hold the twin launcher or wear it on his back. It's possible for Rippersnapper's beast head to be folded forward in this mode giving him amore bestial look in robot mode.

His tech spec describes him as a "terrorist". I don't see that designation being used now..... but then I'd have never thought Hasbro would name a Transformer Spastic in a million years!

Rippersnapper can also form a limb for Abominus.

Arm mode: From beast mode remove the gun, fold the beast head back & the tail back ,straighten the limbs, fold the robot head down as a connector and insert a fist into the 5mm peg hole in his bottom.

Leg mode: From beast mode remove the gun, fold the beast head back & the tail back ,straighten the limbs and insert a foot into the 5mm peg hole in his bottom with the front of the foot on the same side as the front of the robot mode.

The instructions show Rippersnapper acting as Abominus' left arm.

Lovely fun beast mode and a pretty standard Scramble City robot mode, albeit with short arms.

Rippersnapper was sold in the west in 1987 as Terrorcon TR-1. He was sold in Japan as Transformers toy D-84 and was also available in the D-84 Abominus giftset. The only western market to get an Abominus giftset was Italy.

Rippersnapper has never been reissued or recoloured.

[Philip Ayres]

Sinnertwin

For some years I always thought that Sinnertwin was a 2 headed Hydra dragon, similar to the Terrorcon leader Hun-grrr. However you look closely and it seems like he could be a two headed dog. Look at his tech spec and he's down as a sentry. And those together put me in mind of Cerberus the Hellhound who guarded the gates of Hades. It turns out Cerberus has a brother Orthrus who is a two headed dog! So Sinnertwin is an Orthrus.

The majority of the dog is yellow, with green legs and a bright purple tail. All four legs turn at the hip/shoulder and the tail, which splits in two, bends at it's base. Sadly there's no motion at all in the necks or the heads. On his back, like his fellow Terrorcon Rippersnapper, there is a 5mm peg hole on which can be mounted his beast mode weapon, a flame gun. The robot's arm run under the body of the beast which allows his robot mode gun, an armour-piercing rocket-grenade launcher, to be stored in beast mode.

Transformation: Remove the beast cannon. Fold the heads back and the tails forward. Pull the body apart and stand on the rear of the toy. Fold the legs back behind the toy. Fold the arms up. Put the robot mode gun in the robot's hand.

Sinnertwin's robot mode is predominantly yellow again, with the green serving as the upper legs, arms, chest centre and head. He's got the same short arms as Rippersnapper with just a joint attaching them to the body as the robot's sole articulation which makes the arms look as if they're attached to the body by the elbow. Sinnertwin possesses possibly my favourite transformer handgun. His green armour-piercing rocket-grenade launcher has two barrels mounted on top of each other surrounded by a rounded off casing. It's a lovely looking sci fi type gun.

Sinnertwin has a bonus Centaur mode: From robot mode retract the robot legs and fold the rear beast legs down for him to stand on.

As with the other Terrorcons, Sinnertwin forms part of Abominus.

Arm mode: Take the beast mode, fold the rear legs forward along the side of the body and fold the front legs up and back to sit on top of them. Lift the heads & necks up and fold the robot head down to form the connector - this is harder than it sounds because the slot for the connector peg in the middle of the chest is slightly too small. Fold the tail up and insert a fist into Sinnertwin's bottom. This mode allows Sinnertwin to continue to mount his beast gun which thus forms a shoulder cannon for Abominus

Leg mode: Take the beast mode, remove the gun, fold the rear legs forward along the side of the body and fold the front legs up and back to sit on top of them. Fold the heads & necks back and the tail forward. Insert a foot into his bottom.

Overall: A fab beast mode makes the toy, but the design limitations in 1987 make it easy to confuse Sinnertwin's beast type with the similar looking Hun-grrr.

Sinnertwin was sold in the US & UK in 1987 as Terrorcon TR-2. He was sold in Japan as Transformers toy D-81 where he was also part of the D-84 Abominus giftset.

Sinnertwin has never been reissued or recoloured.

[Philip Ayres]

Cutthroat

Cutthroat is a sort of Dinobird monster thing, with a green body, purple wings & tail and cream head & legs. The head bends forward, as does the neck, but be careful not to bend the neck too far forward or you'll expose the robot head. The wings bend back at their base and the legs turn. The tail is held in by a peg so that can turn too as well as bend at it's base. The body has an odd feature, not documented in the instructions, where the lower half can bend back about 20 degrees in beast mode. I'm not 100% sure why such a joint is there. For a 1987 toy this is a beast mode packed with articulation and it beats that of Terrorsaur, released nearly ten years later, hands down.

You may have noticed that I've not been giving repaint ideas for the Terrorcons. That's because in the most part they're unique beast modes that don't lend themselves to easily identifying with other characters. But Cutthroat could easily become Swoop (green becomes red or blue, silver for the cream and purple) and I imagine that Cutthroat substituted/was repainted in a few UK Dinobot collections missing that vital character.

Transformation: Fold the wings back and raise the arms which come out of the sides of the body. Fold the head & neck forward. Remove the tail. Fold the legs back, though like Sinnertwin you could just fold them down to form a Centaur mode. Pull down on the legs and stand. Place the tail in his hand as his carries double-barrelled magnetizer gun.

The green & cream colour scheme continues in robot mode for the lower legs & chest and upper legs, arms, beast head on chest and robot head respectively. He's the only Terrorcon limb robot with full length arms but due to being attached to the wings near the body it needs to avoid the hinge so the joint for it is mounted lower on the arm than looks quite right. The wings sticking out of his back can't be folded forward without loosing the arms. They are quite weighty there but his folded back beast legs provide adequate heel spurs to prevent him toppling backwards. His beast head looks great mounted on the chest and can be folded up as a sort of battle helmet. The upper body can, using the joint described bove, bend back about 20 degrees at the waist. It's got as little use here as it had in beast mode.

Cutthroat also serves as a limb for Abominus:

Arm Mode: Beast mode, with the robot head folded out the front of the body. I'd keep the robot legs retracted but your mileage may vary. The wings can be folded back or left out. Folded back makes you want another Cutthroat to balance the looks on the other side though! Peg the fist into the hole on the bottom of the toy.

Leg Mode: Beast mode, but fold the best head forward. Fold the wings back, peg the foot into the toy's base.

Fine dinobird mode, good robot within the limitations of being a Scramble City limb and a decent limb in either mode. One of the first Transformers to incorporate it's robot mode gun in alternate mode.

Cutthroat was sold in the west in 1987 as Terrorcon TR-3. He was sold in Japan as Transformers toy D-82 and also available in the D-84 Abominus giftset which wasn't released in most western countries. Italy, however, lucked out here and did get it!

[Philip Ayres]

There's no escape, there's no where to run to! He's coming, he's next ........

[Philip Ayres]

Blot

Hands up if you know what Blot's beast mode is?

Thought not. Nobody does. It could be an ape, he's got the right looking arms, it could be a dinosaur like lizard going by the nose. We'll just call it a monster. Like the other Terrorcons his legs, short and bent at the knee, turn at the hips. His arms bend at the elbow, turn at the shoulder and, thanks to a conveniently placed transformation joint, fold back at the shoulders too. The head has some articulation too and can look up about 60 degrees.

Blot comes with a purple backpack which the same colour as his legs and lower arms, while his body is dark blue. Two small pegs enable it to clip onto his back immobilising the head articulation while a third peg enables his slime gun to be mounted on it. The backpack can be used as a weapon by itself by sliding it's edge into the 5mm slot on the back of Blot's head.

Transformation: Remove the backpack and separate the slime gun from it. Pull the lower half of Blot's body down and fold his legs back. Fold his robot head up from behind the toy. Fold the arms straight down to the sides and then back at the shoulders. Raise his short robot arms. Peg his slime gun into one hand and his backpack into the other.

Blot's robot mode uses the same colours as the beast mode:mainly dark blue with purple upper legs, short arms and typically Scramble City head. He's a broad, short robot which sets him aside from most of the other Scramble City style combiner limbs' robot modes.

Blot can also form a limb for Abominus:

Arm Mode: Pull the body of the beast mode apart, fold the head out, close it up again and peg a fist into the hole on the underside of the toy.

Leg Mode: From robot mode fold the beast arms back at the elbow a little bit, plug into a foot a push both halves of the body together.

Everyone loves Blot. How can you not like the odd appearance of his beast mode. He appears in issue 2 of the Headmasters series in a large roll alongside the future Decepticon Headmasters as well as featuring in the following issues with the other Terrorcons.... well apart from Sinnertwin who doesn't get to do or say anything! Recently Blot has appeared on the Stardub Channel on YouTube in Star Dub Episode 5: Blot following which he became the channel's unofficial mascot & star appearing in many subsequent episodes.

Blot is Terrorcon TR-4, available in the west in 1987 and first sold in Japan as Transformers toy D-83 Butto which also appears in the Japanese D-84 Abominus giftset. Like the other Terrorcons Blot has never been reissued or repainted.

[legios]

Blot is a sort of.....giant nose...monstery....thing....creature....bloke.....

He is also great. Blot is the only Terrorcon I have ever owned and I do retain an enormous amount of affection for him. He is one of those toys that is just fun to play with, and was often one of those that would come down from the shelf to be fiddled with whilst I was reading. He remains, for some reason, one of my favourite of the Scramble City components I have actually owned.

Karl

[The Huff]

Blot is a 'mole' inspired monster.
Can't remember where I read this but if you look at his design it's obvious (in the same way that Rippersnapper is supposed to be a shark monster).

[Philip Ayres]

Hun-Grrr

In 1987 Hasbro changed what modes which of the Transformers Factions used. From 1984 the general theme had been Autobot Cars vs Decepticon planes. This theme is carried over into the Targetmasters, which reuse some toys from the previous year, but generally Transformers in 1987, across the Headmasters, Special Teams/Scramble City and Clones sub lines, are Autobot futuristic vehicles vs Decepticon beasts. There are exceptions.... the Throttlebots, Monsterbots & Duocons spring to mind.

Unlike Sinnertwin, Hun-Grrr really is a 2-headed "hydra" dragon. He's mainly light grey in colour with darker grey used for his highly articulated neck, rear lower legs & feet. There's some purple panelling & scales on his back. The panelling has some 5mm peg holes in it, ostensibly for attaching his chest shield when he forms Abominus' body, but they can also be used as a mount for his robot mode gun (or any other 5mm peg weapon) to give him some weaponry in beast mode like the other Terrorcons. The two identical heads are a lovely angular sculpt with a visor for the eyes which makes each head look like it's a control cabin with someone within. The neck articulation is the star of the show here: the heads can look up, the neck bends down half way along, bends to the side both ways a quarter of the distance out from the body and at the body turns and swings out to the sides. So a great range of poseability in the neck. Elsewhere on the beast all four legs turn where they meet the body and in addition the rear legs bend at the knee and toes. The tail, however, is a solid stubby lump with no articulation.

Hun-Grr's character art shows a Base Mode not in the instructions: Fold the front legs back then straighten the necks out in front of the toy. The necks then fold out to the sides and then bend down at the top joint. Straighten the rear legs and stand on the front of the toy with the underside facing you. It might be a cannon mode I suppose formed from the tail, but it doesn't attach to either of the Scramble City cities and besides it looks rubbish. Come back when I review Scattershot for a really decent cannon mode.

Transformation: Straighten the necks out so they point straight out the front of the toy. Fold up the heads. Turn the front legs forward and fold under the toy. Straighten the rear legs and fold forward so they're along the side of the beast. Fold the toes on the rear legs back then fold forward the hands from under the legs. Fold the tail back under the beast and turn the now exposed head 180 degrees so it faces up. Stand on the beast heads.

Very little in the way of new colour is revealed by the robot mode, primarily because only three new parts have been exposed: a pair of pale grey hands complete with 5mm peg holes and a bright purple head with moulded face and silver visor. I'd have painted the face too to delineate it from the rest of the head. He comes with a large dark grey gun which he can hold and a large purple shield, vaguely shaped like an elongated triangle. The shield can just about be hand held if the wrist is bent down, but it can also be mounted on his shoulder thanks to a fold out peg with a Special Team/Scramble City connector moulded into the end. As we've seen in the transformation the head turns while the arms have in inherited the rear beast leg articulation turning at the shoulders and bending at the elbow as well as the wrists which can bend down for use with the shield. There's a distinct line round the middle of the toy which could almost be an abandoned waist joint. The legs turn at the hips and swing to the sides at the same point. A joint between hip & knee allows the leg to unnecessarily swing to each side, but this is more intended for his transformation. His knee bends and his foot moves at the ankle. Unfortunately the scales moulded in to the front of the leg make achieving an in dependant stable kneeling pose next to impossible.

Hun-Grrr combines with Rippersnapper, Sinnertwin, Cutthroat & Blot to form Abominus: Hun-Grrr serves as the body of Abominus.

From robot mode remove the gun & the shield. Fold the arms down to the sides and then fold the lower arms back at the elbow. Fold the leg out to the side at the hip, then back in at the joint above the knee. Peg the shield into the chest and put the helmet on the head.

Hun-Grrr also comes with the purple hands & feet necessary to build Abominus.

Trying a beast design out at this size has worked well and results in a decent toy. He lacks the base mode of the earlier Scramble City combiners, but he's solid and has plenty of articulation. Well worth a look.

Hun-Grrr is Terrorcon TR-5 and was sold in the west in 1987. In Japan he's D-79 Hun-Gurrr which is also available in the D-84 Abominus giftset. Of the countries that sold Transformers in the west, only Italy got an Abominus giftset.

Hun-Grrr has never been reissued or repainted. However he has made a return appearance: Universe Legend Hun-gurrr, a repaint of Legends of Cybertron Scourge, was found in the Special Team leaders boxset, exclusive to Target in the USA and Argos in the UK, which also contained Silverbolt, Hot Zone (Hot Spot), Razorclaw and Scattershot. Two other special team leaders, Menasor (Motormaster) and Onslaught were previously sold separately.

[Philip Ayres]

Abominus

Abominus is the combined form of the Terrorcons. It's constructed from the following Transformers:

TR1 Rippersnapper
TR2 Sinnertwin
TR3 Cutthroat
TR4 Blot
TR5 Hun-grrr

Each of the limb Terrorcons - those numbered TR1-4 above - can form either an arm or a leg:

Rippersnapper

Arm mode: From beast mode remove the gun, fold the beast head back & the tail back ,straighten the limbs, fold the robot head down as a connector and insert a fist into the 5mm peg hole in his bottom.

Leg mode: From beast mode remove the gun, fold the beast head back & the tail back ,straighten the limbs and insert a foot into the 5mm peg hole in his bottom with the front of the foot on the same side as the front of the robot mode.

Sinnertwin

Arm mode: Take the beast mode, fold the rear legs forward along the side of the body and fold the front legs up and back to sit on top of them. Lift the heads & necks up and fold the robot head down to form the connector - this is harder than it sounds because the slot for the connector peg in the middle of the chest is slightly too small. Fold the tail up and insert a fist into Sinnertwin's bottom. This mode allows Sinnertwin to continue to mount his beast gun which thus forms a shoulder cannon for Abominus

Leg mode: Take the beast mode, remove the gun, fold the rear legs forward along the side of the body and fold the front legs up and back to sit on top of them. Fold the heads & necks back and the tail forward. Insert a foot into his bottom.

Cutthroat

Arm Mode: Beast mode, with the robot head folded out the front of the body. I'd keep the robot legs retracted but your mileage may vary. The wings need to be left out. Peg the fist into the hole on the bottom of the toy.

Leg Mode: Beast mode, but fold the best head forward. Fold the wings back, peg the foot into the toy's base.

Blot

Arm Mode: Pull the body of the beast mode apart, fold the head out, close it up again and peg a fist into the hole on the underside of the toy.

Leg Mode: From robot mode fold the beast arms back at the elbow a little bit, plug into a foot a push both halves of the body together.

Hun-Grrr

Hun-Grrr serves as the body of Abominus.

From robot mode remove the gun & the shield. Fold the arms down to the sides and then fold the lower arms back at the elbow. Fold the leg out to the side at the hip, then back in at the joint above the knee. Peg the shield into the chest and put the helmet on the head.

Abominus's combined form is tall, larger than most of the other Special Team/Scramble City combiners and towering over Menasor who I reviewed last week and is still sitting on my desk. I'm using Cutthroat as an arm, but am fin ding that he's rather thin compared to the opposing arm, Rippersnapper. Since both Rippersnapper & Sinnertwin can wear their beast mode guns in arm mode using them as arms might be preferable. Even if you don't either weapon can be held by Abominus, in addition to his hand gun inherited from Hun-Grrr. If you look closely at Hun-Grrr's gun you'll find there's a number of small holes in it which you can use to attach the handguns from the smaller toys or Blot's Backpack to form a super weapon. Cobra Island Toys suggests an alternative transformation with the Hun-Grrr's arms rotated back and the two large beast guns held in Hun-Grrr's hands as shoulder cannons for Abominus.

The legs are paced quite widely, but this is necessary to accommodate Blot as a leg who is quite wide. What's interesting is that Abominus actually has some leg articulation, turning hips and bending knees in addition to the turning shoulders the other combiners have. He can also turn his head thanks to the Abominus head being worn like a helmet over Hun-grrr's head.

Abominus is a great combined robot, better than several of the offerings the previous year. Being able to use more of the weapons from the smaller robots helps. However he's not the best combiner out in the 1987. Oh no.....

Abominus is formed from the Terrorcons listed above. Italy is the only western market to receive an Abominus giftset. In Japan Abominus could be formed from the following toys:

D-79 Hun-Gurrr D-80 Rippersnapper
D-81 Sinnertwin
D-82 Cutthroat
D-83 Butto

However Japan did have an Abominus boxset which was numbered D-84. Released in 1987, I have a Masterforce pack in leaflet that shows it still available in 1988.