From Newsgroup: alt.toys.transformers

Dave's Transformers Age of the Primes Rant: Decepticon Monstructor

Monster Birdbrain (Rairyu/Sludge)
Monster Bristleback (Gairyu/Scarr)
Monster Icepick (Goryu/Grimlock)
Monster Scowl (Doryu/Snarl)
Decepticon Slog (Kakuryu/Slug)
Monster Wildfly (Yokuryu/Swoop)
Monstructor (Dinoking/Volcanicus)

Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/AoP/Monstructor

So, back for a third bite at this particular apple. The original Volcanicus set was impressive for how much they managed despite the
limitations of size and budget. Dinoforce added some more bits to yield a slightly better combined form, while also clearly being the original intent
of the set in the first place. Why would I want to drop $90 on a third
version of a fairly flawed set? Well, some of it is nostalgia...I still have the original Monstructor, if not all of the accessories, and Slog hasn't crumbled yet. But also, this wasn't just "another deco run with a new head
and different accessories," like Dinoforce. I mean, there is a new
Monstructor head (inspired by the more monstrous IDW version), but they did a lot more retooling and fiddling around with transformation with these. Yes, sometimes it's deeply unimpressing (Icepick's transformation is "mess with
the head, you're done, in keeping with the original), but they put a lot of effort into trying to get the look and feel of the inner Micromasters as opposed to the Dinoforce set which worked with the shells.
Note, while the Dinoforce figures limited the figure retools to new
robot heads, these are more extensively retooled, often resulting in the original transformation being impossible or at least kinda nerfed.

https://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Legacy/Dinoking - Dinoking review,
which in turn has links to the originals.


CAPSULES

$89.99 at Hasbro Pulse.

Monster Birdbrain: Original mold was not very good. Oddly, this is an improvement if only because the altmode doesn't need to look like anything in particular, I'd call it mildly recommended.

Monster Bristleback: Original mold was recommended, in part on the strength of being a new character. This version weakens an already iffy
beast mode while not having the G1 character's distinctive spines. Still,
not too bad. Mildly recommended.

Monster Icepick: Original mold was at the low end of mildly
recommended. Small changes resulted in major differences, and while the official altmode doesn't fit the G1 version as well as it could, you can fix this yourself. Mildly recommended.

Monster Scowl: Original mold was recommended. This is a decent retool,
if a little limited in monster mode. Mildly recommended.

Decepticon Slog: Original mold was mildly recommended. This is a weird and somewhat stupid retool, and I love it. Recommended.

Monster Wildfly: Original mold was recommended, best of the six. In objective terms, this is still the best mold of the set, as much as I like my doofus son Slog.

Monstructor: Dinoking was recommended, and slightly better than Volcanicus. Mechanically, Monstructor is closer to Dinoking, since it has
the extra combiner kibble that Volcanicus lacked. Mechanically, the changes
to Icepick do help a lot in eliminating one of the bigger problems with the combiner legs on the previous two versions, though. Basically, I'd say if
you don't have Dinoking, this is recommended. If you do, the price has to
come into consideration at least somewhat.


RANTS

Packaging: While the box is the same size as the DinoForce gift set, it lacks the windows, instead having the front be line art of the upper half of Monstructor colored in random rainbow splashes. The back has a render of Monstructor on the left over the G1-style techspec, and renders of the six components in both modes on the right with their transformation steps. The right and left sides each have renders of three components in both modes.
Left side has Birdbrain, Bristleback, and Icepick. The right side has Scowl, Slog, and Wildfly. The top just has the Transformers logo and a tilted Decepticon symbol, the bottom has the usual legalese.
The inside corrugated cardboard tray is separated into three
compartments, the middle one being thinner than the right and left. The component figures, mostly in beast mode, are taped down in plastic bags,
three on a side (one long bag with heat-crimping in between), while down the middle are all the accessories and combiner kibble. Icepick is the only one
in robot mode, although for all I know he started in beast mode and the head folded back during shipping. You might want to open the accesories bag over
a bowl or something. The instructions are folded up in front of the tray,
and as one might expect, they're pretty thick.


DECEPTICON: MONSTER BIRDBRAIN
Altmode: Bird Monster
Monstructor Component: Pelvis and thighs
Transformation Difficulty: 8 steps
Previous Name Use: None with epithet
Previous Mold Use: Legacy (Sludge, Rairyu)
Origin Universe: G1

Colors: The arms, pelvis skirt, and boots are black plastic, the rest of the figure is a sort of heather purple plastic (a lot more vibrant than the pale violet of most of the accessories).

Paint Applications: Golden yellow paint is a common secondary color in this set, and it's used in robot mode for the faceplate, rectangles on the upper shins, details on the outer wrists, and on a molded pattern on the
chest that copies the look of the G1 toy's sternum sticker. There's also silver paint on the sternum, wrists, and around the yellow parts on the
shins. The visor is gloss red. There's gloss black paint on the soles of
the rear beast feet, which is clearly meant for the looks of this mode. The bottom bits of the pelvis skirt are painted violet (so-so match to the
paint). A tiny violet on silver Decepticon symbol is printed on the upper sternum.
In monster mode, only the shin paint is visible as part of the butt,
while the new monster head has a golden yellow beak and gloss red eyes.

Accessories: He has the two big missile launchers/feet that came with Rairyu. They're pale violet plastic with golden yellow paint on the warheads (heels).

Mold Changes: New beast head with detachable little wings, new robot
head, new robot chest, and the rear feet of the beast mode (part of the weird knee area) are retooled.
Interestingly, the G1 version has no real bird-like elements except
maybe a beak in monster mode, the little head wings are new to this version. The new beast head pops off way too easily.

Other Notes: The transformation is basically the same as Sludge, in all its weirdness. Well, Sludge's dino head isn't as likely to pop off during transformation. It still does, mind you, just not quite as often.
I am a bit annoyed that they didn't both attach via pegs on the head, because that would have let me move them to the backs of the shoulders in
robot mode. Instead, one has a peg and the other a socket (both 3mm), which lets them connect together into a sort of wing-arang...that the robot can't hold. Maybe they did it to goof-proof attachment, so you couldn't put them
on backwards? Eh.

Overall: I suppose one advantage of being a Random Monster is that
instead of looking like a mediocre brontosaur as the original does, it looks like a decent whatever-it-is.


DECEPTICON: MONSTER BRISTLEBACK
Altmode: Spiny Monster
Monstructor Component: Left Arm
Transformation Difficulty: 9 steps
Previous Name Use: None with epithet
Previous Mold Use: Legacy (Scarr, Gairyu)
Origin Universe: G1

Colors: The beast head and shell parts (robot arms and boots) are a dark gold plastic. Less obvious due to paint, the robot head and the robot torso front are also dark gold. The rest of the parts, including all the beast
legs, are a bright medium-light blue plastic.

Paint Applications: The beast head outside, robot head, and the torso front are painted bright medium-light blue in a decent match for the plastic (it takes UV or sunlight to be sure). The robot visor and beast eyes are orange, the robot face is light gloss gray. The sort-of cannon details on
the shoulderpads (beast shell front) are painted silver, while vents on the sides of the ankles are red with silver borders. The center of the chest has
a small violet-on-silver Decepticon symbol.

Accessories: Same forearm/fist gun as Gairyu, but the new shins removed
a way to attach it as a tail, so it just mounts on the back in beast mode.
It's all pale violet plastic, but with dark gold paint on most of the outer faces of the forearm part.

Mold Changes: New beast and robot heads, new torso front, and the boots have been remolded to be smoother. The boots added a joined tab on top for mounting the accessory (via its combiner mode socket), but removed the
sockets for attaching it as a tail. Interestingly, only gold plastic bits
were retooled, they left the other sprue alone.

Other Notes: While the others made some effort to get the beast mode to look at least kinda like the G1 monster modes, this is just Scarr with a smoother back and no tail. G1 Bristleback had winglets that echoed the shoulder spikes on his shell. The head's more like G1, at least.

Overall: Monster mode is a little weaker than Scarr's dino mode, but
it's got a solid robot mode.


DECEPTICON: MONSTER ICEPICK
Altmode: Ice Lizardman Monster?
Monstructor Component: Left Leg
Transformation Difficulty: 1 step
Previous Name Use: None with epithet
Previous Mold Use: Legacy (Grimlock, Goryu)
Origin Universe: G1

Colors: Mostly red and the same blue as on Bristleback, all the new tooling is on the red plastic sprue. Only the boots and torso core are actually blue plastic, the rest is red plastic, often with a lot of paint.

Paint Applications: Most of the surface of the fists and the wrist
spikes are painted blue in a good match to the plastic. In ebast mode, the lower jaw on the beast head is also painted blue. The front and outer faces
of the feet are painted gloss red (a bit darker than the plastic), the socket roots of the beast frills are golden yellow. Golden yellow is also used on
the robot visor, beast eyes, and vents on the outer faces of the ankles. The robot face is light gloss gray, and the center of the chest has a purple on silver Decepticon symbol (larger than most get).

Accessories: He gets the Goryu club and the right fist that Yokuryu carried in DinoForce. The club is very pale violet plastic, the forearm and fist piece is also very pale violet plastic but with golden yellow paint on
the forearm part.

Mold Changes: New head and neck, instead of the neck shell pieces
there's lizard frill pieces (which don't get in the way as much in combiner mode). The forearm/fist pieces are new, with forearm spikes that can be rotated out of the way in combiner mode. And, of course, a new robot head.
The beast head has a hinge so it can look down, and the frills are on ball joints.

Other Notes: Can it transform into something like Grimlock? Eh, not really. The tail piece is gone from the set, and the new head lacks a neck arrangement to cover the robot head. The new hands don't offer as much
support when they become feet either, even if you rotate the spikes to add support.
Technically, G1 Icepick's legs fold to make the beast mode shorter than the robot mode, but folding the Grimlock-style legs just removes them
entirely. You can sort of fake it by having the robot squat down so that the knees are touching the belly, though.
http://www.dvandom.com/images/IcepickCrouch.JPG shows what I mean.

Overall: It's mostly interesting how they got something completely different out of Grimlock, and if the altmode isn't very impressive, well, Grimlock wasn't great either.


DECEPTICON: MONSTER SCOWL
Altmode: Wolf Monster
Monstructor Component: Right Leg
Transformation Difficulty: 5 steps
Previous Name Use: None with epithet
Previous Mold Use: Legacy (Snarl, Doryu)
Origin Universe: G1

Colors: Bright golden yellow and the same vibrant violet as Birdbrain. Violet plastic is used for the beast head/shoulders piece, robot head, robot boots, and the detachable backpack chunk. There's two slightly different golden yellow plastics distinguishable under UV light or sunlight, the type that glows brightly is used for the torso core, upper arms, robot thighs and sword. The other type, which looks more brown under UV, is used for the chestplate, pelvis, and forearms.

Paint Applications: Most of the forearms and the fists are painted
violet. The beast feet on the outer faces of the knees, the backpack, and
the bulked up trapezius bits on either side of the beast head are painted golden yellow. The robot face is light gray with red eyes, the beast head
has red eyes. There's also red paint in the vent details on either side of
the abdomen front. There's a silver-bordered violet Decepticon symbol on the sternum.

Accessories: He gets the scythe and the shortsword. The scythe is pale violet plastic with a silver painted blade, the shortsword is golden yellow plastic with no paint. The backpack has two slots on it that hold the tabs
on the side of the sword and the back of the scythe for storage (in monster mode, the scythe has to be stored blade down so it can bend out of the way of the ground).

Mold Changes: Quite a lot, really. Both heads are new, the backpack
chunk is new (no dorsal plates, but added weapon storage slots), the boots
are very different (also no dorsal plates, added bipedal feet on the knees, removed the beast head), and the chestplate is new. Basically, only the
bright yellow stuff remains unchanged.

Other Notes: In G1, Icepick and Scowl were pretty close in design,
mainly differing in their heads. Obviously, this time they're very
different, although their transformations to boot modes are pretty similar (Scowl still has to move a chunk from back to front as Snarl does). To transform between robot and monster modes, the beast head halves spread apart or close, and the boots snap together and bend double at the knees. The instructions recommend removing and reattaching the backpack, but it's not really necessary.
While the pegs and slots for the robot arms were retained, that's pretty much all that remains of the Snarl mold, and trying to transform it to look like Snarl just ends up being a faceplanted Scowl. Of course, it doesn't
help that Snarl's beast head came out of his boots and his robot head was covered by his tail. Scowl's robot head is inside his beast head halves.

Overall: Pretty impressive changes, and among the largest number of new toolings of the set. It manages to split the difference between G1 fidelity and neoG1 articulation and detail.


DECEPTICON: DECEPTICON SLOG
Altmode: I really don't know, but monstrous
Monstructor Component: Chest
Transformation Difficulty: 7 steps
Previous Name Use: None with epithet
Previous Mold Use: Legacy (Slug, Kakuryu)
Origin Universe: G1

Colors: Black on the arms, robot pelvis, and the panel that either
covers the back of the monster head or folds down to be the robot
chestplate. Everything else is the same dark gold as Bristleback.

Paint Applications: In robot mode, the robot head molded into the inside of the beast head is painted gloss black for the helmet, gloss golden yellow faceplate, and light green visor. There's silver and red vents on the outer faces of the fists, and a violet on silver Decepticon symbol on the lower chest. Vent details on the outer faces of the boots are blood red.
All four eyes in beast mode are gloss yellow. They're positioned so
that one pair is front-facing and the other is pointed up whether it's in
beast mode or chest mode. Gill-like structures on the sides of the head are painted violet (same as on Scowl). Yeah, there's insect-like mandible and gills, it's a bit of a mess.

Accessories: The short axe handle and axe blade, and the tail shell with combiner head gun. The axe handle and blade are pale violet plastic, with
the blade being painted silver except for the peg in back. The shell and combiner head are the same dark gold plastic as much of Slog. I'll address
the head in more detail under Monstructor's entry.

Mold Changes: Lots of new stuff. The new head is on a restricted ball joint so it can turn and wobble. The back of the head in beast mode is a new panel that folds down over the robot chest. New boots with no beast legs or tail attachment points. The torso core, backpack, pelvis, thighs, and arms remain the same. This does mean that since the robot arms flip around to become the monster arms, they have thumbs on the wrong sides, oops. At least they're black so it's less obvious.

Other Notes: Can this turn into something like Slug/Kakuryu? Not even a little. The hind legs are totally gone, and while recontextualizing which
eues are on front lets the head pass for that of a quadruped, the tail piece cannot attach to the leg stumps anymore. So, you get a sort of semi-aquatic monster that drags its fat tail along on two skinny arms.
So, what IS it? Well, it's sort of bipedal in that it stands on two
feet, but the legs are kinda fused together. It's almost like a sarcophagus with arms that rocks back and forth to wobble around. The head is vaguely insect-like, and if it could turn the head to go with a horizontal body it
sort of looks like a two-legged beetle? This looks more like a Pretender
shell than the actual Pretender shells, to be frank.
Combiner mode transforms about the same way, though.

Overall: Yeah, it's stupid, but a glorious kind of stupid. Seeing how they turned Slug into Slog is what convinced me to get this set, despite it being a third bite at a design that hadn't really impressed me the first two times.


DECEPTICON: MONSTER WILDFLY
Altmode: Flying monster
Monstructor Component: Right Arm
Transformation Difficulty: 4 steps
Previous Name Use: None with epithet
Previous Mold Use: Legacy (Swoop, Yokuryu)
Origin Universe: G1

Colors: Dark red and golden yellow. The red plastic is used for the
beast head, robot head, wings, forearms, torso front, lower thighs, and
boots. The rest is golden yellow plastic.

Paint Applications: The helmet, part of the lower thighs (beast ankles), and boots are painted a darker and more vibrant golden yellow than the
plastic. The robot face is medium-light gray with gloss blood red eyes.
The monster eyes and fangs on the chest are silver. The outer faces of the forearms are silver with violet and golden yellow trapezoids. The backs of
the wings have fairly large violet on silver Decepticon symbols.

Accessories: He gets Kakuryu's guns, but no good way to store them in beast mode other than just holding them. They're made of the pale violet plastic most of the other accessories use.

Mold Changes: All the yellow parts are unchanged from Swoop. The robot and beast heads are new, the torso front is new, and the forearms are new. While the boots and wings are unchanged, the lower thighs with the beast feet are new as well, and at first glance look shorter, but that's just an optical illusion caused by the colors.

Other Notes: Transforms about the same as Swoop, although you don't have to tilt the robot head back unless you want to lift the monster head all the way up (and then only to keep the robot face hidden). Monster mode seems to assume a standing pose looking forwards rather than looking up for a flying pose, although you can put the head pointed mostly up as well.

Overall: Swoop's possibly the best of the original six, and this is a decent retool of it.


DECEPTICON: DECEPTICON MONSTRUCTOR
Function: SUPER WARRIOR
Previous Name Use: None with ep
Previous Mold Use: Legacy (Volcanicus, Dinoking)
Origin Universe: G1

Colors: So, it's more motley than Dinoking and way more colorful than Volcanicus, but there's a nice unity to it anyway. Every component has two main colors, and every component shares each of those colors with two
different others. Then add on the very pale violet for the weapons, hands,
and feet, and despite seven main colors it works.

Paint Applications: In addition to all the paints from the components,
the head is painted golden yellow with a light gray face and gloss blood red eyes. The open mouth doesn't have a separate paint color, I may address
that. The interior of Slog's shell cover piece has a silver strip down the middle and blood red on either side of it (I might paint the ribs white
against this).

Accessories: The same combined gun and halberd as Dinoking, if in different colors.

Mold Changes: The head is new, with the G1 Monstructor style of helmet
but the toothy maw of the unstable Monstructor from the IDW comics. The individual mold changes also make the combined mode look noticeable different beyond just the colors.

Other Notes: Okay, time for the URLs of some comparison shots. Note, I seem to have assembled my G1 Monstructor with mirror-swapped limbs, but I
don't feel like pushing my luck with the ancient and sometimes gold plastic
to fix this.

Monstructor vs. Dinoking: http://www.dvandom.com/images/MonDino.JPG
New vs. G1: http://www.dvandom.com/images/MonstructorNewOld.JPG

Overall: They got a surprising amount of mileage out of one of the last hurrahs of the Core Class, that's for sure. Would this set have sold well enough to justify its existence spread out of single $12-13 figures? Oh, no chance of that. This is the sort of nostalgia bait that is too narrow in audience even for an already nostalgia bait line like Age of the Primes. But I'm glad they followed through, and I'm sure someone out there has designed
3D printable Pretender shells for them all already.


Dave Van Domelen, got Onslaught in the mail while working on this
review, so that's gonna have to jump the queue and go next.

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