Anyway back when i was little and living in the boonies, transformers were rare and pretty pricy for that time. Never owned any of the G1 stuff. Until 1 fateful birthday, my parents gave me my first ever transformer, G1 Headmaster Skullcruncher! I loved that thing and it followed me where ever i went. Unfortunately like all teenagers, i went through the "too cool for toys" phase and have since lost Skullcruncher somewhere...
So imagine my excitement when Hasbro/Takara announced they're releasing a modern Headmasters line, with Skullcruncher in the first wave!!!
So here's Takara's Legends Skull/Skullsmasher also formerly known as Skullcruncher!
Skull's alt mode is probably my fave transformers alt mode in a recent while. I can't remember any alt mode that comes close to how fun this crocodile is. He's very detailed and looks fantastic molded in dark green, pink, white and translucent red. There's very little paint here, just the silver teeth and white talons for the back feet but i think that's a good thing since it would have made Skull a busy mess.
Skull's hefty looking tail is actually hollow and just being held on with a tiny peg.
I'm actually very surprised with the articulations. With the help of a balljoint, Skull's head has great range. Though i would have like the jaw to open wider but it's pretty good already. Skull also has articulated front limbs since they're the hands in bot mode but the back limbs static pieces on balljoints.
Next comes Grax and look at how tiny this guy is!!! Even at this size the head is pretty cleanly sculpted and painted. He has swivel legs mainly for the transformation and balljointed head and arms.
He can pilot Skull but unlike the G1 Skullcruncher which sits in the mouth, Skull now has a cockpit on his torso which opens with a soft rubbery panel piece.
Skull also comes with his targetmaster/mini beast Batora. It's an adorable pink dragonbird. There's balljointed wings and legs with the tail and neck on swivels.
It suffers from obvious head tail though, but what can you expect from a such a tiny toy.
Grax can ride Batora, there's tiny pegs for Grax to peg on.
And they combine into a even cuter dino!
Still suffers from obvious head tail though.
Now finally the bot mode! He looks pretty good here as well, with more paint apps than his alt mode mainly around the chest area. Unfortunately the chest doesn't open up like voyager Brainstorm's does but that's probably asking for too much. I don't like the slot on the waist but since they're for transformation i can't complain.
Since i've got Skull instead of Skullsmasher, the head is anime accurate instead of Hasbro's more toy accurate one. I like both heads though so i might get Skullsmasher if i can find him cheap.
Anyway, Skull's head is very clean instead of the more detailed one Skullsmasher have. It looks good, but i find the chin a tad too large.
Skull's croc neck pegs onto his back pretty securely so you don't have a floppy croc head hanging off the back.
Now the main complaint for Skull, his hollow shins. I don't mind the look of hollow shins, but Skull's very back heavy and the hollow shins aren't helping with the balance. It gets infuriating real fast.
Fortunately there's a mod to fix that. By unscrewing the croc legs, you can take them off and turn them around to slot into the back. It makes Skull a partsformer but it's way better than having him falling off with a slight breeze everytime.
Articulations is pretty great for a transformer. Seems like Hasbro/Takara has upped their game from Combiner Wars and gave Skullcruncher tons of articulations. While he doesn't have wrist swivels, he fortunately have forearms swivels which is huge plus for me since most recent transformers lack wrist articulations.
By the way i've heard Skullsmasher suffers from loose hips in general, i'm sad to say Skull does too. Though it's no big deal, some drops of floor polish fixes them easily.
Skull has a white pistol that forms the tip of the tail in alt mode.
And of course his tail serves as a... sword? It's a lance? Either way it looks awkward.
Batora also turns into a weapon, but like the tail it looks just as awkward...
So I tried combining them into a mace/bat but Skull can't hold it well because the gun nozzle is smaller than 5mm.
But i finally settled on a cannon.
Now the autobots have something to fear!
If you can't tell by now, i'm really biased towards this toy because i really love the character. But i will admit there are some flaws though i will still recommend him. He's a great update for the character and as a stand alone figure he's pretty great. So get the one with the head you like best!
Anyway, thanks for viewing!
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