Cliffbee.com Predaking Toy Review

Individual Review




Name: Predaking
Series: Generation 1
Allegiance: Decepticon
Function: Warrior
Alternate Mode: N/A - Gestalt comprising Divebomb, Headstrong, Rampage, Razorclaw & Tantrum.



COMBINED ROBOT MODE
Height: 28cm Width: 24cm
(positioning of the wings will vary these dimensions a little)

   Like Devastator before him, Predaking is a combination of components with a common colour theme. He's a blend of orange, black, red and yellow with some grey, although the latter is mainly confined to the hands and feet, although Tantrum has some grey. All five components have gold or silver stickers on them, which adds to the overall earthy tones theme by brightening it up a little. Thanks to both the choice of colours and how unified the set is, Predaking ends up with a very cool colour set.

   His head is orange with a rather primitive looking red face - which is appropriate for a giant lumbering robot that's a fusion of five beasts. Whoever decided to allow Divebomb's wings to detach and form the wings for Predaking better have gotten a pay rise, because it's a _very_ cool feature of both the set and this Gestalt. It really adds to the might of Predaking, give him that sort of impressive feel that winged warriors from anime tend to have.

   Unlike many G1 combiners, there's not really much mixing and matching, although it is possible to swap the arms and legs to the opposing sides - but this is more a result of Razorclaw's symmetry dictating symmetrical attachments. Divebomb forms the left arm, Rampage the right, Headstrong is the left leg and Tantrum the right. The big cannon, which belongs to Razorclaw, can attach as an arm cannon to Divebomb, it's clearly designed to do so.

   Predaking cuts an impressive figure amongst a Gestalt collection purely because of his size - he's the biggest of the G1 Gestalts. Since the limbs are the same size as Razorclaw, he's also incredibly stocky and powerful looking.

VARIATIONS

   All five components came with metal or plastic chests, the plastic being more common. Takara re-released the Predaking boxset in 2004, containing the metal Predacons.

OVERALL

   A mighty and impressive Gestalt with a very unified colour scheme, it's not surprise that the Predacons are much sought after set. To add to this, four of the five Predacons are good toys (Tantrum being the exception), so it really is a worthwhile set, although Predaking's don't come cheaply, so I'll stop short of recommending as such - that's up to how much you're willing to pay - 8.5/10

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