Cliffbee.com Repugnus Toy Review

Individual Review




Name: Repugnus
Series: Generation 1
Allegiance: Autobot
Function: Counter Intelligence
Alternate Mode: Monster



MONSTER MODE
Height: 16cm Depth: 10.5cm Width: 7cm

   A red, burgundy, yellow, grey and white bipedal monster, Repugnus seems to defy the trend of most Transformer beasts, in that there's no obvious animal inspiration. His head and lower legs are burgundy, his forearms and upper legs red while his body is yellow and his upper arms white. The claws on his feet, hooks on his forearms and pincers on the outside of his mouth are all grey while his bug eyes are green. Repugnus's colour scheme doesn't really have much appeal, the colours are uninspiring rather than ugly.

   The most noticable thing about this monster mode is how ill-defined it is. Repugnus stands in a hunchback humanoid pose, has an insect-like face and a bizzare wing-backpack. The burgundy aspects - the lower legs, wings and head - are fairly organic looking, while the rest of this beast is robotic. While the strange insect headed monster isn't great, what bothers me more than anything is that Repugnus is obviously a robot with a head swap.

   The Monsterbots all shared a common gimmick - they shoot sparks from their mouths. In Repugnus's case this feature is activated by a button on the top of his head (which sticks out quite noticeably). I find I have to push it a few times to get the flint going, but the gimmick doesn't work too well since the mechanism is towards the back of his head. The pincers on either side of his head will open out and stay out as long as the button is down. I'm glad the pincers move, since the spark shooting is underwhelming. There's not really any poseability here - the arms, which protrude forward, can lift up and down and that's it.

   A weird, poorly defined monster. Repugnus does succeed in being a monster, but the shape is just too close to his robot mode to really impress. The insect head makes him seem half-baked, like the designer couldn't be bothered thinking of an interesting monster form. The spark gimmick doesn't really work and the poseability is virtually non-existant, making this a very disappointing monster mode.

TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE

   Slide the upper legs down to form the boots, revealing his robot thighs. Pivot the top half back, so that the insect head ends up on his back, folding the backpack against the top of the monster head. Rotate the legs, fold up the beast arms onto his chest, flip up the robot head, unfold the arms, flip out the hands and give him his white handgun.

ROBOT MODE
Height: 15.5cm Width: 7cm

   The colour map doesn't change much, since the morphology is so similar. The torso is mainly yellow, with the red monster arms forming breastplates. The boots and forearms are also red, while the thighs and upper arms are while, the feet burgundy with grey claws. His head is yellow with blue eyes. Repugnus's colour scheme is slightly better now, mainly because it's a little simpler. While the colours aren't fantastic, the theme is clearer, aside from his burgundy feet. I would have liked to see his face painted, although the yellow does show the detailed facial sculpt fairly well unpainted.

   The robot shape is fairly good, which you'd expect since it's retained in the alternate mode. The breastplates do cover up his shoulders and there's a gap on his waist where the torso pivots during transformation, but the shape is good otherwise. The feet are long, as are the heelspurs formed from the beast claws, making Repugnus very stable - even though he has considerable backpack (with the spark mechanism in it).

   Again there's very little poseability. The elbows have two hinges each and the shoulders swing, but the breastplates really limit the arms - the shoulders can move about 30°, which limits what you can do with the elbows. Unlike the monster mode, Repugnus has no gimmicks here, making this robot mode the most static amongst the Monsterbots (the others are more poseable).

   This is the stronger of his two modes, despite being an unposeable lump, mainly because it makes more sense. Sure it stands there - but it _looks_ like something. The colours are an improvement and the head is quite detailed, while the robot shape is pretty good. A little less kibble (or better handled kibble) could have meant this was a good mode, but as it is this is the best aspect of a bad toy.

VARIATIONS

   None that I'm aware of.

OVERALL

   With a poorly defined monster mode that's not much more than the robot mode with a headswap and a rather ineffective central gimmick, Repugnus is a forgettable toy. There are some decent aspects, but nothing that you can't find on better G1 toys - 4/10

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