Now that this year's main collector focused line Power of The Primes has unleashed upon the world all the oddly mismatched figures it's going to, it's time to give some quality time to one of its high points: the long awaited Terrorcon gestalt Abominus.
After months with only a Rippersnapper under my belt, I've finally pieced together the standout ensemble piece of Power of The Primes. Thanks to the bounteous TFN dealer room and a right-place-at-the-right-time visit to the Smyths website only days ago, I've managed to circumvent the sad return to awful Generations distribution and complete my own Abominus. So was it worth the effort? This line has seen a return to Combiner Wars styled combination from it's outset, but when it comes to teams - apart from the prohibitive Predacons - only one has come marching back out of the late 80's under the POTP banner. Sure Dinobots are cool and I'm not averse to making random standalone guys (or gals!) limbs or torsos but as far as an established, anticipated, you-need-to-get-all-five-separately Special Team goes, the Terrorcons are the only representatives of what the first Prime Wars installment left us wanting.
Sharing a development history with some of the Dinobots, it's hard to say whether they or the Terrorcons came first in Hasbro's planning. Did the idea of a dino combiner facilitate the necessary beast limb tooling for Abominus? Or were they going to do him anyway and brought the Dinobots into the ring as some preemptive retools/sparring partner in Volcanicus? Either way, Abominus carries on the Combiner Wars tradition of shared engineering to minimise costs - a fact most apparent in Hun-Gurrr's transformation scheme borrowed from Silverbolt of all people. To some this may belie the relatively low creative effort seen through much of Power of The Primes but quite honestly, I find it makes the Terrorcons feel like the Combiner Wars figures they could have been all the more and that's ok with me.
Eschewing the individual robots for now, as a combiner, Abominus dominates. The torso is more solid than any previous center component, with everything tabbing in multiple spots and tucking any extraneous matter from Hun-Gurrr out of the way entirely. No half folded wings jutting out or dangling cannon platforms here, just a giant robot's back. The head sadly doesn't look up or down for poses involving peering at lesser creatures but the sculpt is incredibly well detailed, translating original broad strokes sculpting into more intricate and layered details. The expression on his face though... Leaves something to be desired in the context of a raging engine of destruction. He's far too calm and composed.
The overall expansion of details from the G1 toy carries on into the body of Abominus with more of a layered armour look to the chest and new shapes and colour added to the sides with a pair of metallic red stickers. Admittedly, yes these are POTP stickers we're talking about so their application isn't perfect but they really add an extra visual dimension to appreciate as for the most part, nothing on the figure catches light to shine. I'm not sure where the inspiration for this new colour on Hun-Gurrr comes from but I like to think it's a callback to the red deco of the Beast Hunters' Legion Class figure which was the core of a hugely successful and well received first update for the gestalt at a smaller scale.
The chest also inconspicuously houses a square cavity for one of the line's many pseudo-gimmick cubes. Under the hatch in the center, the included Enigma of Combination can be slotted in, its details enjoyed for five seconds and then promptly forgotten about when you close the hatch back up. I like how the incorporation of the line's main "play pattern" (one set of quotation marks here isn't enough) is still there but in no way intrudes upon the styling of the figure. It's kind of fun to open a compartment to reveal hidden workings on a robot too. But apart from that, nothing can be said to elevate the playability of Abominus unless you bring in weapons from other figures as he has no massive rifle or somesuch to wield. In a way this fits with the bestial nature of the character - just using his spiked fists - but this is something that sets him apart from the previous Special Team combiners.
While the lack of a weapon is a negative compared to his Combiner Wars brethren, a positive comes in the form of his improved articulation. The new tilting combiner feet add a lot to the figure when its hips also facilitate the most natural stances with ease. I'm not a fan of the "lego man hands" with their alien double thumbs, but at a push you can ditch his extra digits and articulated mitts are always a bonus. A slight shame that he can't really make convincing fists with them though. If you're a die hard Terrorcon fan you might want to make noise about how the combiner hands are each different colours and don't match the feet and while on paper this should be visually jarring, up against the colours of the rest of the thing I can't say it has much impact unless you're looking for it.
Breaking down the gestalt gives you an especially strong team of robots, most interesting in their own right. However at this level there is a noticeable dichotomy in their build quality. The first Terrorcons released, wave 2's Rippersnapper and Hun-Gurrr are perfectly sound with fine plastic and strong sculpting and paint apps. The later trio of Blot, Cutthroat and Sinnertwin however feel like a tangible step down in terms of materials. Each has their own structural deficiencies, Blot coming off the best (in other areas too) with only his arms feeling sort of soft. Sinnertwin however seems to be mostly made of this kind of spongier polymer. Whether this is to render the matte surface he has to his body parts is unclear but compared to other deluxes in the line, there's a tactile difference. Finally, Cutthroat comes off as by far the worst of the bunch. There's no kinder way for me to say this - he feels like a knock off. The bendy thin glossy plastic used for his wings is exactly like that which I've encountered in pound shop robots. Coupled with his pale matte beige sections and overall lack of fine detail on his parts that aren't borrowed from Swoop - Cutthroat is one figure I can't recommend for his own merits.
However, despite these weak points, overall the Terrorcons seem just as strong a set of figures as any Combiner Wars team. Certainly taking the top spot in terms of Power of The Primes by virtue of their late G1 nature. Titans Return was such a hit because of its huge injection of post-movie Decepticons and Abominus really rounds out that selection and uses the last-hurrah ethos of POTP to basically give you a combiner from that line. Ready to face off against the Computron of your choice, Abominus fills a huge hole in the updated 1987 collection and short of a Scorponok we've been denied, would form the largest centerpiece for a display of the lot. To someone like me though, for the most part unfazed by glaring gaps in G1 groups, Abominus is worthy of a place on your shelf all by his own strengths. A colourful corps of mental monster men that throw the Combiner Wars Earth mode based, complementary colour scheme guidebook down their geared gullets. Abominus is proof that Hasbro could've pulled off a new beast combiner a long time ago and for a long time yet, it looks like he'll take the top spot among them. As long as Monstructor and Piranacon remain the fevered dreams of a madman that is...
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