Dave's Power of the Primes Rant: Voyager Hun-Gurrr

[Dave Van Domelen]

Dave's Transformers Power of the Primes Rant: Voyager Wave 2

Terrorcon Hun-Gurrr (Two-Headed Dragon)

Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Gen/VHunGurrr

Okay, I can never remember how to spell Hun-Gurrr...how many R's? Is
there even a vowel in the second bit? And to judge from TFWiki, the canon is
a bit wobbly on the matter too. Not sure why they'd feel the need to append
"Terrorcon" for trademark purposes, unless it's Terrorcon that they're
worried about losing.


CAPSULE

$25 price point.

Terrorcon Hun-Gurrr: Beast mode is a bit of a mess aesthetically
speaking, but other than one part all three modes are nicely solid, as if
someone finally realized that maybe "more pegs" would help. Recommended.


RANT

Packaging: Same as previous PotP Voyagers, with purple accents and a
side panel showing Abominus.


DECEPTICON: TERRORCON HUN-GURRR
Assortment: E1138
Altmode: Two-headed Dragon
Transformation Difficulty: 16 steps
Previous Name Use: None with "Terrorcon" (G1, Uni2, TFPrime without)
Previous Mold Use: None
Prime Master I Got: Micronus
Prime Master Ability: Power-links to share his ability to forge missiles
from food scraps
Weapon: None (well, spitting barf missiles)
Function: Terrorcon Leader
Motto: "Eat only what you need -- destroy the rest."

How will the ravenous TERRORCON leader wield the POWER OF THE PRIMES?

Interestingly, the minimal official bio on this toy seems to contradict
the G1 motto I copied in above.

Packaging: Six ties and a rattan string on the robot, with a small
plastic shield over the chest held on with the rattan string. One tie each
on the prime armors and the Terrorcon Enigma.
As with the Dinobots and Rippersnapper, his card art shows his beast
mode rather than his robot mode. The instructions list all the Terrorcons,
with Blot, Sinnertwin, and Cutthroat "Coming Late 2018".

Robot Mode: With only some minor changes, it's basically a better-
proportioned and better-articulated update to the original. Unfortunately,
that also means the original solid magenta head with silver visor. They
really should've gone with the G1 box art (and animation model) and given him
a light gray face. While there's no rubsigns to be had officially anymore,
they did fake one with a foil sticker that looks like an already-rubbed
rubsign. The combiner kibble, aside from the Prime Armors, is all
permanently attached, so he can't use Abominus's chestplate as a shield like
the G1 toy can. However, he can use the Prime Armors as either blaster
pistols or forearm-mounted blasters, so it balances out. Anyway, for those
unfamiliar with G1 Hun-Gurrr, it's a fairly blocky robot with a dragon tail
sort of deal down the center of the chest, and dragon heads yawned wide open
as feet. As is common with "robot arms become combiner thighs" Voyagers he's
got a bit of a Popeye-forearm deal going on even before you tack on the Prime
Armors. Annoyingly, there seems to be no way to make the fists lock into
place, they're just sort of loosely folded around the combiner sockets in the
forearms.
7" (17.5cm) tall in a mix of very light gray, medium gray, and shocking
magenta of the sort that presaged "G2 neon" colors. Medium gray plastic is
used for the forearms, biceps, thighs, knee joints, and the claws hanging off
the fists. Magenta plastic is used on the head, the spines sticking out
through the center of the chest, and most of the backpack. Everything else
is very light gray plastic, including the hip joints and the fists.
Medium gray paint (a decent match) is used extensively on the pelvis.
Magenta paint (a little darker than the plastic) is used on the pecs and the
top of the sternum, the spines on the lower shins, and some bits on the sides
of the backpack. Trapezoids on the top fronts of the shoulders are painted
slightly metallic bright blue, the eyes on the feet are red, and the visor is
painted silver. Very light gray paint on circular dish details on the outer
faces of the elbows. Not much for stickers in this mode, just a Decepticon
symbol on the right shoulder front and the fake rubsign on the left shoulder
front. The beast neck and head stickers are visible on the legs and feet,
but I'll describe them in the beast mode section.
Restricted ball joint neck, no waist. The shoulders are ratcheting
universal joints, there's mid-bicep swivels and hinge elbows. No intentional
wrist motion. Univeral joint hips that soft-ratchet out to the sides but are
smooth forwards and back. Swivels just below the hips, dual-hinge knees so
that the legs can bend double for torso mode. Ankles hinged on two axes,
plus the feet are heads and can jaw-hinge closed. The hands can hold 5mm
pegs, there's 5mm pegs on the forearms. No 3mm peg hole for stage
connection, and while some 2mm pegs are visible on the abdomen they're mostly
covered up in this mode.
The Prime Armors are molded as bulky dual-barrelled blasters in magenta
plastic, with 5mm peg holes on the undersides for arm mounting, 5mm holes in
the heel backs for combining with fists, the usual ankle pegs (which are gray
plastic), and 5mm peg holes on top right behind the ankle pegs for...extra
connection potential, I guess? The usual open slots for Enigmas.
Interestingly, unlike the other Voyagers to date, the Enigma has a storage
spot that can completely close over it, hiding it from view. In robot mode,
this compartment is on the backpack, looking like that smaller compartment
for snacks or pencils on an actual backpack. It becomes the center of the
chestplate on Abominus.
The Terrorcon Enigma is made of magenta plastic with airbrushed yellow
paint on what looks like a cross between a radiation trefoil and the Vehicon
symbol (which, yes, is based on the trefoil). It ends up looking like a
nuclear battery in his backpack unit...proton pack? Bustin' ghosts and then
eating them, I guess.

Transformation: Getting to beast mode is fairly straightforward. Legs
become necks/heads, arms become rear legs, forelegs come out of the
backpack. The chest pops open to let the head stow, and the tail on the
chest folds over and spines are pushed out the top. The kneecaps fold down
to add more spines to the neck.
For torso mode, the feet fold into the backs of the boots and the legs
(with kneepads folded down) bend to bracket the combiner head, which comes
out of its storage in the robot belly. The backpack moves up on hinged
struts to connect to a tab in front of the collar, tabs in the thighs connect
to the new spine, tabs on the backs of the ankles connect to the waist, tabs
on the beast foreclaws go into slots in the sides of the robot knees. A LOT
of repositioning of joints to get things to line up, but no excessive force
required. The robot arms become combiner legs by folding the fists out of
the way (and there's even tabs inside the elbows to lock them straight), and
the tail partially covers the gap left by moving the combiner head out. Oh,
and the combiner head has antennae to fold up.
If you put the beast feet over the fists and leave them covering the
combiner slots, the torso mode can stand on its own, letting you make a
three-figure combiner with ape arms.

Beast Mode: Well, it's a two-headed dragon-ish beast with pretty iffy
proportions. The robot backpack just sort of hangs under the belly, and the
oversized rear legs almost hide the short tail between them. I guess an
advantage of the removable shield/chestplate in G1 was that you could set it
aside and not worry about it mucking up the beast mode. While they were
pretty clever with the swinging spine piece in the tail allowing for spines
all along the back, doing something to lengthen the tail might have worked
better, to compensate for how the robot elbows are effectively hips when it
comes to the appearance of the monster mod.
With the heads pulled forwards as far as possible the beast is 9.5"
(24cm) long, with almost half of that being neck. Same colors as robot mode,
with the magenta being mostly in the spines along the top of the necks, the
back, and the tail. The forelimbs are light gray plastic with magenta paint
on the rear of the "forearm" section. Newly revealed spines on the back, the
robot pelvis, and the necks are painted magenta. On each side of the main
neck section is a big foil sticker with some black, silver, and yellow.
A couple of the neck stickers were misaligned, so I tried a trick Ian
Welch pointed out to me: use a hairdryer to heat the stickers. When hot
enough, the adhesive goes all liquid, and sticks to the foil better than to
the plastic. This let me pick up the stickers with tweezers and reapply
them. Heating and smoothing can help with ones that are in the right place
but starting to peel. This suggests to me why the alignment is so bad in so
many cases...it gets awfully hot in some of those steel shipping containers,
so stickers might be sliding around in the heat during transit.
The necks have all of the articulation of the robot legs, resulting in
pretty expressive head-posing thanks to the four joints in each ankle (two
for posing the foot overall, one each for the top and bottom halves of the
head). The forelimbs are just single swivels, and while the hindlimbs have
all of the articulation of the robot arms there's not much useful range of
motion in thi smode. Basically, flat-footed poses with a few degrees of
angle that can be fiddled with, and then focus on posing the necks.
The jaws are fairly stiff-hinged, but the teeth are small enough that
the mouths can't hold onto smooth things like 5mm pegs. The 5mm pegs on the
robot forearms are now on the leg sides. There are two 2mm posts on the
back, one on each side of a spine. The Enigma compartment, now on the belly,
can hold a Prime Master and still close, but not a Titan Master.

Torso Mode: This is really solid. With the exception of the fists/rear
beast feet just sort of folded behind the thighs, everything pegs into place
firmly. Possibly the best engineering I've seen for a combiner torso in that
respect.
Between the paint on the beast forelegs and the stickers on the sides of
the beast necks, the side flares of the G1 shield chest are visually
approximated (although magenta on the stickers rather than red would have
been closer). The backpack is made up of magneta plastic that has unfolded
into three segments. The top part has silver and red paint on either side of
the Enigma compartment hatch, and a light gray horizontal strip on the
hatch. The middle part has light gray sprayed into the turbine-like details,
and there's some magenta paint on a small bit of the shield pattern that's
molded from the light gray abdomen. The lower section of the shield has
silver paint on the top bit of it, then yellow and dark blue lower down,
leaving a magenta border.
The combiner head is magenta plastic with rubbery light gray plastic
antennae. The helmet is totally coated in light gray paint, and then magenta
paint on the face (it's clearly paint, not a part left unpainted) and yellow
paint on the visor. (The visor paint connects all the way across, as opposed
to the two separate lenses of the G1 paint job.) Because the robot arms
become combiner thighs instead of the robot legs doing so, the light and dark
gray swap.
Abominus is not at all shy about proclaiming his allegiance. In
addition to the shoulder-front Decepticon symbols becoming hip-front symbols,
there's smaller purple on silver Decepticon symbol foil stickers on the backs
of the beast forelegs, now facing forwards as part of the chest.
The head turns and the hips are the robot shoulders ratcheting universal
joints. The panel in the center of the chest opens up to reveal the Enigma
or a Prime Master. The forearm 5mm pegs are inward-facing (unless you're
doing the tiny-legs-big-arms variation) so not too useful for connecting
things. No 2mm pegs, those are now on the inside of the chest.

Overall: I'd say most of the problems with this toy come from trying too
hard to be G1-accurate, but they're fairly minor and mostly aesthetic (the
worst being the appearance of beast mode). Aside from the fists, it's quite
solid in all modes, a nice surprise after so many combiner torsos with fiddly
parts that tend to pop apart.


Dave Van Domelen, now to resist the temptation to just buy three more
Rippersnappers rather than wait until Fall for the other three limbs.

[Zobovor]

On Saturday, May 12, 2018 at 3:43:40 PM UTC-6, Dave Van Domelen wrote:

> Okay, I can never remember how to spell Hun-Gurrr...how many R's? Is
> there even a vowel in the second bit?

During the G1 days, Hasbro toggled between Hun-Grrr with three "r's" and Hun-Gurrr with a "u." His tech specs said Hun-Grrr, but his packaging and instructions and the 1987 toy catalog said Hun-Gurrr.

Sunbow Productions used the spelling Hun-Grrr, with three "r's."

Marvel Comics consistently spelled it Hun-Grr with two "r's."


Zobo-vorrr

[Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats]

On Saturday, May 12, 2018 at 2:43:40 PM UTC-7, Dave Van Domelen wrote:
> Dave's Transformers Power of the Primes Rant: Voyager Wave 2
>
> Terrorcon Hun-Gurrr (Two-Headed Dragon)
>
> Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Gen/VHunGurrr
>
> Okay, I can never remember how to spell Hun-Gurrr...how many R's? Is
> there even a vowel in the second bit? And to judge from TFWiki, the canon is
> a bit wobbly on the matter too. Not sure why they'd feel the need to append
> "Terrorcon" for trademark purposes, unless it's Terrorcon that they're
> worried about losing.

I assume Hun-Gurrrrrr is illiterate, and that everyone in continuity has to guess how to spell his name.

Also, you wanted the word "prepend" rather than "append". Or "slap on".

> Terrorcon Hun-Gurrr: Beast mode is a bit of a mess aesthetically
> speaking, but other than one part all three modes are nicely solid, as if
> someone finally realized that maybe "more pegs" would help. Recommended.

I like the beast mode. He feels really, really G1 to me. The things that aren't great feel authentically not great.

Some recent updates to characters are great new versions, but don't quite trigger the nostalgia buttons. TR Blurr, or instance, is undoubtably a better toy in every way compared to G1 Blurr, but he isn't a brick. PotP Hun-Gurrr feels like a brick.

> Motto: "Eat only what you need -- destroy the rest."
>
> How will the ravenous TERRORCON leader wield the POWER OF THE PRIMES?
>
> Interestingly, the minimal official bio on this toy seems to contradict
> the G1 motto I copied in above.

I think every depiction of him, and even his name, contradict the G1 motto. His motto is aspirational, but he does not live up to it. He eats. A lot. And his beast mode has the belly to prove it.

(His robot mode seems suspiciously svelte though)

> Robot Mode: With only some minor changes, it's basically a better-
> proportioned and better-articulated update to the original. Unfortunately,
> that also means the original solid magenta head with silver visor. They
> really should've gone with the G1 box art (and animation model) and given him
> a light gray face.

That would have been much, much better.

> While there's no rubsigns to be had officially anymore,
> they did fake one with a foil sticker that looks like an already-rubbed
> rubsign. The combiner kibble, aside from the Prime Armors, is all
> permanently attached, so he can't use Abominus's chestplate as a shield like
> the G1 toy can. However, he can use the Prime Armors as either blaster
> pistols or forearm-mounted blasters, so it balances out.

The Prime Armor makes for a terrible blaster. They need bigger barrels.

> Annoyingly, there seems to be no way to make the fists lock into
> place, they're just sort of loosely folded around the combiner sockets in the
> forearms.

On mine it is not loose at all. There are no extra pegs, but they hold firmly.

> Interestingly, unlike the other Voyagers to date, the Enigma has a storage
> spot that can completely close over it, hiding it from view. In robot mode,
> this compartment is on the backpack, looking like that smaller compartment
> for snacks or pencils on an actual backpack. It becomes the center of the
> chestplate on Abominus.

It's a bit of a shame that he cannot hold a Titan Master or a Prime Master enclosed there. They are a little too big... Hmm, can TR Overlord store Enigmas in his chest compartment? Nope, the door doesn't quite close, and the Enigma is somehow slightly too small to hold in tightly.

> Transformation: Getting to beast mode is fairly straightforward. Legs
> become necks/heads, arms become rear legs, forelegs come out of the
> backpack. The chest pops open to let the head stow, and the tail on the
> chest folds over and spines are pushed out the top. The kneecaps fold down
> to add more spines to the neck.

One of my kneecaps is a little loose in spine up position. It flops around a little. Mildly annoying.

> For torso mode, the feet fold into the backs of the boots and the legs
> (with kneepads folded down) bend to bracket the combiner head, which comes
> out of its storage in the robot belly. The backpack moves up on hinged
> struts to connect to a tab in front of the collar, tabs in the thighs connect
> to the new spine, tabs on the backs of the ankles connect to the waist, tabs
> on the beast foreclaws go into slots in the sides of the robot knees. A LOT
> of repositioning of joints to get things to line up, but no excessive force
> required.

And lots of tabs and slots to hold everything into place. This could have been a complete mess, but it isn't.

> The robot arms become combiner legs by folding the fists out of
> the way (and there's even tabs inside the elbows to lock them straight), and
> the tail partially covers the gap left by moving the combiner head out.

That gap is so large that it looks purposeful, but I cannot figure out a purpose. I want him to have a tail in combined mode, but I don't want an unsightly gap. Too small for a Prime Master Armor, too big for a Prime Master...

> Oh, and the combiner head has antennae to fold up.

Huh. I knew I was missing something. Much nicer now, thank you.

> If you put the beast feet over the fists and leave them covering the
> combiner slots, the torso mode can stand on its own, letting you make a
> three-figure combiner with ape arms.

I really, really like the ape mode.

> Torso Mode: This is really solid. With the exception of the fists/rear
> beast feet just sort of folded behind the thighs, everything pegs into place
> firmly. Possibly the best engineering I've seen for a combiner torso in that
> respect.

He's a really solid torso.

> Overall: I'd say most of the problems with this toy come from trying too
> hard to be G1-accurate, but they're fairly minor and mostly aesthetic (the
> worst being the appearance of beast mode). Aside from the fists, it's quite
> solid in all modes, a nice surprise after so many combiner torsos with fiddly
> parts that tend to pop apart.

He's a pretty great toy. His beast mode is mostly ok.

> Dave Van Domelen, now to resist the temptation to just buy three more
> Rippersnappers rather than wait until Fall for the other three limbs.

As if you could find them...