Dave's Titans Return Rant: Trypticon

[Dave Van Domelen]

Dave's Titans Return Rant: Titan Wave 2

Trypticon (Dinosaur/Base/Spaceship)
with Decepticon Full-Tilt (Car)
and Decepticon Necro (Titan Master)

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

Ah, adventures in buying. I first ordered this from BBTS, but they got
their shipment screwed up and I didn't feel like waiting for their
replacements. So I ordered one from TFSource, and of course while it was in
transit I saw the toy at my local Toys R Us. (It has since sold out.)
It's interesting to note that while this does bring us to two Autobot
Titans and two Decepticon Titans, the Decepticons got two unique molds, while
Fort Max is an extensive retool of Metroplex. :)


CAPSULE

$150 price point.

Trypticon: It's a very worthy update, and a worthy opponent for Fortress
Maximus or Metroplex. There's some issues with the hip joints and chest
panel, however, making this something of a fixer-upper. And the stickers are
maddening. Recommended, but only if you either have the tools and talent to
do needed repairs, or know someone who'll do it for you.


RANT

Packaging: In a big non-window box, same size as previous Titans
(24"/61cm wide, 14.25"/36.5cm tall, 6"/15cm deep). The sealed box weighs
about 8.5 pounds (3.8kg). The front has painted art of dino mode rampaging
through a city, flanked by teeny Sky Shadow and Six Shot. An inset on the
left side shows photos (or really convincing renders) of the three modes.
The bottom is legalese, the left side is a slice of the front art, the top
shows Necro, Full-Tilt, and the three Trypticon modes again.
The right panel has the bio note in four languages:
"Some bots believe the Titan Masters hold the key to controlling the
universe. TRYPTICON is capable of ending it. The towering DECEPTICON Titan
is built for conquest. With a spaceship mode that allows him to travel
between planets and a city mode that establishes a stronghold when he
arrives, he is capable of single-handedly wiping out any target in any
location in the galaxy. His appetite for destruction is rivaled only by his
appetite for Titan Masters, which TRYPTICON consumes like other bots devour
refined Energon cubes. His own Titan Master servant, DECEPTICON NECRO,
hungers for something far more sinister. DECEPTICON NECRO harvests the
sparks of other bots, consuming the very thing that gives them life.
Wherever these DECEPTICONS travel, they bring doom and ultimate
destruction."
Nothing about Full-Tilt, I guess it's just a transtector for Necro?
Also nothing about Brunt, but there's no "tank made of tower bits" in this
version of the toy. I'm sure someone's already figured out a way to make a
tank out of some Nemesis Command add-ons and will be selling it as "Blunt" or
whatnot soon enough.
On the back are larger photos of all the modes, the transformation steps
listings, and a scene showing other toys interacting with the city mode. The
other toys are outlined in yellow, with a disclaimer "FIGURES OUTLINED IN
YELLOW EACH SOLD SEPARATELY, SUBJECT TO AVAILABILITY." Even Trypticon cannot
stand before the power of a lawsuit, I guess. The cosells are Ramhorn,
Misfire, Blitzwing, and Sky Shadow.
The lower right corner of the back shows the Titan Master eating
gimmick...and how the devoured Titan Masters apparently get pooped out. The
picture's a bit misleading, thanks to all the clear panels on the toy,
though. The devoured Titan Masters just end up inside the chest.
Inside is a full sized cardboard tray with plastic blister lining. As
usual, the Titan comes Some Assembly Required. The instructions, stat-card,
and sticker sheet are together in a plastic bag. The trading card has the
same art as the box.
There's 158 stickers in total (two belong to Full-Tilt), ToyHax/
Reprolabels has already put out a Full-Tilt replacement set. The stickers
are thin foil types, as on Fort Max. Getting them into some of the recesses
(such as inside Trypticon's chest) is nearly impossible because static cling
will make them seek out the near walls rather than the spot you want them in.
This, if nothing else, may be a reason to wait for ToyHax to come out with a
set...they use thicker plastic that's easier to guide around. Additionally,
with the foil so thin, to make sure the die cutting gets through the foil it
also goes through the top layer of backing paper, so attempts to get the
sticker off the sheet have an annoyingly high chance of just peeling the
paper apart, leading to multiple false starts. It's a little easier to apply
stickers if you remove the hind legs too.
It's worth noting that the instructions include a 10 step "assemble the
space ship from the pieces in the box" thing to start, rather than starting
by assembling the dino. It's also worth noting that THE INSTRUCTIONS
CONTINUE TO HAVE SOME OF THE WORST GRAPHIC DESIGN OF ALL TIME, WTCHOP HASBRO?
Couldn't spring for a separate large sticker application instruction sheet
like on Metroplex? Half the time the instructions only pointed to the
general area of the sticker, I had to squint at the teeny line art or guess
based on mold lines where a sticker went. As frustrating as ToyHax online
instructions can be, they're a hundred times better than this. I am having
difficulty envisioning the very specific combination of obsessive disorder
and masochism required to find any part of this sticker application process
"fun".
Three thick rattan cords hold the main body of Trypticon, two each on
the legs that are separate. Full-Tilt is in vehicle mode and attached to
Trypticon's chest, one rubber band keeping his gun from falling off.
Trypticon's head is backwards to better fit in the box, and the tail is in
spaceship configuration.

CHECK FOR DEFECTS BEFORE ASSEMBLY. The chest panel holding Full-Tilt is
reportedly warped in some cases, keeping it from snapping closed. Mine is a
little iffy, it'll hold closed but barely, and picking up the dino mode is
often enough of a jar to get it to fall open. The panel relies on edge
friction to stay closed, there's no tabs or raised ridges, and even a little
warping prevents it from catching on both edges. Carefully removing the
panel, I ran it under very hot water in an attempt to un-warp it. That
didn't work (although I did add some soap and removed the mold release oil),
so I stepped it up to boiling water. HANDLE BOILING WATER WITH CARE! It did
work, though. I suspect the panels become warped because of the weight of
Full-Tilt, who remains attached while the toy sits on its side and pulls one
side of the panel down.
And then there's the big thing, the hip ratchets, which are a lot easier
to test while the legs are still separate. After a fair amount of time spent
fiddling with it, I'm pretty sure the core problem is unrelated to the mold,
it has to do with the springs sometimes being too strong. There's a fine
line there, since too weak and the figure can't stand up. But too strong and
the gears can bind up and you end up snapping off internal pieces.
Unfortunately, unless you want to put a spring in a vise and wait several
months, adjusting the spring is not really feasible.
There's various radical surgery suggestions out there for cutting things
off to reduce the spring compression, but your best bet is to improve the
lubrication if you have a too-strong spring. Several have reported good luck
with "Cube Lube," a silicone-based lubricant formulated for Rubik's Cubes
(yes, competitive cube-solving is still a thing, one of the Calculus III
professors at my school uses them to teach algorithms and ends the semester
with a speed-solving competition).
DO NOT USE WD-40, it can degrade plastics.
I tried some dry graphite sold for Pinewood Derby cars, and it helped
for a little while, but eventually fell out from between the teeth and I was
back to where I started. I consulted with the owner of a local hobby store,
he noted that graphite works best if at least one of the surfaces is soft
enough for the graphite to embed itself, and that wasn't the case here. With
his advice, I picked a plastic-safe gear lube for RC cars. It didn't
immediately seem to help much, but the next morning the hips worked fine, so
I guess it needed time to spread out all the way.

Strictly speaking, Trypticon doesn't have a Titan Master in the sense of
his head turning into a Titan Master transtector. Rather, in keeping with
the G1 toy, Full-Tilt attaches to Trypticon's chest, making him a sort of
Power Master, I guess. Stat-wise, Necro and Full-Tilt both add to
Trypticon's base stats. There *is* a way to attach Necro directly to
Trypticon's head, but it's more of a storage trick.
I'll review Full Tilt first as a Titan Master "Deluxe" class equivalent,
then Trypticon after him.


DECEPTICON: DECEPTICON FULL-TILT
Titan Master: Decepticon Necro
Altmode: Cybertronian Car
Transformation Difficulty: 12 steps
Previous Name Use: G1
Previous Mold Use: None
Titan Master Ability: Devour The Sparks Of The Fallen
Weapon: Electro-Disruptor
Function: Servant of Trypticon
Motto: "All that lives dies to feed those that rule."

B: STR 5 SPD 5 INT 5 FRB 5
T: STR +5 SPD +5 INT +3 FRB +5

As noted above, Full-Tilt's stat is given as a boost, but I'm presuming
that on his (its?) own he has straight 5's and then Necro brings him up.
An important thing to remember in evaluating this is that they were
trying to update a VERY bland design. I think the ToyHax set goes a little
too far the other way, it really just needs a Decepticon symbol or two and an
update of the other G1 stickers, the paint apps the toy already has are
otherwise enough.

Vehicle Mode: Well, it's a purple Cybertronian combat car, intentionally
not looking like any real vehicle. It's slightly smaller than most Deluxe or
Warrior cars, although it would need to be HUGE since it's part of Trypticon.
(At the Titan scale, most regular Transformers would be shorter than the
Titan Masters, if not the size of a Titan Master head.) It deliberately has
no windows or windshield, this is a matter of mold and not just
paintlessness, emphasizing how it's not even trying to disguise itself as
something driven by another entity. Either it drives itself, or is an
extension of Necro's will...either way, no concession to a non-Necro
passenger.
4.25" (10.5cm) long, in purple and black. The gun and snap-on wheels
are black plastic, everything else is Decepticon Purple. Strictly speaking,
there's at least two different kinds of purple plastic, and using a UV light
makes that a little clearer, but the shade match is quite close under room
lighting. There's no paint in this mode, but there are two mostly silver
stickers on the sides of the cockpit where side windows might otherwise be.
The rifle is a single piece of unpainted black plastic 2.25" (5.5cm) long,
departing from the otherwise good G1 homage which had the gun in chrome. I
went ahead and chromed mine with a Molotow marker (sealed with Pledge
Future). Interestingly, the gun looks like a little starfighter, complete
with cockpit.
It rolls decently on the four wheels. There's a 5mm hexagonal peg hole
on the center of the roof for the rifle. On the top of either side are
single 2mm pegs for Titan Masters to ride alongside. The rear half of the
roof dome opens up (it's easier to use the gun as a handle) to allow a Titan
Master to sit inside. There's a slot for the Titan Master's heel peg, and
nicely molded control panels (albeit without any painted details) on either
side.
The car attaches to Typticon's chest via slots in the back end of the
car and a hook on Trypticon that folds up into a gap in the front bumper.

Transformation: Pull down the front bumper pieces so that panels on the
underside of the front end can fold open, allowing the front half to fold
down and become boots. Then close the backs of the boots and fold the middle
of the hood up to form the groin plate. The rear sides pull down to become
somewhat stumpy arms, with fists folding out of the forearms. The rear clip
chunk folds down to become a backpack, requiring the gun be removed from the
roof, and revealing the Titan Master neck hole. On mine, it's a VERY tight
fit to get the head on or off. This is not one of the Titan Masters toys
that can keep its head on in vehicle mode.

Robot Mode: Well, add a little silver to the purple...and some light
gray paint, which almost looks like a mere reflection trick. The arms are a
little short, but they don't look too bad. No mouth, this is a "faceplate"
robot.
5.5" (14cm) tall, and still very purple. Still all purple plastic
except for the gun and wheels. There's silver paint on the chest vent
details and on a thin wedge detail on the helmet crest. The visor slit is
painted red. A tall trapezoid on the abdomen is painted medium-light cool
gray. It's a bit odd that there's no Decepticon symbols in either mode,
though. It's easy enough to fix (I have no shortage of Decepticon symbol
stickers), but still weird, given that there's enough empty spots on the
sticker sheet to accomodate a small symbol for him.
Good articulation. Standard Titan Master neck port, no waist joint.
The shoulders are ball joints on shrugging struts, there's upper arm swivels,
hinge elbows, and in principle the wrists can bend inward on transformation
hinges (they snap into extremes, though). Universal joint hips, upper thigh
swivels, hinge knees. No ankles, but the large feet have good shape for
supporting some fairly extreme poses.
The hands can hold 5mm pegs, but the vehicle mode's 2mm pegs are now
nearly at the bottom of the feet and the backpack partly blocks the roof peg
hole. It's notable for not having a 3mm peg in the back of the pelvis.

Titan Master: Necro's mold is based on Wipe-Out, a comics-only
replacement for Full-Tilt who was based on Tailgate's toy design but colored
black. As such, he has molded details based on the stickers on Tailgate's
toy's chest, and a head in the appropriate shape. I suppose they could
repurpose this mold as a Tailgate Titan Master if they wanted.
The head is black plastic, the rest of the figure is purple plastic. It
has the pinned hips typical of later Titan Masters.
There is a Titan Master neck socket at the back of Trypticon's head, so
you can put Necro in and sort of make Trypticon a Headmaster after all
(although Necro's faceplate is hidden). Pushing it down makes the nose
cannon pop up.

Overall: Well, if this were a standalone Deluxe toy, it'd be kinda
disappointing. But as an oversized accessory for Trypticon, I like it better
than Cerebros. Simpler, but well-executed. Leaving out sound and light
gimmicks was probably for the best.



DECEPTICON: TRYPTICON
Assortment: C1735
Altmodes: Dinosaur, Spaceship, Nemesis Command (base)
Transformation Difficulty: 15 steps (ship to dino), 17 steps (dino to
Nemesis Command), 10 steps (assemble ship from the three pieces in the
box).
Previous Name Use: G1, Classics
Previous Mold Use: None
Function: Decepticon Assault Base
Motto: "Total victory requires total destruction."

B: STR 10 SPD 10 INT 10 FRB 10
T: STR +10 SPD +10 INT +8 FRB +10

On the Titan Master line, I'm counting both Full-Tilt and Necro being
attached, see Full-Tilt's entry for how they split up the boost. Even
without Full-Tilt and Necro, this Trypticon is smarter and faster than the G1
version.

Note on the stickers: the writing on almost all of the stickers is in
regular English, rather than the Cybertronian seen on Fortress Maximus or
Metroplex. There's two stickers (79 and 80) that have the Decepticon "A"
character, and a few that seem to just be messing with regular letters for
aesthetics while looking kind of like Cybertronian numerals. "D-63" shows up
a lot, a reference to his Japanese ID number.

Dinosaur Mode: Well, they call it a dinosaur, but like G1 it's basically
as close as they could get to Godzilla without Toho dropping the hammer. The
forelimbs are smaller proportionally than on Godzilla, and have three claws
(two on top, one thumb). There's Godzilla-ish back plates, Mecha-Godzilla
style cannons on the back that can be pointed forward to flank the head,
etc. While this toy doesn't have the motorized walking action of the G1 toy,
they kept the prongs on the insteps for a combination of G1-ishness and
stability. They didn't go so far as to leave wheels on the tail, but they
did put some round details that I suppose vaguely evoke the wheels.
While the package photos don't make it clear, this is not intended to
stand in a "tail dragger" pose like G1 Trypticon did. There's a ratchet
hinge at the root of the tail to lift it up, although the knee joints aren't
strong enough to support a tail-lifted pose unless you keep the legs within a
click or two of straight or crouched ALL the way down, leading to a somewhat
odd look. (Physics explanation: while the tail doesn't have to touch the
table on mine, having a more or less vertical torso and a horizontal tail
shifts the center of mass backwards. This leads to too much torque on the
knees. With the tail down but not quite touching, the center of mass is
farther forward and there's less torque on the knee joint, despite the actual
weight being the same.) Of course, you can also just swing the tail back
down for a classic tail dragger, or even pose Trypticon in a modern
interpretation pose with the spine and tail horizontal to the ground. If
it's kinda Gojulas in the tail dragger pose, the Zoid it most resembles in
horizontal mode is Berserk Fury (which is based on T.rex too). Of the three
possibilities, I prefer the horizontal. It doesn't have collapsing-knee
issues because the center of mass is over the knee joints in most poses that
look good. This does exacerbate any chest panel problems, though. I'm going
to display it in tail-dragger pose mostly for reasons of stability,
though...I don't want to accidentally perform a drop test.
The official pose is about 20" (50cm) tall, give or take based on how
straight you have to make the legs and whether the head is lifted up or not.
Rather shorter if you go for the squatting solution. The horizontal torso-
and-tail pose only rises about 13" (34cm) from the tabletop, but from snout
to tail tip is 26" (66cm) long. Total weight is about six and a half pounds
(2.9kg) no matter how you pose it. Predominantly darkish gray with teal,
light gray, purple, silver, and clear reddish orange.
Most of the visible parts in this mode are made of darkish gray plastic.
Decepticon Purple plastic is used on the back of the head (Necro port and
some exhaust port tubes), the plates on the sides of the torso that have the
shoulder roots, the shoulder joint inner bit, the claws, the prongs on the
feet, the group of pieces that Full-Tilt attaches to on the chest, some
curved plates inside the joint between the toes and feet, the little ramp
connectors stuck on the hips, the tips of the cannons, the "tongue" under the
mouth cannon, and some wheels on the back spines and tail. Teal plastic
makes up the torso core (mostly hidden, but making up the back spines), the
palms of the fore claws, the hip roots, part of the interior of the rear hip
ratchet joint, and the little cannons on the underside of the tail. Clear
teal plastic is found on the center of the chest and the underside of the
tail. Clear orange plastic is in the middle of the forehead (the panel that
pops up to reveal the head cannon), on the eyes (although stickers cover it
up), on some fake eyes in the tail, and on the hip joint "gems". The collar
and the cannons on the back are very light gray plastic. The cannons inside
the mouth and the forehead are covered in silver paint, so I'm not sure what
color plastic they are made of. The mouth one does appear to be part of the
purple tongue piece rather than attached to it, however.
There's not a lot of actual paint here, they rely on stickers for most
of the extra detail. The round bits on either side of each knee joint are
painted slightly metalflake purple, as are rectangles on the backs of the
heels. The head and mouth guns are silver, as are the toes. The part of the
torso core piece that forms the root of the tail has dark gray paint on it,
leaving only a relatively small panel and the one 2mm peg unpainted. The
same gray paint is also on the back spines, on mine it's slightly chipped. A
few details on the rear hips are painted yellow. Otherwise, it's up to the
156 stickers.
The head can move up and down on a ratcheting joint. The top of the
head is connected to the bottom on a smooth hinge to let the mouth open,
although it can't close all the way. Trypticon is a bit of a mouth-breather
I guess. The cannons attached to the collar are on ratcheting hinges, and if
you lift them far enough away from the back then the entire collar can rotate
on a transformation joint to give the head more range of motion. No waist
joint, but as mentioned above the tail has a ratcheting hinge to let it lift
up. The forelimb shoulders are smooth universal joints, the elbows and
wrists are smooth hinges. The top two claws are hinged as a single chunk,
and the thumbs are also hinged. The hips are ratcheting universal joints,
and very strong (too strong sometimes). The knees are slightly weaker
ratcheting hinges. The ankles are ratcheting hinges on the side to side
direction, but cannot move forwards or backwards. Thus, any pose requires
the shins to be slightly forward of straight up and down, leading to the
lifted-tail pose issues already covered.
There are a LOT of connection points, even in this mode (Nemesis Command
goes absolutely nuts). 5mm peg holes: two on the outside facing of each
cannon, one on the outside facing of each forelimb forearm, two on the front
of the groin, one on the outer facing of each knee, two on each side of the
tail. (There's a lot of screw holes that look like 5mm at first glance, but
are either slightly too large or slightly too small.) A few 2mm pegs: one on
top of each hip, one atop the root of the tail (presumably for a "rider"
since this peg is on the underside in the other modes), a paired set inside
the mouth behind the cannon, a half dozen or so on the legs that are pointed
sideways in this mode, one on either side of Necro's storage slot at the back
of the head, one on each side of the rear collar between the cannons, a
sideways one on each shoulder, a couple downward-facing ones on the belly.
If the cannons are stowed as a backpack, there's two more pegs on top of each
one. The pin holes on the palms of the claws are slightly wider than 3mm,
the gummy plastic 3mm peg accessories from the Prime days might stay put.
If you open the mouth enough, there's a hole down the gullet wide enough
to drop Titan Masters down, and they land in the upper belly compartment.
The lower belly compartment is merely storage, it doesn't connect to
anything. The inside of the belly panel has a single 2mm peg, and if you
lift up Full-Tilt's cradle there's another 2mm peg under it. The tail end
opens up, but that's a thing for the spaceship mode. Finally, if you press
down on the Titan Master "neck hole" piece at the back of Trypticon's head
(either directly or by placing a Titan Master there), the snout panel opens
up and its cannon pops up.


Transformations: I was able to figure out most of the ship mode just
from looking at the sticker instructions. The trickiest bit is that the hips
detach from the dino location and swing up to where the forelimbs were,
mostly locking in place. The thrusters on back of the head fit into a slot
and lock the collar from rotating while some popped collar bits on the sides
hide the eyes. The forelimbs and their base plate swing out of the way.
Pegs on the feet lock into slots on the sides of the tail, but as far as I
can tell there's not enough other pegs or other locking methods to keep the
sides of the ship in place during handling. There's buttons to push to
release the dino sides to fall down and become the side decks (and to unlock
the hips from dino mode), but no equivalent press-to-unlock keeping the side
decks down or keeping the hips in their new spot. Gravity holds everything
down if you have it set on a flat enough surface, but the weak connections
mean the ship isn't "whooshable". There's one bit I didn't figure out on my
own and had to look up in the instructions: the end of the tail (which has
head-like details on it) has a strut arrangement letting it open up, this is
purely to let you store Full-Tilt inside rather than leaving it on top in its
chestplate location.
From ship to city is fairly straightforward, mostly involving opening up
the legs into the projecting arms of Nemesis Command and moving a few ramps
and towers around. Even less locking in this mode, as it's meant to sit on
the floor or tabletop and use gravity to hold it in place. Picking it up is
like picking up a squid, dangling arms all over.
Dinosaur mode is clearly the main one, as everything snaps and locks
properly.

Vehicle Mode: While the actual head is partially hidden in back, the
front end is molded to look like it was made from the head expanding, down to
the presence of fake eyes. There's a lot of "ignore everything behind this
line" dino kibble, in fact. It does look spaceship-ish, at least, helped by
little winglets sticking out the sides (contrary to the sticker application
instructions and the package photos, the winglets lie flat and there doesn't
seem to be any design intent to have them up at an angle). The foot prongs
become forward-facing cannons, the backpack cannons are now on top, the
Full-Tilt holder has a cannon barrel on the front, and there's a pair of nose
guns at the front. So, a lot of forward-facing firepower.
25.5" (65cm) long with a wingspan of 18" (45cm). More of the teal
plastic and clear teal plastic are visible in this mode, as well as a bit
more purple. The winglets, deck bits on either side, the "forehead" of the
prow, and panels on the folded out belly halves are purple plastic. The deck
bits are ramps for Nemesis Command mode, but if you fold them out in this
mode the ship becomes more of a carrier with flight decks. The nose cannons
are teal plastic, as are some of the now-visible hinges and triggers.
Most of the prow top panel is painted gray, a good match for the
plastic. Reactor unit panels on the sides revealed by folded down the decks
are also painted gray. Vent details on the purple deck plates are painted
silver, otherwise the extra color continues to be due to all the stickers.
All of the guns can elevate so that the ship's best passing strategy is
to keep the target above it. The prow can lift up to let Full-Tilt's vehicle
mode store inside, in a niche just the right length to keep it from rattling
around. Other sufficiently narrow vehicles can also store inside, but not
necessarily securely.
Lots and lots and lots of connectors, mostly 2mm pegs. Interestingly,
it doesn't matter whether you have the deck pieces as the instructions show,
or folded out for flight decks, because there's two pegs hidden by the stowed
panels, while deploying them puts two pegs out of reach and upside down. If
you lift up the Full-Tilt bracket as an elevated cannon, one more 2mm peg is
revealed. The default number of useful 2mm pegs is 24, although the ones on
the forelimb shoulders are kinda close together, making it hard to use both
at once (they're not close enough to be meant for the same figure). There's
a few more at odd angles for use outside a gravity well, I suppose. The 5mm
peg holes on the cannons and forearms are still accessible, and the ones on
the sides of the tail are now on the sides of the prow. Two more on top
amidships, for a total of 14. Two more on the soles of the feet if you have
some guns with 5mm pegs on their stocks. Oddly, there's a pass-through ahead
of the reactors, a hollow space that can hold a number of very small figures
or just let them pass through from one wing to the other. If you leave
Full-Tilt off the chest clip, it makes for a gunner seat for a Legends sized
figure or a sufficiently flexible Deluxe.
It requires a very flat surface, but the ship will roll along on its
wheels.

Nemesis Command Mode: While it's missing the extra tower pieces from
Brunt, it otherwise looks very similar to the G1 toy's base mode. A main
ramp down the center, secondary (and steeper) ramps flanking it, and the dino
legs opened up to form low walls with the feet as small towers. It sprawls
significantly, easily dominating the table as well as Fortress Maximus's city
mode. There's pillars hidden inside the ankles that support the midpoints of
the low walls, although they're more effective on a hard surface than on the
carpet I currently have the toy upon. (Yeah, I don't really have enough
unclaimed table space anywhere to display this in base mode right now...I
live alone so even if I had a dining room table it'd be covered in stuff.
The only table in my dining area is my photography setup.)
Exact width depends on how you bend the dino knee joints, but reasonable
posing is in the vicinity of 39" (1 meter). Length, assuming you don't use
the dino hips to bend the walls backwards, is 30.5" (77cm). The height to
the top of the towers (the cannons, with barrels extended and pointed up) is
15.5" (39.5cm). No new plastics are visible, although the light gray on the
soles of the feet is more prominent and the clear teal inside the tail gets
to show more than a tiny bit now. The ship prow folded down into a ramp
shows that the other side of that piece is also painted gray.
5mm peg holes that are accessible/usable in this mode: 2 outer walls
(knee joints), 2 low towers (soles of feet), 2 rear decks (dino arms), 2 on
top (amidship), 2 on either side of the front ramp (tail), 2 on each tower.
And plenty of screw holes that aren't quite 5mm. Without going into location
detail, there's 37 2mm pegs that point up (or mostly up, in the case of
ramps) and have enough clearance for a Titan Master to stand. A few are
marginal.
In addition to the obvious base/ramp connectors on the ends of the walls
(dino hips), there's a couple of subtler connections on the towers made from
the feet, and couple of pickets that jut downward but are meant to connect a
ramp at the very end.

Overall: Once minor repairs have been performed and all the stickers
applied, it's a very good toy. However, that's a big "once," and it's a
hefty investment for a toy that's not ready to go when you open the box.

Dave Van Domelen, ran out of room on his Titans Return table and bought
a tray table expansion for Trypticon.

[banzait...@gmail.com]

> unless you want to put a spring in a vise and wait several
> months, adjusting the spring is not really feasible.

I actually had good success with this method. I did one only at first so I could compare the two springs visually to measure the compression, and it was visibly reduced. If you lack a vice (seriously?), you can place the spring under a piece of heavy furniture. I only kept it in vice at full compression for a few minutes, and then did numerous cycles of mid to full compressions in the vice (can't really do this with the furniture method).

https://www.seibertron.com/transformers/news/alternate-repair-option-for-titans-return-titan-class-trypticon-no-cutting-required/39122/

I haven't tackled the stickers yet, but am expecting the worst.

-Banzaitron

[Dave Van Domelen]

In article <86cca70a-7de6-4b89...@googlegroups.com>,

<banzait...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> unless you want to put a spring in a vise and wait several
>> months, adjusting the spring is not really feasible.
>
>I actually had good success with this method. I did one only at first
>so I could compare the two springs visually to measure the compression,
>and it was visibly reduced. If you lack a vice (seriously?), you can
>place the spring under a piece of heavy furniture. I only kept it in
>vice at full compression for a few minutes, and then did numerous cycles
>of mid to full compressions in the vice (can't really do this with the
>furniture method).
>

Specifically the Trypticon springs? Because I left mine in a vise
overnight and noticed no change.

Dave Van Domelen, a vise is a clamp, a vice is an ethical flaw....

[banzait...@gmail.com]

yes, the hip springs. Unless you did them one at a time and compared, or made a pre and post measurement, I doubt you would notice visually. They didn't change dramatically. The spring height decreases, as well as a likely non visible lessening of the compression strength of the spring material. It still leaves the joint pretty firm, but I haven't seen any reports of anyone breaking their hips after this mod. Lots of reports of people claiming it works though. Only time will tell for sure...

-Banzaitron. (Vice, Vise, whatever... I've got bigger problems, like putting on four hours of stickers)

[Travoltron]

So I got one of these this week. The sticker sheet is totally
demoralizing. Although I did it before with Metroplex and Fortress
Maximus, so I know I can do it again.

I dunno about these gold stickers that go over his eyes, though. It
looks like he was designed to have light-piping in his eyes. It seems
dumb to cover up a feature.

[Irrellius Spamticon of the Potato People.]

Every G1 Trypticon I've owned and seen in person had gold paint for eyes, now they are stickers?

[Dave Van Domelen]

In article <dda7ea9b-3da4-485f...@googlegroups.com>,

If you prefer modern lightpiping, leave the stickers off. If you want a
more G1 look, apply the stickers.

Dave Van Domelen, applied all the stickers, mostly to see what it'd look
like.