The rumor is that Titans Return Titan Masters - these little guys - are preludes to larger full-body toys. I have yet to see where this comes from, as it does not seem like what Hasbro usually does. (i.e., "tell fans anything more than 9 months in advance without a picture.") A mini reimagining of Horri-Bull, this Terri-Bull brings you the original character's head - Kreb - but dispatches with the bull (or Ghostbusters Terror Dog) alt mode completely. It's still fun, just not the fun you'd expect as a long-term fan.
This 1.5-inch robot is vaguely like Kreb, the Nebulon talk show host. This is arguably more interesting backstory, but it doesn't work its way in to the stories all that much. In the comics, he's currently Needlenose's dead ex. This new figure is his own man, and while he retains the grey and the blue where the colors go seem to be inverted. The purple face is now yellow - also more robotic and masked. The arms, neck, knees, and hips all move nicely, and the figure has no problems integrating with his own tank accessory or most of the other toys from this line.
The head mode is great! I wish I had a body to go with it, moreso than some of the others. A tan face plate sits under red eyes, all shoved under a nice dark blue helmet. The color match isn't quite perfect to the original toy, but it's good enough that you'll wish you had a body for it. As I write this (thousands of years ago, back in June) I don't have any Decepticon bodies yet. I look forward to getting them.
His vehicle is a little tank. It's cute. The two cannons can go up or down, and that's pretty much all it does. The tan top looks cool, and the figure has no problems plugging in to his seat via the use of small pegs inside the seating area. Much like the others, this is a neat toy - just not the best Terri-Bull it could be. Actually, that's unfair - Terri-Bull isn't Horri-Bull, so as a new guy, it's kind of great. I like playing with it, and it's worth noting the detail work around the wheels and treads turned out great. It's certainly not a flat, bland surface - they did their work here.
Transformation is easy - the tank flips over, and you fold down the 5mm peg for stability. Wings fold out from the treads, and the plane's cockpit flips out and snaps into place. You can slide the figure inside via its head, with the heels digging in to a notch in the back of the plane for stability. It just plain works. To get the gun mode, just flip up the wings - it will plug in virtually any 5mm port you may have. I'm very fond of the Decepticon sigil on the jet because it looks nice, but I'd almost rather they made it invisible in vehicle mode - this way Autobots could use it, too.
The packaging is light - very light - with a fairly generic cardback. The art shows Fortress Maximus' head, and there are no co-sells. (A shame, they missed a grand opportunity with this entry-level product.) It's also worth noting that Hasbro managed to get rid of most of the pins and rivets typically found in Transformers toys - the vehicle has none, and the head seems to have only 1 screw and 1 pin. Cost reductions, they are clever.
Seeing the great downsizing over the last few years, compiled with rising costs, labor increases, and everything else, it's hard to say if this is truly a good toy for $5. It's easily one of the best $5 Transformers you can get right now, but comparing it to the Thrilling 30-era Legends which were $9.99 for a 4-inch figure and a bonus 2-inch triple-changing weapon/robot/vehicle sidekick? It's tough. This is the way things are going, and I'm very glad to see Hasbro squeezed out surplus packaging and unnecessary trading cards for these. I also think that Terri-Bull is one of the best examples of this format so far, in that every mode works nicely. It's just that - like so many others - the toy loses my enthusiasm through no fault of its own. It's just not a proper remake of a 30-year-old toy that nobody remembers. As its own thing, though, it's neat and you should get it. Also, in Japan the vehicle mode was redecorated in green and packaged with Hardhead as an accessory. In a perfect world, these could be capsule toys or blind bags. But it's 2016, and they're too expensive to meet those needs now.
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