Bot Reviews: Transformers: Kingdom Core Dracodon

Kingdom’s Core-class assortment has been a great run of Transformers minifigures. Or rather, that larger Legends scale that started in 2014, vanished for a little bit, and came back with a new, less-confusing name, continues to be great. Core figures are small, but not so small that they can’t have plenty going on, and are cheap enough to make for quick little impulse purchases.

In Kingdom, the size has been used for 1) miniature versions of G1 guys (which I haven’t picked up), 2) Rattrap (reviewed here), and 3) an original character, Vertebreak, (reviewed here) who was a great little dino-fossil-former. And every great tooling deserves a repaint, so she got one in series 3: The Maximal Dracodon.

You know, I really wish there was some kind of fiction for these new characters being created during Kingdom, or at least old-fashioned longform bio notes. We only know Vertebreak is a lady due to some of the production people mentioning it, and a tiny bio in Earth Wars. Meanwhile, we know nothing about Dracodon aside from their faction, and that it’s a good character design in a new colorscheme.

On one hand, your imagination can fill it in and turn them into someone. On the other hand, a good bio is a jumping off point for your imagination. Either way, let’s take a quick look at this little repaint. Look at my Vertebreak writeup for the deets on the tooling, this is just a “what’s different and how does it come together?” kind of piece.

Well, it’s, uh, it’s green.

The poseaiblity, sculpt, transformation and features on Dracodon are the same as Vertebreak, and the build quality’s just as good (in fact, I think it’s easier to tab their tail weapon into their shoulder), so the difference is all in the colors.

The biggest, most obvious color-swap here is changing Vertebreak’s dark, black-browns for a few different shades of bright green. It’s the kind of Goosebumps-looking green you’d associate with radioactivity, or slime. It’s a very 90’s shade, and I wish it glowed in the dark.

I’d almost say this bright colorscheme clashes a bit with the gothy, bony sculpt that fit Vertebreak’s darker color so well, but only mildly, and maybe I’m just used to the previous one.

To the deco artist’s credit, too, this repaint isn’t just a hueswap, the paint apps on Dracodon are in different places. There’s accent colors in the form of gold on their chest, toes, face, and helmet, as well as a tiny red maximal symbol, and unexpectedly Autobot-blue eyes.

In dino mode (again, the Wiki says it’s either a Dracorex, or a juvenile Pachycephalosaurus), a minor QC issue from Vertebreak was fixed, in that their dino jaw can properly move without the need to “break it in,” like on Vertie.

In this form, this green skeleton acquires “museum gift shop skeleton” energy, instead of Vertebreak’s “bone monster” energy.

Once again, Dracodon’s entirely green, with a few gold accents. I like the gold on their head in particular, it makes me think it’s armored, and good for ramming into opponents (ignoring the fact that gold is actually really malleable).

 

Another subtle deco touch that I appreciate is that Dracodon’s dino skeleton eye sockets and head-holes are painted in black, to suggest emptiness

Overall

This is short, but there’s not too much to say outside of “it’s still good.” Did you like Vertebreak? Dracodon is that, but bright green, and that was enough for me. If it’s enough for you, you’ll like it. And if you don’t have Vertebreak…why not? Get this one, it’s in shops now, it’s just as good, and it’s bright, neon, nuclear-power-slime-green. Go, get it, have fun with your tiny radioactive fossil warrior.

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