Bot Reviews: Transformers: Rise of the Beasts Beast Battle Master Skullcruncher

I may be focusing on the Studio Series side of Rise of the Beasts when it comes to my pickups, but I need to take a moment to point out that the mainline, non-Studio part of the movie’s merchandising is doing some interesting stuff, too. It’s got its own assortment of Deluxes and Voyagers, and beyond that, a big pile of “Beast Alliance” gimmick toys that seem to have generally turned out pretty good. You’ve got two-bot combiners, transforming facemasks, and a bunch of other simple-but-fun figures, like these guys, Beast Battle Masters. It’s not just a name re-use, they’re genuinely just more of the Battle Masters from Siege and Earthrise, a.k.a little guys that turn into weapons for the larger figures. But where the older Battle Masters character selection was a combination of G1 Targetmasters, with a few original characters mixed in (plus Rung), these new Beast Battle Masters are mostly the Maximal cast of the new movie, only now they’re really small, and change into weapons instead of robots, for some reason (I really wish there was some product copy somewhere that attempted to give some story context for this, just to see what they come up with).

But even that’s got some exceptions, like today’s tiny guy, who’s a movieverse version of Skullcruncher, the classic Decepticon Headmaster Crocodile (or Alligator, where the G1 toy is concerned).

This also means that he’s one of the only Decepticons in a toyline that almost totally omits them, since the movie it comes from didn’t feature any (cut scenes aside). But, really, none of that matters to me. Know why I got him? Because he’s compatible with mainline figures as well, thanks to that good old universal 5-millimeter system, and I just got a crocodile-themed repaint of Mirage that he’d go great with. Plus, it’s an excuse to give a non-standard figure a go.

Beast Mode

Yup, that’s a crocodile (according to the Wiki. I couldn’t tell you what makes it that, and not an Alligator). While he feels small compared to the classic Battle Masters, Skullcruncher’s actually longer than both Firedrive and Caliburst are tall, so I think the amount of plastic in him just got elongated a bit.

Skullcruncher got a pretty impressive amount of sculpting all across his body, which is covered with scales and spines, but with a lot of straight lines and angles that make it more techy-looking.

Of course, the sculpt is broken up by the big peg-handle at the base of the tail, but you can sort of pass it off as part of the design. At the front of it, you have a gator face that actually looks kind of adorable. He just seems really happy, and too friendly to be a bad guy.

For colors, Skullcruncher’s mostly two tones of unpainted plastic, in a lighter and a darker green. His only paint apps are his eyes, in red, and his belly, in silver, which is really details for his gun mode.

It manages to not feel too skimpy, largely thanks to the alternating plastic colors adding some variety. The older Siege and Earthrise Battle Masters were also typically just two plastic colors and a couple small hits of paint (not counting stuff packaged with other figures), so this feels pretty consistent in terms of the amount of color. Know what he’s lacking? A Decepticon symbol, or any faction marker of any kind. I don’t mind this, because it means he can be anyone you want, and partner with any robot.

He does have one build quality problem: The transformation joint that attaches his tail to his body is a bit too loose, and likes to swing down just a little too easily when you pick him up. Outside of that, he’s solid. I don’t actually think he can stand on his four feet, but it’s fine, he’s a belly-dragging animal anyway.

Speaking of his legs, all four of them are on tight ball joints, so he can do a walking pose pretty well, or wave, if you like. That tail sure does like to fold downwards whenever I pose those back legs, though. But more importantly: His crocodile mouth opens, and really wide too.

I can’t get over how happy he looks!

 

Transformation

As you’d expect from a figure this size, Skullcruncher takes only a moment to become a gun. You flip the head/torso around, fold the tail in, adjust the legs, and you’re done. I will say, nothing on him really pegs in during this transformation. The tail has a miniscule peg on it to fit it into a hole in the body, but it doesn’t really stay in place, it just rests there.

And the legs have no set place to go at all! All his stuff is really there on friction. It’s good friction, at least.

Weapon Mode

Yup, that’s a gun. The only real new bit of detail is its exposed barrel, and a bit of sculpting on top, painted silver, that looks a little bit like a laser sight.

The whole thing’s a stubby handheld weapon, and despite only having one barrel, makes me think of one of those miniature short shotguns. That, or it’s a very stubby version of Beast Wars Basic Megatron’s crocodile tail-gun, another very appropriate shout.

It’s a bit smaller than most of the older Battle Master weapons, but to its credit, those were mainly big due to all the robot parts hanging off of them, where as this gun’s a lot sleeker, with only the politely-folded-in Croc-legs as altmode parts. Speaking of those, I again want to emphasize that despite the fact that nothing on him really tabs in, the weapon holds together just fine.

So, what can it do? Well, it’s got a standard 5-Millimeter port as a handle, so pretty much any modern mainline Transformers figure can hold it, or mount it on the connection points re-introduced in Siege, and which are still around today. And the barrel of the weapon is compatible with any blast effects you’ve got hanging around.

So, basically, it does what any weapon accessory on a modern Transformer is supposed to do.

Yup, that’s about it.

Overall

This is a really basic, little toy, and is nothing more than an accessory and companion for your larger bots. But thanks to the long-running gimmick that is 5 Millimeter compatibility, he works with basically anyone, and lacks a faction symbol, meaning you can match him with any bot that can hold him.

There’s not a lot going on here, which means not a lot to get wrong. His tail’s kind of loose in crocodile mode, and that’s about it. He’s a poseable small gator that turns into a gun, and he goes with the Toxitron repaint of Mirage, which is all I wanted.

Okay, granted, at 9.99 in Canadian dollars, he’s two bucks more than Battle Masters used to be, though I blame inflation more than price-gouging. Still, the price tag means I won’t be collecting a big pile of these or anything, but this one makes for a nice treat. And if you want a larger Transformer to go with them, thanks to Battle Masters feeling like better value when they’re a pack-in, there’s some larger “Beast Weaponizers” out there, that are sub-Deluxe robots that each come with one of these, and I hear tell are pretty good figures on their own merits.

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