Living up to the title, the Transformers Titans have indeed returned. And this ill-tempered lord of destruction is a welcome addition to the big leagues.
Trypticon is the Decepticon counter to the Autobot city-bot Metroplex. Released toward the 3rd quarter of the G1 line in 1987 along his rival, Trypticon was one of the largest Decepticons to date, with a city, battle station, the iconic Godzilla mode, and the ability to interact with some of the “Scramble City” combiners.
As a character, Trypticon spent equal time as a ferocious engine of mass-carnage and a bumbling chump that Daniel and Wheelie could handle. And while he could occasionally be pretty damn imposing, the Autobots just needed to make a break for Metroplex, who would then pick him up and toss him, Team Rocket-style.
He’s at his best when depicted as the massive boss-battle-type. He made a grand appearance in War for Cybertron, and most every Transformers game before it, though sadly not in Devastation.
The original G1 toy has always been a crowd pleaser, with its three modes, lights and sounds, and motorized walking. It was never the biggest of the citybots, but it certainly had style, and that style is very well represented here. While it might have cost some electronics, this version of Trypticon is able to take much of the feature and function of the G1 version and turn it into a massive, distinct and articulated iteration. In a lot of ways, other than the obvious dino-ness of the figure, he reminds me a lot of the similarities between the G1 and Masterpiece Grimlock: the transformations have stayed very similar, and it feels a lot like a very upgraded take on the classic.
The city and battleship modes are pretty easy to accomplish, both involve putting the figure belly-up and then opening and adjusting panels. In city mode, he has several points to attach other Combiner Wars/Titans Return figures to bulk up the base, and various points and accesses for the Titan Master figures.
The battleship mode is a little more condensed, but actually my preferred of the two. In this mode the translucent green parts become a cockpit that can fit a deluxe figure, and the armament can be brought to face forward, making a pretty cool spaceship that still adheres to the classic battle station’s style. Both modes offer many different little attachment points and interactions for the the Titan Master figures, but for brevity’s sake, and since I only have one Titan-master, I’m going to gloss over those.
Because we’re all here for the kaiju mode, right? Well, that’s the best part. Again, very faithful to the original, Trypticon takes all the little elements that evoke the awe that one had and cranks it up substantially. In stead of the lights, sounds and motor-action, we get excellent sculpting details, a major bulk-up, and some useful articulation.
Speaking to the articulation, Trypticon has neck movement, rotating with the shoulder guns, as well as a pivot for transformation. The jaw opens wide enough to feed him Titan Masters that you can rescue from a chest panel, and he even retains the pop-out “nose blaster.” He has fully articulated arms and claws, as well as a slight pivot on the ratcheting hips, knees, and a little bit of ankle range. Now, there have been issues with the hip joints; namely, the springs inside are super-tight, and can potentially damage the teeth on that ratchet joint. I understand this seems to be more common on initial figures, but I’d advise caution anyway. There’s several options to fix the problem, the simplest being to simply cut down that spring to reduce some of the tension. I ended up replacing mine with a different set of springs, and have been really pleased ever since. It’s fairly simple to do, and there’s several You Tube videos detailing the fixes, but let me know if a walkthrough or follow up would be helpful.
Trypticon gets some pretty good accessories that can interact with his various modes as well. Full-Tilt was upgraded to a fully functioning deluxe class figure, and he includes Necro, a revision of Trypticon’s old ally Wipe Out. Full-Tilt is a cool little deluxe, actually my first of the new series, with a simple transformation and a working cockpit for his headmaster to ride in.
As mentioned above, he fits in the cockpit of the battleship mode, and can also ride on his “launcher pad” in beast and city mode. There is also a TON of stickers, which I have not gotten to yet. With all the excellent sculpted details, I am tempted to do some painting before I apply those.
Size-wise, he’s not quite as towering as Metroplex or Fort Max, but he is still very impressive. I found I really like the look of him with MAS-01 Optimus as well- just imagine him as an upgraded OverKill or something. Much like the G1 toy did for me decades ago, I can see Trypticon terrorizing many toy lines of varying sizes and scales.
