Transformers Prime Beast Hunters Predacons Rising Abominus.

Dear god that's a mouthful, isn't it? The Predacons Rising sub-line must have one of the longest names in Transformers history. Exclusive to Target in the US, and Tesco in the UK, it mostly consists of repaints. This is probably the jewel in the crown of this wave for me. Abominus, like the names suggests, is a modern re-imagining of the classic G1 combiner team the Terrorcons. unfortunately the name has been used for the Dark Energon zombies in the Prime line, so they're generic Predacons this time around. I can live with that though. The toys themselves are Cyberverse Legion class, the smallest that Hasbro currently put out. Despite that, there's a lot to like about them. This is a box set of all five team members, packaged in combined Abominus mode. I'm not normally one to get excited about packaging, but Hasbro have done quite a good job of this one. If anything, the box is a bit too big, with a lot of dead space. The environmentally concerned hippy in me dislikes this, but the nerd in me rejoices at the fine aesthetic choice. So, Abominus then. The major difference between this version and the individually packaged figures is the plastic, which is translucent for this release. It has the effect of making Ambominus look like he's made out of gummy bears. It's not a bad thing, though, and the colour choices are quite good, staying faithful to the G1 source. The translucent plastic actually looks a lot better to my mind. It does take some fiddling to get Abominus into some good poses, but it is possible. It's definitely a toy that looks a lot better in hand than in pictures on the internet, and has quite a loft of character. The individual weapons combine to form a large rifle thing that can be held in Abominus' right hand, adding an extra dimension, although the suggested configuration in the instructions doesn't work with mine,leaving a hammer left over. I'm also not overly impressed with the the head. It definitely feels too small, although that probably has a lot to do with the limited nature of the size class. Individually, the figures are incredibly faithful to the G1 Terrorcons. I have to admit at this stage that I've always loved their designs. The idea of monstrous Decepticons is such an obvious one that I was overjoyed as a child to see it followed through. Each figure here is pretty much a straight update of the original, complete with the original colour palates. Someone somewhere has a lot of love for the Terrorcons! It's a shame that the names had to be changed for trademark reasons. Sinnertwin has always been one of my favourite Transformer names ever. Overall, this is a pretty decent set, and at the current Tesco sale prices is well worth the money. I prefer the translucent plastic on this set, which is just as well as I've only ever seen two or three of the individually packed components on sale here in the UK. A few final points. The individual moulds will be seeing some further use in future, with several being repainted for the the Predacons Rising Legion two-packs. There's a recoloured Japanese version too, released as Goradora in the Transformers Go! line. Finally, in one of the odder twists, some, if not all, of the figures are being upscaled to deluxe class by Hasbro as part of the effort to produce simpler toys. These won't have the combiner ports, it seems, and appear, to me at least, to be one of Hasbro's odder moves in recent years. Final verdict then? A good, fun toy. Maybe not worth the full retail price of £25 or so, but worth it if you can find it on the cheap.