Carnivac w/ Survivor [Age of the Primes / Wreck ’N Doom Collection]

Carnivac is a really cool addition to the Age of the Primes series. He’s the main reason I wanted the two-pack he comes in alongside Fisitron, who I talked about earlier this week. Carnivac is another somewhat obscure Transformers character. He’s featured more heavily in various comics, but exists just under the surface enough that mainstream audiences—and even some fans—may not be aware of his existence.

His biggest role is in the Marvel UK comics, where he was featured regularly. Similar to Dinobot in Beast Wars, Carnivac was a Decepticon whose own sense of right and wrong led him to become a more heroic character. Eventually, after a major event, surviving Autobots and Decepticons formed a new group known as The Survivors, which later led to another group known as Earthforce. I particularly enjoy those issues. 

This is Carnivac’s second official toy to date, the first being a Pretender. This time around, he’s a Headmaster with a new partner named Survivor.

I don’t know if Carnivac being a Headmaster instead of a Pretender rubs anyone the wrong way, but I love it. I love Pretenders, but Headmasters hit a particularly sweet spot for me. Not to mention, he looks a lot like the inner robot from his original toy—which is how I’m used to seeing him anyway from those UK comics.

Also worth noting: my own G1 Carnivac is missing his Pretender shell. I picked up the inner robot for practically nothing from a dump bin at Charticon, so I’m just accustomed to seeing him that way. Another sweet spot for me is that they used a Titans Return mold as a base, which is absolutely one of my favorite Transformers series. This one is hitting all the right chords for me.

Oddly enough, the Takara version has the Headmaster as Carnivac himself, with the main body intended to represent his Pretender shell.

As mentioned, Carnivac is made from a Titans Return mold—specifically Wolfwire/Weirdwolf. There’s only a small amount of new tooling here. He gets a new wolf tail that becomes a sword in robot mode, along with a blaster. Survivor has a new faceplate for head mode, tooled after Carnivac’s appearance in Time Wars. I really like that—he looks almost straight off the comic page and makes me want to dig my copy out and re-read it.

Outside of that, Wolfwire/Weirdwolf makes a solid base for a very well-done Carnivac update. Despite the mold being about ten years old, it still looks great. Carnivac’s mix of metallic purple, green, and copper looks fantastic and makes the whole thing feel like a more premium offering.

Robot mode offers a decent amount of articulation—more than his boxy looks would suggest. When Titans Return first came out, many described it as “G1 with knees,” which is clearly something people still love, as Missing Link has proven. Combined with his new face sculpt, Carnivac is really expressive. He just oozes attitude, and I love it.

Transformation is very straightforward. Pop the head off and fold the beast-mode head over. You essentially lay him down and adjust the arms and legs into the wolf’s legs. The sword becomes the tail, and his gun mounts on the back for some canine firepower.

Survivor can unfold into his humanoid mode and hang out, or fit into a cockpit on the wolf’s back. He doesn’t slide in as smoothly as you might expect—you’ll basically need to have him in head mode to fit properly—but once he’s in, it’s a snug fit.

It’s impossible for me not to get Zoids vibes from this, though I get that from other beast-mode Headmasters as well. I also get slight Beast Machines vibes, specifically from the legs and transformation, which heavily remind me of Night Slash Cheetor. I always liked that toy, and while this isn’t the same thing exactly, there are enough similarities to make the connection.

Every use of this mold that I’ve picked up has been pretty great, and as Carnivac it really excels. It’s funny how a toy meant to update one character can work so perfectly for another. This is one of those toys that gets me excited and happy in that fanboy way that’s hard to explain to people who don’t get it.

This two-pack is pretty great overall. I might be tempted to grab the other Wreck ’N Doom Collection sets—but I also feel like I already have the star of the show.