Ractonite

A long forgotten Christmas tradition is to tell scary ghost stories at night. That tradition is so forgotten that it seems totally out of place these days. You all know I like it spooky and can appreciate it as a counter point to all the sugar and spice. Admittedly my habit of listening to paranormal and true crime podcasts while at work is a regular thing anyway. But it does help alleviate some of the stress of the holiday season. With that in mind I thought looking at the spooky skeletal Fossilizers would be just the ticket! While I was getting sick this past summer the wife picked him up for me. He's been in my backlog since then and I'm glad I finally opened him up. I like Fossilizers as is. Nothing like a Transformer that's a skeleton that transforms into a skeleton. Add in that the body can be broken up and used as armor or weapons for other transformers and you've got quite a morbidly weird idea. They also remind of of Rock Lords and Bone Age.

Ractonite transforms into a triceratops. That's probably not the most accurate description of the exact dinosaur species represented here, but I'm pretty sure the dinosaurs never turned into robots either. It's a pretty good skeletal dinosaur. Decently articulated. Of course he can be split up and made into a variety of weapons and armor as a Fossilizer. There's a combiner you can make with them and these are the parts that make up it's torso and feet. Considering that he's the widest of the Fossilizers, you'd figure more would be used. I may do so whenever making mine. In robot mode there's a strong resemblance to Ribcage that I cannot ignore. If I was on whatever official board decided exclusives, there would definitely be a Fossilosaurus set pitched using these guys. However that gate is firmly kept by others.

Dracodon the Radioactive!

I finally found Dracodon this past weekend at Gamestop. I quite like these new Core Class Transformers and can't wait to find Soundwave. Not to mention it's impossible for me to dislike the neon green skeleton that is Dracodon. A straight repaint of Vertebreak that manages to look completely new with just a different color, he is awesome. I've been a big fan of the Fossilizers in general,and even though this isn't technically one... what's not to love about skeleton dinosaur Transformers? The idea sells itself! Despite looking like a member of the Devil Invaders or a Dokuro Man, Dracodon is a Maximal. The bright radioactive green colors are impossible to ignore and I can't think of a better time than Halloween to get him. This is a great toy and my only regret is that there isn't more weird colored versions of him to buy.

Giving You The Wingfinger

I was happy to find Wingfinger at my local Walmart this past Sunday. He's a Fossilizer, something I'm quite fond of. There's nothing like a robot skeleton dinosaur that can be broken apart to become weapons or armor for other Transformers. Wingfinger transforms into a pterodactyl skeleton giving him a much more thin body than other more bulky bots. Frankly it makes me think of Beast Machines era toys and I liked those, so it's a good thing to be reminded of. Thanks to his thin build, you get a robot who comes off like a skeletal Eva unit. It's a good look and a bit of variety in the mostly traditional area that Generations toys live in.

Fossilizer Age

Not all of Kingdom is updates to classic characters, fortunately there's some new bots in the mix as well. Not just new bots, but a  new kind of bot even! Paleotrex is a Fossilizer. A Fossilizer is similar to a Weaponizer, but made of bones. That's right, Paleotrex here can be taken apart and fashioned into armor and weapons for other Transformers. However those weapons and that armor is made of dinosaur bones. After the initial confusion of what I just said, the inherit awesomeness of it just rushed through your mind. I know. It's metal as fuck.

Paleotrex is a skeleton robot Predacon that turns into a Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton. It's just as awesome to say that as the fact of it is. His robot mode head has a flip down mask that's really similar to the old mutant heads that Beast Wars toys originally had. Speaking of original Beast War toys, with his mask flipped down, his head becomes Optimus Primal's missing skull mace. 

Let's put that into perspective, Optimus ripped this guy's head off and is using it to beat other Predacons. Kingdom is metal as fuck.

Paleotrex turns into a T-Rex skeleton, like I said above. Because of the gimmick of turning his body into other things, he's a partsformer. You take him apart and rearrange him. That kind of thing bothers some folks, but is unavoidable here. 

In both modes Paleotrex looks great. While I vastly prefer the mask down, keeping it up is a good way to remember this is supposed to be a robot. I say that, because his robot mode isn't very robotic. Paleotrex is a an alien robot dinosaur skeleton. With that many descriptive words something's got to give. In a line full of robots that turn into things, the skeletons that turn into skeletons get a pass. Not to mention, it's rad as fuck. I mean, just look at it.

LOOK AT IT.

I can make jokes about how metal Paleotrex is (as fuck), but there's more than meets the eye (*cries*) here. This is a new character, which is rare these days in Transformers. Part of Beast Wars magic was that it was a mix of new and old. Even now that Beast Wars is being revisited, there's something new with the old. Transformers is a giant iceberg that keeps getting bigger every time you look. 

Hasbro bought Kenner in the 90's and later had Kenner run Beast Wars. After all these years Beast Wars is back in the forefront with these new skeleton dinosaur robots included. Dinosaur skeleton robots that you take apart and use their bones to make other things. Hey, didn't Kenner... 

I talk about Microman a lot here. Microman is part of that iceberg. In formation and ongoing growth. There was a bootleg Microman line called Dokuroman. The toys were casts of Microman toys (with less joints) and given skull heads. Here's a skeleton robot. I'm sure that's an accidental homage in this case, but it's still there. Oh hey, what was a feature of Microman again? The Transformers iceberg is neat, huh?

Vertebreaker, Will Slap Your Face

With some Christmas Amazon gift card money, I was able to snag a Kingdom figure before they were only from third party sellers at thrice the price. Fortunately it was one of the new Core Class figures, a new scale I've been really wanting to get my hands on.

For those not completely in the know, Kingdom is the third part of the War For Cybertron trilogy that's been going on in the Transformers Generations toy line for the past few years. No, it's not tied to the game of the same name, but the Netflix animated series. Kingdom is a mix of traditional and beast era Transformers. As a fan of both, I'm pretty excited for this. 

Vertebreak is a Predacon that turns into a Dracorex skeleton. While you'd assume she'd be a Fossilizer (I did), she's just a Predacon that turns into a Dinosaur skeleton. A Fossilizer separates into parts and can be used for armor or weapons. Vertebreak is just a skeleton. I'm not to hung up on the confusing nature of it all as I really like the toy.

A Dracorex may or not be an actual dinosaur. I'm not a paleontologist, but I'm pretty sure dinosaurs weren't actually robots from outer space. So I'm not very concerned with scientific accuracy here. Skeletons usually can't walk around on their own either. That's just how important inner strength is yo, and this little dinosaur skeleton is a pretty strong lead into Kingdom. 

Vertebreak transforms pretty easily, everything just folds into place naturally. You'll probably be able to do it just by looking at the toy. You also probably noticed the backbone of mine sticking up in the picture. I couldn't get it to stay in place. Either from plastic quality or maybe I did something wrong. Her tail turns into a bone whip or sword that I just dig. 

That's one of the weird thing from beast era toys that my appreciation of depended on the figure itself. In this case I like it, it looks gnarly. I like this toy overall. The idea of a skeleton robot that turns into a skeleton dinosaur is just awesome. Vertebreak as a name has been used before, but really fits here perfectly. As a character, Vertebreak is a female, but the mold isn't overtly feminine. I can see it being used for a variety of male and female characters. Which is my way of saying I want a lot of repaints. Gimme a glow in the dark or a translucent one.

The new Core Class is pleasantly small. I often feel like Transformers toys are too big, so scaling them down a little brings out more detail and just overall feels right to me. I don't know if this return to beast era is limited to Kingdom or if Kingdom is Hasbro's way of working beast back into Transformers. Personally, I hope it's the latter. But I'm sure you knew that.