Dave's Transformers Cyberverse Rant: Repugnus Repugnus (1-step changer to bug monster) Repugnus Revenge (redeco of Repugnus, plus three Pesticons) Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Cyberverse/Repugnus I originally just reviewed Repugnus as a capsule, but I decided that if I was going to review the Revenge set, it behooved me to do a more complete review of the figure being redecoed as its core. CAPSULES $10 price point for Repugnus, $20 for the Repugnus Revenge set. Repugnus: Better than it looks in the package, still basically an underpainted brick with only arm articulation, but a solid One-Step. Mildly recommended. Repugnus Revenge: Another copy of the mold above, plus a trio of Tiny Turbo Changer style "Pesticon" versions of Repugnus. Mildly recommended, but mostly for those looking to army-build. RANTS Packaging: The one-step version is in standard packaging for that, which is a bad fit for something without a vehicle-style altmode. Partially mistransformed, arms out to the side, generally unattractive-looking. (Note: I tossed out the packaging quite a while before reviewing this, so I don't have some of the detailed packaging info I normally include. The Repugnus Revenge set is in the same size and general design of box as the Sharkticon Attack set, but with all beast-mode Pesticons on the art. The box back identifies them all as Pesticons, but using the Decepticon symbol. The big figure is Pesticon Repugnus, the rest are just Pesticons. Inside, the main Repugnus is packaged in robot mode but with the backpack lifted up over the head so that the figure can fit into the shallow box. The Pesticons are in beast mode to the right. The inner tray has images of the underground energon swamps seen in the cartoon. AUTOBOT: REPUGNUS Assortment: E7073 Altmode: Bug Monster Transformation Difficulty: "One-Step" Previous Name Use: G1, Cybertron, Gen:TR Previous Mold Use: None Epithet/Gimmick: Gruesome Chomp Robot Mode: It's recognizably Repugnus, with obvious elements in common with both G1 and Titans Return (but not the Cybertron redeco of Undermine, or the BotCon exclusive). It has a simplified pallet, missing some of the darker colors and rather significantly missing the green eyes. But it's definitely based on the simpler transformation seen in the Cyberverse cartoon. Rather than having two sets of arms and swapping them during transformation, there's just one that has both fists and claws. The chest details evoke the folded-in beast claws from G1 and TR, but only vaguely. Instead, the details of the "Energon Masters" are pretty closely followed by the mold, although the colors are simpler and the energy glow bits are (as usual) not painted. In short, it's a somewhat generic looking robot with claws on the hands, mandibles behind the shoulders, and a bug backpack. 4.5" (11cm) tall at the head, with the mandibles extending about a half centimeter higher than the head. The main colors are red, yellow, and light gray (there's brown in the backpack chunk). Bright canary yellow plastic is used for the torso front (including head), a panel on top of the backpack, and the bug mode thighs of the backpack. The forearms/fists and the legs except for the backs of the thighs are bright red plastic. The rest is very light gray plastic, mainly the shoulders, torso core, mandibles, and the backs of the thighs. The fists, the claws extending around the fists, and the eyes are painted very light gray. I initially thought the eyes were totally unpainted, it's really not obvious (and I'll probably go ahead and paint them green anyway). The sides of the helmet but not the top crest are painted red, as is most of the pectoral part of the chest. There's bright yellow paint on the kneecaps. A white outline Autobot symbol is printed on the sternum. Articulation is about as low as usual for One-Steps. The shoulders and elbows are ball joints, and that's basically it. The waist transformation joints can let the figure double over slightly before it starts looking broken. The fists can hold 5mm pegs, and H-shaped slots on the backs of the forearms can loosely hold 5mm pegs as well. While not intended for this mode, the gimmick can be activated by reaching under the backpack, making the mandibles pinch inwards. Transformation: Step one - Fold over in half at the waist. Step two - fold the backpack down over the robot feet and snap in place. Step three - reposition arms. And the third step is more aesthetic than necessary, but it's in the Pesticon version's instructions. Not in the instructions or on the pictures, but clearly intended, is a step in which the backs of the thighs are pulled out a bit to be more of an obvious backpack. Bug Mode: It cheats a bit by treating the robot feet as invisible. G1 Repugnus in bug mode crouched a little, TR Repugnus crouched more, and this is almost sitting down it crouches so hard. It keeps the classic bug monster head, with insect-style mandibles but a more endoskeletal toothy maw grinning at the front of the face. If only it had more eyes I'd suspect it of being an Umber Hulk riff. The squatty pose gives more of an impression of "scuttling vermin" than "hulking monstrosity" here, although if remotely to scale with other Cybertronians it's still at least twice as tall as a human. Only 3" (7.5cm) tall in this mode, adding several colors to the mix. The bug head and the fronts of the shins/feet are brown plastic. The trigger for the gimmick is the same very light gray plastic as the mandibles. There's dark gray paint on the "hair" part of the head and on the kneecaps, while the bug eyes are yellow-green (the color the robot eyes should also be). The teeth are painted the same very light gray as the claws. Triggering the gimmick requires pulling back on a semicircular tab at the back of the head, evocative of how the spark gimmick in the original had its trigger there. This isn't as impressive as sparking, but it also doesn't wear out, so there's that. Pulling back on the trigger makes the mandibles chomp together, almost but not quite touching each other. Because the head can't move (the only articulation is in the arms), this is of limited utility as a chomper, since the target has to already be pressed up against Repugnus's chest. Overall: A decent one-step figure, and if not very well articulated by comparison to the Titans Return one, it's also far less fiddly. DECEPTICON: PESTICON REPUGNUS Assortment: E8682 Altmode: Bug Monster Transformation Difficulty: 3 steps Previous Name Use: None with that epithet Previous Mold Use: Cyberverse Epithet/Gimmick: Gruesome Chomp Packaging: 4 ties hold the robot mode into the blister, the backpack has to be folded back down to get into robot mode completely. Plastic Swaps: Light gray stays the same, yellow becomes Constructicon Green, red and brown both become dark green. Paint Apps: In robot mode, the light gray paint apps are the same (although the eyes are a little easier to see against the green plastic compared to the yellow plastic). Everywhere that had red paint on the robot mode of the original has dark green paint here, slightly lighter than the dark green plastic. No kneecap paint. There's a purple on white Decepticon symbol in the center of the chest. In bug mode, the dark gray "hairpiece" remains the same, but there's no paint on the kneecaps. The eyes are the same yellow-green as the original's, the mouth is painted very light gray. Mold Changes: None that I noticed. Other Notes: Not sure if this was intentional, but the color scheme is similar to Cybertron Undermine, which was redeco'ed into Cybertron Repugnus. Overall: About the same as above, but green and evil. DECEPTICON: PESTICON Assortment: E8682 Altmode: Bug Monster Transformation Difficulty: 2 steps Previous Name Use: None Previous Mold Use: None Epithet/Gimmick: None Function: Pesticons Packaging: Each bug mode is held in place by two crossed ties. Bug Mode: Like the mini-Sharkticons, they're identical in molding. Unlike the mini-Sharkticons, each is molded in a different plastic color, so they don't rely on paint to differentiate them. The three colors are red, darkish blue, and tennis-ball yellow-green (significnatly yellower than Pesticon Repugnus). The red one might be intended as a stand-in for regular Repugnus, but is still a Decepticon, and is a lot more red. Given that the cartoon showed a wide variety of multicolored Pesticons, I'm fine with this one being a completely different dude. 1.75" (4.5cm) tall, all case in one of three colors. The pose is hunched over in a sort of Naruto Run deal, with the clawed arms angled backwards. The plastic is slightly flexible, but not to the point it would cause flexion problems for someone wanting to paint on a few more details. Each has the same off-white paint on their mandibles and a very dark metallic gray headpiece. Blue and yellow-green have off-white eyes as well, but red has very light yellow eyes. The mouths have very light gray teeth, just noticeably darker than the mandibles, the same shade as Pesticon Repugnus's bug teeth. No articulation to speak of, the waist can move about a bit on a transformation joint so the bug can un-hunch a little before it looks like it's being broken in two. And yeah, there's nothing really hiding the robot face and chest, so it looks like they're all hauling robots around on their backs. Transformation: Fold the leg chunk down at the waist, fold the bug head down and rotate the mandibles up (this step is left out of the instructions and not shown on the box renders, but is necessary to replicate the look of the bigger bot), then turn the resulting robot around. Robot Mode: Chibi versions of the bigger Repugnus robot, but with molded Decepticon symbols in the center of the chests. 1.75" (4.5cm) tall at the head, 2" (5cm) total if you rotate the mandibles to point up. The robot eyes are the same color as each figure's bug eyes. The only other robot-specific paint on each is the chest, which is all painted a single color. Red gets a yellow chest, yellow-green gets a bright green chest (slightly darker than the lighter green plastic on Pesticon Repugnus), and blue gets a purple chest. The waist is a ball joint, that's it for articulation. The fists can hold pegs that are bigger than 3mm but smaller than 4mm. Lego 1/8" rods are a bit loose. Overall: The lack of shoulder joints is kinda disappointing, otherwise not too bad for "3 for $10" Tiny Turbo types. Repugnus Revenge set overall: If you don't have the original Repugnus, I'd say this is a decent value for the money. If you do already have Repugnus, it's not a mold I really feel the drive to get more of, but hey, army-building is a thing. And the mini-Repugni are okay. Dave Van Domelen, putting Autobot Repugnus in with the others in his display, since he's a spy or something along those lines....