Fans Toys FT-51 Chomp (Masterpiece Skullcruncher)
Fanstoys items usually come with an outer plastic baggie to protect the box.
Ye ole Fans Toys protective film sheet.
The figure comes mis-transformed out of the box, just simply turn his waist around.
Also remember to unfold his heels for better balance. I actually missed this step myself so you’ll notice most of the pics here are missing the heel out. Whoops..
Since this is a Third Party, non-official item, it doesn’t come with a faction symbol. It’s best to get some stickers from Reprolabels/Toyhax.com to make this guy more “toon-accurate”. Alternately, you can also use “water slide decals” to make them look even more flawless (you won’t see the edges, unlike with stickers) but I’ve never really had the proper skills, or time (usually needs to be individually cut first) to work with those.
For water slide decals, most folks recommend the one from Ocean Studio. Here:
http://www.unclebillyshop.com/decals-poster/ocean-logo-decals.html
To apply stickers, I find the best way to stick the stickers on is to use the tip of a blade, or a flat, small-tipped object, this way you have more control over the application, as compared to using one’s stubby fingers. You can also use the blade to help gently peel off a corner of the sticker in case you didn’t center it right and need to re-apply.
Big-game hunter Irwin (Headmaster Grax)
A ruthless industrialist back on Nebulos, Grax binary bonds himself to Skullcruncher in return for the Decepticon’s help in getting rid of his business rivals.
While the Headmaster is somewhat decent, sadly, it’s lacking a cover for the Skullcruncher’s face when he’s not combined. Also, the set does not come with alternative facial expressions for the head.
Head on!
There’s an actual neck on the figure even without the Headmaster.
The stats readout can be revealed by just folding down the chest, even without the Headmaster plugged in (no “stats swapping” gimmick here sadly, unlike the G1 toys)
Chomp
Functioning as the Decepticons’ swamp warrior, Skullcruncher has a bad tendency to grind his teeth loudly when he’s stalking his prey. This alerts the Autobots and gives away his position more often than not, much to the annoyance of any Decepticon assigned to team up with him.
Chomp stands roughly 9 inches tall and weighs 748 Grams. He’s heavy!
Diecast parts include:
-Sections of the chest
-Shoulders
-Upper thighs
-Sections of the lower leg
-Feet
Interestingly, this time around Fans Toys used plastic knees for this guy? Still, lots of painted metal parts for the legs so super heavy.
The neon green on the back of his head takes some getting used to, while it does NOT match the animation models, it does match the G1 toy aesthetic, so it is what it is.
Chomp comes with his “Demolecularization Gun”. This weapon “softens” metal and makes it become rubbery in consistency, allowing Chomp to chew on his enemies with greater ease.
He also comes with his melee weapon. I’m not entirely sure how it’s supposed to be called a “sword”, rather than a club, since there’s no bladed edge, but that’s what the official Skullcruncher bio calls it.
Props to Fans Toys engineers for making the tail multi-segmented so that you can pull out the sections to make it a poseable tail.
Demolecularization Gun can be mounted on top of the beast mode.
Blasters can be seen inside the beast mode’s maw.
The top of the gator head opens up to reveal a c0ckpit for Grax to ride in.
Excellent interior detailing here.
Unfortunately, due to the dark tint of the canopy, you can’t really make out Grax is inside.
Lol… it wasn’t until I was done putting him back to robot mode that I realized I missed a step in the transformation for the gator mode. Skullcruncher’s chest has pieces that can fold out to complete the dorsal “spines” for his alt mode. D’oh!
Overall, another good release. The design is not particularly “wow” visually, but it’s not really Fans Toys’ fault, since the design models never really stood out much, even back in the old toyline days. As a character, Skullcruncher was also usually more of a background guy, rather than a central, focal personality in the show. Still, it’s great to have another new Decepticon Headmaster team member added into the Masterpiece mix. I hope they really reissue Lupus soon so I can complete the main Decepticon Headmasters.
Gold
