Beast Hunters Voyager Predaking

The Beast Hunters toy line and cartoon introduce a third faction into the mix: the Predacons. Not to be confused with the Beast Wars or Robots in Disguise factions, these guys are all based on dragons, as is reflected in their faction's emblem. (as opposed to the old wasp face) And who better to place in the Voyager price point with Optimus for the first wave than the leader of this group, and indeed the only one to show up in the show so far, Predaking! ...No, no, not the combiner of the same name. Though there is a combiner in the toy line...but that's for another time.

Predaking is packaged in robot mode, but I'm starting in dragon mode. It's very impressive looking, as it should be, considering his dragon mode is featured on the top left side of all Beast Hunters packaging. Black, orange, light grey with gold and silver highlights here and there make up the colors. But then this picture would tell you all that, wouldn't it?



For accessories, he's got his Hydrafire blasters. They peg in to between the neck and shoulders as extra heads! ...except they end up almost completely overtaking the main head and look rather awkward there. They fire a missile each once you push the lever in the back down, which also makes the head lower. In addition, they can be connected together to fire in unison, but only for robot mode as the main neck and distance between where they plug onto the body gets in the way for dragon mode. But since people will wanna see, I show it off.



And a size comparison with his fellow Predacon, Deluxe Lazerback. (not to be confused with Laserbeak)



I would have put Ripclaw in the pic, but I didn't have her at the time the pic was taken. Is this in scale? Probably not. The Ultimate Predaking (or whatever it's called) is likely a better fit.

The transformation actually threw me for a loop the first time. When I first got him and started to transform him for the first time, I initially thought I had gotten a figure with two of the same leg. Eventually, I figured out that the robot legs spin around and make the top and bottom of the dragon's body. Going back to robot mode though, the only thing to watch for is to make sure the dragon's head and neck are positioned just right so the spikes from the back of the head clear the slots in the tail successfully. The robot mode itself befits the ancient and bestial theme for the Predacons. Wings coming from his back below his shoulders, the kind of tribal waist armor, the Cyberglyphics etched in various places on his body, and the claws and spikes virtually everywhere certainly make him look like someone that could give even Megatron pause.



As the picture shows, no new colors show up in this mode, especially since the robot head is the only part not previously seen in dragon mode. His 30 points of articulation (including the wings) give him some decent options for posing. He can use the Hydrafire blasters in this mode as well, via plugging onto ports just behind his wrists, though they still don't really do him any favors her either. And like your typical self-respecting beast-former, (the end of) his tail becomes a weapon accessory, a sword in this case. And wouldn't you know it, he absolutely sucks at holding it properly. There are tabs on the sides of the sword which are meant to fit into slots in his hands. However, the slots are too big for the tabs on the inside, and there's no slot in the other part of his hand for it to close around without bumping the already weakly held sword almost completely out of the slot. Since the hand parts are of a soft plastic, you could jam a tab into the smaller opening on the outside of the hand, but that doesn't look right and may warp the slot to the point of not being able to hold it either. His hands can close around a part of the blade a bit higher up without it falling out, so at least that's something...

Pic of him with the Hydrafire blasters on his arms. Note how they provide room for the hands to rest up underneath them.



And size comparison with his wave mate, Optimus.



Both of these guys would have benefited from more paint. Predaking's wings are a sea of orange with nothing to break it up or bring the Cyberglyphics out.

So, do I recommend this guy? Kinda. If you can't wait for the Ultimate Predaking, or don't trust big toys that have electronics to not be completely botched for the gimmick, then this is a decent toy. But if you're dead set on Ultimate Predaking, save your money for the big beast with the wingspan wider than Unicron is tall. (21" wingspan is pretty crazy)

Kick ass review as always, DB! +1 I always enjoy reading them, even if I'm not sold on getting the toy.