Cruellock - Energon - Figure

Unto almost every line of Transformers toys, a dinosaur must enter and Energon is no exception. Cruellock is the latest entry into the Decepticon's Terrorcon army alongside Divebomb and preceded only by Battle Ravage. He is also a good medium between his two comrades as he's a better toy than Battle Ravage but not as good as Divebomb.

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Review

Set Includes

In beast mode, Cruellock is some form of carnivorous dinosaur. It's been far too long since I've studied prehistoric beasts, so I can't say for sure if he's meant to resemble any particular species. He stands approximately 4 1/2" with a 2 1/4" stance.

His primary color of dark green for his tail, head, upper extremities, and hind claws. his chest, shoulder and hip pads are a light gray with metallic green on the chest and shoulders and metallic purple on his chest. The forearms and lower legs are a light green and the claws on all extremities are made up of a clear green plastic. Additionally, there are orange highlights painted on the neck, head crest, and sides of the tail.

Due to the simplicity of his transform, Cruellock has many points of articulation. The jaw opens and closes. The shoulders rotate and are on a ball-socket joint, just like the hips. The elbows are ball-socket joint and the knees and ankles bend.

Energon

As with all Terrorcons thus far, Cruellock comes with some Energon Accessories. The Energon chip fits on the Energon receptacle on his chest and on all other Energon compatible toys. The smaller gun can be held in either hand, though dinosaurs aren't known for packing heat. The large Energon sword can be placed in the tail chamber by splitting it open slightly and attaching the sword to the Mini-Con port at the end of the left interior tail segment.

Start-Change-Finish

To transform Cruellock into robot mode, first remove the Energon sword from the tail, pull the tail outward and spilt it in half. Rotate the hips 90 degrees downward and straighten the legs. Bring the hips together. This will flip the dinosaur head back and extend the sides of the torso outward. Bring the tail segments around to the backs of the hips. Turn the robot head around and swing the shoulders down.

Robot Mode

In robot mode, Cruellock stands at 4 1/4" tall, 5" to the top of the dinosaur head. In addition to the articulation he as in beast mode, Cruellock can also turn his robot mode head. His head is a light green with a metallic red crest, yellow eyes, and four orange fins on his faceplate.

Energon

The Energon accessories can also be used in robot mode. The chip still fits on the receptacle and the gun and sword can be held in either hand. However, the claws on the hands get in the way of positioning the sword, so the forearm has to be positioned outward to have the blade face forward. The two weapons can combine by inserting the barrel of the gun into the peg at the base of the sword. This creates a huge sword, 5" in length.

Overall

Cruellock is a decent toy. His beast mode is fearsome looking and fun. His robot mode is not all that different however, but considering the size and transform, that's not such a bad thing. It would have been nice if the dinosaur head could have been stored somewhere in robot mode, though. Still, Cruellock is a solid toy worth picking up.

Final Grade: B

Reviewer	Richard C. Mistron
Date	February 11th 2004
Score	(7 out of 10)
Reads	6702

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