High Quality Images of Power of the Primes Predaking and Predacons

Rampage's beast mode has quite the, erm... waste disposal exit, there.

This...





This is creative engineering. That does mean Divebomb carries the lion's share of the excess Predaking bulk.

P.S. Note the "D-75" sticker, referencing his Japanese ID number.

Man, this is so painful to witness; this is titan class predaking, this article should have been the highlight of my year, but all I can see is a butchered abomination of lackluster potential, and can only feel apathy and disgust towards it like I do towards the last jedi; which is a serious shame b/c this should have been my toy of the decade as I have always loved predaking

I think what made Devastator work so well was that it was designed to be a Masterpiece set but was scaled back slightly and released in Generations. Whereas Predaking was designed to be a Generations set from the start but then scaled back. Sure Devastator has a slight advantage with six figures to spread out into but everything was done rather well with every part having a place.

The Constructicons were five voyagers and one roughly ultra/new leader. So why aren't the Predacons five ultra/new leader figures to help disperse the kibble instead of five voyagers? They're already messing up the scale by making the set a titan release when compared to Predaking's now two rivals
of Sky Lynx in the form of Sky Reign/Lynxmaster and Volcanicus. So why not make the individual figures larger to try to work that kibble in better by making it part of their mass and not just pieces hanging off awkwardly? That's a lot of kibble to work with and it could've been incorporated better into each figure.

The combined mode looks good regardless, if not somehow a little off, and I guess that's what they were going for. I'll get it because of that but I'll wait for a sale. It's just that I won't like switching them into robot and beast modes anywhere near as much as I like breaking down my UW Devastator into his components. It's really tempting to have multiples of the Constructicons just because they're so good in all their modes.

I'd much rather Predaking be a standard CW style combiner than a unique Titan. It's what I want in my collection more. That way we could've gotten Omega Supreme, Scorponok or better yet, Raiden as the next titan instead. Tantrum and Headstrong are already similar enough so they could've been retools or reshells as deluxes just as some of the Dinobots are. Divebomb could've used Swoop as a base just like Cutthroat. Rampage and Razorclaw would then be original figures from anything else or heavy retools of other figures somehow. Maybe Rampage from Sinnertwin lol. I don't know how the wings would've worked though unless they made large enough wings on the Swoop base mold that Volcanicus, Abominus and of course, Predaking would've had wings. I couldn't care less about G1 Predaking not originally being a Scramble City style combiner like some people do though. If I wanted everything to be just like G1, I'd never have sold mine again.

I waited a long time before deciding to buy a third party Predaking, finally deciding on Unique Toys Warlord. I just couldn't pass it up at $100. I was rather happy until a day or two later when we learned about Hasbro's upcoming Predaking and I started to regret my purchase as Warlord was being shipped out to me. Then I didn't worry about it so much when I found out Predaking was going to be a titan class set. Now I'm really not regretting my purchase.

I missed out on Metroplex originally hoping to snag one from Costco but forgetting to. However, I got one a month or two ago from Ebay for $160 minus the missile and Scamper who I already had. That's roughly the going rate for titan figures now including tax so I more than didn't mind as I was planning to get the Takara reissue at $250 anyway. I liked the look of Devastator so much I preordered the Unite Warriors version. For Fortress Maximus I got the SDCC version. Trypticon I waited for one of the 50% off sales on Amazon that were reported here. Not because I didn't like him but because going by the sales Devastator and Fort Max had before him, I knew the same would happen for Trypticon. Coincidentally, he came in the same day as the Metroplex from Ebay which was a very happy day for me lol. For Predaking though, as I already mentioned, I'll be waiting for a sale. Just this time it will be because I'm not that enthused by it.

I will say... seeing the fists plug into the feet... makes me feel better about the missing spikes on his fists. But I still think the lack of a sword (Vitorion recolor or otherwise) is a missed opportunity, or a cheap shot for an SDCC/HasCon set.

Personally, I'm extremely worried about how hollow (and potentially flimsy) Predaking's legs are going to be, looking at these images and the way it seems like Tantrum and Headstrong transform into legs. Not only do his entire shins seem to be held together by a pair of tiny tabs in the middles (at the individuals' hips) meaning they could collapse backward with a light breeze, but the lack of mass on the backs makes it look to me like Predaking's center of mass is actually going to be behind those joints and the ones in his ankles. I hope my analysis is wrong, but this does not seem at all safe or stable to me. Doesn't look that great from a lot of angles either...

That said, his combined mode and Razorclaw's robot mode (and only those) do look overall cool and nicely-proportioned. They seem powerful but still lithe, befitting their predatorial nature. If I end up somehow finding this for a low enough price - like 50% off kind of low, considering he'll be a good $250-300AUD+ around here - I might pick it up. But a Devastator-level, home-run, instant-buy Titan combiner, he certainly is not for me.

The combined mode isn't so bad, even if it's missing the spiky knuckles.
The single components... meh. I'm quite fond of Divebomb, while the others don't convince me.
Maybe the problem this time is too much screen accuracy... a shame they didn't model the whole pack on their less blocky "Call of the primitives" appearance.

SpikeyTigertron wrote:To everyone their own (due to budget constraints) but I keep hearing everyone talking about waiting till these hit 50% (was the same story with the Combiner War sets). Don't you think that *this* behavior is part of what gets the box sets cancelled? Or end up with situations where folks miss out on the velocitron set because "oh it'll be around later"?

To some extent yeah, I'm sure that has an effect (though how large or small that effect might be is certainly debatable). In this case specifically though, I'm not going to pay full price for this toy because I just don't think it's worth that price. There is arguably a risk that if huge numbers of people buy this at steep discounts then stores might be more cautious carrying big Transformers like this in the future, but I'm not going to pay over what I think a figure is worth, just to support the possibility of getting something I do like later on.

Voting with one's wallet is tricky, because there's really only two choices on the ballot: "Buy" and "Don't Buy". The choice not to buy can be interpreted so many different ways by so many different entities, that it's impossible to be certain you're getting your actual point across (e.g. 'I don't like this particular Titan-class toy' compared to 'I don't like Titan-class toys in general and won't buy any of them'). The best we can do, IMO, is buy things for the price we think they deserve and let the rest sort itself out, since the actual business conclusions are so far out of our hands anyways.

As for missing out, that's almost certainly going to happen to me. A half-off sale on anything is all but inconceivable round these parts ("HUGE SALE! UP TO 15% OFF SELECTED ITEMS!!" is a common Australian sight), and that's if Predaking even shows up at the few retailers who a) carry Titans and b) don't still have Trypticon on their shelves. But again, if I don't see him for the price I want, ah well! Not a huge loss for me. 'Security markups' are all well and good - I paid an extra 20% to get TLK Scorn and Nitro the one time I found them, and don't regret it at all - but past a certain point it's just not worth it. (I also never got to obtain either of the TR box-sets despite wanting a few figs from each, so I've well and truly made my peace with missing out on big items.)

...Sorry for the huge writing, it's late here and I've been away from the boards for quite a while so I have a lot to say. The perfect storm for rambling, if you will.

My biggest concern with waiting is that without TRU these guys will basically only be available online for most of us. That means more competition for the online supply. Would be nice if Hasbro found another physical location to stock these like Sam's Club.

Emerje