TFARCHIVE FORUMS

Name: Talon
Function: Aerial Assaulter
Subgroup: Feral Cons [unofficial Predacons]
Size group: N/A

I think it is safe to say that the past couple of years have been pretty crazy in regards to 3rd party toy growth for transformers. From ambitious trailers for MP01 and snap on parts for Classics Cliffjumper, to snap on armour parts for Classics Magnus to stand-alone figures, to combiner add ons to actual combiners, from obscure to downright G1, there's a huge growth in terms of ambition for 3rd party products and a plethora of variety to chose from.

Like S1 bots? There's something for you. Like obscure Wreckers? We got you covered. Are you a fan of [relatively] obscure S3 characters, various takes on combiners and so on? Between a good 5-10 "healthy" 3rd party companies, you can pick your favourite or even mix and match if you're not bothered about aesthetics.

Predaking preceded the Dinobots in what we affectionately call "3rd party wars". It's that magical situation where 2 or more companies produce representations of the same character/s at roughly the same time. Each time these wars are crazier than the previous one.

When Hercules [the first 3rd party combiner from fully original moulds] started coming out by TFC, Maketoys announced and showcased their Giant version. Both releases covered Devastator, with varying aesthetics--while TFC went on for a more robust, blocky and bigger version, MT went and did their own stylized thing, with all members looking very different from the source material, and some crazy engineering to boot.

For Predaking, the war escalated to 3 companies--TFC [combiner "veterans" at this point], Unique toys [some releases under their belt] and combiner newb MMC. MMC had pioneered a semi-successful Hearts of Steel line, with steam punk representations of Prime, the seekers and Shockwave as 18th century vehicles based on the largely unsuccessful IDW mini series and had just started their "Reformatted" line, with a unique take on G1 Sixshot.

Predaking, or rather, Feral Rex, is the last 3rd party Predaking to be completed, subject to many delays and redesigns.

Talon was supposed to be the first Feral Con to come out in early/mid 2013, and after several pushbacks, delays and overhauls, he came out second to last in July/August 2014.

How does he stack up to expectations, and is he a good figure on its own or is he just a gimmicky "arm" for Feral Rex that just happens to transform on his own?

Read on...

Hmmm. This is a case where I actually sold the figure before finishing the review.

If Numbat wants to pick up where I left, cool, otherwise we're better off deleting this. Sorry guys.