Power Of The Primes Sinnertwin

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Skyquake87
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Power Of The Primes Sinnertwin

Post by Skyquake87 »

Name : Sinnertwin
Allegiance: Deceoticon
Sub Group: Terrorcons
Function: Sentry

”The sound of ripping metal is music to my audio modules.”

Bio: Prowls the perimeter of the Terrorcons' lair looking for trouble – and hoping to find it! Then he can show off his razor teeth, piercing pronghorns and steel-shredding claws. Has flame cannon andflame breath in creature mode, armour piercing rocket-grenade launcher in robot mode. Combines with fellow Terrorcons to form Abominus. Unnerved by small creatures like mice, insects and mini-droids.

I think Sinnertwin might be my favourite of the Terrorcons. I like that he's the guard dog of the gang and is this big, snarling two headed monster that gets upset by small creatures. He had a nice memorable growly voice in the cartoon - “the alloy – it's here!” (Me doing the voice there. Doesn't quite work in print) - which I appreciated. The original toy was a fun little box of nonsense, so let's see what some 21st Century modernising brings to the table.

Robot Mode: Sinnertwin retains the boxiness of his original toy. This new version looks a bit more like the beefier box art the old toy got. He's got nice powerful looking arms and chunky legs and big box for a chest. He looks stocky and powerful, which is right for a Sentry. His head is a tiny bit odd looking, as it's mostly forehead, and he does look gormless with that pout they've given him. There are some very nice uses of colour to mimic the old sticker sheet and I do like the faux rubsign all these new Terrorcons have.

Alternate Mode: A horrible two-head dragon, loosely based on the Orthrus of Greek mythology, Sinnertwin looks awesome in this mode. He's got some nice bulk and shaping, and I like the front legs being larger, giving him some dynamism – like he's ready to leap into action. The two heads / necks are really nicely sculpted although the gaps they've been given are ...odd. His necks open up to show some moulded in teeth detail. Weird.

Marks Out Of Ten For The Following :

Transformation Design: A familiar carry-over of the Combiner Wars limb-me-do retooled for beast modes, Sinnertwin's transformation sequence is fine but not breathtaking. Probably the nicest of the Terrorcons in terms of feeling like you're actually doing something other than tucking arms and legs away. 6/10

Durability: Sinnertwin feels fairly solid. Again, next to mould-mate Sludge, he doesn't feel as nice. The plastics feel that bit weaker and figure is very loose. Maybe it's something in the manufacturing process or just that modern CAD designed moulds just aren't up to reuse, I don't know, but whatever it is, it does take the sheen off what is otherwise a great looking figure. 6/10

Articulation: Usual Deluxe Combiner limb articulation. Generally good all round posing capabilities. His narrow waist and bulky legs do mean he does look awkward in some poses. Whilst his limbs can move in beast mode, they don't give a huge range of posing capabilities due to their shaping. 7/10

Fun: As ever, the Prime Armour gimmick is rubbish so that's a fail right off the bat. The toy,itself is pretty awesome though. He's a bright, colourful solider that turns into a fearsome beast. Good stuff. 7/10

Price/Value: The Terrorcons were cursed to come out in a line that didn't garner much interest at retail, so whilst Rippersnapper and the others in the first wave were easy to find, the rest of them (bar Hun-Gurr) weren't. The RRP of £15.99 was okay, but not great and online prices had you paying closer to £20. 6/10

Overall: Sinnertwin is a great looking robot with a fantastic alt-mode. He's let down by poor materials and apparent mould degradation. It's the only reason I can think why all the Terrorcons are so loose, next to the better constructed Dinobots. This is likely to be a recurring theme. 6/10
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Denyer
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Re: Power Of The Primes Sinnertwin

Post by Denyer »

They can't be retooling actual moulds for such significantly different parts though, can they? I concede that it's a pattern that later *similar* figures have poorer tolerances, but modern manufacturing means CAD files and precision cutting has to be more the norm?

The oversizing of the AOYI knock offs really help the sculpt on the Rippersnapper I picked up and with fairly short beast modes it gives them some much-needed scale against deluxes. I've got the Hasbro ones combined in a cabinet with other gestalts but I can see me picking up the others at some point -- they're cheaper and better.
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Warcry
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Re: Power Of The Primes Sinnertwin

Post by Warcry »

My Sinnertwin has been a leg at the back of a shelf for the last year or so, but I seem to recall that he uses plastic with the same sort of weird feel to it as Siege Apeface. I remember being really disappointed with how he felt in hand, because Sinnertwin is definitely my favourite Terrorcon design. With how badly-fit Apeface's parts were, I wonder if Sinnertwin's looseness is more about bad plastic than bad molds.

I do suspect that the mold-making process is different than it was back in the day, though. Would they even bother cutting those expensive master molds anymore, or do they just run off cheap, disposable production molds straight from the CAD files? If the latter, then I'd bet Denyer is right -- they probably just spit out a whole new set of molds when they retool something.
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Denyer
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Re: Power Of The Primes Sinnertwin

Post by Denyer »

I'm sure there is still re-use, but it'll be the cash-in red Swoops, Ricochets, G2 Bruticus/Menasor sets, etc. which are easy money whilst still being relatively premium priced product to balance the risk of being stuck with stock. And I'm sure it's still expensive to produce good quality moulds, but there'll be different grades -- cheap KOs and pound shop toys suggest it's quite a low barrier to entry. In this case I doubt it's the mould at all.

Corner cutting and half-arsed QA processes make far more sense, and they affect brand new figures too, with joints too tight or popping off, parts assembled reversed, etc. It's just that they've also taken bits of eg the Silverbolt CAD file as a base for loads of combiner team voyagers.
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Skyquake87
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Re: Power Of The Primes Sinnertwin

Post by Skyquake87 »

See, I like you boffins who know this stuff! All I think is 'well this doesn't feel as good as xxx which does the same transforming' :laugh:

I am a bit sad that the Terrocons are so wibbly. They look really good, but just aren't as great as I'd hoped. I'm also unimpressed by that pretty much all the Combiner Wars style gestalts are a little unsteady on their feet or have weight distribution issues that causes them to lean one way of the other.
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