Hunter
(BotCon 2014 Attendee-Only Exclusive)
(NOTE: Because this is a repaint, this is not a full-blown review. This mainly covers any changes made to the mold and the color scheme, and merely compares it to the deluxe "First Edition" Prime Megatron toy. For a review on the mold itself, read the review of the deluxe "First Edition" Prime Megatron toy here.)
Like some of the other
BotCon 2014 exclusives, "Hunter" is an homage/update to a previous BotCon
exclusive, given that 2014 was BotCon's 20th anniversary. Hunter here is
a "pre-Shokaract Shokaract", going by the
comic story and by the Botcon 2000 exclusive. As such, he's a redeco of
the 2014 "freebie" club exclusive Rampage,
and uses the same new headsculpt-- which, unfortunately, is a fairly substantial
negative. As detailed in my Rampage review, it's a head that's definitely
too small and looks very awkward in vehicle mode. Still, if we're talking
just about colors-- which, since this a redeco, is pretty much all I'll
be talking about-- Hunter is drop dead gorgeous. His main color is a rather
nice, very dark brown, but with a bit of glitter in it to make it look
semi-metallic. There's also a few other dark/dull colors, such as royal
purple on the vehicle thrusters and other minor connector pieces and a
dark metallic teal on the shoulders, lower arms, lower legs, and feet.
There's also a bit of black, mostly used for Hunter's gun but also for
some other minor pieces. These colors go together well enough, but with
all of them being so dark, it may be a little difficult to pick them out
against each other at some points. However, what really makes this color
scheme are the smattering of light colors here and there-- in particular
the bronzish orange spray on the chest and legs, as well as the dull pumpkin
orange on the shoulders and heels. This-- along with the silver on the
chest-- really makes this a superb color scheme, with the orange not only
contrasting against but also complementing the dark brown, while also serving
as a nice contrast color against the metallic teal. The head is particularly
well-painted, with a good amount of silver and bronze, as well as piercing
green eyes. There's also a bit of dark transparent green on the mouth of
his cannon, and a titch of yellow-orange on the front of the vehicle thrusters,
but both of those colors aren't used enough to really contribute anything
meaningful to the color scheme.
No mold changes have
been made specifically to Hunter; just the same headsculpt that Rampage
has.
Despite the odd, small
head that sticks out like a sore thumb in vehicle mode, Hunter is my favorite
version of this mold. The combination of the dark brown, teal, and bronze/orange
is spectacular, particularly when it comes to the spray paint apps, and
the purple and silver are also nice colors for them to play off of. Because
of the odd vehicle mode and headsculpt, I'd recommend the original Shokaract
over Hunter, but this makes for a nice version if you're unable to afford
the much-more-expensive Shokaract.
Review by Beastbot
*Note: This toy was also re-packaged with fellow BotCon 2014 exclusives Apelinq, Flamewar, and Flareup as part of a "BotCon Legacy Set" sold via the Club Store with a new comic.