Predaking is the only 2014 Beast Hunters mold that isn't a redeco or a "blown up" version of an earlier mold; he's a completely new toy. That said, his overall transformation scheme is based on the commander-class version of him, so he's still not completely original. What someone will notice when they first lay eyes on this new "simplified" voyager Predaking is that he is HUGE for a voyager; particularly in dragon mode, he could pass as a modern Leader-class toy. He's larger than any other Predaking toy except for the "Beast Fire" version, and even then he's not smaller by much. As far as proportions go, in dragon mode he's largely solid; thankfully he doesn't take his commandder-class version's dragon mode proportions, as he has well-scaled legs, a nice long tail (even if it's waaay too obvious that it's a blade in robot mode), a nicely proportioned neck, and a very accurate dragon headsculpt. His wings are a little on the small side, but this is only in comparison to how huge they are on most other Predaking toys; they still aren't an eyesore, that's for sure. The only real proportional malady here comes from the fact that he shares his transformation with his commander-class version, and this the lower robot legs form the main body of the dragon mode; this makes his body look overly wide from a top-down angle, and he could have used just a TOUCH more of a belly to help "beef out" his proportions a bit more. There's also a few robot mode extras; specifically, the robot hands on the back of the front claws and the obvious feet on the top of the main body. His back end is also a bit hollow, though the tail attachment back there helps to cover up that some. As far as mold detailing goes, he fits in very much with the Prime aesthetic, with large spaces of relatively little, slightly stylized detailing that looks a tad royal (like with most other Predacons), though he has some parts that are quite intricately detailed, such as his head and neck, shoulders, and hand/claws. He's also got Cybertronian runes all over his body, though they aren't painted, unfortunately. Predaking's overall color scheme is more or less the same as it is on the show, but much of the black has been replaced with a semi-translucent, smoky dark plastic instead, with some excellent-looking dark gunmetal gray on such places as his neck and head. His wings are also a translucent orange this time around, and some of his orange plastic-- such as on the underside of his neck and on his robot chest-- is a more pale, lighter version of orange than seen on most of his other toys. I'm a bit conflicted on this-- I like the larger color variety on one hand and such things as the partially painted wings and tail, but having more of his body be black would've helped with the visual interest and contrast more, and I'm just not a fan of the fact that so much of the plastic on his body is translucent-- it doesn't look right. Since emphasis was made this time around on the size and simpler transformation, Predaking's articulation is a bit more limited this time around-- he can move up-and-down at the base of the skull, at two points on each wing, at two points at his front shoulders, two points at his front knees, slightly at one point on each of the front ankles, at the base of the tail, and at two points at the rear leg shoulders. This is serviceable, but I really wish he had some basic points like jaw, rear knee, and more extensive neck articulation.
    Predaking's robot mode is a bit lankier than his show model-- being taller proportionally and not quite as wide as he should be-- but otherwise, in terms of detailing this is the most accurate sculpt Predaking has, with a spot-on sculpt for the shoulders, chest, face and the like (though this is partially lessened by his inaccurate color pallet in this mode-- darn you, translucent plastic)!. Despite being a little too lanky, otherwise he's looking very good in this mode, with the only real kibble being the dragon head and neck, which hangs comfortably behind his back and out of the way. His front dragon claws are visible on his lower arms behind his hands, but they're not particularly an eyesore, and his rear dragon legs do a good job with helping his stability by acting as heels for his rather hollow lower legs in this mode (though having them at a 90-degree angle to the robot legs and not able to fold in all the way into the lower legs does make them look a bit odd). Unlike his dragon mode, here Predaking has all your major articulation points covered; he can move at the neck, shoulders (at two points), elbows (at two points), hips (at two points), knees (at two points), slightly at one point on each of the ankles, and again at the same two points on each wing. Because his wings are smaller proportionally than usual on this toy-- and because he has rather large feet-- he can stand up by himself quite easily, with some nice stability that's enhanced by thick ratching joints at load-bearing parts like his knees. As is obvious, his dragon tail comes off and forms an absurdly oversized sword in this mode; he also has a gray push-missile launcher which can either fit into one of his hands or in a port on the back of his sword.
    The 2014 version of voyager Predaking is my favorite mold of the character, with generally great proportions in each mode (even if his robot mode is a tad too lanky), the most show-accurate sculpt of the character, a HUGE size (and thus value) for the price point, and few kibble issues in either mode. Sure his transformation may be a bit too simple for the size-- and I really wish he didn't have transparent plastic on anything but his wings-- but overall, this is the Predaking you want if you're looking for a sturdy large one.

Review by Beastbot

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