Twinstrike here is technically a new mold, but it's a rather unique case-- along with the other lone 2014 wave of Beast Hunters deluxes, it's one of the few times Hasbro has "blown up" their own molds-- this is the same general mold as the Legion class version, right down to the detailing. Only a few changes have been made to the overall mold to make it work better at a deluxe price point, so those changes are all I'll be discussing in terms of the mold itself-- for my thoughts on the rest of the mold, see the earlier linked review of the Legion class version.
    The most obvious change to the core mold beyond the upsizing is that Twinstrike has a new accessory-- namely, he comes with a rather nifty-looking drill hammer, which has little rotating chainsaw blades on the back end and just looks like a nasty piece of business, with some impressively detailed molding as well. The long pegs on the robot legs/rear beast legs have also been removed, seeing as how the mold no longer needs to combine. The other changes are very minor and involve replacing most of the original toy's ball joints with more stable friction joints that can hold up more weight. For example, Twinstrike's shoulders now have a sliding mushroom peg. The hips have also been given both forward-and-back and side-to-side friction joints in place of the ball joints, and the robot head piece inside of the chest now isn't merely a clip-on piece but wraps all around its point of rotation, meaning that it won't come off during transformation like legion Twinstrike's robot head piece annoyingly had a tendency to. As far as the rest of the toy, the mold details and the rest are all exactly the same as on the Legion toy, meaning that though his articulation was serviceable at a Legion size, it's a bit too below-average for a deluxe mold-- some head rotation or knee rotation on either of his legs really should have been implemented, at the very least. On the plus side, Twinstrike's detailing was so well-done that even blown up at the deluxe scale he still looks quite well-detailed all around. I do wish that they had "filled in" the empty cavities on the inside of his dragon heads, though-- again, this was acceptable at a Legion scale, but it's a bit too much of an eyesore at a deluxe size.
    As far as colors, Twinstrike retains the same general G1-inspired scheme that his Legion toy had, but the shades here are a bit more primary and a bit louder. The yellow is more of a straight yellow, not a dull milky version of the color, and the dark greenish blue is now more of a medium shade. All of this by itself would have made the scheme a bit TOO loud, so in to save the day is a fair amount of dark purple on his main body, weapon, and small parts on his legs, which provides an excellent dark color for the other shades to contrast off of. There's also some silver and red on his robot head and dragon heads, which generally looks nice. All this said, he generally has the same number of paint apps as his Legion figure, which just doesn't quite do it on a deluxe. His brighter colors help to offset this some, but putting some silver on places like his teeth, beast and robot feet, and maybe a little more paint on his chest or weapon would've really helped him look better.
    Twinstrike fares the best out of the 2014 "upscaled Cyberverse" deluxes, given the high amount of mold detailing already present on the toy and a more involved-than-usual transformation for a Legion class that-- while a bit simplistic for a deluxe-- is still passable. All this said, he just has some articulation and poseability limitations that are hard to swallow on a mainline deluxe-sized toy, and the beast mode legs on his back bug me more on this large of a toy, as do some other issues like a lack of additional paint apps and the lack of "filling in" some of the hollow parts. If you're a Prime Predacon completist like I am or know someone who likes the Legion design but doesn't have the dexterity to handle that small of a toy, this one's worth a purchase. Otherwise, this is a pass, particularly since it wasn't released in the U.S. and thus tends to go for higher prices on the aftermarket than your typical deluxe.
 

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Review by Beastbot

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