Mastermind Creations [Reformatted] Feral Rex - Pictorial Review

Predaking, the beast of all combiners. As opposed to decreasing in intelligence experienced by most of other combiners, Predaking somehow manages to combine all the personalities of the components into one perfect, animalistic hunter.

Pic Credit : Web

So, here it is, the long awaited Mastermind Creations Feral Rex, completed. And it's impressive. First thing first, presenting the Feral Cons!

Feral Cons in Alt Mode

Feral Cons is robot mode

There's a certain degree of satisfaction whenever a combiner team is complete. Staring at the images, the uniformity of the design of all members is awesome.

A completion kit is included with the released of R-06 Tigris, as add ons for the Feral Cons' Bovis, Fortis and Talon.

Completion Kit

There are 2 portions of the add on;- one is the Feral Rex's Hip Armor Plate, and the others are Inner Forearm Fillers for the Feral Cons.

The Hip Armor Plate is a small gold piece to be attached at the top middle part of the original plate.

There are 3 pairs of Inner Forearm Fillers that can be used for Bovis, Fortis and Talon.

However the parts are a bit loose when attached inside the forearms. The purpose is to cover the hole where the fists are. As for me, those are totally optional.

Weapons

Feral Rex has 2 weapons, one is a sword and the other is an arm-mounted cannon. Both weapons are made out of all the Feral Cons swords and blasters/guns.

Feral Rex's sword is probably the most bad**s Transformers weapon I had ever seen. The smaller swords peg in to each other nicely without any part being loose or easily detachable.

Next is the arm-mounted cannon. The cannon is made out of all of the Feral Cons' guns/blaster including Leo Dux's Concussion Cannon that came with Tigris.

This blaster is solid; it requires a lot of efforts disassemble them. It's important to mind how the tabs or locking parts work to avoid any damage.

Yes, big but wield-able by Optimus Prime

Feral Rex

A beautiful monster, the resulted combiners is an awesome sight to behold.

The overall assembly is a lot more solid than any other combiners that have ever been released. The combination is solid and Feral Rex is really stable.

Side View

Back View

Despite being a combiner, Feral Rex is kibble free with a really slick design. There is no unnecessary parts around.

The head sculpt is nicely featured, based of the toy version of G1 Predaking with added light up feature. 

Now, let's look at Feral Rex's detailing.

Detailing

There's a lot of impressive detailing [but not too much] on Feral Rex from head to toe.

In this position, it's important to hold the sword at this position due to the top most hinge. In reverse position, the blade will fall down under its weight at that hinge point.

Meanwhile, the arm mounted cannon pegs securely on Talon's feet.

Feral Rex, fully equipped and ready!

There are few things that I personally wished have been done differently. The first would be Feral Rex's feet that are are on ball joints. Currently, the ball joints are holding on nicely, yet there is a possibility that over time, they will becomes loose due to the weight of Feral Rex. Yes, ball joints can be fixed but it might not work well with a figure this heavy. In addition, ball joints are a problem; either they are not tight enough to hold or not loose enough to be popped out and repaired.

However, most might disagree and claim their Feral Rex is able to stand without any problem.

Here's the reason why. The bottom of the legs are blocked by the feet preventing them from sliding or collapsing. However, it also means that it is the maximum angle in which the feet can be tilted [without looking weird].

The upper arms are kind of a bit short, while the angle in which the elbow bends is quite small. These leads to a bit of limitation in terms of the movement range, especially if you try to bring the arms forward to the front of the body.

Yet, don't get me wrong. The above do not take the marvel away from Feral Rex. The quality of the joints used makes it easy to pose Feral Rex, That, paired with the aesthetic and design, resulted in the most perfect combiner to date.

Despite the weight of the sword, there's no loose joints on the hand;- allowing him to handle the sword without any problem. The multiple joints on the wings provide clearance for the arms to be posed around.

Yet, due to the mass of the upper body, the knees can't really handle the weight. Hence it's important to get him on the right pose.

From what I've seen so far, there are few combinations of joints on combiner knees. The first is like MMCs where both male and female connector can move and on ratchet joints. Second is like TFCs where only the female connector port is on ratchet joint while the male connector peg is only on normal hinge. Another would be the one used by Warbotron. If I'm not mistaken, their female ports are static and can't moved, only the male connector pegs are on ratchet [or at least normal swivel].

The combination that TFC use is most probably the weakest of all 3, the one MMC use have more fail points where it's important to make sure both connectors have strong ratchet joints while for the combination that Warbotron use, they just have to make sure the one connector comes with a strong ratchet and it'll be okay. [I still need to wait for Warbotron WB-01E Not-Onslaught to reconfirm though]

Comparison

Comparison with Voyager Optimus Prime

Previously, the tallest 3rd party combiner was TFC Uranos which is even more taller than TFC Hercules (and also, all of Fansproject/Maketoys combiners). What about now?

Despite fans' wishes to have a Predaking that towers every combiner, Feral Rex is actually the same size as TFC Uranos. However, this won't be a problem if your version of combiner consist of FPs and MTs you're golden.

Also the same height as TFC Ares

If the size is disappointing, Feral Rex's height can be increased by extending Leo Dux's legs.

The results? Feral Rex is now taller than TFC Uranos and TFC Ares (Normal Configuration). We all know however, Warbotron WB-01 will take the throne once he's complete.

I'm not a fan of Feral Rex, that's for sure. For me, my version of combiners are TFC version [uniformity is one of the reasons]. However, Feral Rex is no doubt the best combiner ever released so far. I had my chance to play around with MMC past releases including their Knight Morpher and it's great to see how much they've grown since in all aspect including design and quality. 

I was told that MMC will take a short break and won't be releasing any other combiners for now, focusing on individual characters (DJD, etc) and it's a shame. Quality wise, if somehow MMC decide to release a full lineup of G1 combiners and not just Feral Rex alone, I might reboot my current combiner line.

Glory of the King