IGUANUS
Series - Legacy
Size/class - Core
New/remould/redeco - New
Wave - 1
Released here - May 2021
Approximate Retail Price - $19
Approximate Size - 9 cm
Allegiance - Decepticon
Alt-mode - Cybertronian Moped
Main Features/Gimmicks - Weapon is part of a combiner weapons system
Main Colours - Purple, Bronze, Fuchsia
Main Accessories - Hand held blaster (crossguard of combiner sword weapon)

SUMMARY

  • Sadly not a pretender
  • Beautifully sculpted and coloured. Serious kaiju vibes! Great poseability in (beast)bot mode.
  • Motorcycle transformers are cool!



Yeeeeessssss


Check out my core


Iguana go vroom


Face the two wheeled wrath of AIR COMMANDER STARSCREAM!

THICK

Core class Iguanus is a beautiful little figure with a fun transformation. The Iguanus beast-bot looks like he stepped straight out of a Toho kaiju picture, is amazingly articulated (the standard with this newish core class) and as such is able to pull off some mighty swaggy poses. If I had my years again I would stick these core class figures in a model city and film my own creature feature! Going back to the beauty of this figure. It truly is divine. The sculpting is incredibly detailed and a pleasure to behold plus I reckon I've seen less paint apps on some deluxes.

It's no secret that I am a sucker for the less common alt-modes such as Iguanus' motorcycle. The transformation is pretty typical of recent motorcycle offerings but I found it fun nonetheless. The wheels of the cycle are actually quite free wheeling, but unfortunately Iguanus' centre of mass is quite high which makes free-rolling an ultimately futile exercise. The weapon accessory on it's own is nothing to write home about, it looks kinda savage but it doesn't integrate terribly well with the alt mode. It will probably fare better once combined with the weapons of it's wave mates. The motorcycle scale is OK for cross compatibility, but core bots still look like they are riding a monkey bike.

Perhaps the only point of major disappointment is that this Iguanus is not a true homage to his pretender origins. I think it would have been genius marketing to make the core class figure the literal core-robot of the G1 Pretender and sell the Iguana-beastman Pretender shell as a deluxe or voyager. Perhaps the poor sales and fan backlash over the original G1 Pretenders still hurts Hasbro ~30 years later. One day, Hasbro, one day you will give me my Generations turbomasters and pretenders.


PROS
  • It looks like a kaiju! And plays like one too!
  • It's a bike!
  • It's real pretty (like seriously)


CONS
  • Not a pretender
  • Perennial complaint, but core class RRP is damn high in this country.