Planet X Apocalypse - Trypticon

I love Planet X figures. Caelus was my first introduction to third party figures, and I haven't looked back. Apocalypse is an attention grabbing piece that is fun to play with. He comes in two parts. Part A is a spaceship that forms the upper body. Part B is some sort of clawed worm that forms the legs and tail.

The space fighter mode of Part A looks beautiful. I like the shape and lines, but I wish there were more paint. The canopy does open to reveal a cockpit of sorts. His weapon pylons along the sides can swivel, as do the modules where the tail fins would normally be. The nose cone and cockpit section are prone to unpegging and folding downward. I tried buzzing my kids, but the nose cone kept flapping down.

The worm mode of Part B is strangely endearing. It has a suitably aggressive face instead of the narmy one seen with the first form of the recent Shin Godzilla. His arms, being his dinosaur legs, have really strong ratchets and can swivel and articulate. His tail is ratcheted at six points with two normal hinges near the end. Although the transparent "teeth" at the front bear some of this piece's considerable weight, it doesn't worry me because he won't be in the this mode again.

Transforming and combining the two parts to dinosaur mode is relatively simple for such a large figure. His upper half is a little more involved than his lower half, but it never gets frustrating or confusing. I did cut and poke myself a couple of times on the hard and pointy spikes on his arms and legs. The combiner port feels pretty secure, but I wouldn't risk testing it by holding him only by his upper half.

Dinosaur mode is gorgeous. The purple paint applications and transparent plastic really complement the line work. LED lights also add some jazz to the visuals, but I won't be leaving them on the figure. As far as I can tell, they can't be turned off when placed in their slots and I don't see a way to replace the batteries. Like Maketoys Pandinus and Utopia, Apocalypse will draw attention on any shelf. One nitpick is that the screw holes on his right arm face forward instead of to the back.

Transforming him to his Nemesis mode can be a bit unwieldy because of the size of the figure, but it's not a particularly difficult process. It can get a little fiddly in getting tabs and ports to line up with a each other. In the end, everything seems to come together with a squeeze.

Nemesis mode is a large chunk of plastic. It certainly has a very aggressive look. The detailing on what was previously the tail looks absolutely fantastic. The ratchets at the base of the "wings" are really strong so they don't flop around. The rear section of the spaceship could have used a few more tail fins. Overall, the spaceship looks fantastic. I'm looking forward to creating another space scene. Yes, I have the rear stabilizers backwards. I didn't notice it until I had transformed him to the next mode.

Transforming him to base bode isn't difficult, but it's really not worth the effort. This is my least favorite mode. I guess it works as a base and looks similar to Pandinus' base mode. It probably scales better with legend class figures. I think I have his feet pointed the wrong way. Also, the "tusks" should be under the nosecone, but the nosecone is very floppy. After a couple of flops, the "tusks" just automatically oriented themselves.

In dinosaur mode, his head is on a swivel and hinge that is also on a slider. He gets a good amount of vertical articulation. His mouth opens very wide to reveal a mouth cannon. Although the yellow strip on his head opens to reveal another cannon, it seems to get stuck part way on my copy. I don't want to force it for fear of cracking the transparent plastic. His shoulders are on ratcheted hinges and swivels. He can raise them out and to the sides a full 90 degrees. He swivels above and below his elbows, at his waist, and at his knees. His claws are articulated at two points and move independently. He also has an ab crunch. He has ratcheted, single-jointed elbows and knees that can curl to 90 degrees. Unfortunately, his forearms split apart easily if not grasped in a good spot when using his elbows. His hips are on ratcheted universals that allow him to achieve a full Van Damme for both front and side splits. They also have butterfly ratchets. He has ratcheted ankle tilts and rockers, with additional swivels for the front part of his feet. His rear toe claw is hinged at one spot while the front claws are hinged independently at two spots. As previously mentioned, his tail is ratcheted at six spots with two hinges near the end. It does not waggle side-to-side though. His tail is somewhat mandatory to keep him balanced. The missile pods on his shoulders are on swivels.

Part A comes with eight LED lights and two pair of spikes for self assembly. The spikes fit on his forearms in dinosaur mode. Each pair have ports that have different shapes so there is no confusion as to where each one goes. I also received a separate box of another three LED lights. Part B also comes with three LED lights. There are slots in the middle of his chest, both palms, both sides of his tails, and all three thrusters.

Apocalypse will be joining Pandinus and Utopia on my Cybertron shelf, i.e., my coffee table. Like the Maketoys figures, he is a stunning display piece. The rest of Planet X line of figures are probably oversized in comparison, but the only real solution to that was to have made Apocalypse even larger. I absolutely can't wait for more figures from Planet X.