Title:
Unicron
Description:
Unicron (2021)
Accessories: Damaged face plate, two chin pieces, Galvatron mini-figurine, Hot Rod mini-figurine, Autobot shuttle, planet display stand, head display stand.
Known designers: John Warden, Lynsey Urban and Lenny Panzica (Hasbro), Takashi Kunihiro (TakaraTomy), TakaraTomy), Robby Musso and Emiliano Santalucia (concept art), AJ Piejko-Brown and Aurora Kraus (packaging), Mark Grzesik, Sarah Jean Rovenko, and Dan Caparco (instruction design), Lee Tympanick (safety), Rachel Fleming (senior box sitter, marketing), Charlie (junior box sitter, cat)
At over 27 inches tall in robot mode, 30 inches wide in planet mode, and weighing 16 pounds including his stand, War for Cybertron Trilogy Unicron is the biggest Transformers figure to date, overthrowing Titans Return Fortress Maximus.
...and at $575 USD plus tax, it overthrows your car payment and auto insurance.
Features include over 50 points of articulation (including a whopping 15 points per hand, plus posable eyes, mouth and teeth), a geared chomping planet mouth with articulated mandibles, a removable head, an Autobot shuttle, and minuscule Galvatron and Hot Rod figurines to eat. Two display stands are included: a large main stand that can be used in both modes, and a smaller display stand for the head and some of the accessories. To make it easier to manipulate such a massive toy, he can remain attached to the larger display stand during transformation, and his planetary rings/wings can be detached, but transformation is possible without removing any parts. The pointy bits around the equator are molded in flexible plastic for fragility reasons. His head has an alternate damaged faceplate, an alternate forked chin, and hidden skull details. Beneath the main display stand is a compartment to store whichever faceplate and chin piece aren’t in use.
In a first for the Transformers brand, Unicron includes tiny plastic plugs to conceal screw holes on the front of his left arm, the back of his right arm, and on the planet’s pinching mandibles. The 22 screw hole covers are packaged on a sprue. All of the plugs conceal asymmetries resulting from shared parts between the left and the right sides of the figure.
To achieve the screen-accurate spherical shape for his planet mode, Unicron’s transformation consists mainly of his planet mode’s outer shell splitting apart and packing into layers on the back of his torso and legs. A rear panel of the planet does form Unicron’s forearms, emulating his transformation scene in The Transformers: The Movie. Each wing has nine joints used for transformation. The planetary ring is radially symmetrical, and can be connected with its parallel points oriented clockwise or counter-clockwise (instructions show clockwise, most of the promotional materials show counter-clockwise). The wings and equatorial spikes require much assembly. Along with the Cybertron Deluxe mold, this is one of only two Unicron toys to feature his iconic Dracula-style collar.
The final production figure has a few visible differences from the stock photos, convention appearance specimens, and even its own instruction booklet. Most conspicuously, the inner planetary maw is now blue instead of yellow, and the robot lower teeth are grey-blue instead of painted silver. The tiny Galvatron and Hot Rod figures are also completely different sculpts with rectangular bases and fewer colors. Promotional renders of the Autobot shuttle accessory were shown in a single color, but in production some of the details are painted over in silver.
The small display stand for Unicron’s head has many places on its legs to display the shuttle and mini-figurines, and room for additional similar items. There are 15 rectangular sockets for figurines like Galvatron, Hot Rod, or Optimus Prime (of whom you have two options), and there are three places to attach the 5mm post for the Autobot Shuttle’s display armature or other items with 5mm posts. The Kingdom Galvatron toy was packaged with a version of The Revenge, which was intended to be in-scale with this Unicron figure, and features a 5mm post on its underside, but it does not have sufficient physical clearances to fit into any of the ports on this display stand.
Yes, he can support his own weight in robot mode without his stand. No, the head does not need to be removed during transformation; it fits inside the planet mode by rotating his horns down.
The bottom of the planet mode features two flaps designed to conceal the insertion slot for the stand, just in case you figure out a way to display planet mode without the stand. Unfortunately, one of the flaps takes some fiddling to flip, and the author of the instructions expected them to be packaged flipped-in so Unicron could immediately connect to his stand, but most specimens were not found that way, making the average unboxing experience frustrating. The final page of the instruction book, read in reverse order, shows how to flip this flap and fix this problem.
Announced by Hasbro Pulse on July 15, 2019, Unicron is the first Transformers toy to be released as a crowdfunded project from HasLab. Unicron required a minimum of 8,000 backers to be put into production, with an initial deadline of August 31. On August 29, Hasbro announced it was pushing the end date back to October 6 (the end of New York Comic Con 2019) in response to fan feedback asking for more time; the project finally achieved the 8,000 backer goal one day before the new deadline, on October 5. On October 6, the project finished (according to the HTML code of the progress bar) at 140.9%, or 11,272 units, despite officially only displaying “8,000+”. More than a month later, the page was changed to officially read “12,000+ Backers”. In addition to the Unicron figure itself, HasLab backers received a digital comics bundle from IDW Publishing (featuring new cover art by Andrew Griffith that homages the cover of Marvel’s The Transformers #1), which contains the four-issue Transformers: The Animated Movie miniseries, and the first issue of the 2019 Transformers ongoing series. Unicron began shipping to purchasers in February 2021.
The "Behold, Galvatron!” Unicron Companion Pack is intended as an add-on set, featuring Galvatron in a clear purple deco reminiscent of his reformatting scene, small painted ships of the Revenge (a different sculpt than Galvatron’s hand weapons), a Quintesson ship, and the Junkions’ Minnow, as well as an additional 14 mini-figures that can be placed on the display stand.
Accessories: Damaged face plate, two chin pieces, Galvatron mini-figurine, Hot Rod mini-figurine, Autobot shuttle, planet display stand, head display stand.
Known designers: John Warden, Lynsey Urban and Lenny Panzica (Hasbro), Takashi Kunihiro (TakaraTomy), TakaraTomy), Robby Musso and Emiliano Santalucia (concept art), AJ Piejko-Brown and Aurora Kraus (packaging), Mark Grzesik, Sarah Jean Rovenko, and Dan Caparco (instruction design), Lee Tympanick (safety), Rachel Fleming (senior box sitter, marketing), Charlie (junior box sitter, cat)
At over 27 inches tall in robot mode, 30 inches wide in planet mode, and weighing 16 pounds including his stand, War for Cybertron Trilogy Unicron is the biggest Transformers figure to date, overthrowing Titans Return Fortress Maximus.
...and at $575 USD plus tax, it overthrows your car payment and auto insurance.
Features include over 50 points of articulation (including a whopping 15 points per hand, plus posable eyes, mouth and teeth), a geared chomping planet mouth with articulated mandibles, a removable head, an Autobot shuttle, and minuscule Galvatron and Hot Rod figurines to eat. Two display stands are included: a large main stand that can be used in both modes, and a smaller display stand for the head and some of the accessories. To make it easier to manipulate such a massive toy, he can remain attached to the larger display stand during transformation, and his planetary rings/wings can be detached, but transformation is possible without removing any parts. The pointy bits around the equator are molded in flexible plastic for fragility reasons. His head has an alternate damaged faceplate, an alternate forked chin, and hidden skull details. Beneath the main display stand is a compartment to store whichever faceplate and chin piece aren’t in use.
In a first for the Transformers brand, Unicron includes tiny plastic plugs to conceal screw holes on the front of his left arm, the back of his right arm, and on the planet’s pinching mandibles. The 22 screw hole covers are packaged on a sprue. All of the plugs conceal asymmetries resulting from shared parts between the left and the right sides of the figure.
To achieve the screen-accurate spherical shape for his planet mode, Unicron’s transformation consists mainly of his planet mode’s outer shell splitting apart and packing into layers on the back of his torso and legs. A rear panel of the planet does form Unicron’s forearms, emulating his transformation scene in The Transformers: The Movie. Each wing has nine joints used for transformation. The planetary ring is radially symmetrical, and can be connected with its parallel points oriented clockwise or counter-clockwise (instructions show clockwise, most of the promotional materials show counter-clockwise). The wings and equatorial spikes require much assembly. Along with the Cybertron Deluxe mold, this is one of only two Unicron toys to feature his iconic Dracula-style collar.
The final production figure has a few visible differences from the stock photos, convention appearance specimens, and even its own instruction booklet. Most conspicuously, the inner planetary maw is now blue instead of yellow, and the robot lower teeth are grey-blue instead of painted silver. The tiny Galvatron and Hot Rod figures are also completely different sculpts with rectangular bases and fewer colors. Promotional renders of the Autobot shuttle accessory were shown in a single color, but in production some of the details are painted over in silver.
The small display stand for Unicron’s head has many places on its legs to display the shuttle and mini-figurines, and room for additional similar items. There are 15 rectangular sockets for figurines like Galvatron, Hot Rod, or Optimus Prime (of whom you have two options), and there are three places to attach the 5mm post for the Autobot Shuttle’s display armature or other items with 5mm posts. The Kingdom Galvatron toy was packaged with a version of The Revenge, which was intended to be in-scale with this Unicron figure, and features a 5mm post on its underside, but it does not have sufficient physical clearances to fit into any of the ports on this display stand.
Yes, he can support his own weight in robot mode without his stand. No, the head does not need to be removed during transformation; it fits inside the planet mode by rotating his horns down.
The bottom of the planet mode features two flaps designed to conceal the insertion slot for the stand, just in case you figure out a way to display planet mode without the stand. Unfortunately, one of the flaps takes some fiddling to flip, and the author of the instructions expected them to be packaged flipped-in so Unicron could immediately connect to his stand, but most specimens were not found that way, making the average unboxing experience frustrating. The final page of the instruction book, read in reverse order, shows how to flip this flap and fix this problem.
Announced by Hasbro Pulse on July 15, 2019, Unicron is the first Transformers toy to be released as a crowdfunded project from HasLab. Unicron required a minimum of 8,000 backers to be put into production, with an initial deadline of August 31. On August 29, Hasbro announced it was pushing the end date back to October 6 (the end of New York Comic Con 2019) in response to fan feedback asking for more time; the project finally achieved the 8,000 backer goal one day before the new deadline, on October 5. On October 6, the project finished (according to the HTML code of the progress bar) at 140.9%, or 11,272 units, despite officially only displaying “8,000+”. More than a month later, the page was changed to officially read “12,000+ Backers”. In addition to the Unicron figure itself, HasLab backers received a digital comics bundle from IDW Publishing (featuring new cover art by Andrew Griffith that homages the cover of Marvel’s The Transformers #1), which contains the four-issue Transformers: The Animated Movie miniseries, and the first issue of the 2019 Transformers ongoing series. Unicron began shipping to purchasers in February 2021.
The "Behold, Galvatron!” Unicron Companion Pack is intended as an add-on set, featuring Galvatron in a clear purple deco reminiscent of his reformatting scene, small painted ships of the Revenge (a different sculpt than Galvatron’s hand weapons), a Quintesson ship, and the Junkions’ Minnow, as well as an additional 14 mini-figures that can be placed on the display stand.
Theme:
HasLab Exclusive
Manufacturer:
Hasbro
Year:
2021
Country:
United States
Series:
Haslab
Model Number:
Orange Planet
Date Added:
2023-01-30 20:20:53
Automatic Estimated Date:
2024-01-25
Date Added:
2023-01-30 20:20:53
