HasLab Transformers: War For Cybertron Unicron

The Chaos-Bringer, the World-Eater, the Lord of Chaos, Unicron. Created as an arch-villain for The Transformers: The Movie, this malevolent transforming planet sought to devour all life in the universe. Welding vast cosmic energy, Unicron empowered lesser beings to serve as heralds. Or, in more practical terms, gave current characters like Megatron newer character designs (Galvatron), thus creating opportunities for new toy sales. For his film debut, Unicron’s voice was provided by cinematic legend Orson Welles and is considered to be his last feature film. Unicron was, like the rest of the movie’s new characters, created by artist Floro Dery. Prototypes for a G1 Unicron toy were created based on Dery’s work in 1986, but the figure was ultimately scrapped and never produced.

In the 1986 film, Unicron’s only weakness is the Autobot Matrix of Leadership and led to his destruction at the hands of Rodimus Prime. This plot thread remained dangling in the follow-up season of the animated series, simply setting his origins as a rebellious creation of an alien scientist named Primacron. But, in the Marvel Comics canon crafted by Simon Furman, Unicron was no mere robot. He was a dark god, a primordial being of chaos from the beginning of time and the enemy of all life. Primus, the god of light, had trapped himself and Unicron in separate asteroids to end their eternal struggle. Over time, Unicron used his powers to reshape the asteroid into the robotic planet seen in the film. Primus, meanwhile, reshaped his asteroid into Cybertron, giving life to the Transformers. This beloved storyline justified Unicron’s hatred for Cybertron and his weakness to the Matrix of Leadership which was created to house Primus’ power.

Before discussing this behemoth, beyond the classification of a simple action figure, let’s all take a moment of silence for our fallen leader Optimus Prime. Alright. WILL YA LOOK AT THE SIZE OF THIS THING!?! AMAZING!! Standing at nearly 30” tall, this burly boi looks down on both the SDCC 2016 Exclusive Titans Return Titan Class Fortress Maximus and SDCC 2013 Hasbro Exclusive Transformers Titan Class Metroplex. Yes, HasLab is a bit controversial. And, good points are made on both sides of the fence. For the moment, it’s hard not to just be impressed that such a thing exists, regardless if some of Hasbro’s selling practices could be considered less than ideal. While we have had third-party releases like the 01 Studio CELL, that shrimp only weighs in at a measly 18 inches. The HasLab Transformers: War For Cybertron Unicron price tag surely pained many wallets and possibly caused at least a few breakups, but it’s difficult not to see the value here. This figure simply has heft, requiring two hands and 91 steps to transform. Not only is the overall articulation of the robot form a nice bonus, but the level of detail is superb. The paint apps are generous given the scale and the silver detail seems especially crisp. Sure, some paint on the maw (unicorn’s planet-eating piehole) would have been welcomed. But, given the opening and closing feature, it’s hard to complain. Sure, in his robot mode his legs are a little chunky and he sports a bit of a turtle shell. That said, again, there’s a range of motion, movement, and general engineering that is very impressive. We even get a jaw articulation. Speaking of the heads and faceplates, the damaged head is a personal favorite.  It is a finely crafted and faithful representation of Unicron’s floating head in orbit around Cybertron from the end of the film. The shattered glass in the eyes is an exceptionally nice touch. It would have been nice to see a more pronounced villain mustache, but again, fantastic work all around. You even get a tiny Rodimus, Galvatron, AutoBot shuttle ship, and a stand which holds Unicron’s head. With this release of the Bringer of Chaos, Hasbro is the Bringer of Heat.