Archives
Poseidon
Alcor Zeta Bud
Mizar Zeta Syd
Alioth Epsilon Fenrir
Phecda Gamma Thor
Benetnasch Eta Mime
Megrez Delta Alberich
Merak Beta Hägen
Dubhe Alpha Sigfried
Eagle Marine
Roadgrabber (Pretender Vehicle)
One of the two Pretender Vehicles, Roadgrabber transforms into a Cybertronic jet, using his vehicle shell’s cannons as wings. He is designed to fold up and pack into his larger vehicle shell.
The shell’s rear wheels are geared to activate the cannons’ reciprocating “pom-pom” action when they are plugged into rectangular slots over the rear wheel hubs. The shell can also convert into a shielded “chariot” artillery piece that Roadgrabber can operate standing up, though in this configuration the reciprocating cannons end up in “dead” slots so they don’t go rat-a-tat-tat anymore.
Gunrunner (Pretender Vehicle)
Gunrunner’s inner robot transforms into a hypersonic jet (with help from his backpack, as noted — in fact the backpack actually forms his altmode, and he just sort of straddles underneath). There’s not much more to say about that part of the toy.
His Pretender Vehicle shell is a Cybertronic car which he can either hide inside or operate from the driver’s compartment. The rear axle drives a gearing mechanism in the back portion; locking his jet-backpack to the top of the car links it to this mechanism. So combined, rolling the car forward or backward causes the twin cannons on the pack to pom-pom back and forth. The car also has mounting points for Gunrunner’s pistol and arm-“bombs”.
Snarler (Pretender Beast)
Snarler transforms into a robotic boar with a drill instead of a snout and two smaller drills as his tusks. His bestial outer Pretender Shell is modeled after a more realistic and organic wild boar with robotic armor attachments. His rotary cannon can be attached in any mode. Despite having bronze-colored plastic, Snarler, thankfully, does not suffer from Gold Plastic Syndrome.
Chainclaw (Pretender Beast)
Chainclaw transforms into a gray and yellow robotic godless killing machine with a back-mounted energy blaster. In robot mode, the blaster mounts onto his shoulder. He comes with an outer Pretender shell shaped like an armored organic brown bear, as opposed to the humanoid shells of most Pretenders. His shell can be fit around his robot body, completely hiding his true form. The bear shell can be augmented with a silver battle helmet and the energy blaster.
Catilla (Pretender Beast)
Catilla transforms into a mechanical saber-toothed tiger. His outer Pretender Shell, which can contain his robot form, resembles a yellow organic saber-toothed tiger with red robotic armor and a removable silver helmet. His shell’s tail is also removable, though that’s a storage and breakage-prevention move, as it has no function for Catilla’s robot mode. He is armed with a large grey cannon that can be mounted on the top of his mechanical tiger form, or on the side of his shell’s spinal armor.
Carnivac (Pretender Beast)
Carnivac transforms into a robotic wolf. His bestial outer Pretender Shell is modeled after a gray, organic timber wolf with robotic armor attachments. His “anti-thermal cannon” accessory can be used as a hand-held weapon or mounted on the shell’s back.
Splashdown (Pretender)
Splashdown transforms into an extraordinarily vague-looking Cybertronic hovercraft. In this mode, his small blaster pegs on the top of his shield, which completes the vehicle mode. His robot form fits inside his Pretender shell, which can also mount the shield on its left arm. Similarly to Sky High and Groundbreaker, the shell’s chest plate features an animal-inspired design, in Splashdown’s case, a shark’s head.
Sky High (Pretender)
Sky High’s inner robot transforms into a Cybertronic helicopter. Unlike many of the other vague Cybertronic vehicles that Pretenders transformed into, Sky High’s vehicle is designed to be clearly recognisable. The rotor blades turn but do not spin freely. They form his scythe melee weapon for the outer shell, which is a red-headed, orange-eyed human in a space suit. In similar fashion to Sky High’s fellow Autobot Pretenders Splashdown and Groundbreaker, the space suit chest plate features an animal-like design motif, with the “snout” at the center of his chest and yellow “eyes” at his shoulders. In his case, it is a bird.
Iguanus (Pretender)
Iguanus transforms into a Cybertronic recon bike. His rather cost effectively-designed wheels are fake, are hollow on top and are both part of a single strut that attaches to the bottom of the bike. As such, he has no rolling wheels in this mode. The strut attaches to his torso mid-section with a peg, which leaves a giant gaping hole there in robot mode. His Hurricane blaster mounts on the rear of the bike. His outer Pretender Shell is a giant bipedal iguana with a slightly articulated lizard tail extending from his spine. He is armed with the detachable wheelbase, which acts as some kind of blade weapon or something, and the Hurricane blaster.
Groundbreaker (Pretender)
Groundbreaker transforms into a Cybertronic racing car, with a large spoiler/gun assembly mounted on top that also serves as a kind of crossbow-looking weapon for his Pretender Shell. Similar to Sky High and Splashdown, he has an animal design for his shell’s chest panel, resembling a tiger or a bear or some such predatory mammal.
Finback (Pretender)
Finback’s inner robot transforms into a stingray-shaped hovercraft vehicle thing, with his robot arms rather obviously jutting out of the top of the vehicle. His large white gun can be mounted on top. In robot mode, Finback continues the Pretender tradition of having a rather generic robot mode that does not hint at what he might possibly turn into. Finback’s outer Pretender shell is a, erm, weird walking fish monster thingy that is possibly some sort of sea creature–his head shows a small similarity to that of a sea turtle. It has a clawed left arm that can hold his harpoon weapon and a sort of flipper right arm which can hold the inner robot’s gun.
Bugly (Pretender)
Bugly’s inner robot transforms into a hoverjet and comes with two blaster weapons that can be wielded by both the robot and the shell and also forms his wings in jet mode. His outer Pretender Shell resembles a huge bipedal insect, with large compound eyes and a lobster-like claw for a right hand.
Bugly was not released in Japan.
Waverider (Pretender)
There is no description yet, please contribute!
Submarauder (Pretender)
Submarauder transforms into a cybertronic submarine thing that’s vague and purple. His gun is mounted on his back in this mode. As with most Pretenders, Submarauder has a rather generic looking robot mode with no distinct details and is rather monochromatic, but less so than his mostly purple vehicle mode.
His outer Pretender Shell is a sea creature guy with gills, a head-mounted dorsal fin, and scales. The shell wields Submarauder’s sword and gun, and can mount his shield on his upper arm.
This toy was released in Japan without changes as Gilmer.
Skullgrin (Pretender)
Skullgrin’s inner robot turns into a Cybertronic tank thing, with two built-in cannons in addition to Skullgrin’s own guns that can be attached to the sides. The tank has three wheels on the underside to allow him to roll. Amusingly, the largest wheel ends up on his crotch in robot mode. The built-in cannons can be swung out of his arms easily in this mode, while his side guns can either be attached to his knees or held in his fists. The guns themselves can also be combined into a single double barrel gun, though the large size means it suits his Pretender shell better.
Skullgrin’s Pretender shell is a humanoid monster with a demonic ram’s skull. The top of the skull is moulded in softer, rubberised plastic, like most shell accessories. The lower jaw of the skull is moulded into the chest of the shell itself and even includes a tongue. Because the lower jaw is unpainted it becomes almost invisible, giving Skullgrin the appearance of having no lower jaw at all.
Unusually, his belt actually works like a belt, looping around the shell and fastening together. While this may be more realistic or may look better, it also means one needs to unfasten the belt every time one opens the shell. The shell is armed with a sword and the double gun.
Skullgrin was sold in Japan as Dauros.
Landmine (Pretender)
Landmine’s outer Pretender shell resembles a human in a yellow and gray armoured space suit, armed with a gray sword and a gray blaster rifle. The shell’s helmet and front-half of the belt are also removable, used to help “lock” the shell-halves together. This shell has very limited articulation, located in his shoulders.
Landmine’s inner robot has good articulation for the period he was released in, owing to his relatively simple transformation and design. The robot transforms into a predominantly gray Cybertronic all terrain vehicle. The gray rifle can be stored on the top of this mode.
This mold — in exactly the same colors — was used for the Super-God Masterforce Pretender Lander.
Cloudburst (Pretender)
Cloudburst’s Pretender shell resembles a human in a red and grey armored space suit, armed with his blue “Lightning Whip” and red “Thunderbolt Laser Pistol”. The shell’s helmet and belt are also removable and are used to help “lock” the two halves of the shell together. The shell splits to reveal Cloudburst’s inner robot, which transforms into a red and black interplanetary star cruiser. The robot can wield the “Thunderbolt Laser Pistol” in both modes, although Cloudburst’s bio implies that it functions as a “particle beam cannon” in cruiser mode.
The toy was released concurrently by Takara as Phoenix, with no notable differences between the two.
Bomb-burst (Pretender)
Bomb-Burst transforms into a Cybertronic jet with VTOL turbines. His twin rifles form “wings” in this mode. In robot mode, like many other Pretender inner robots, he is a fairly generic robot with decent articulation for the period. In this mode, his rifles are arm-mounted blasters.
His outer Pretender Shell is a vampiric bat-humanoid with enlarged ears. It is also equipped with a belt and bat-winged shoulder pads. It can hold the inner robot’s guns using the larger (5mm) pegs on the rifle-butts. The two guns can also combine to form a corrosive slime shooter for the shell’s use.
This toy was released in Japan without changes as Blood.
Dreadwind (Powermaster) with Hi-Test
Dreadwind transforms into a General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon jet. In order to transform back into robot mode, a Powermaster engine—like his pack-in partner Hi-Test—must be plugged into his back, unlocking the wings and a few other bits. Once he has an engine attached, his jet mode can also combine with Darkwing’s to form the Dreadwing super-jet. He also comes with two non-firing handguns that can be held separately, or combined into a large double-barreled weapon.
This mold was used to make Super-God Masterforce Buster.