Hello and good day Transformers fans, today's review will be on another Fansproject's Function-X series --> Function X 8 CROX ( Not Skullcruncher ) With this figure's release, Fansproject have finally completed the Decepticon headmaster trio and I'm very excited to have this figure in hand. Skullcruncher transforms into a crocodile as his alternate mode and his headmaster partner is Grax.
This is a picture taken from the net, showing skullcruncher and his headmaster partner Grax.
This picture is actually taken from this transformers bio book more than meets the eye series.
We will move onto Function X-8's box itself. Design is pretty much the same as all function X series, his box is basically in dark green in color.
At the side of the box we can see the picture of Crox in robot and alternate mode.
Here he is in package inside the box, comes in robot mode as all function X figures.
He comes with his weapon and instruction manual. No blaster/gun for him. Similar as weirdwolf. He is a melee fighter. In the G1 series, he does use his crocodile tail as his weapon but he also has a blaster in the cartoon.
Usually at the last page of the instruction manual Fansproject will preview the upcoming figure, and in this case is Function X-9 Positum. We will talk about this figure later :)
Here is the star of the show himself, Crox. His basic design is pretty much similar to other function X series, most notable is their roughly similar waist and thigh joint design. Body to head ratio is good and color is also similar to his G1 self ( Green and light purple/pink ). his legs are in green and light purple instead of just light purple in the headmasters series. Joints are not super tight, just nice for fiddling. Plastic quality and paint job is again excellent for Fansproject, good job! No paint blemishes. He does not have any die-cast though.
Side view looks good as well, no extra kibble or obvious backpack, everything is concealed well.
Back look great, they do take the extra effort to cover up the hollow part of his legs. I'm not really sure I like the gold color part at his back and hands, its not in the G1 Skullcruncher character I think, but its not the end of the world.
Here we have a closer look at his head sculpt design. Looks quite nice with his visors on. The color is very similar to G1, with his yellowish-gold face and black head. The detailings on his head is excellent.
From the side view, we can see Fansproject added a few spikes for his head which I think its an interesting idea. Makes him look more menacing I guess. Not bad, not bad.
Back view.
When you lift up the visor you can appreciate his red color eyes, nicely done in my opinion.
His head can turn around a full 360 degrees.
Some amount of tilting up and down over his head is possible, but minimal.
You can make him look up or down by manipulating the socket shown below, Pretty much like Maketoy's Cupola.
Arm abduction is about 110 degrees.
Has a full 360 degrees shoulder rotation. His shoulders are on a hinge and ball joint.
Here we can see his biceps swivel shown on his right arm.
He also has a forearm swivel shown on his left arm.
Elbow flexion and rotation. Elbow flexion is about 100 degrees.
He has some hidden compartment on both his shoulders for missile launchers. Reminds me of Fansproject's Steelcore.
His hands and wrist are in a fixed position, no articulation for this part. Its weird that Fansproject usually do not care much for finger or wrist articulations. Usually they are as a whole, not even some simple opening or closing of fist.
The only articulation is that the fist can rotate inwards as a whole. ( If you really want to consider that as an articulation, haha. ) Crox' chest does look a little weird for Skullcruncher and it does look a lot like optimus's chest )
He can open up his chest to reveal the crocodile head inside his chest. Now where's that matrix? LOL
A little close up at his waist.
The tip of his alternate mode's snout does impede his waist rotation and some form of manipulation is required for him to rotate his waist.
Here we can see the tip of the crocodile's snout hit a snag at his white color waist.
Wist some manipulation he can still turn a full 360 degrees at his waist.
Hip flexion is about 90 degrees.
Hip extension is about 100 degrees.
Knee flexion is about 90 degrees.
He has a 360 degrees thigh swivel.
One of the downside of this figure is that his foot is static. No foot flexion or extension but he does has minimal ankle rotation from side to side.
Here we have a closer look at his feet where they are basically made up of the hind legs of his crocodile mode.
Though I'm not a big fan of the yellowish-gold color at his back, I can't deny that the back of the figure does have some nice detailing.
Next we have a look at his headmaster partner Grax.
The most noticeable part for this mini figure is his red chest and spikes on either side of his legs.
From the side we can see that his back pack is the head of Crox with his visor.
Back view. Design is similar to other Function X headmasters where their heads are automatically concealed then they stand up.
A little close. Got to love the paint job and details.
Articulation is same as all Function X series. Minimal but sufficient for a mini-fig
Caution when you want to put down his visor. Remember to pull it up higher then put down to cover his eyes. Don't force the issue when it is not fully pulled up. Similar to Function X's Quadruple U
Pull the visor up
Then down.
Here he is with his other Decepticon buddies. I still Not Midewipe has the coolest looking headmaster with the bat design.
With all the other headmasters.
All for one and one for all!
Here we have a look at his weapon. It is basically his alternate mode's tail.
You just pull out the tip of the sword which is white in color to form his sword.
Details on this weapon is quite good as well.
Well, if you like, the weapon can turn side to side, but its mostly for some tail wagging in his alternate mode. Not sure what function it has in his sword mode, haha.
Similar to Sigma L, he has a 3rd mode. Call it a creature mode if you will.
Roar!!!!
I'm Croc-Man!!!!
Next we look at his alternate mode. Transformation is not difficult, quite interesting transformation, but compare to the other Function X series, he does not offer too much surprises. Probably I had a higher expectation when it comes to transformation for the function-X series, because it is one of the thing that drives me to purchase function-X series figures.
Front view
Top view. As a whole I would say if Cycbertron had a cycbertronian-crocodile, it will probably look something like this. Wish his croc eyes were red instead of white though. Would make the figure so much nicer. Not a very organic looking crocodile, but I guess it looks ok as a whole. I would say his robot mode is better than his alternate mode in this figure. He has spikes at the lower half of his back and the optimus like chest works as a cockpit for his headmaster partner.
Side view.
Might as well get a bottom view.
He does have some interesting feature in his crocodile's jaw which looks like a grinder where he much and chow down his victims. I guess few Autobot will survive after getting bitten by Crox.
The grinder-like mechanism does rotate.
He can look down this much in his alternate mode, can look up minimally, but no side to side movement, which is a little disappointing. He can do some great post in alternate mode if he had side to side head movements. Just some minor nit-pick.
Probably this is how he would look like if the Autobots manage to catch him. LOL
His hind legs are stable enough to support his whole alternate mode, enabling him to stand on 2 feet.
Tail does have side to side motion.
As a summary I think the alternate mode looks OK, not too bad, but could be better.
A little comparison with MP Bluestreak.
Arcana didn't stand a chance.
Have a look at his cockpit
His headmaster partner sits comfortable inside.
Attack you beast! I say Attack!!!!
Due to the lack of upward and downward tilting over his feet, makes him a little difficult to pose sometimes. But with some manipulations, he can still pose quite well.
Really happy that he can hold his sword with both his hands.
Looking good.
I will lead the Decepticons to victory!
If you fancy, you can have him hold Quadruple-U's sword as well.
Dual sword wielding Decepticon? Enough said.
His sword can be stored on his back, and you can make him pose like he is about to pull out his sword.
Some G1 headmaster goodness. They cost an arm and a leg now. Sigh....
In the cartoon series.
Function X series. Really happy that I've completed the trio.
They do look good together.
The main characters so far. Didn't purchase any repaint so far.
Scale comparison with MP-8
With MP-12
With MP-24
With Frenzy and cosmos.
Just a little heads up, Function X-9 Positum is aligator/crocodile optimus. Ther is an episode in season 2 (City of Steel) where optimus was "destroyed" and rebuilt into an aligator by the Decepticons, then rebuilt into optimus again. And he survived! But he dies after a few gunshot wounds in the movie -_-
Summary: 3rd party really knows how to bleed your wallet dry.
This is how he looks like. Kinda funny if you ask me.
A picture from the internet featuring toyworld's take on Skullcruncher. Not a bad looking Headmaster, but I did not purchase this figure though.
Hasbro has announced that they will be releasing Skullcruncher in the near future. He does have a more convincing alternate mode.
And finally we have him in his G1 glory.
Pros: Excellent plastic quality and paint job. Above average articulations, interesting transformation. Interesting beast-robot mode. ( You'll need some imagination and creativity) All in all a fun figure to play with.
Cons: No diecast, no light pipping, weird looking chest design, no articulations over hands and wrist. Does not scale with MP series, A bit pricey for the size of the figure.
Thank you for reading!
