Transformers: Titans Return Twinferno

I have been really hesitant to call any of the Titans Return updated figures with altered names by their new names, but Twinferno is pretty cool.

Twinferno is a “Classics” update of Doublecross, the G1 Monsterbot. I had Doublecross when I was a kid, and that prompted me to be extra excitable when this new version was first shown in pictures. This was all set to be the first place figure in the wave for me, until I got the final member out of his package. Then, through no shortcomings of his own, Twinferno ended up in second place; but again, as I’ve mentioned with Hot Rod, there isn’t really any shame in not coming in first with this set of figures. Also, in the case of this specific figure, there is a lot that’s going wrong; but for me, nostalgia is going to carry the day here. But man, what could have been . . .

Twinferno looks terrific in robot and good in concept in two headed dragon mode, even though each has some drawbacks. Robot mode is a good, broad shouldered figure, and as is expected at this point, a fairly faithful adaptation of the original figure. Molded essentially in a dark grey, the figure jumps at your eyes thanks to the use of other colors, most notably the red and white. Used pretty sparingly, the red of the shoulders and waist really looks strong, and the white of the thighs and dragon heads and robot head really makes for a simple, clean yet totally striking appearance. Twinferno is one of those figures that is elegant in its simplicity. The weapons are, again, in that Highbrow style where two similar halves peg together, and they plug in to the figure at various points, which is pretty awesome. Twinferno can have them plug into holes on the dragon heads/robot hands, or attach to holes in the dragon wings, or slot in on top of the robot shoulders, which is alright. The shoulder mounting is probably the best option, although it looks a little awkward. This way, the weapons would still be useable, but only point forward and also swivel upwards and downwards with the movement of the shoulder. The wing mounting is good and fine, but the blasters end up out of the way and can’t be brought to bear. The in-hand use is ok, but the dragon necks lack enough joints, or perhaps the correct joints, to make the blasters able to be useful. More on that later.

Daburu is the Titanmaster partner, and he is an interesting one. The tiny figure’s head is some kind of lion with an eyepatch, apparently a reference to a Headmasters episode that featured the G1 Monsterbots, but I don’t have any recollection of this whatsoever. It is the first Titanmaster figure I’ve had any reaction to, but even then it was a very temporary one. The Twinferno head mode is simply a square with a blue visor, but it is one of the strongest heads in the line. The cockpit on Twinferno’s dragon mode is pretty useless, being just a cavity in the crotch area of the monster that Daburu sits inside. It is what it is.

Breathing too hard here would cause the figure to collapse

Twinferno’s dragon mode is looks real good, but does have some real problems. The dragon legs transform from the robot feet, which also form part of the dragon waist and hips. It’s a pretty neat trick, but unfortunately doesn’t work as well as I think they intended it to, as the dragon waist is supposed to peg into some tabs, but on my figure at least, they don’t quite line up very well. (Turns out that this is a general design issue with the figure, and not a QC issue on mine.)  This translates into some difficulties the toy has standing up in dragon mode: because the hip parts don’t peg together solidly, the toy doesn’t do well holding up its weight, and the hips split apart even when standing straight and still.

 The transformation is super neat, and it is a really satisfying thing to experience. It’s innovative and different. The dragon body is long, and because of this it is also a bit tough to balance. The torso is essentially a long plastic block, and it gives the dragon a very Toho movie look. Add the twin dragon heads and their opening mouths and pretty expressive faces, and you’re just one head short of Titans Return King Ghidorah. Man, if only . . . . Anyway, some standing and posing troubles result, but. The figure distributes its weight poorly, and the monster legs are too short and can’t really be positioned in a fashion that holds up the body. The tail pieces don’t tab together well at all, or at all, to be blunt. The weapons can attach to the back of the dragon, and then the seat for the Titanmaster makes a little more sense, because it becomes a saddle of sorts, and also mitigates the generally lame cockpit. As a totally personal point of interest, there is a tiny chest mounted saw blade on Twinferno’s dragon mode, a shout out to the moving saw blade part on the original toy. The G1 Monsterbots employed the sparking friction wheel gimmick, supposed to be a fire breathing kind of thing. It rarely, if ever, worked. But pumping the hell out of a small button on the back of the figure was intended to cause a flurry of sparks suitable for a monster, and while the wheel doesn’t do anything at all on Titans Return Twinferno, noticing it made me smile. 

Twinferno suffers from a lack of joints in the dragon necks, or at least is missing the correct ones. There is a hinge about halfway down, so the necks/robot arms can bend, and the dragon heads have opening mouths, so they can pivot up and down enough to strike monster poses. They are however largely useless as arms, as the heads do not possess a swivel joint and so can’t be actual hands or hold the blasters well for poses. In robot mode, the arms swivel at the shoulder and can move in and out, but the elbows bend inwards and outwards and that’s it, so Twinferno can hold his arm across his chest or straight out in front of himself. He can aim his weapons forward if he just lifts his arm at the shoulder. The shame of this is that the addition of a wrist swivel would have made all the difference in the entire world in terms of improving this toy. Kind of “oh well,” I suppose, as this is not a bad figure; but it is completely impossible to ignore the fact that two swivel joints would have absolutely catapulted this toy into the highest of echelons of the entire line. A real missed opportunity here.

I love Twinferno. There are some real issues with this guy: the lack of wrists, the instability of the dragon waist. The wings don’t have joints either, save for the ones they utilize during transformation, so they just stick straight off the back. Were they able to bend or pose, more dynamic looks for the figure could have been achieved. The problems with the dragon legs/tail totally kneecap this figure, rendering dragon mode almost useless. I am willing to see past the glaring problems with the dragon mode, as this is kind of a nostalgia trip toy for me, and I put it in second place for the wave. I generally do like this figure a lot, but the issues it has are brutal, and for anyone who would have strong negative feelings about it, I do not have much room to argue them. Without the childhood nostalgia I feel for it, Twinferno fails with the alt mode and while it does do some pretty cool things transformation-wise, it is a dull looking figure sans my attachments. The missing joints in the dragon necks further highlights what c/should have been for this figure, and with as cool as Hot Rod turned out, and as amazing as the final figure in this wave is, Twinferno is severely lacking. Again, I am able, or willing, or both, to forgive a whole lot on this toy, but what could have been a real marvel of a figure turned out being just nice to look at.