TFC Toys Hades: Thanatos

 

Thanatos was the second member of the Hades team to be released, and was the second to last member of the Hades team to be obtained. He is the analog for Killbison on the team, transforms into a tank, serves as a leg, and is the same body in both modes as Hypnos. Symmetry.

Right away, Thanatos is an imposing figure. While Hypnos is large and sturdy, Thanatos invokes a different description: Thanatos is powerful looking, huge and hulking. He looks like the kind of character that would be the team muscle, the tough guy who almost can’t take an alt mode that isn’t a tank. The pictures don’t do it justice, but the figure is a really strong, really beautiful mustard color, and it looks real, real nice in person. Thanatos shares all the same mold traits with Hypnos, so he has the Hades feet parts tucked inside his legs and has the same satisfying albeit standard transformation scheme.

Robot mode wise, Thanatos is a mustard and while version of the purple and white Hypnos, with a different, and real striking, head sculpt. The head is a big part of the brutish and powerful appearance of Thanatos, and it is crisply and sharply rendered, as all the heads of the Hades members are. It is interesting to consider the Hades head sculpts alongside those of the Hercules and even Ares team members, and consider them for their general differences: the Hades heads are very close to the heads of the animation models of the official G1 Breastforce characters, while the Hercules and Ares figures have heads that aren’t all that close to their G1 originals. They are often close “enough,” yet different enough to not be too close. The Breastforce head sculpts are right on though, and that is excellent. Anyway, Thanatos has the same shoulder pads and general articulation that Hypnos has, but somehow feels lither and more posable than his drilltank compatriot. Why this is is unclear, since they are the same mold. There are a few differences between Thanatos and Hypnos detail wise: the shoulder pads are actually sculpted differently, and the robot chest, underneath the Breastmaster plate, is slightly different as well.

The tank turret is located on Thanatos’ back in robot mode, and it is much less intrusive a part than Hypnos’ drill. The way that the drill is managed is pretty great, but the tank turret doesn’t stick out as much nor require anything additional to hide it. This is kind of awesome, since back mounted turrets are usually the type of thing that does stick out or cause a figure to tilt or lean backwards or generally cause an issue. The twin cannons stick up behind the figure to give that cool, guns on my back look, and the turret isn’t overly loose or anything, so it doesn’t move around or swivel to either side in robot mode.

The Breastmaster partner here is an adorable . . . uh, tough and rugged looking (but totally adorable) little mechanical bison, which once again serves as either an animal, or a blaster, or additional chest armor for Thanatos. The little guy is pretty cool for what it is, but it isn’t anything super amazing or intricate. It works well as both animal and chest plate, but is somewhat cumbersome as a blaster. Thanatos looks good with or without the extra chest piece, but with the chest piece attached there is an added sense of size and weight for the figure. In Thanatos’ case especially, the extra mass of the chest plate adds to the burly, thuggish appearance of the robot.

The tank mode is an anti-aircraft tank instead of a “normal” battle tank. This fits with the overall vehicle spread that the Breastforce members have, with the mixture of aircraft and ground vehicles, but an anti-aircraft tank means that the squad has no direct ground assault member. Cerberus is more of a light artillery vehicle, and Hypnos is a drill tank, so it apparently falls to the fliers to provide direct assault. This is pretty cool if you think about it, as it makes the Breastforce more of a specialized assault unit than a brute force-type pack of brawlers. (This may be totally wrong, since again, my knowledge of Victory ends with the fourth episode, even all these months later. – mr) The tank turret swivels 360 degrees, and both of the cannons raise and lower. There is also a radar dish that unfolds from the turret, but it does not move. There are also no wheels on the tank treads, so the vehicle mode doesn’t roll, but that’s really not a drawback for the figure.

Not so svelt looking from behind.

This was apparently missed on Hypnos, but there are small plastic tabs on the inside of the robot mode legs that slot into small slits on the Hades mode feet, and the tabs never seem to be very sturdy. The tabs come in contact with the Hades foot parts during every step of transformation, and the way that the foot parts move, it appears that the tabs are intended to be some kind of fulcrum point, or a place where the moving pieces may be leveraged in order to make them move. But this is not the case. The plastic tabs stress pretty easily, but fortunately they have not broken or anything at this time. This is a real cause for concern, because this step requires care and delicacy, but everything about it leads one to believe that it is a transformation step that will be ok will additional force; similar to the jet mode nosecone on Minos. Maybe the instructions are not clear enough for these figures, or maybe it’s a clearance issue in the design of the figures, but these two examples present an obvious problem with the figures. In both instances, the use of additional force is intuitive, because both of the steps have been encountered endless times in official products, but on these that intuitive step is not the one that should be taken. Whatever the cause of the issue is, it is not a deal breaking one, although it could be one that results in broken toys if not caught in time. Since Hades has still yet to be assembled, it is not known how much weight or load these little tabs on Thanatos and Hypnos are responsible for bearing, but it would certainly be preferable to have them unbroken so that they can perform whatever their function will ultimately be. Long story short: take care in transforming Thanatos, and Hypnos, and Minos, and Rhadamanthus, and Aiakos, as they have small tabs and/or tight clearances.

As the second figure of the team to be released, Thanatos sets a real high bar for the rest. Somehow he seems more exciting than Hypnos, despite the two being the same figure. That happens sometimes, where there are repaints that just aren’t as attention-getting as others. A solid design, a great look, a good transformation and a fun figure.