This BotCon Cindersaur is a great reminder of how much fun Transformers toys can be. So it’s a bit of a shame that he’s a BotCon exclusive and therefore an expensive bauble designed for the hardcore fan with an unlimited budget. The figure is a straight redeco of the Beast Wars 10th Anniversary Megatron figure. The Cyber Planet key gimmick reportedly added so that Hasbro could get a potential second use out of the mould for the then current Cybertron line (which indeed they ultimately did). Cindersaur was chosen for part of 2010s BotCon Generation 2 : Redux themed collectibles as he was the only Firecon not given a reissue during the Generation 2 era.

A marvellously hewn burst of colour, Cindersaur is predominantly electric blue, with neon orange and green highlights. Parts of the beast mode are also broken up with a nice use of transparent blue plastics daubed with silver paint. It’s not realistic, but in keeping with the early 1990s aesthetic for dayglo. The beast mode itself is also a superbly detailed piece. There are lots of lovely folds to the ‘skin’ and a nice ‘plated’ feel to the various body parts. The opening jaw is a nice touch and the figure is decently posable too with moveable arms and legs. The Cyber Planet key can also be stored in the slot in the tail, but it looks very undignified given its location.

With the mould being desgined with Beast Wars Megatron in mind, the transformation and robot mode follow the same layout as that guy’s original 1996 toy. It works very well at the deluxe size point, being a fun set of moves and easy to accomplish. The ‘improvement’ over the orginal Megatron figure being the ability of this new toy to detatch the tail so he has a ‘proper’ left hand. The tail weapon can still either be held in the palm of the clawed hand or pegged onto the post on his finger.

As is very apparent, this is more Megatron than Cindersaur, but it works well enough for me to consider the mould an update on Cindersaur’s original toy. Mainly that is down to the offensive colours. Neon green. Purple. Orange. It’s fantastic. A complete eyesore, but brilliant all the same. The colours actually gel together reasonably well and look suitably jolly. The robot mode has the usual articulation of a modern deluxe, so you can do a lot with him although the right arm is a little difficult to do much with, thanks to the beast head. Proportion wise, he’s pretty good. The left arm looks a little stumpy, but that’s overruled once you plug the tail weapon on there. He’s got excellent balance too, thanks to those huge feet so there’s no danger of this guy toppling over. The Cyber Plant Key activated weapons reveal is alright, although the split tail does look a bit of a mess. Mercifully, this is one of such gimmicks that doesn’t instantly launch the missile so you won’t get shot in the face whilst fiddling with this. A bit of a cheat has gone on with the key itself which has a clearly etched first generation Decepticon logo etched into it – surely it wouldn’t have been too much trouble to have gone for a key with no etching?

For an exclusive toy, CIndersaur is good fun. He’s a robust, durable toy with a mad colour scheme and excellent detailing. The obvious downsides are his limited availability (although he is the more common of the various G2: Redux figures) and the silly money you’d normally be expected to pay for such things.

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