G1 Iguanus

Prelude: With a new Iguanus appearing in the Legacy toy line, it is time to revisit the original G1 Iguanus from 1988. So let us travel back to a time when Pretenders were all the rage in The Transformers (none of that Generation 1 nonsense yet, just “The Transformers”). Here is the lizard bike, the scaled purple rider, the Con in love with his own shell, Pretender Iguanus. Let’s say go!

Robot Mode: When dressed up in his Pretender shell, Iguanus appears as a purple lizard walking upright and wearing the kind of armor fashionable on planet Mongo. His resemblance to a real-life iguana might be debatable, but he looks pretty cool and is the only Pretender I know who has a full-length rubber tail. Articulation is, of course, restricted to turning the arms at the shoulders, but the detail work on the shell is pretty fantastic and still holds up well 34 years later. Iguanus’ shell features a removeable belt and carries two weapons, a blaster and something that looks like a two-ended fidget spinner. It’s supposed to be some kind of blade weapon, I think. Overall I really like Iguanus’ Pretender shell, though it cannot really do much more than stand there and look pretty.

Opening up the shell (and you don’t need to remove the belt to do it) reveals the robot inside, the actual Iguanus. Like all Pretender inner robots he is very thin and somewhat disproportioned. His head appears a good deal too large for his body. On the plus side, the Pretender robots were among the better-articulated figures in G1 and Iguanus can bend his knees, move his feet, and has almost free shoulder movement. No turning head or waist, but still, pretty good for a G1 robot. Iguanus uses the same blaster here that his shell used, which he can also store on his back. The larger spinning blade weapon, however, cannot be used by the smaller robot.

Like with most Pretenders, the Pretender shell looks a whole lot better than the inner robot. The latter just looks like generic robot guy number 7, really, though the purple and wine-red coloring does make him pop a little, at least. So bottom line: great-looking Pretender shell, boring inner robot.

Alternate Mode: Iguanus‘ inner robot transforms the same way that most Pretender inner robots do: he basically just folds in half. In Iguanus’ case, though, the transformation is actually a tiny little bit more involved, as you have to affix an extra part below (the spinning blades fidget spinner thing) and swing around the seat hanging on the back of his head. The result is something that is supposed to be some kind of futuristic bike and... yeah, you can kind of recognize that it’s supposed to be a futuristic bike. With some imagination added, at least.

Despite being a bike and having a seat on top, there isn’t really any room for a rider, especially if you put Iguanus’ blaster on top. Maybe a Diaclone figure could fit on it? Sadly the leg joints on this version are a bit worn out. The legs should be parallel to the ground, but they kind of sag. Anyway, like most Pretender alternate modes, Iguanus’ bike mode isn’t much to write home about, though it gets bonus points for being a bit more than just a robot-folded-in-half.

Remarks: The first wave of Pretenders in 1988 gained a certain amount of fame by appearing in the Japanese Masterforce series. The second wave, however, had no such luck. They appeared solely in comic books. In the Marvel comics Iguanus and his fellow Decepticon Pretenders were created by Scoponok at about the same time they appeared on the toy shelves. Iguanus also appeared in the IDW comics as one of Bludgeon’s disciples. Sadly none of his appearances really went into the fact that he is in love with his own Pretender shell.

The Pretenders were an interesting idea, but maybe not quite interesting enough for Hasbro to release forty of them within two years. Iguanus definitely has one of the nicer-looking Pretender shells, but the inner robot is average at best for a Pretender robot, which isn’t saying much to begin with. So bottom line: if you like Pretender shells, Iguanus is well worth getting.

Rating: C+

 

 

Review Showdown: Well, you have read this review. Now it’s time to read the review of Legacy Iguanus if you haven’t already. All done? Well then, who is the Lizard King, the first Iguanus among all Iguani? We are breaking things down by the following, fully objective, logical criteria: Size, Articulation, Majesty of Tail, Number of Easily Lost Parts, Alternate Mode, and Strangeness of Weapon. And here is our result: