Mercenary

Mercenary is FanToys take on Shrapnel, the Insecticons leader. Mercenary comes packed in the Fans Toys standard medium weight cardboard box with styrofoam block packing. Inside, you will find Mercenary, an extra set of G1 style insect legs, a chrome gun, a purple gun, an extra clear yellow chest panel, a screw driver, and 3 energon cubes.

Mercenary stands just barely over 6 inches tall and looks perfectly in scale when next to Grenadier.

Paint apps are very sparse. There are only 12 paint application on the entire toy, but being that they are going for an updated G1 toy look, this is to be expected. What few applications he does have are all perfect, as is the chrome on his gun, and pincers.

His articulation is very nice. As with Grenadier, he has a wide range of motion in his shoulders and arms, which allows him to hold his gun with both hands. He has a substantial amount of diecast in his legs that gives him exceptional balance. Running and mid step poses are a breeze. You will NOT knock this toy over on accident, but God help you if you drop it on your foot.

Mercenary lacks the forward hip range to pull off a convincing kneeling pose, but wide stances are still easy to get.

Most of my pictures feature the clear yellow chest panel, but he also comes standard with a solid yellow one. Its worth mentioning that the screw driver that comes with Mercenary seems to be designed to do nothing but strip screws. I HIGHLY recommend using a screw driver with a deeper bit.

Mercenary’s alt mode is a horned beetle, and is absolutely fantastic. The transformation is relatively simple, but I did have some issues with the legs binding while trying to compress the thighs into the lower legs. Hopefully it will loosen up with time.

Generally I prefer my Transformers in bot mode, but the Fans Toys Insecticons alt modes are just so great that I actually like both modes about the same. The articulated insect legs really bring a lot to the alt mode and give them a very menacing creepy bug vibe.

Mercenary comes with an alternate set of G1 accurate legs. I love it when companies include extra, or alternate parts. That said, it takes a minimum of 10-12 minutes to unscrew all of the articulated legs, and get the G1 legs screwed in their place. Not something you’re going to want to do on a regular basis.

The main benefit (besides G1 accuracy) to the alternate legs is that they significantly reduce the size of Mercenary’s back pack. Again, I suggest using a screw driver with a deeper bit.

Both guns peg into the hands and are held securely.

I absolutely LOVE the energon cube accessories. Hopefully Fans Toys will make these available in add-on packs, and in different sizes.

Aside from the useless screw driver, Mercenary is just about as perfect a release as you can expect to get.