DoFP Terrorsaur

BotCon's (2006) exclusive figure set, entitled 'Dawn of Future's Past', was comprised of several Beast Wars characters in pre-Earth, Cybertronian forms. Optimus Primal was some kind of ground assault vehicle, Megatron a hover tank, Cheetor a Hot Rod-ish high performance vehicle, and Waspinator transformed into a fighter jet. There were a few more, but you get the idea. No 'Beasties' here. Having seen these figures, I have been inspired to create my own custom figures to compliment them.

There was one problem I noticed with the figure set, though... where was Terrorsaur? You've got a Waspinator, but no Terrorsaur? I watched the Beast Wars cartoon avidly when it was on the air, and I couldn't seem to recall a point in time when Waspinator was not with Terrorsaur, or vice versa. They always seemed to operate in tandem. So my customization of choice was easily chosen - TERRORSAUR! That, and Terrorsaur was already one of my favorites. Call me partial.

As I was dumpster diving (man, it was fun at the convention), I found a figure that I thought would make a great pre-Earth Terrorsaur - the Vehicon Obsidian, from the Beast Machines toy line.

There are a few panels in the comic book that came along with the set that depicts Terrorsaur, vaguely, in his pre-Earth form... and while this could be interpreted as a fighter jet akin to Waspinator, I have other ideas. There are elements on the figure I have chosen - Obsidian - that are reflected in the comic book rendering. Also, Waspinator is a wasp (obviously) on Earth, and transforms into a fighter jet on Cybertron. Terrorsaur is a pterodactly - not an insect - and I thought it would be cooler for him to transform into something similar in function but different in appearance, much like the characters' later beast form species have their differences, but functional similarities. Hence the helicopter.

With the encouragement of some fellow fans, I decided to use the head from a Beast Wars II Thrust; the resemblance fits quite nicely, I think. It is removed enough to be pre-Earth; more of a blocky, Cybertronian look, as oppose to the Beast Wars with more organic shapes.

Thanks to Reprolabels.com for the Predacon faction emblems.

I'll probably touch up the paints here in the near future.

- Alty