 Patriot Prime Reviews is a channel for adult collectors and may not be suitable for children under 13 years of age. Viewer discretion is advised. This video is sponsored by toyhacks.com. They're your one-stop shop for reproduction decals for your vintage G1 Transformers and upgrade decals for your modern bots, weaponry for your figures from the Toyhacks Armory and great looking backdrops for your display from Toy Stages. So check out toyhacks.com and make your collection stand out from the rest. And tell them Patriot Prime sent you. Hey, what's going on guys? Patriot Prime here once again with another G1 Review Redo. So Hasbro announced yesterday that we are going to get a new Skullgren figure in the legacy line. And after checking out pictures of the figure, he looks so good I decided to pull my original 1988 Skullgren off the shelf to take another look at him. This figure right here is one of my favorite pretenders. He just looks so badass. I love this guy. Now Skullgren hitting the shelves in 1988 meant that he appeared way too late to appear in the US animated series. So he did appear in the Marvel Comics series starting with his first appearance in issue number 40 where he actually graced the cover. Now in Marvel Comics, the Skull was a lot different. He looked like a steer opposed to the demon Skull the figure has and actually looked really, really good. Skullgren then had another standalone issue where he was the main focus in issue number 45 where he befriended a film crew which was very unique for a Decepticon to actually befriend humans. Of course that all ended when Circuit Breaker showed up. So now without further ado, let's take another look at this fantastic pretender. Don't forget to like, don't forget to subscribe and welcome to Patriot Prime Reviews. Skullgren's pretender shell is metal as f***. I mean look at this thing. This is so badass looking. What an awesome looking pretender. This is one of my absolute favorites. The badass Skull kind of negates the hot pink legs and arms that this guy has but I love this figure. I mean this guy looks like he could be on a metal album cover from the 80s. Now taking a closer look at the figure, mine is a little bit discolored but it actually adds to the charm of the figure. It makes the Skull look even better. I mean look at the details all over this thing. That is awesome. It looks so good. You got all the gray right here. It kind of looks like rock armor. You got the bone here on the shoulders with the spikes. Now down here on the chest, I want to point something out. If you look at the head of Skullgren, it looks like a half skull but if you look down here on the chest, see how that looks like molded in teeth and if I move the head out of the way, see how that's smooth and looks like a tongue. It's almost like he was supposed to have like a full head but they changed their mind and just didn't paint the rest of that. Now in the comic books, he did have a full head. It wasn't just the half skull but it still works. I dig the half skull look and something else to note with this pretender figure, notice I turned the head. I don't think there's any other pretenders that have a head that can turn. So that's pretty cool. So great details on the skull, got the hot pink eyes right there, lots of details on the armor. I mean very organic looking all the way around, love all the spikes and he's got some weird, I don't know, square metal plate looking molding right there. So just something odd, nice spike knuckles, lots of texture and the details on the belt, check this out. Got a skull there on the front, spikes on the side and he's got skulls all the way around. This guy is just skulls for days. Got spike knee pads and gray toes. He's just a badass looking figure. Give this guy some bat wings, he would just be off the chain. Now articulation for skull grin, we've already seen the head, the arms can also rotate up and down. They could do a complete 360 but they're going to hit the horn right there and that's it. I mean pretenders do not have much as far as articulation is concerned. He does have this awesome sword right here and a double barreled rifle. So he is very well armed and intimidating. But of course we know that pretenders hide the transformer inside. So let's go ahead and release skull grin's inner butt from the shell and what you do for that is you actually undo the belt right here. Be very careful with that. That's a soft plastic that is almost 30 years old and take note that skull grin's belt is a complete belt with buckle and loop. Most of the pretenders belts just kind of clipped on the side. This guy has a complete belt. We'll put that to the side and we're going to split skull grin right down the middle and release the inner butt. Go ahead and put the shell back together. Put that to the side and here we have skull grin's inner butt. First thing we'll do is flip up the feet, bring the arms around and there is skull grin's robot mode. And he's not a bad looking robot, very generic. Taking a closer look at him. Got a fairly decent head sculpt right there. Pink face, gray helmet, pink arms. Decepticon and logo right there on the stomach. He's got a wheel crotch, some decals there on the knees. And that's it. Just a very basic robot. Articulation for the inner shell or the inner butt. Arms can do a complete 360. Legs can go forward, they can go back. And the toes can move up and down due to transformation. Now, to arm him up, what you're going to do is take the double blaster from the shell and this actually splits in two. Now if you're looking for a skull grin on the market, you want to make sure and check the weapons that you do have a left and a right. See how one weapon has two pegs here while one has a peg and a port. So you really want to watch for that. So after separating the weapons, you've got the smaller peg right here that is going to fit into skull grin's hands. So he is dual wielding and now you have skull grin all armed and ready for battle. And here he is next to his pretender shell. So now let's go ahead and get skull grin transformed into his vehicle mode, fairly simple transformation. Remove the weapons. Bring the arms up and you're going to rotate the legs around like so. Make sure and fold the feet down. Bring the arms up just like they were when you took him out of the shell first. Rotate them down, then up. And then you're going to take the fists, move these back, and you're going to flip around these cannons. So you've got this going on. The cannons are a little bit loose. So you've got that. Now what you're going to do is take the blasters and there's these holes on the side. You're going to peg in the blasters on the side of the vehicle just like so. Straighten up the guns right there on the front. And there you have skull grin in his Cybertronian tank mode. So yes, very futuristic user imagination vehicle. Actually got some pretty decent sculpted details on. You can see the treads back there on the back. And it's decent. It's good enough. I mean, it actually rolls really good. He's got his big crotch wheel right there and two little other wheels on the side. So yeah, I mean, it's not bad. He's one of the better Pretender vehicles. I just wish the guns would stay in place a little better. So there you go, guys. There we have 1988's Generation 1 skull grin. And now for some quick size comparisons. Here is 1988's Generation 1 skull grin with Generation 1 Megatron, Generation 1 Thunderwing, and the little teeny tiny puny Titan's Return skull grin. 1988's Generation 1 Pretender skull grin is one of the best Pretender figures. This guy has an amazing Pretender shell that actually has more articulation than any of the others. And he's got a decent inner robot. I mean, he's nothing to write home about. But he's got a much better transformation than 90% of the other Pretenders. But what sells this one for me is just the amount of sculpted detail on this figure. It's absolutely stunning for its time. And he looks great on your shelf. So there you go, guys. 1988's Generation 1 skull grin. So does a 1988 Generation 1 Pretender skull grin belong in your collection? Absolutely. If you're a G1 collector, and even if you don't like Pretenders, I think this is a figure that belongs in everyone's collection just so you can experience what the Pretenders were. Now, back in the day, they were not very well received. They're not the best Transformers toy. But thanks to Marvel Comics and their stories, I have a new appreciation for these figures. I see now what Hasbro was going for. And I dig it. There's a lot of play value with these figures. You get a shell to play with. You know, as one figure, you get the robot. He transforms. I mean, there's a lot of playability if you're using your imagination. I, for one, love the Pretenders. I love the Decepticon Pretenders more than the Autobots because the Autobots were just humans in giant, fat spacesuits. But the Pretender Decepticons were awesome. They were all monsters and demons and just looked awesome. So yeah, if you see a skull grin, pick him up. You are not going to be disappointed. Make sure he has all his parts. Make sure he has the correct guns. And fortunately, skull grin here still goes for a fairly decent price, maybe around $50 or $60. So check him out. You're going to really like this guy. And it'll get you psyched up for the new legacy release coming soon. Now guys, if you enjoyed the video, don't forget to like. Don't forget to subscribe. And don't forget to click that bell icon to get notified when I upload new videos. Also, if you're in any position to help out the channel, I have a new super thanks button. And I also offer channel memberships. And I have to get a huge shout out to all my current channel members because it's support like yours that helps keep this channel going. Once again, guys, this is Patriot Prime signing out.