 Hey, what's going on guys? Patriot Prime here once again with another Generation 1 Transformers review, and the bot we're going over in this video is 1988's Skullgren. I love this figure. He is so metal. Now, since Skullgren hit the shelves in 1988, he did not appear at all in the animated television show, though he did appear animated in his TV commercial, where he, Bomb Burst and Submariner are taking on the Autobot pretenders, Cloud Burst, Landmine and Wave Rider. Skullgren first appeared in Marvel Comics in issue number 40, where he and the other Decepticon pretenders were created by Commander Scorponok. Skullgren then appeared in issue number 45, which was his highlight episode, where Skullgren is discovered in the woods by a film crew. And instead of like most Decepticons, where he wants to just kill all the fleshlings, he actually befriended this film crew and the main actress of the movie. So, he became a big film star. They used him as the monster in these creature features. So, he's treated like royalty. He's treated like a film star. You know, he's on the cover of Time Magazine, and he has really embraced humans. Up until, of course, Circuit Breaker shows up and ruins his whole party. But as a result, Skullgren is kind of belittled by the other Decepticons for the fact that he loves fleshlings. But that's pretty much it for the history of Skullgren in Marvel Comics. He just appears here and there, but never really fleshed out again in the stories. So, enough of the history of the figure, let's take a look at this heavy metal Decepticon. And welcome to Patriot Prime Reviews. I love Skullgren's outer shell. This guy looks like he stepped right off the cover of a 1980s metal album. I mean, you look at this guy, you want to start banging your head. You want to start hitting those air guitar riffs and maybe even biting the head off a bat. His shell is that of some type of demon. And unlike the other pretender shells, Skullgren really doesn't have any cybernetic parts, any robot parts, aside from right here on the back is some kind of square panel. But that's it. Everything else is very organic, very rocky looking, just very demonic. I love it. Now, he does look a lot different than he's shown in the comics. In the comic, he looks like he has a the head of a steer, a long horn cow, where this guy is half of a skull or what appears to be half of a skull. If you look closely on his chest, you'll see that he has molded in teeth and a tongue. So I really wish Hasbro had painted that in to make it look more uniformed with the skull. But still, that looks awesome. Bone white skull, pointy shoulder pads, the belt, the eyes. I love this demon. He is so cool. Only articulation Skullgren has. He is a pretender. The arms can do a complete 360 if the horn's out of the way, which leads into another point of articulation. The head can slightly move. No other pretender can do this. Of course, you get a real good look of the tongue and teeth there. I have at one point somewhere saw that somebody had done a custom paint job on one of these outer shells and painted in the teeth and tongue and it looked really, really good. I'm not that skilled, so I'm not going to really do that with my figure. Still going all the way around the back, looking at more of those molded details. Once again, the armor he's wearing, or that he has molded on, looks like it's made out of stone. So he's got the spikes, the different textures. It's really, really well. The inside looks more flesh with the pink. Paint it in down there on the leg guards and the toes. I mean, I love this creature. He also looks like something you see in a D&D manual. Now, as far as accessories are concerned, Skullgren has this sword, belt, and double barreled rifle, which comes into play for his inner robot. To remove the inner robot, first thing you're going to do is remove his belt. Now, Skullgren's belt is a little different than the others is it is an actual belt. It's got the belt holes, the loop, everything. You have to be really careful in prying this section off so you can get that belt off. The belt has some fantastic sculpted details too. I mean, look at the skulls there on the sides. I love it. This guy is so cool. So anyway, that's the belt. After you get the belt off, simply grab the front, grab the back, pull away, and the inner robot pops right out. Once the inner robot is removed from the shell, what you're going to do is move the arms forward, flip down the feet, and there you have Skullgren in robot mode. Now, you're going to take the double blaster from the shell and simply separate it in two. A little peg here goes in that peg hole. If you're purchasing a Skullgren, keep in mind there is a left and right blaster. Get those held right so you can see. See how one has a peg there on top, pegs on the side. There's two pegs on this one. So really pay attention to make sure that you have the proper weaponry. So let's go ahead and get him armed up. You take these small pegs and it will fit into the robot's hands. I try to get mind where the fins are facing out. So there you have Skullgren all armed and ready for battle. I love this robot mode. It is a really cool looking robot. I love the head sculpt. I love the molded details on him. He's got nice stickers thanks to a brand new set from Toyhacks. Nice collars as well. On the back no real kibble whatsoever. Got a little wheel there in his crotch which comes into play for vehicle mode. Closer look at the face sculpt. For articulation arms can do a complete 360 unless the gun hits the leg. Legs can go up and down as well and he's got actually I thought he did but he has no knee bend. So legs up and down arms all around that's all you're going to get. Now let's go ahead and get him transformed into his alt mode. Gonna remove the guns. Place those to the side. Fold the arms up just like they were inside the shell and then you're going to flip the hands around revealing guns. Fold the feet down. Move those arms out of the way. Now rotate the legs under. Move the arms back in place. So you've got this going on then you're going to take the weapons and they will plug into these holes down here on the legs. There's one and the second. So there you go that is Skullgren in Cybertronian tank mode. You can see he's got some tracks there molded in on the side. That is a very unique looking tank and actually rolls pretty good. He's got a big rolling wheel right there two little wheels underneath but that's it. It's weird but I dig it. My biggest problem with mine is the barrels here up top are very loose and they don't like to point straightforward plus I've got a loose leg right there. So that is the Cybertronian tank mode. It's a I guess it's a good tank if you want to shoot out the wheels of another vehicle those guns are really low on the bottom but it's cool. I dig it. I like this one. He's one of my more favorite pretender alt modes. That little thing does not want to stay in. So there you go that is one final look at Skullgren in his alt mode. Now for some size comparison here is 1988 Skullgren with Generation 1 Optimus Prime, War for Cybertron Siege Soundwave and Laserbeak and the little tiny power of the Prime Skullgren. Generation 1 Skullgren is one of my absolute favorite pretenders. I love the molded detailing on the shell and the old Skull Metal fan in me appreciates his hard rock look. I mean he is so cool looking, so medieval. I dig it. He's very unique among the other pretenders. Robot mode is not bad either. He's a nice decent looking robot. He's not very lanky like the other pretenders and he doesn't have an overgrown head like some of the others as well. His alt mode though different works for the figure and it looks like an alt mode. He just doesn't look like he's folded in half. So guys there you have it. 1988's Generation 1 Skullgren. So does a Generation 1 Skullgren belong in your collection? Without a doubt. I love this toy. He is so cool looking both in demon mode and the inner robot. This guy is awesome. He really stands out on your shelf. So yeah you see him pick him up and fortunately this one's easy to come by on the secondary market. You can usually find one on eBay fairly cheap. So yeah highly highly recommended. And guys I want to thank you for stopping by and checking out my video. Don't forget to like and don't forget to subscribe. I try to put out new videos at least once or twice a week just depends on my schedule. Also check out my series The Sitrep where I sit down with other Transformer collector YouTubers and we just shoot the bowl about our favorite robots in disguise. And I also want to thank you my audience for helping me reach 1400 subscribers. So I am really excited about that. My personal goal is I would love to have 2000 subs by TFCon. Yeah getting some change in the jar here. Guys I appreciate you watching. This is Patriot Prime. Signing out. Hoorah!