Minimates Central

2013
23.04

Gruntos & Scalpus – Battle Beasts: TRU Exclusive Wave 1

Category: Battle Beasts / Tag: BBtruw1 / Add Comment

Back for more Battle Beasts action with a two pack exclusive from Toys R Us. Another snake and one massive walrus make up this set. Read on and let’s see which one comes out King of the Beasts….

Packaging

The packaging is the blister card pack showcasing the figures and accessories. And the top of the card has the large Battle Beasts logo with several of the characters from the comics. The pack has an insert with the Minimates logo along with headshots of each of the characters on either side. The back shows all the figures in this wave along with short bio of each of the two characters included. The silver “TRU exclusive” foil mark is also on the front.

The Figures

Gruntos

I am the eggman, they are the eggmen. I am the walrus! Well actually this is the walrus and his name is Gruntos. Here’s his bio: As ferocious a fighter as he is an eater, Gruntos is loyal to Vorin and Merk, and will defend his comrades as enthusiastically as he defends his plate. He has always wanted to fight an orca, and still hopes to some day. There is a LCS version of him too with muted colors with added sparkle.

Gruntos is a massive figure with a lot of layers. He has a cool sculpted walrus head cover with attached metal collar/armor. I really love the little details like the folds on the back of his neck and the one broken tusk. This piece is a head cover so there is a blank tan minimate head underneath.

His torso cover is wonderfully sculpted with several levels of his belly folds (front and back) along with metallic silver paint apps for armor. There are two little peg holes on his shoulder blades which his weapons fit into. Underneath is an added bonus, rather than a blank torso he has muscle and tattoo detail there too. You can’t really use his headpiece with the smaller torso since the attached collar makes the proportions look way out of balance. But it’s a great piece to mix and match with other figures. His gauntlets and boots are huge with lots and lots of details and good paint apps; but the weight of them can be such that they tend to fall off often. For the added bulk his base minimate body has a torso riser along with shoulder and thigh pieces. Good news is they used the full wrap around shoulder pieces however with the heavy paint apps it’s kind of hard to remove those so be careful if you don’t want to scratch the paint. To me the torso riser along with waist-cover tends to make that area a trouble spot for coming apart. I’m thinking the waist peg needed to be longer or have the riser attached to the waist-cover.

For accessories Gruntos comes with two heavy duty weapons: a double-bladed axe and a mega hammer. Both are top notch with lots of little details and nice metallic paintjob. And like the other figures we’ve seen in this line so far, he is great for customizing. There are so many extra pieces and parts for creating other figures or mix ‘n matching with other Beasts to create your own.

In conclusion he’s another outstanding figure. The sheer size of all of his accessories and parts is a plus and a minus. They look great but you may have some pieces come off from time to time.

MMC Score – 9 out of 10

Scalpus

Scalpus is another rattlesnake like his LCS version brethren. He has a different bio: Scalpus is a soldier in the personal army of one of the beast warlords. When the news came in that the Praxis of Hope, one of the remaining Dread Weapons, had been found, his master boarded his ship and set a course for earth.

This figure is exactly like Strictus but with a different paint job (check out the LCS review for more parts/figures detail). He doesn’t have the sparkle mixed into the paint apps but does have a brighter leaf green skin tone and shiny metallic silver for his armor and bracelets. His weapons are also the same two short and long sword blades with connecting handles but the metal is done in a metallic silver rather than the dull grey of the LCS version.