Unique Toys Ordin Alberich

Unique Toys O-02 Alberich (Rippersnapper) Review

Our third-party Abominus had a leg, and now it has an arm!  My break from combiner teams didn’t last very long.  Even though I was fine with Troll as a standalone, Alberich ended up luring me back in.  And with that I officially commit myself to complete Unique Toys’ Ordin, or Abominus if you must.

Now you would think a biped Shark would be an immediate buy for me, and in most cases it would be.  However, I waffled on this figure quite a bit.  Mostly because in his shark mode he has a really long body that is very similar looking to the Age of Extinction’s Leader Class Grimlock.  Grimlock is supposed to look like a Tyrannosaurus Rex, and instead he ended up looking like some kind of giant mechanical seal (the mammal, not the one that was kissed by a rose on the grave).  A shark with arms and legs leaves a little more room for interpretation.  It also helps that his head actually has a pretty large range of motion up and down.  This enables him to get into multiple types of poses such as swimming, walking on all fours, or standing on two legs.  Alberich also has an additional job because he has to become an arm.  Grimlock, you only had one job!  What happened?

Whoever is designing Ordin’s bot team is on the ball.  Alberich’s transformation is fun and clever while not being overly tedious or difficult.  His tail is really the only thing that you may want to keep an eye out for while transforming him.  It’s connected to a long thing strip of plastic, so it’s best to keep your fingers positioned close to the joints while transforming him.  It’s never felt like something that will break, but when you drop $100 on a Transformer it’s best to take good care of it, look over, love it ….  I really enjoy the way they designed the arms to become his legs in shark mode, when I completed the transformation the first time I got that “oh that’s neat” feeling.

What really makes Alberich stand out is his big shark head.  The thing is just amazing because of its huge range of motion as well as the fact that it’s mouth can open and close.  While his bot-mode head is a fairly standard “Decepticon angry” look, his shark head is what brings all the personality to the table.  It’s unbelievably fun to mess around with.  I appreciate a figure that displays well and looks cool on the shelf.  But I have some next-level love for one that’s just silly, fun to fiddle with, and able to be put in silly poses.  Alberich really scratches that fun and silly itch of mine.

Unlike Troll, Alberich’s combiner part, Ordin’s hand, does not double as weapon.  However Alberich does come with what appear to be a couple of spear guns that can either be stored in a hole on the side of his dorsal fin, or he can hold them as a weapon.  There doesn’t appear to be any good place on the figure to store the hand, so try not to lose it between now and whenever we get all the robots to complete Ordin.  Unless of course you plan on displaying him as an arm from now until then.  Bless your heart if you display combiner limbs as their actual limbs when not combined.

Alberich is a damn fun figure.  It’s nice to get an enjoyable figure every once in a while because the serious side of this hobby can make you cranky and dumb (see: any message board ever).  If you want Alberich he’ll run you about $100 when all is said and done.  He’s pretty much the same price as Troll if not slightly less, so I’d imagine that the other two limbs will be similarly priced.  Unique Toys is really impressing me with this Ordin (Abominus) set.  They’ve really turned things around since Mania King and War Lord.  I give this set, thus far, a glowing recommendation.

Unique Toys Ordin Alberich

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