Hasbro rightfully realised that if you’re going to do a Transformers movie at the height of the animated series’ popularity, you need to introduce a character that trumps them all. So in 1986 we got Unicron: a planet-sized Transformer that was capable of destroying entire worlds. Three decades later he’s back, as a a massive toy that’s now capable of destroying wallets too.
Unicron is the latest wild collectible to be introduced through Hasbro’s crowdfunding HasLab platform, following a 49-inch long replica of Jabba’s Sail Barge from Star Wars: Return of the Jedi that was successfully produced last year, and a 38-inch tall fully posable replica of Cookie Monster that was launched just last week, but hasn’t been fully funded yet.
The Transformers: War For Cybertron Unicron figure is equally gigantic, detailed, and impressive, standing a little over 27-inches tall in robot mode, and over 30-inches wide in planet mode. Yes, it fully transforms, thanks to more than 50 points of articulation making the figure endlessly posable as well. But at over 9kg in weight the figure requires a custom (and, thankfully, included) stand to support it while it’s in planet mode and you’re not playing with it.
Hasbro has created several Unicron figures in the years since The Transformers: The Movie was released, but none of them have had the scale and attention to detail the character — famously voiced by Orson Welles in one of his final roles — warranted. It’s the size of an entire planet, after all, and seeing it stand just a few inches over an Optimus Prime figure doesn’t feel right. This monstrosity finally remedies that.
Devoted Transformers collectors are not only going to have to shell out $817 for this one, they’re also going to have to do everything they can to convince their friends and fellow fans to back this campaign as well. Hasbro’s targeted a minimum goal of 8,000 backers before Unicron will officially go into production, with a deadline of August 31, 2019 for the required number of supporters to get on board.
If it does succeed, backers are still going to have to be patient for a little longer, as Hasbro estimates the collectible won’t ship until 2021 at the earliest. But if you’ve waited 33 years for the ultimate Unicron Transformer to add to your collection, what’s a year and a half longer?