TRANSFORMERS: Revisiting the Characters of Generation 1 - RIPPERSNAPPER

 TRANSFORMERS:  Revisiting the Characters of Generation 1

    "Autobots are an error I intend to correct." - Rippersnapper, 1987.

DECEPTICON

Name - RIPPERSNAPPER

Function - Terrorist

Series Debut - 1987 / Wave 4

Sub-Group - Terrorcon

BACKGROUND...

    Rippersnapper is a nice fellow with a polite, peachy disposition.  Always smiling and with nothing but a kind word for all he meets!  Okay, no, not really!  That's just sarcasm for no good reason!  In reality, Rippersnapper is a ferocious creature who absolutely despises all carbon-based lifeforms.  His disgust for them runs so deep that he can't even stand their smell!  He shares this hatred for Autobots as well!

    Rippersnapper is a member of the Terrorcons, a team of Decepticons who transform into bizarre, terrifying creatures.  Rippersnapper, himself, turns into something that resembles a gray shark with arms and legs.  In this mode, he has razor-sharp teeth and claws that can cut through nearly any substance.  In addition, he also carries twin launchers on his back that are capable of firing ground-to-air, voice-guided missiles.  As a robot, he carries a Cyclone Gun.  Rippersnapper can also merge with his teammates to form the giant robot - Abominus!

    Rippersnapper and the Terrorcons surfaced as frontline fighters for the Decepticons after the defeat of Unicron in 2005.  He was part of the team that Galvatron sent to retrieve a new kind of heat-resistant metal.  They succeeded, but the metal was later retrieved and used by Optimus Prime to stop the Hate Plague.

MY THOUGHTS...

    Okay, first of all let's talk about the name - "Rippersnapper".  I have always thought that was a cool name!  My buddies and I used to play the computer version of Dungeons & Dragons and I would often use the name "Rippersnapper" for one of the characters in my group.  

    Second of all, this was the first Terrorcon my friend's and I got to see.  I remember someone at my school found it, bought it and brought it to the lunch table the next day.  Whoever that was, they did not bring the accessories.  I thought the character looked like a gray weasel with some mean teeth.  Yet, when I eventually got the figure for myself, seeing the back cannon-piece that had the shark fin on it, the look became more clear.  Rippersnapper was like a bipedal shark-type creature.  The figure became much cooler in my eyes after that.

    Despite the fact the Terrorcons didn't see a lot of media attention, I thought they were cool!  They were wild, unruly, and terribly destructive - just what Galvatron needs to take on the Heroic Autobots!  I went out and bought all of them one by one as my allowance would permit.  

    Standing in for G1 Rippersnapper is Power Of The Primes Rippersnapper from 2018.  While the shark fin is underplayed, the figure is still a great improvement over the original.  I really like this updated version!

I clipped this off of the packaging of one of my original G1 Terrorcons back in the day.  I still have it!

    (Information on the character's lore was taken from the Sunbow Transformers cartoon series, including the Movie and the figure's original Tech-Spec.)