Prelude: Legal stuff first as always. Thanatos is not a product released by Hasbro or Takara-Tomy and thus not officially a Transformers toy. He hails from third party company TFC Toys and is clearly meant to be Killbison of the Breastforce, but for legal reasons he can’t be called by that name. Instead he gets his name from one of the Greek incarnations of Death, more specifically he is the god of gentle death and brother of Hypnos, god of sleep. Now this figure doesn’t seem to have much in the way of gentleness about it, but the death part? Yeah, it fits with that, I guess.

Robot Mode: Everything about Thanatos’ robot mode underlines his image as the big bruiser type. He’s big, he’s beefy, he’s got big guns on his back and tank tracks on his legs and arms. He never leaves any doubt as to what he transforms into and his big legs seem all set to stomp all over stuff, too. In other words: a perfect example of the figure telling you everything you need to know about the character.

Articulation and detailing leave no room for complaint, either. The way the figure is put together puts some minor limitations on his posing ability, such as with the big shoulder pieces, but apart from that: no restrictions. In terms of weapons he has his breastplate gun (see below) plus a feature that seems earmarked for me: shoulder guns. If you’ve been reading my reviews for a while, you know I love shoulder guns. The two guns from the tank turret on Thanatos’ back can swivel up and be brought to bear over his shoulders. Very nice.

All in all, a robot mode that does pretty much everything right. It tells you about the character, it has no flaws worth mentioning, and it has shoulder guns. What else can I say but: two thumbs up!

Alternate Mode: Thanatos transforms into a German KMW Gepard anti-aircraft tank. Now the transformation does look pretty simple and straightforward, as Thanatos basically just lies down on his stomach and tucks in arms and legs. It’s a bit more involved than that, though, and I advise using the instruction sheet the first time, as the integrated combiner components need to be rearranged quite a bit. Once done, though, Thanatos becomes a pretty good looking tank with a fully rotating gun turret, nicely sculpted details, and no flaws I can see. No visible robot bits to mess up the look, either. Thanatos’ breast plate / partner / gun can be mounted in gun mode on top of the turret to increase the fire power further. So bottom line: a well-done tank mode. No complaints.

Partner / Add-On: Being a member of the Breastforce, Thanatos comes with a detachable breast plate that transforms into a gun and a small animal, in his case a bull. With Killbison the animal was called Bisonbreast, the TFC version doesn’t have a name of its own. Anyway, it works well in all three modes. Not spectacular, but a nice implementation of a somewhat silly gimmick.

Combiner Mode: Thanatos transforms into one of the legs of the Hades combiner, right or left. The leg is basically the tank stood upright with one half of the front folding down in order to allow the knee joint to bend. Interestingly, the combiner foot is actually part of the figure, not a separate piece, which… yeah, I can’t really think of any other combiner apart from the various incarnations of Devastator (who doesn’t really have proper feet as such) who does that, at least not since the original Liokaiser. Nicely done. Anyway, I’ll do a separate review on Hades once I’ve got the team together.

Remarks: In any given group of bad guys there needs to be the big brute. The big strong guy, not too bright, prone to violence, and not good for much else. In the Victory cartoon, Killbison filled that role in the Breast Force. He didn’t really do much else except take part in various battles and become part of Liokaiser whenever the powerful combiner assembled. At the end of the series, still combined with his teammates, he simply drifted off into space, not to be seen again. Recently Killbison was seen in the IDW comics, hovering in the background of Deathsaurus’ war world.

As for the toy itself, TFC is really impressing me with the Hades team so far. Thanatos is one of the best tank Transformers I’ve seen yet and manages to incorporate the combiner kibble into the figure without it being dragged down by that in any way (except maybe making the transformation a bit harder). He looks great, he has no flaws, and he has shoulder guns. What’s not to love about this guy? Okay, the price tag, but otherwise? Recommended, even as a stand-alone figure.

Rating: A-

Source: Transformers Universe