It's so considerate when a figure sums up the entire review right there in its name!
A snorting, belching bully with a nasty temper. Drips grease and oil from his mouth and emits billowing black clouds of noxious black smoke from his nostrils. Enjoys destroying anything that stands in his way,
particularly Autobots. In robot mode, uses flamethrower tail to incinerate his enemies. Also armed with a concussion blaster. Range: 12 miles. Binary-bonded to the nebulan, Kreb, a former talk show host with obnoxious manners.
The original Terri-Bull (from which we copied that bio) was released in 1988, the second year of the Headmasters gimmick. Age of the Primes Terri-Bull is part of the same Target-exclusive set as Bumper, Ultra Magnus, and Nemesis Prime, because there's apparently some rule that says every set needs at least one absolute clunker - if they did four good figures in a four-pack, people would start to expect that all the time!
The design of the robot is very wide and blocky, which really doesn't look great. Not a lot of tech detailing in the sculpt, either. In addition to the whole "removable head" thing, the '80s Headmasters also
had a gimmick whereupon attaching said head would also drop a panel on the chest, revealing built-in Tech Specs for the character. It's exactly as dumb as it sounds, but Terri-Bull pays homage to that - not by having a panel that moves, but simply by having that permanently sculpted on the front of the chest. "Yay." Apparently his Spd and Int are medium, while his Str is a bit more. This isn't the first Headmaster who's been updated for Generations, and it's not like the others were burdened with this crap. Sucks to suck, Terri!
This figure is a fairly extensive retooling
of Skullsmasher, and so has the same kind of articulation: neck, shoulders, biceps, elbows, forearms, waist, hips, thighs, knees, and feet. The joints aren't even remotely as loose and wobbly as they were on that figure, all moving smoothly and holding their position well. His weapons include two blasters: one single-barrelled gray rifle with a targeting sight on top (same Skullsmasher had), and a dual-barrelled blue thing with... wings? on the sides.
Terri-Bull technically got a figure during Titans Return: one of
the "Titan Masters," which were just an excuse to release various Headmaster heads that weren't otherwise going to get a real toy. So you would get a tiny robot that turned into a disembodied head, and a little tank/plane/gun for them to ride. The traditional Terri-Bull head has red eyes, a yellow mouthplate, and a blocky blue "helmet" section. It's a very "Optimus Prime" kind of look, which generally makes him look less evil than you might expect from a slimy Decepticon.
Naturally, the head can be removed from the robot and unfolded
to become a little bot of its own, standing just over 1⅜" tall. Back in the '80s, the little one was called Kreb, and before becoming a robot head he was a Nebulan talk show host known for his obnoxious style and blatant rudeness. Given the fact the original toy came out in 1988, it's pretty apparent this personality is based on Morton Downey Jr. Considering almost no one knows who Morton Downey Jr. is today (other than being the reason one of the Koopa Kids is named that, or for being the loudmouthed TV guy in Predator 2), just know that he was Jerry Springer before Jerry Springer was Jerry Springer. Tiny little Kreb has a gray body with blue limbs, and his face is painted gold, just like the full head's mouthplate.
Skullsmasher's engineering carries over to Terri-Bull's conversion process: remove the Headmaster, flip the altmode head down, rotate the forearms and tuck the hands away, open the bottoms of the feet, fold the legs over at the knees, and combine the two guns into one and slide the resulting piece into the back to simulate a tail. There's one step that makes no sense, though: the instructions take the time to specifically call out the small tabs on the sides of the chest, suggesting that the elbows are supposed to plug into them somehow. They do not. What the diagram is trying to tell you is that the elbows merely rest there, which is the dumbest, most incomplete bit of design ever conceived. What the hell, Terri-Bull?
Despite what the name might suggest, and the fact he has big horns, Terri-Bull does not turn into a bull. Like we've said before, all the 1988 Decepticon Headmasters were weird chimeras - a wolfbat, a crab... thing, and, in Terri-Bull's case, a dogbull. It's legally not a Ghostbusters Terror Dog, because that would have required paying licensing fees even in the '80s, but come on: it's a Ghostbusters Terror Dog. Missed opportunity to give Ectotron an arch-enemy!
The... creature's mouth opens, which is fun, but also gives us a clear view of how the top teeth are painted, but the bottom teeth are not. The horns are unattached in the package, and are actually included
on a separate sprue. They're the same pink as the claws on the front feet, but that is a problem: also like those claws, the horns are molded in blue plastic and then painted; which would be fine, except ou remember how we said they're on a sprue? Paint can only be applied to a surface of an object, not the interior, so when you pop the pieces off the plastic they were molded on, there are now two little blue spots marring the pink.
Even back in the day, Terri-Bull could easily have functioned without a removable head; it's just that that was the gimmick they were going for, so that's the way he was made. Because of that, Kreb needs somewhere to go when it's altmode time, so there's a hatch on the animal's back that can open to reveal a full compartment where the Headmaster robot can sit. He can't see out of it or anything, it's basically just storage, the equivalent of putting a body in your trunk.
This Age of the Primes four-pack is the best Target has gotten yet. Normally we're lucky if there are two TFs worth getting, but this box upped that to three. Unfortunately, Terri-Bull is the loser of the set, the weak afterthought that doesn't quite manage to drag the whole thing down, but certainly isn't any part of the appeal. If you were very lucky or smart, you waited until the set went on clearance after Giftsmas and got it for 50% off, but even if you (like me) got it before that, it's still one of the better values they've had.
-- 02/24/26
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