Kranix

There's more than one race of robots out there. Kranix encounters Hot Rod and Kup after they are captured by the Quintessons. If that doesn't make it clear, Kranix is a character from Transformers: The Movie. He's a native of Lithone, the planet Unicron eats in the movie's prologue. We see a bunch of non-Transformer robot people going about their lives, and then they all get munched. A few made it to the escape ships, but they were picked up and imprisoned and put on trial, which is how Glup Botto, here, got a few lines and just enough of a personality to warrant Hasbro making a toy of him 40 years later. You may be able to tell from the name, but Lithone was originally supposed to be a planet of rock-based lifeforms. And so Kranix, whose name may sound reminiscent of "cranium" and thus make you think he's supposed to be smart, was originally "Granix," named after granite. He does have a large, prominent head, but that's true of all the Lithonians, not something specific to him. In contrast to Cybertronians, who tend to have what are basically silver human faces inside robot helmets, Kranix's head is incredibly long and angular, and his face is flat. It really does sell the idea that he's from a different species. The toy does a wonderful job of capturing the character's design from the cartoon. He's got one of those overly ornate Floro Dery designs that got simplified for ease of animation, but it still has distinct shapes that are smoother and more rounded than Cybertronians are. His feet have three large, pointed claws sticking out the front and sides, there's layered armor on the thighs, and while the abdomen should be more concave and hollowed out, they're tried gamely to turn a drawing into plastic. Articulation is great, especially if you use some of the joints that are meant to convert between modes in order to make the arms move farther. I mean, how many toys can successfully slav-squat! He's even got an opening mouth, because that's part of his conversion! The ankles are balljoints, and are extremely stiff, but better that than too loose to stand, right? He's got a little gray pistol that looks like the nozzle from a gas pump, which isn't anything he used in the movie; maybe they couldn't figure out a way to make the tray of beakers he carries to his scientist boss(?) into something that could attach to the vehicle mode? To change Kranix, turn the arms to the outside, bend the elbows up, then rotate the shoulders so the hands are pointing down again; tip his head back and flatten the chin against his throat; open the waist panel, pull the nosecone from inside there out and hinge it up onto the front of the face, then close the panel again; open the panels on his lower legs, turn the feet to the outside, bring the shins up over the thighs, unfold the panel from his back, and push the legs together; hinge the arms out and down, then open the little wings on the sides of them so you can swing the elbow kibble up and put the hands away;then fold the wings down on the legs, and plug the gun into the top of the body. Kranix was never shown to have an altmode in the movie, but this isn't something the toymakers just made up, either: one draft of the script had the Lithonians escape their doomed planet by turning into spaceships themselves and just flying away, instead of riding in separate vehicles. That didn't make the final product, but a ship mode was designed, and that was seen in the Marvel comic adaptation. It's a goofy design, no question, with Kranix basically flying mouth-first into space - if the design at least hid his robot eyes, it might look better, but as is, this just looks like he's just thrown himself onto the cosmic Slip 'N Slide. Whee! There was another Lithonian who mostly shared Kranix's model, Arblus (just as Kranix was named after granite, Arblus was named after marble). Since he'd basically be this same toy in different colors, we can probably expect Hasbro to make one at some point, so you'll need to decide whether you like this mold in beige and pink, or if you'd prefer it in either gray and maroon (cartoon) or yellow and orange (comic) colors. -- 06/23/26 What color do you want the inevitable Arblus to be? Tell us on our message board, the Loafing Lounge.