Small Pretenders, BIG Attitude: A Deep Dive into G1 Bludgeon, Octopunch, & Stranglehold

Patriot Prime Reviews is a channel for adult collectors and may not be suitable for children under 13 years of age. Viewer discretion is advised. In the latter years of generation 1, the Transformers introduced us to the Pretenders. Transformers that would hide within organic shells. And love them or hate them, the Pretenders pretty much took over the end of the generation one toy line. You had the regular pretenders, small pretenders, ultra pretenders, mega pretenders, beast pretenders, and vehicle pretenders. Now, the pretenders arrived a little too late to appear in the animated series, but they were fleshed out in Marvel comics, which brings me to the subject of this video, the smaller Decepticon Mayhem attack squad. These guys weren't the greatest toys, but they were awesome characters thanks to some fantastic storytelling in Marvel comics. 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These guys made their first appearance in Marvel Comics issue number 60 where Lord Thunderwing sent this trio off to kill the Autobots Bumblebee, Grimlock, and Jazz. And during a battle at Cybertron's core, Octopunch here accidentally shot Primus in the face via a ricochet and kicked off a huge storyline that didn't end till issue number 70. After that, Bludgeon here ended up becoming the leader of the Decepticons. So, enough of me rambling on about these characters. Let's take a look at these wild Generation One toys. Don't forget to like, don't forget to subscribe, and welcome to Patriot Prime Reviews. >> Patriot Prime Transformers. And here we have the Mayhem Attack Squad in their full glory. From left to right, we have Strangle Hold, Octopunch, and Bludgeon. Now, in Marvel Comics, they took a little bit of creative liberty and gave these characters weapons that the toys did not come with. Stranglehole got a flail, Octopunch got a trident, and Bludgeon got a samurai sword. Why he didn't come with one to begin with blows my mind because he is a skeleton samurai. So, these weapons came from other figures, and I'll go into that more when we take a look at the individual figures themselves. And we'll do that right now. Starting with Stranglehold, who's kind of the oddball of the group because he is very human looking. And as far as the Decepticon pretenders went, they didn't do the humans. They did monsters and creatures other than classic Starscream. He was another human-based character, but Strangle Hold here is supposed to be a Cybertronian wrestler, and he just looks odd. Very gladiator looking. Bring him in for a closer look. He's got a sweet stash. Pretty good paint applications as well as far as the eyes are concerned. The mustache is all painted. This bandelier is painted red, but then goes up into this fleshcoled armor here on the shoulders. That's a toy hack decal I added to kind of make it look like he had a t. Let's see. We got some drawers right there that are very well sculpted. I love the detailing on that. Armor on the shoulder. We got armor for the wrists. And this whole arm here is all armored up. Then he's got some knee high boots. On the back, he's got a massive backpack with lots of sculpted in details. And he's got a shield on his arm as well. Now, the figure originally came with this blaster here. And the shield, the flail, I believe that came from Animated Swoop. I just went on eBay looking for a toy flail to give this guy to make him look more comic booky, and that worked. I love the fact it's on a chain. Now, as far as articulation is concerned, he's a pretender. The only thing you can do is the arms can do a complete 360 and that's it. Now, of course, the gimmick with the pretenders is the pretenders hide the transformer inside. So, let's get him split open and take a look at his inner bot. We need to take the helmet off first. And you can see he's really cool Bert Reynolds hairstyle right there. We're also going to remove this shoulder pad. And let's go ahead and split him in half. revealing the inner bot. So, we're going to remove the innerbot and the smaller weapon right there that's pegged into the leg. Let's go ahead and get the shell clip back together and we'll put it over here to the side. Put that helmet on. All right, taking the inner bot. Let's go ahead and transform it into robot mode. These bots go in the shells half transform. So, for him, we just extend the legs. Take these green legs, fold those back, rotate those forward. And there's Strangle Hold's inner robot. Kind of a orange and green basic looking bot. He does have toy hex decals on him because the original figure didn't have very many decals at all. Decent enough face sculpt right there. It's green. Got that decal peeling right there. Of course, that's been on there for quite some time. Lots of nice sculpted detailing on him, but he's pretty basic, pretty generic. We can give him his pistol. Go ahead and put it in his hand like so. And as far as the shield goes in robot mode, there's nowhere to put this. So, usually I will keep that on the shell, but we'll need that for his beast mode, which we'll get into right now. Well, let's go go ahead and go over articulation. Arms can do a complete 360. And that's it. So, very basic bot. Now to transform into beast mode. Super simple. Take the beast head. Flip that up. Flip the arms around like so. Flip the legs up and under the body and rotate the green legs around just like that. Now you're going to take this shield section and it it's going to peg into his back right here where I've made that little hole right there where the legs go together. Make sure his little pointy section is facing back. You're going to peg that in. And there we have Strangle Hold in his beast mode, which is a little cute rhinoceros. And see the little pointy section there that becomes the rhinoceros tail. Uh it's uh it's goofy. It's different. Lots of great sculpted detailing. You got little horns right there. You can make out the mouth. I like the armor plating. could definitely use some more paint applications or some more decals. But yeah, that's that's it as far as the gun is concerned. You can peg the gun on the back of the rhinoceros. So there there you have Strangle Hold in beast mode, all armed and ready for battle. So, let's bring in Octopunch here, who has this Trident that once again I went on eBay to find a trident weapon. And I believe that came from the 2000 Masters of the Universe series. And unfortunately, it's got a little bend in it right there, but hell, it works. Now, something extra I also did for my Octopunch, if you notice right there, I put in a lens for his diving helmet. the original figure that you can just punch your finger all the way through. There was no lens. I just cut a little piece off of a water bottle and taped in there. I think that looks really good. You can make out his yellow eyes. Now, I love the sculpted detailing on Octopunch. You got the hose right there with the controls. You got the skull right there on the belt buckle. The paint applications with the monster legs. You can kind of tell they're scaly that go down into these pointy toes. Let's see. We got more armor here on the arms. And check out the molded in tentacles with the suckers. I just dig that. That looks so cool. It's got a big old blaster right there that ends in a point on the back. He does have these little leg sections. And I guess that could be a air tank, maybe a air compressor. So, all in all, man, I love his uh pretender shell. Looks really, really cool. Now, if you want to see something really cool is check this out. Removing the helmet. You got to be careful. I don't want to pop that lens out. But check out the monster head. I dropped one of the claws. Check out the monster head that's hid under the helmet. Look at the detail on that. That is amazing. He's got a metal plate on the head. You can kind of make out this brain looking thing. There's some uh discs on the side of the head. He's got tusks. Some paint applications on that would have been amazing. But still, the sculpted detailing is not too bad. Very monstrous. I just feel that's a lot of wasted potential hidden behind that diving helmet. You can see how I got that taped in right there. So, let's go ahead and get his innerbot out. I've already had one claw section pop off. So, go ahead and pull this one off. Set that to the side. And we're going to split octa punch in half. Mine's a little tight. You always want to be careful pulling these apart cuz sometimes if you pull too hard, you can uh throw your inner bot across the floor. Across the room, rather. He's sticking. There we go. So, he's already falling out. So, anyway, there's the innerbot, and he's pretty much already transformed. His gun fell out, too. That's supposed to peg in right there. See that little hole right there? So, you put those to the side. All right, let's go ahead and put the shell back together. Oh yeah, I forgot to show off the articulation for the shell. Super easy. Um, arms can do a complete 360. And that's it. And I think I messed up my helmet or my lens, but I'll fix that after a while. All right, so taking a look at Octopunch's inner bot. It It's not bad looking. Very generic. I do have some extra Toy Hacks decals on him to give him a little bit more flare. Pretty decent looking head sculpt right there with the visor, which once again is a Toy Hacks decal. The arms are molded in with an elbow bend articulation. Arms can do a complete 360. Legs can go out and in. And that's pretty much it. Now, you have a couple options for displaying Octopunch's inner robot mode. You've got these little claw sections that you can actually peg into the arms like so. And he's got that look going on, but you have nowhere for the blaster unless you peg it into his back. Now, if you want to use the blaster instead of pegging into his hand where it should go, it plugs into his arms right there at the bicep where the claws went. So, that's how he utilizes his blaster. I really wish they gave him a hole there on his hand. Well, maybe that wouldn't work, but at least something here on the side so he can kind of look like he holds the gun instead of plugging it into his arms. But when I display mine, I do display him with the claws on the arms like so. Kind of gives him a tarantulous look in a way, but I I just dig that. So, let's get Octopus transformed into his beast mode. And pretty simple. We're going to push the head down right here. Take the legs, bring the legs out, and bend them. Then you're going to open up these little sections right here, revealing crab claws. And now you're going to take your robot legs. Once again, make sure you line these up. See how these are angled? Just so. Make sure you get your left and right angled on here. Let's see. There we go. Yeah. Unfortunately, hunting an Octopunch down, you have to make sure and get the left and right leg, otherwise it's not going to work. So, there you go. There's Octopunch's crab mode. And I I guess it looks okay. Let's see. You can take your blaster and plug that in on top. He's got some beady red eyes. I like the spikes on the back. You got the claws that can open and close. Lots of articulation for the arms. This one's a little loose, but they can go back and forth. There's kind of a elbow bend right there. And that's it. So, we got a rhinoceros. We got a crab. So, now let's bring in Bludgeon. And this is the most well-known of the Mayhem attack squad. Mainly because he just has this cool skeletal samurai look. He's got that awesome collar scheme and a pretty badass name, Bludgeon. He's got this big old sword. Not sure where I got that. I'm thinking it may have been a Gundam model kit or something. It's just really, really long sword and I think it just absolutely fits with him. As I said earlier, do not understand why he wasn't given a sword since he's a skeleton samurai. He just came with that big white blaster. So, I'm going to take the sword out of his hand because it's kind of getting way of the camera so I can take a closer look at him. Love the head sculpt. Very, very skeletal. Little bit of extra paint applications would have really made that pop, but still looks really good. Lots of sculpted details on him. Pretty decent paint applications as well. He does have a few toy hacks decals, including that Decepticon insignia. The decals on the knees here on the back. He's got more armor with some Decepticon insignas. And that's it. Articulation. Arms can do a complete 360. And I guess that's it for the shell. So, let's get his inner robot out. Pop the helmet off. And I mean, the detail on the skull. Check this out. You can see the cracks. Love it. All right, let's pop him out. And his blaster fell out goes in his leg right here. Like so. So, you got the little blaster. Got Bludgeon inbot. Let's get him plugged up or put back together. Put here to the side. The sword in his hand. All right. And I'm going to go ahead and remove this shield section. All right. Let's go ahead and transform Bludgeon's robot mode. Just simply flip these sections around here. Flip the arms up. And there you go. There is the mighty Bludgeon's Innerbot. You talk about basic. He is pretty much just a brick. Now, he does have a his own designated Toyax decal set, which gives him a face, which is very comic booklike. Decepticon insignia, some yellow decals right there. Lots of sculpted details on the figure. Uh, articulation, arms can do a complete 360. You can give him his purple blaster, which plugs in right above his fist. So, there you have his inbot all armed and ready for battle. I guess if you wanted to, you could store this back section here on his back, but for my display, I always put that back on the shell's arm. So, let's get him transformed into his vehicle mode. He doesn't have a beast mode. Remove the gun. Straighten the arms. Push the head all the way in. Rotate these legs around. And you're going to take the shield section. Goes on top. Purple gun is going to plug in right there. And there you have Bludgeon in his vehicle mode, which is a green tank. More toyax decals there on the front and up here on the turret. Lots of sculpted detailing on this. I mean, they went all out with the sculpting. Uh I wish he had wheels. That would have been nice. The turret can rotate around and that's because it's just pegged in. But yeah, there you go. There is the Mayhem attack squad. their shells and the inner box. As I said earlier, they're not great toys, but still they got that awesome generation 1 charm. And now for some quick size comparisons. Here is 1989's Transformers Generation 1 Mayhem Attack Squad with Generation 1 Megatron, Generation 1 Thunderwing, Power of the Primes, Bludgeon, and Octopunch. Strangle Hold didn't get any love. and Transformers Legacy Bludgeon. The 1989 Transformers Generation 1 Decepticon Small Pretenders or Mayhem Attack Squad is definitely some unique bots to add to your collection. But be advised, finding these guys 100% complete can be a challenge. These are highly sought after figures, mainly due to the fact of how they were portrayed in Marvel comics. as I showed off. The toys aren't that great, but it's those awesome characters that really make these guys stand out. So, what do you guys think of the 1989 Mayhem Attack Squad? Let me know in the comments below. Now, guys, if you enjoyed the video, don't forget to like, don't forget to subscribe, and don't forget to click that bell icon to get notified when I upload new videos. Also, if you're in any position to help out the channel, I do offer channel memberships. And I have to give a huge shout out and thank you to all my current channel members because it's your support that helps keep this channel going. Once again, guys, this is Patriot Prime signing out. Hah. >> Patriot Prime Transformers reviews with a heartfelt view. Adding stickers, bringing life to dreams. In this small town, nothing's as it seems.