Got my latest shipment from the plastic crack factory today (aka Hasbro Pulse). Revel in the plastic crack!

So, Toxitron is one of the more infamous aborted concept toys known to the fandom at large. He was originally conceived for the Transformers: Universe toy line from 2003, and would have been an evil Decepticon using the G2 Laser Optimus Prime mold. The random, pointless redeco toys found in Universe (purple Fuzor Silverbolt, Depth Charge colored like Boba Fett, etc.) didn't really resonate with customers and Toxitron was never produced. The hand-painted sample ended up being showcased a few years later, and it didn't take too long for him to become infamous for his immensely ugly awesomeness. The idea of Toxitron as an Optimus Prime redeco has insinuated itself into the collective consciousness (there's a version of him in the Animated universe that talks like Bizarro; there have been some convention exclusives in his likeness, and the third-party toy makers tend to flirt with the idea as well) but this is the first mass-produced version that actually looks like G2 Laser Prime.

His box includes the right half of the Legacy character battle scene poster.. Stack the package up against the tiger Grimlock packaging, and you get the entire poster. It's the same line art we've seen before, but it's colored in bright, comic book style G2 colors.

Toxitron comes packaged in truck mode, so let's start there. For anyone who perhaps hasn't bought the Legacy version of G2 Prime or the Black Convoy versions, the trailer is disproportionately small, when compared to the size of the cab. The cab itself is actually longer than the trailer portion, which just shouldn't ever be the case. I'm not sure precisely what happened between 1995 and now that is preventing Hasbro from selling Transformers who turn into trucks with massive trailers, but it's certainly disappointing. That's an old complaint, but worth revisiting.

The color scheme is a light olive green for most of the cab section (with a purple G2 Decepticon symbol on the roof, even though this toy concept wasn't actually proposed for G2), purple tires with black rims, and a mostly black trailer with some purple components on the top. So, he's sort of Constructicon-themed, even though that's not quite the idea behind the original deco. The original concept toy had the name "TOXITRON" emblazoned on the sides of the trailer; the new toy doesn't quite have the real estate to pull that off effectively, but it does at least include the deco of the orange toxic "sludge" pouring down the sides of the tanker trailer. The purple tires are not authentic to the original concept, but they're still cool, and they further cement the Constructicon connection (Scavenger had purple treads). The windows visually read as red in color, though they're actually closer to pink if you hold them up to the light.

One of the greatest things about the original Laser Prime toy was how simple and easy but stunningly effective his transformation was. This toy doesn't duplicate that at all. Once you manage to remember this toy's insanely complex transformation and get him into robot mode, though, he looks pretty good. His robot mode is closely modeled after his concept version, with the upper torso mostly a gunmetal color, green used for the shoulders and forearms and lower legs, and purple used for the head, fists, abdomen, and details on the body. Just about the only color mapping they missed was the feet (purple on the concept toy, green for Legacy) and some purple detailing missing on the knees and upper legs and pelvis. You can even fold the shoulder towers to the sides (not sure why the Transformers wiki claims they're immovable) to emulate the mistransformed photos of the hand-painted concept toy, which may be the version of Toxitron most people are familiar with.

The missile pods contained in his shoulder towers are a translucent sparkly orange, as is the Matrix in his chest (it has no official name, but given the souce material, I'd suggest the Matrix of Toxicity). The Matrix itself is entirely sparkly orange plastic and is unpainted. He comes with a translucent plastic axe and sword (sort of lime green in normal lighting, more like yellow when held up to a bright light source). No real surprises when the trailer unfolds into its battle station mode—black and purple, with a grey mechanical arm. No paint operations on any of the inside panels (I had sort of been half-hoping for more of that orange sludge, but sadly that was not to be).

Given its history, it's honestly really surprising we finally got a proper verison of Toxitron at all. It's pretty reasonable that they named the entire capsule line after him, given the infamy he's managed to achieve in the last fifteen years or so. (It's also shocking how much he's already going for on eBay, especially considering this entire toy line is, essentially, made up of non-characters.) In my mind, at least, he's kind of always inhabited this "yeah, wouldn't it be great, but it will never happen" sort of space, so it's pretty amazing that they finally decided to go for it. Is he important? Is he significant? No, he's gross. But he still gets girls!

Zob (do they have 12-step recovery groups for plastic crack addiction...?)