Fans Hobby Hangman

Prelude: Look, Hangman is here! No, not the wrestling guy from AEW! No, not that stick figure you drew as part of the children’s game, either. It’s Hangman, the newest figure in Fans Hobby’s convention-exclusive line of Euro-G1 based figures. It’s the unofficial Masterpiece version of G1 Predator Snare and we’re going to find out whether he’s worth the price of a convention-exclusive figure. Let’s say go!

Robot Mode: Hangman is a retool of Marksman, whom I have previously reviewed. So I invite you to read that review first, if you haven’t already. Done? Good, now let’s look at what’s been changed for this figure here.

First off, the colors have changed. Patterned after G1 Predator Snare, Hangman is mostly red and black with some colored highlights and a green cockpit on his chest. The colors work very well and make him resemblance his (much, much smaller) G1 counterpart nicely. So no complaints here. Hangman also received a new mouthplate, featuring some molded detailing that looks like fangs. Here, too, the original G1 figure stood as reference and the resemblance is quite nice.

Finally, the wings. If you have them folded back, you don’t really see much of a difference to Marksman’s silhouette, but unfolding them shows you that Hangman has forward-swept wings in jet mode, meaning his wingtips point upward here in robot mode. And again, this strongly resembles the look of G1 Snare. 

And that’s pretty much it in terms of changes. Apart from those, Hangman is very much the same figure Marksman was, both in good and bad ways. He still looks great, has the cool golden missile launchers, but he also has that somewhat wobbly hip and the pretty tight joints. So bottom line: great new paint job for a robot that’s pretty good overall, but does have some hang-ups (see what I did there?).

Alternate Mode: Hangman received some retooling for his alternate mode, so instead of transforming into the same F-16 Fighting Falcon jet Marksman did, he instead transforms into something that indeed strongly resembles the jet mode of the original G1 Snare, a jet with forward-swept wings based on the design of the Northrop Grumman X-29. It’s not an exact match, as Hangman retains large parts of the F-16 chassis. It’s really just the outer wing pieces that were replaced, as well as the removal of the rear side fins, but overall it does work pretty well.

Apart from those changed pieces, it’s the same jet as before, just in red with some black. Personally I adore jets with forward-swept wings, so I am somewhat partial to this thing here. One thing I noticed on Hangman that I missed on Marksman is that the cover for the Powermaster socket can not just fold upward, it can also simply be removed if you want, so you’ll have same open socket you had on the G1 Powermasters Darkwing and Dreadwind. 

Hangman is also capable of combining with Wingman (or the no doubt upcoming Wingman-retool meant to become G1 Falcon) into a super jet, too, just like Hangman. Whether this combination looks better than Marksman/Wingman is entirely subjective, of course.

So bottom line for the jet mode: a very nice retool into a jet design I really like. Maybe a bit more retooling to the chassis could have made it look even more like the Grumman X-29 (extra stabilizers on the sides of the cockpit would have worked wonders), but otherwise I’m pretty happy with this.

Remarks: Snare, better known as the Predator with the forward-swept wings, was part of the 1992 Euro-G1 assortment and apart from his character profile, which described him as the crazy loner, there was no more to know about him. It was only when he appeared in IDW’s Last Stand of the Wreckers comic book series that he got something resembling a character. Snare aided the Wreckers in breaking Overlord’s reign of terror over Garrus-9 and paid for it with his life.

Fans Hobby didn’t really have any other jet Transformer ready to be retooled into their Snare, so reusing the same figure used for Marksman is okay, if not terribly original. It also pretty much cements that we’ll get Falcon as a Wingman-retool, the only question remaining is what kind of “man” he will be (I’d love it if they called him Birdman). Still hoping they’ll make a figure representing Energon Megatron for their mainline, which can then be retooled into Skyquake. We’ll see.

Bottom line: if you’re like me, a huge fan of the Euro-G1 Transformers, then there should be no question that you’re getting this figure, limited edition or not. If you have zero interest in the G1 Predators, though, you can find other Masterpiece-sized Jet-Formers for a much better price, I’m sure.

Rating: B 

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