As members of Generation 1’s largest combiner team, Rampage and his comrades’s are each as large as a 1986 “Scramble City” team leader. The menacing robotic animals formed Predaking, one of the few combiners not sourced from Diaclone or unused Jizai Gattai designs. Rampage is a red, black and orange robotic Panthera tigris tiger.
Origins
Rampage was designed by Teruo Kitamura. His US Patent, titled Reconfigurable animal toy tiger (aka Transformers G1 Rampage) was filed on December 13, 1985 (U.S. Patent No. USD298561 S).
Description
Rampage transforms into a bulky robotic tiger. He is primarily red and bright orange, with black legs and tail. He is largely decorated with gold stickers, often featuring rivet designs to give the appearance of armor plating. He has articulated jaws, legs, and neck, and can attach his two black guns to his shoulders to form an attack mode. Rampage transforms by folding his hind tiger legs up, and extending the robot's lower legs. The robot’s arms extend from the sides of the tiger torso, and the front legs of the tiger fold into the gaps left by the robot arms. After the tiger head is slid on a track onto the robot chest, the robot face flips up from between his shoulders. Rampage’s robot mode is blocky and muscular, with bulky, short limbs. His face features yellow-painted eyes, but otherwise he has little decoration not also seen in his alternate mode. He can wield any combination of his two black rifles and his gold sword. Rampage can transform into Predaking’s right arm by folding up his legs in tiger mode, moving his tiger head down, and extending the rectangular connector. He includes a right fist which attaches between the legs, but he can theoretically form either arm of Predaking.
Collector Notes
Rampage’s stocky design makes him quite sturdy. Even his tail, the narrowest part, is made of a hard rubber instead of ABS plastic, making it resistant to breakage.
Variants
Rampage has two primary variations, like most 1986 toys. The earlier version has a die-cast metal waist piece, painted red, and the elongated raised area on either side of his sword blade was sharply defined by a sculpted indentation. At some point, the raised area was blended smoothly into the blade surface, and later in 1986 production switched to an all-plastic waist. All versions of Rampage feature a rubsign on the tiger’s back.
Availability
Rampage was available worldwide (except the United Kingdom) in 1986. In Japan, he was available in a Predaking gift set in 1986. He was available in the US again in 1987. Rampage was re-issued in Japan in 2004, nearly identical to the 1986 metal-waisted giftset version. He recieved a second Japanese reissue in 2010, branded with the “Welcome to 2010” logo. This version again uses the metal waist, and features a redesigned sticker sheet. A similar version was released in the US in 2013’s Platinum Edition Predaking.
Redecos & Retools
Rampage’s mold has not been re-used.