Welcome to Figures & Speech, Nerdist’s regular column by, for, and about grown-ups who still play with their toys but might want to know more before they buy.

In the 1988 movie Big, 12 year-old Josh Baskin, embodied by a magically grown-up Tom Hanks, is famously confused by a transforming robot toy that becomes a skyscraper, proclaiming, “I don’t get it!” and proceeding to pitch the idea of a robot that transforms instead into a dinosaur. Adults in the movie and in the audience laughed at the obvious disconnect, while kids realized that two years prior, there actually had been a Transformer that became both a futuristic building AND a dinosaur. His name was Trypticon, and he recently beat out Omega Supreme and Skorponok in a fan poll to determine the next titan class figure to be revamped for the new Transformers line. Obviously, fans DO get this massive triple-changer, whose shipping was delayed to reviewers like myself because Hasbro didn’t have sufficiently big boxes on-hand. At 20 inches tall, he is now the largest Decepticon figure ever made.

Check out the image above for a comparison with the 6-inch Nova Marvel Legends figure.

I thought, given the triple-change, that he’d be super complicated. I was actually quite wrong. First of all, the assembly is super easy. Though I will note that if you’re a mint-in-box collector, there’s no way to display this guy visibly. Unlike some previous Titans, he does not come in a window box. But he is well packed.

The initial transformation to spaceship is simple: snap on the legs, fold down the wings, et voila, there you have it.

A word of warning–the wings only connect at the very front, by the “toes,” so you’ll want to hold them in tight if you plan to vroom-vroom around the room. But if you’re wondering if a figure can sit inside the cockpit…yes, they can. Just pull up the front end…

…and in you go! 6-inch figures work great.

To turn it into a city/base, you essentially have to pull out the legs and turn them into platforms. Then it becomes a bit of a ramp/car launcher.

While this works as a staging ground for Transformers, it can also serve as an action diorama piece for other figures.

For example: the brand new Ego action figure from Guardians of the Galaxy, who utilizes the revolutionary new face scanning print process…and has it turn him into a drunk uncle with a toupee.

Also, what’s up with the loose torso joint?

The details on Ego are nice, but the face scan might be too computer-reliant. Compare, for example, to a recent Mattel Gal Gadot head, and you tell me which looks better.

It’s a good start, but could use a human touch afterward.

Ego comes with two heads, and in a package with Star-Lord, who’s basically a repaint of this year’s GOTG series one Star-Lord, but with walkman and a lighter T-shirt.

Yes, his head is the Chris Pratt sculpt and not the ersatz Beck Bennett one. My review sample of Ego was provided by Entertainment Earth, who sell the two-pack for $39.99. But back to Trypticon…

Be careful in play, as even my patio caused some scuffing on the translucent parts.

He comes with a sheet of foil stickers and YEAH CRAP THERE ARE TOO MANY.

I tried. I did. But after deciding this wasn’t really an improvement, I stopped:

That top chamber, by the way, is his stomach. Which is where smaller figures land after he EATS THEM!

Right, I forgot to mention the dinosaur transformation. Super easy. The front spaceship end becomes a tail, the head comes out of the rear, and the arms pop out of the sides.

His purple chestplate is a separate Transformer named Full-Tilt, who’s basically a Christopher Nolan Batmobile in purple with a driver–Necro–who becomes the head in robot mode.

Not the most exciting Deluxe Class Decepticon ever, but he transforms easily enough.

I guess the big question is whether or not the figure is worth $150 to you. An extra feature that’s cool is all his little corridors and storage areas:

I’ve paid over $100 for a NECA 18-inch figure. This has some cooler features than that, and it has personality. If you want to buy it just to be a diorama, I’d say maybe not. If you want to buy an awesomely huge Trypticon, I’d say they did him pretty well.

Plus it’s pretty unimpeachable to say that robot dinosaurs are cool. They just are.

Images: Luke Y. Thompson