Dave's Animorphs Rant:

     Cassie/Wolf

     Spotted this at Target in Columbus, last one at the store, so I decided
to take a risk and snag it.  I was pleasantly surprised.

CAPSULE

     "Human" mode is about as human as for any of the others, which is to say
it's not human.  Decent transformation and very nice beast mode that actually
holds together.  "Mutant head" actually works properly.  Stupid raker talon
gloves not needed in either form.  Recommended.  $9.99 at Target


RANT

     "MY NAME IS CASSIE.  There's something you should know.  Earth is in
really big trouble.  We are under attack by an alien force known as the
Yeerks, slug-like creatures who worm their way into your ear and take
complete control of your mind.  No one knows about the invasion except for me
and four friends.  I can become any animal quickly and easily.  I will change
into a wolf; I will be strong, fast and fierce.  With all of Earth's
creatures on our side, we will defend our planet!"

     What a waste of ink.  Almost all of it simply repeats the information in
the "the INVASION has BEGUN" blurb in the upper right hand corner of the
card, and it says NOTHING about Cassie's personality.  Not even a hint of
Cassie's environmentalism or her distaste for combat.  I'm betting that the
guy who wrote the blurb wasn't given any information at all about Cassie and
was trying to fake it.

     Human Mode: Depending on how you position her legs, she stands anywhere
from 4" (10cm) to 4.5" (12cm) tall.  Dark green overalls over a yellow
t-shirt are her clothing pattern (the crappy metallic paint was saved for her
beast mode), and she's reasonably slender, with most of her beast kibble
forming a backpack.  The backpack's not exactly locked down or pegged in, but
it's fairly stable.  Her human head snaps into place somewhat weakly on its
own and rotates back under easily, but you can put one of the beast mode
flaps under the tab that moves her heads and keep it in place.  Here's one
place where the wordless instructions REALLY bite...no indication anywhere of
this little trick to keep her head locked in human mode.

     Transitional Mode: Her mutant head is vaguely werewolfen, and this is
the only place you really should use her ripper talon gloves.  Not too bad.

     Transformation: One of the first things that caught my attention in a
positive way about this figure is that you don't need the gloves to complete
the beast mode...in fact, it's best NOT to use them.  Wolf paws fold out from
her forearms as her human hands stow away.  The gloves are made to fit over
these paws, but the paws work fine on their own.  Another nice touch is that
the beast body snaps together rather than just folding around the human body
underneath, giving the beast form some stability.  About the only bad thing
about the transformation is that one of the hinges that gets put under stress
isn't metal-pinned, it's just a snap-together bit, and can snap off.

     Beast Mode: From snout to tail tip, the wolf is 5.5" (14cm) long.  It's
lean, pretty well-colored (ignoring the metallic flanks), and has very little
human stuff visible.  Aside from the human head sticking out of the chest, it
actually has a sort of "negative kibble," with a hollowed out abdomen.  A
pair of flaps at the rear cover up some of the unused joints for improved
appearance (and one helps with the human head in robot mode as mentioned
above), and the tail can hold its position firmly.  One nifty add-on is that
they borrowed one of Lioconvoy's gimmicks for Cassie.  Pull back in the ears,
and the wolf bares its teeth and opens its mouth.  Basically, the top of the
head rocks back and the jaw drops while the top teeth stay in the same place,
being bared in the process.

     Overall: Still has the fundamental problem that the human mode doesn't
really look human, but that's about the only major problem.  The other
glaring faults of the previous Deluxe Animorphs are pretty much fixed.  Maybe
Silverbolt can stop pining for Blackarachnia now?  }->

     Dave Van Domelen, moderately tempted to give Grizzly Jake a try based on
the picture on the back of the card (no, I'm not gonna scan it, it's tiny and
the Scholastic site has much better pictures).