Dave's Deluxe Animorphs Rant:

     Jake (Tiger)
     Rachel (Lion)
     Tobias (Hawk)

     Found the first batch at Toys R Us, and I was weak...I only managed to
leave Marco on the shelf (due to him being REALLY bad-looking).  The "Deluxe"
tag is somewhat disingenuous, since there's no Basic level for this series.

CAPSULES

     Jake: Not too stable in any mode, but has a rather nifty transformation
and good beast mode.  Human mode doesn't even come close.  Mildly
recommended.  $9.99 at TRU
     Rachel: They did a surprisingly good job of keeping her human form
looking like a teenage girl's body...well, the parts that weren't furry.
Slightly more complex transformation than you might expect, but a lot of
flaws in both modes.  Neutral.  $9.99 at TRU
     Tobias: A bit bulky in human mode and tends to fall backwards due to
backpack kibble, but does the best job of making the human mode look human
while still having a decent beast mode.  Transformation is laughably simple,
however, and the human's limbs are kinda wimpy.  Mildly recommended.  $9.99
at TRU

RANTS

     First, some general comments on packaging and the line's design
philosophy.  
     The Deluxes come blister-carded.  The upper part of the bubble is
rounded at the sides and textured using the same "fingerprint fading into
chaos" design as used on the card, while the lower part is rectangular and
includes a picture insert of the beast mode's head.
     They all come with rubbery little Yeerks of random color assignment
(whee, package variants ahoy).  The Yeerks really don't do much, don't fit
into the ear to control purposes, and have mysterious holes near the rear.  I
ended up stringing them together on those holes using one of Tobias's twist
ties.  
     Some design genius at Hasbro must have decided that it was time to bring
back the mutant heads concept from Beast Wars.  Each figure has its own
gimmick for bringing up a beastly face to represent a sort of transitional
form.  Unfortunately, Animorphs don't HAVE transitional forms...they just
sort of lie there helpless while they complete the transformation.
     Finally, as far as visual problems go, someone must have decided near
the end of the process that the toys didn't look crappy enough, and made the
paint on the human clothing more garish.  Jake, Marco and Rachel got saddled
with metallic pants, and Jake got a metallic shirt too.  Tobias's shirt went
from a nice muted tan that blended in with his bird colors to a glowing
yellow...and he got metallic crud on his wings.
     Worst of all, however, is the fact that the instructions HAVE NO WORDS.
Take your average fairly confusing Beast Wars instructions diagrams, shrink
them down to half size and take away all the text, and you get the Animorphs
instructions.  Like, HasbroKen dudes...this is based on a book series.
Assume the fans can read, yes?  Ironically, there's a "Reading Changes
Everything" logo at the bottom of the card.


ANIMORPH: JAKE

     "My name is Jake.  Just Jake.  I can't tell you my last name, 'cause if
the Yeerks find us...well, we just won't let them find us.  Everyone's
looking to me to be the leader.  Sure, I get scared.  Who wouldn't?  But I'll
never show it.  Becoming a tiger will give me the strength to conquer my fear
and put an end to the invasion...before it's too late."

     That's it, just the short autobio.

     Human Form: 5" (13cm) tall, but can't stand up on his own due to the
poor design of his feet, which are tiger paws.  If you hunch him down on his
legs so that he stands, he loses about a half inch.  Massive backpack kibble,
and there's nothing to keep his shirt in place, so it keeps flopping down to
reveal his wereform head.  His human head looks okay, but it's scaled for a
4" figure.  His hands are little fleshy bits out at the end of furry arms,
and are molded into odd positions for no very good reason.
     He's fairly poseable, especially given the extra jointing in his legs
that's needed for his tiger mode transformation.  But moving him too much
results in things falling off, such as his shirt (which isn't even on with a
rod, much less having pegs to keep it firm...it keeps falling off).
     Has the "A" symbol on his shirt.

     Wereform: Same size, you just pop up the new head (which has a sort of
Zathras thing going) and put the tiger claws on over the human hands.  The
top of the human head can be covered up with some of the tiger bits, which
helps in the overall appearance, but the shirt still flops open when you look
at it funny.  One tricky thing about swapping heads is that the tab for doing
this can get caught up in the backpack kibble.

     Transformation: Tiger parts fold out like origami and wrap around stuff,
it's pretty nifty.  Complex, but not frustrating once you've done it a couple
of times.  Unfortunately, the shirt piece, which now covers the hindquarters,
STILL has nowhere firm to attach to.

     Beast Form: Very nice looking tiger, with a lot of poseability and most
of the human stuff is covered.  A little of the human forearm paint is
visible outside the claw "cuff," and because the hindquarters have no real
stability, every time you try to move the back legs the rear falls apart to
show the metallic bluejeans.  Head is fixed in position, but the tail has two
joints.  Tiger is nearly 6" (14cm) long from nose to tail tip, and 3" (8cm)
tall at the slightly hunched shoulder.  The coloration is very good, dark
orange with black stripes and light underbelly.  The only thing that bugs me
about the look of this is the use of black fingertips on the forepaws.
     Has the "A" symbol on its belly.

     Overall: If you ignore the fact that this is supposed to be an Animorphs
toy, then it's okay.  It could use a few extra pegs and a return to the
coloration of the prototype, but it's not too bad.  However, it's NOT an
Animorph.  It doesn't turn into anything like a human, and they bring in the
third mode crud that isn't in the books at all.


ANIMORPH: RACHEL

     "My name is Rachel.  The thing you should know is that everyone is in
really big trouble.  Yeah.  Even you.  But I have a message for all the
Yeerks out there: Don't mess with me.  Don't even try.  By transforming into
a lion, I'll have all the courage and speed I need to save the world.  To
protect my family.  My friends.  Yeah, even you."

     To use sentence fragments.  Mischaracterize lions.  Et cetera.

     Human Form: Standing 5" (13cm) tall, ths default form is not totally
human.  You see, Rachel's mutant head gimmick is spring-activated, so you
have to hold down a button to keep the mask up and her real face exposed.
And because of the way things are molded, she looks like a nun when her face
comes out.
     On the good side, the designers did a pretty good job of making her
torso look reasonably slender and female.  And the metallic pants almost make
sense for her.
     On the bad side, well, everything else.  She has Cheetor II syndrome in
her arms...ball joints that don't let her straighten her arms totally.  And
her biceps are hollow.  My guess is that they had to cheap out on the arms to
afford the crappy mutant head mechanism that doesn't work right.  Sigh.  On
the plus side, the joints are very stiff, and you can have her hold up the
mutant face with her left hand.  Her right hand is in one of those weird
flattened fist shapes you only ever see in bad action figures and her left
hand has one finger crooked out from the flattened fist.  Her feet are a
little better, allowing her to stand.  And her backpack isn't as large as
Jake's, but it's still pretty big.
     Has the "A" molded into her vest, almost invisibly.

     Wereform: Let go of the button and put on the claw gloves.  Then put the
left one back on, since it falls off.  And falls off again.  The shape of the
left hand, or the shortness of the left wrist perhaps, keep either claw glove
from staying on well.

     Transformation: Another fun folding out trick, but while it also lacks
pegs for stabilization, it involves less floppy joints and results in a
pretty stable lion mode.  

     Beast Form: 5" (13cm) long from snout to tail tip, 3" (7cm) tall at the
mane, Rachel's lion form is a little smaller than Jake's tiger.  The limbs
remain fully poseable, but the loose paw keeps falling off.  Human bits are
pretty well covered, although some of the metallic pants paint bled out onto
the lion legs.  Head is immobile, and prone to pop apart if handled roughly.
The button for the mutant head does nothing in this mode, which is somewhat
annoying.  Okay, it can cause the lion face to fall off, resulting in a sort
of halfway sphinx.
     The "A" is molded onto the fur of his/her chest.

     Note on gender: Rachel turns into a male lion, something she'd done in
the TV show, but not so far in the books.  This implies that her transitional
form would be part male and part female.  Let's hope the furverts (the
unsavory element within anthropomorphic or "furry" fandom) don't catch wind
of this.

     Overall: They put too much effort into things that didn't work, and not
enough into the simple things that should have been better.  A classic case
of squandered potential.


ANIMORPH: TOBIAS

     "My name is Tobias.  I used to dream of soaring high above the world,
away from all my problems.  Then everything changed when Earth's worst
nightmare came true.  The Yeerks are here.  And changing into a hawk makes me
the planet's only one-bird air force.  But there's one problem: I kept my
wings for more than two hours and now, well...now I'm stuck."

     And then unstuck.

     Human Mode: 4.5" (11cm) tall with a too-small head, a too-wide chest and
too-thin legs, he has trouble standing up without leaning way over forward to
compensate for his large backpack.  At least, unlike Jake, his backpack is
fairly compact and ordered.
     His arms and legs have restricted ball joint shoulders and hips (no more
than 30 degrees out to the sides, more like glorified swivels) and hinge
elbows, not to mention reasonably sculpted hands.  His legs are a bit on the
thin side, however, and he lacks upper arm or upper thigh swivel joints.  His
feet are oddly hinged as part of his transformation, but don't move far
enough to really help in standing.  The shoulders have pins through them to
keep them from popping off, which they'd otherwise be very inclined to do.
     Tobias is made of a lot more soft plastic, of the type the claw
attachments are made for the others.  At times this makes him feel like a
Happy Meal prize.
     The "A" on his slightly metallic yellow shirt is reasonably visible.

     Wereform: The claws which are on his elbows in human form swing forward
to cover part of his hands, swap in the mutant head (which is a little
tricky) and extend the wings.  The "mega-extension" wings work like a fan,
spreading out feathered pieces, but I wouldn't really call it "mega"
anything.  It's nice, though.  Wingspan is about 8" (21cm).

     Transformation: Bring up the beak to cover the bottom of the wereface.
This is probably the only good use of the mutant head thing, IMO.  Then
rotate the shoulders down to become hips, and fold the human legs against the
bird chest in a way reminiscent of the original BW Dinobot.

     Beast Form: A noble effort was made to keep reasonable proportions
(i.e. the bird's legs aren't quite as huge as, say, Airazor's or Mangaboss
Silverbolt's), but too much human kibble is visible, making it look like this
is a contortionist wearing a bird mask and fake wings.  It can stand okay on
its own, but the wings don't furl naturally, so they have to stay at full
extension.  

     Overall: The beast form is pretty weak, but the human form is nice, and
the wereform is pretty cool, the saving grace of the toy.  It's not Tobias,
but it's a decent werehawk.

     Dave Van Domelen, definitely giving Marco a pass, and might not even
bother with the Megas, if these toys are a sign of the level of engineering
and aesthetic skill going into the line....