Dave's Animorphs Rant:

     Taco Bell Tobias (Under-3 toy)
     Taco Bell Cassie/Anteater

     Well, hit a few Taco Bells this afternoon and managed to score a couple
more Tacomorphs.  Oh, and since I won't be able to get to my web server until
tomorrow to say this, Ultra triple-changing Visser-3 has been spotted in
stores, so I guess Hasbro cut off the customer support a little early.

TOBIAS

     Well, this is the line's toy for toddlers.  Because of this, it has no
moving parts or removable bits.
     Instead of transforming, this one gets all symbolic and has a small
plastic human figure of Tobias crouched down inside a clear plastic hawk 3"
(8cm) long.  The hawk's a bit pudgy to make room for Tobias's knees.  Not too
shabby looking.  The Animorphs symbol is molded onto the hawk's chest.
     In addition, the inner Tobias glows in the dark, for that whole "soul
shining through" trick.
     Given the restrictions of the "under-3" toys, I think they did a pretty
nifty job with this one.

CASSIE/ANTEATER

     Okay, this one impresses me.  Unlike Marco's superdeformed shark, this
beast mode LOOKS like an anteater, from the top and sides.  From below you
see Cassie, of course, but that's okay.  All four legs on this 4.5" (11cm)
long anteater move at the hips and are made of solid plastic, not hollow
shell pieces.  The bushy tail does a decent job of hiding Cassie's feet, and
you could actually turn this into a full-concealment transformation job with
the addition of a few panels on the tail and torso.  It even has an action
gimmick: the tongue flicks in and out by sliding a button on the head.
     Transformation is, of course, trivial.  Flip back the anteater head and
move the legs out of the way.
     Cassie is 3.25" (8cm) tall at the head, with joints at neck, shoulders,
hips and knees.  Her legs share Marco's problem of not being able to move far
enough apart to provide a stable pose, but her pelvis is less troubled than
his, having only a suspicious bulge instead of wholesale dislocation.  True,
she's basically carrying an anteater on her back, but hey.
     Basically, if they added flaps for full coverage in beast mode and made
the human figure detachable from the pelt, this would be a very nice $5
Pretender-style toy with good beast mode and good human mode.  They could
sell it as "Tongue-Action Cassie!"  Or...maybe not.  Anyway, it's worth
bugging your local Taco Bell for this toy.

     Dave Van Domelen, also snagged a couple extra TMII McBlackarachnias and
a McLugad (Mystic Knights) at a local resale store today....