Dave's Animorphs Rant:

     Mega Visser Three

     Found this and Ax in large quantities at Toys R Us, and slightly smaller
numbers at one Target.  Decided to pass on Ax because the beast mode looked
really bad from the box pictures, and the Andalite mode wasn't so hot either
(consider this a "Neutral" recommendation for Ax...only buy if you really
like the character and want a toy of him).

CAPSULE

     Very good Inferno Creature mode, reasonably challenging transformation,
okay (if unstable) Andalite mode, has the potential for a third mode.  Still
has the stability problems of the Deluxe toys, but to a slightly lesser
extent.  Recommended.  $14.99 at Toys R Us.

RANT

ANIMORPH: Visser Three
Transformation Difficulty: Intermediate (5)  (Note, they use the same 
     graphic as for BW, including the words "Challenge level of robot
     conversion.")

     "I am Visser Three, leader of the Yeerk invasion of Earth.  My army's
mission is to enslave every human being on the planet.  I am the only Yeerk
in history to infest an Andalite body and gain its powerful morphing
capabilities.  I can change into any creature or alien I touch.  In fact, I
have been all over the universe acquiring the genetic patterns of monsters
like nothing ever seen on Earth!  I may look like any normal Andalite on the
outside, but underneath lives a twisted terrifying creature with enough power
to bring the entire universe under my control."  (All [sic], clumsy grammar
left intact.)

     Okay, like a normal Andalite painted red, I suppose.  The instructions
continue the distressing wordless trend set by the Deluxe toys,
unfortunately.  There were several bits I had to puzzle out because the
diagrams were unclear.

     Inferno Creature: Apt name, since it uses plastic similar to (but not
the same as) that used in Beast Wars Inferno.  Mainly red with metallic dust
in it, plus gold and orange painted accents.  Stands from 7" to 8" (18cm to
24cm) depending on the pose, and is fairly stable thanks to the numerous
stiff joints in the legs and the heel spurs on the feet.  Fully stretched
apart, the armspan is 10.5" (27cm).  Each arm has a ball joint shoulder, two
elbow hinges and an upper arm swivel.  Each leg follows the same pattern, but
with the poseable heel spur as well.  Add the grasping claw and you get 19
points of articulation just in the limbs.  The neck and jaw add two more.
     The face is meant to be demonic in nature, and strongly reminds me of
Hellspont from WildCATs, if a slightly squooshed version of that baddie's
face.  The massive neck isn't articulated, the head merely swivels on it as
well as raising and lowering (equivalent to a limited ball joint).  This
makes four-legged poses a bit problematic, since he faceplants even more than
Cheetor II does.
     The toy's main gimmicks are only active in this mode, and they lend a
nice symmetry to the figure's arms.  The left forearm houses a missile, which
sticks way out the back as an elbow spur because the missile has to be long
enough to get past child safety standards.  Not to worry, however, because
the lever for activating the grasping right claw is made to look just like
the rear of the missile, giving Visser 3 a pair of somewhat blunted elbow
spines.  
     In this mode, the toy is pretty stable, and it's obvious that the toy
was designed to make this mode look better.  However, some of the Andalite
parts on his back don't really lock down, and his chest plates (one of which
has the "A" on it) don't hold together well...and they really need some kind
of snapping mechanism, both in this mode and Andalite mode.

     Transformation: Reminiscent of TM Rhinox's transformation, with opening
chest panels and swinging the back legs back and all.  But everything's
pretty much "put it there and then hope it stays there."  The few peg and
slot setups in the transformation simply don't work.

     Alternate Transformation: To get a sort of transitional mode, a
quadruped with vaguely Andalite characteristics, here's what you do.  Rotate
the beast mode's head around 180 degrees.  Then rotate all the limbs around
to match, making the beast's chest into the back of the new mode.  Because
the hips and shoulders of the beast mode aren't really designed to rotate all
the way around, this mode is very limited in its poseability, but it's kinda
neat.  

     Andalite Mode: Not too bad from the front, but the hind legs are a real
problem, especially since nothing locks his hindquarters together.  If you
put the legs even a little out of alignment, his butt cracks in half.  This
mode stands about 5.5" (14cm) tall at the head and is around 5" (12cm) long.
The tail is okay, although my impression has always been that Andalite
stingers were more blade-like than stinger-like.  
     Visser 3's main "that's not an Andalite" moment, however, comes from the
color.  He's a normal blue Andalite on TV at least, and probably in the books
too.  But there was no way around making both his modes the same color.  And
it's a far lesser problem than the "furries in t-shirts" problem of the
Deluxe figures.  
     Because of the instability of this mode, the legs lose almost all
meaningful poseability.  The head, which cleverly pops up out of the beast's
neck base, doesn't otherwise move.  The humanoid arms have ball joint
shoulders, hinge elbows and upper arm swivels, plus covers that let Visser 3
play jai alai whenever he feels like it.  Check your figures carefully: on
mine, the arms were reversed.  Because Andalites have two thumbs, it's not as
hard as you'd think to mix this up, but the hand poses look really bad in the
reversed configuration.  Plus, the jai alai shells have small tabs that need
to face outward in beast mode.
     
     Overall: Very nice beast mode, but it could use a few more working tabs
and snaps.  The Andalite mode, however, needs them BADLY.  But, because the
"normal" form isn't one we're intimately familiar with (as we are with the
human form), the compromises needed to make the transformation work don't
stand out as seriously as they do with the human Animorphs.  And Visser Three
loves being a turtle.  }->  

     Dave Van Domelen, just noticed that in beast mode, V3 can put his
"hands" on his hips (the entire hip at once) in a really good, "Who do you
think you are, Miss Thing?  You think you got it goin' on?" pose....