Dave's Beast Machines Rant: Third Wave Basics

     Night Viper
     Silverbolt

CAPSULES

     Night Viper: Pretty good beast mode, clever transformation, good robot
mode, clever attack gimmick, good use of colors.  Strongly recommended.
Prices range from $6.50-$8 depending on the store.
     Silverbolt: So-so robot mode, weak transformation, really bad beast
mode.  Neutral.  $6.50-$8, depending on the store.

RANTS

     As always, profiles rewritten for clarity (and to eliminate potential
contradictions). 

MAXIMAL: Night Viper
Altmode: Cobra
Function: Recon Specialist
Motto: "I'm very good at what I do - maybe too good!"

Night Viper is the stealthiest Maximal.  His tail acts as a repulsor rocket,
providing silent movement up to supersonic speeds, where acoustic baffles
eliminate any sonic booms he would otherwise generate.  Internal radar
scramblers, thermal dampers and gravitic heterodynes add to this protection
by preventing anything but the naked eye from detecting him.  Additionally,
Night Viper can generate a selective field of zero friction, both increasing
his speed and making him a difficult target in hand combat.  Offensively, he
recycles enemy plasma fire into plasma venom blasts that short circuit
Vehicon circuitry.  His Hyper Fang allows him to inject this venom directly
during hand combat, felling even the strongest foes, provided he can
penetrate their armor.

STR 6.3  INT 8.5  SPD 9  END 7.6  RNK 6  COUR 8  FRP 7.5  SKL 8.8  Avg 7.7

     Actually, the original techspec wasn't too bad, grammatically speaking,
but it needed expansion.  }->  Plus an explanation of why he's so stealthy at
supersonic speeds....

     Beast Mode: The beast mode cannot be totally straightned out when
properly transformed, it's always rearing up and spreading its hood.  7"
(18cm) long, a little under 3" (7cm) high.  Colors are dark blue, light steel
blue, transparent yellow (but not much of it) and metallic red paint, plus a
little opaque yellow detail.  The overall effect is pretty nice.
     Unlike Corahda, the last attempt at a snake TF, NV has a fully poseable
tail rather than one that flops around at the end.  It has a total of 9
joints, mostly ball joints, but a few hinges.  The head can raise up a bit,
but that exposes the hidden robot head.
     Stability is probably the only problem with this toy.  The hood sides
are held on with tabs that don't quite seat properly, and the tail doesn't
snap into place, it just sort of sits there held by friction.
     As a gimmick, pushing the clear yellow tab at the top of the hood causes
the head to shoot out a few millimeters and the jaw to spring open.  The
inside of the mouth is painted pinkish red.
     His green Maximal spark is hidden under a flap on the back of his hood.

     Transformation: The sides of the hood become the arms, the snake head
folds behind the back and a tiny robot head pops out.  But the really clever
bit is that the tail pulls through the robot pelvis and snaps into place with
half hanging out each side.  Unlike some initial suspicions, nothing has to
be removed and reattached in this transformation.

     Robot Mode: A very spindly 5" (13cm) tall counting the hood sticking up
behind the head.  Knock off half an inch if you only measure to the top of
the head.  The arms are jointed a little oddly, but it fits with the
serpentine aesthetic.  The sides of the hood form big Primal-like pods (no
doubt the inspiration for his energy recycling attack) which can also pose
independently.  The right pod contains a fold-out blade.  With the pod
extended, this gives NV a large scything blade.
     The legs have way too many joints, but most of the non-leg-ish joints
stay stable.  His "elfbooty" feet have some poseability to them, but I could
do with a tad more.
     Oh, and he has real hands, although they're in open palm position and
can't hold anything.

     Alternate Modes: Well, it's no Vehicon, but there's some flexibility
here.  You can go for a snake-bodied robot by leaving the legs untransformed,
or the snake head can be deployed in robot mode, both nice monster modes.

     Overall: Despite a few small flaws, this is a very well-designed toy,
probably the best Maximal Basic to date.  Buy it if you can find it.


MAXIMAL: Silverbolt
Altmode: Condor
Function: Tracker
Motto: "After the darkness I take wing again!"

Formerly a warrior with the Maximals, Silverbolt fell victim to the worst
kind of crime.  His spark stolen and reprogrammed by Megatron, Silverbolt was
remade into the evil Vehicon aerial general, Jetstorm.  With his memories of
the past erased, only the dogged efforts of Blackarachnia brought him back to
his former Maximal self.  Reformatted into a technorganic condor, his wings
create violent turbulence that topples Vehicons.  In Robot Mode, his eyes can
fire static pulse lasers that paralyze Vehicons instantly.  Silverbolt
struggles against the memories of his Vehicon past and strives to rediscover
his old Maximal nobility.

STR 8  INT 9.5  SPD 8.9  END 8.3  RNK 7.5  COUR 8.2  FRP 7.7  SKL 8  Avg 8.3

     Unlike, well, pretty much every Beast Wars or Beast Machines toy to date
in the U.S., Silverbolt was packaged in robot mode.  Since the beast mode
would have fit in the bubble, this decision was probably made because, well,
the beast mode stinks.  On ice.

     Robot Mode: 4.5" (12cm) tall, in red, orange, yellow, silver and
translucent blue with some black and yellow accents on the head.  The beast
mode wings either act as a cape or detach (all too easily) and become an
unwieldy hand weapon.  Wings aside, however, it's a pretty show-accurate
mold.  The colors are a bit garish compared to the show version, but the
overall look is rather nice...except for the head.  Whoever decided to leave
it as mostly unpainted translucent plastic needs their aesthetics examined.
As soon as I take the time to track down a good reference picture, I'm
repainting the face.
     Despite having multiple joints at the knee, the legs have very little
poseability, especially because of the limitation on the ankle joints.  The
arms are pretty poseable, but the huge clawhands are unwieldly.  And the
head, despite looking ugly, is pretty poseable.
     The weapon looks quite nifty...until you try to attach it anywhere.  The
two tiny holes and one handle on it don't allow it to connet in any sort of
cool way.  If it could be mounted on the back of the hand, it would look very
nifty.  Instead, it looks like he's holding a short dagger with big wings
that keep him from using the weapon.  And while the wings can fit on his back
in robot mode...they only fit UPSIDE DOWN.  Bleah.  An extra peg hole would
have helped a lot.

     Transformation: Uncomfortably like Optimus Minor's, but not as clever.
The robot legs don't even attach to the wings, they just sort of position in
front of the wings.

     Beast Mode: While the legs of the condor are kinda clever, the rest
sucks hard.  It looks like an attempt at making a transforming toy out of a
regular action figure by gluing some bits on.  I literally have done better
myself in that regard, and I don't have a tenth the tools and or a millionth
the resources Hasbro does.  This is a suckful beast mode.
     I just hacked together a griffin mode that looks better than the
official condor mode, and would look even better if the head could raise at
all (something it should be able to do for the condor mode, too).  Excuse me
while I get out my blades...okay, I'm back.  I ended up having to whip out
the Dremel too, but it's actually a pretty cool griffin.  That's got to be
the easiest Transmythic kitbash ever.  Primus, I love having a digital
camera, here: http://www.protoformproject.com/dvd/images/griffinbolt.GIF

     Overall: A rather sad and pathetic toy, especially since it has such
promise.  However, if you're of a modifying bent and feel up to making
Griffinbolt, it's worth picking up.  Oh, and painting the face.  Think of it
as a big, poseable miniature.

     Dave Van Domelen, wonders if he should rename the modification as
Gryffindor?  }->