Dave's BMac Rant: Mega Rattrap Much thanks to Dan Margrave for getting me Rattrap, which hasn't shown up locally yet. And thanks to the legion of people who sent me various tips and tricks for use with this toy. CAPSULE Rattrap: Good looking in both modes, if a bit oddly proportioned. Good transformation, although the instructions leave out some important steps and the box picture is mistransformed. Strongly recommended if you can find it. $15 most places. RANT (Note edited for clarity/grammar as usual.) MAXIMAL: Rattrap Function: Intelligence/Surveillance Expert Motto: "My mind is my ultimate weapon!" Wisecracking Rattrap always has something snide to say, and is known as a chronic complainer. A recon and survellance expert, he fits into the tightest of places. Although Rattrap is weaponless in beast mode, his tail is a major asset, acting as an extra limb and multitool. In robot mode, it acts as an electro-whip weapon, as well as performing multiple tasks: computer tap, codebreaker, lockpick and many others. His resourcefulness and intelligence are major assets to the Maximal cause. STR 5 IN 9.9 SPD 8.7 END 7.6 RNK 7 COUR 6.9 FRP 4.8 SKL 9 Avg 7.4 The picture on the techspecs is mistransformed in at least two ways (rat head poking out, heel spurs not deployed). Fortunately, the instructions continue to use the greyscaled photos of the toy, so you can figure out where most things need to be even when the instructions don't mention a step. The toy comes in a standard Mega box, with ten twist-ties (7 connecting it to the tray, 3 just holding bits together). The tail has a hole in its base solely for the purpose of sticking a twist-tie through. Beast Mode: Measuring 12" (31cm) from snout to tail tip, or 6" (15cm) if you ignore the tail. Green, light grey, metallic (but not chrome) red with translucent orange-yellow bits and a touch of black trim. All four hips are simple swivels, not ball joints. The front legs have two hinge joints, the rear legs have five hinges (two for the toes) and a hip swivel each. The mouth opens, and the head turns side to side. The tail has five hinge joints all the same direction (as opposed to the alternating direction hinges of TM Rattrap's tail) and a swivel at the base. The main gimmick of this mode is that when you twist the tail, the head moves back and forth, cocks side to side, and the ears twitch. If there's a trick to getting it to do the ears on command, I haven't worked it out yet. Lifting the tail also moves the head. One tip for this mode: it helps to have the robot face turned around to the inside, so it doesn't look like a rat giving birth to a robot. Flying Rat Mode: This is an Undocumented Feature, but a couple of people have already pointed it out to me. It's easy to pop out the robot wheel/legs in rat mode and position them out to the sides like Obsidian's helicopter blades. Especially if you pop out the slasher blades. The resulting wingspan is 10" (25cm) or more. And the props can tilt forward for level flight. }-> Transformation to Robot Modes (legged and wheeled): The instructions skip some important points, mostly relating to how you fit the rat head and forelegs into the robot chest. First fold the rat head completely down onto the neck piece so that it faces towards the rat butt. Then fold up the forelegs and rotate them behind the head, so it looks like he's trying to push off his own head with his forelegs. Fold the entire assembly into the robot chest, the rat head should fit snugly against the inside back, with only the ears poking up out of the chest. Now pull the foreleg bits down until they rest firmly against the bottom of the chest cavity. This is vital, because the mechanism for locking the robot chest (rat belly) into place depends on there being something backing the bottom lip of the chest cavity. The locktabs are too small to hold on their own, and the foreleg thighs help keep things in place. You can also pull down teh central panel of the chest to get at the rat forefeet and snug 'em down a bit more after you get things together. Transformation to Wheeled Robot: It looks initially like you can just go straight to wheeled mode without going through legged mode. Not quite, not if you want to have the bits fit together right. The wheels need to be swapped to the other sides of the legs so that the robot feet can fit onto panel edges on the skidplate and hold things together. The tail is used as a third leg, and it's best to keep it fully bent so that the hunchback situation can be avoided. Transformation to Legged Robot: Just don't forget the heel spurs! Wheeled Robot Mode: AKA the "show accurate" mode, with the colors being mainly light grey and red. However, his upper body is way too bulky (since it has to store the legs and wheels) to fit the cartoon version. Consider this the "Rattrap on Steroids" version. Stands a squat 5" (13cm) tall at the head. With his tail stump sticking out on his back, it looks like he borrowed Nightscream's sonic cannon. The arms are pretty poseable, but the fact that the shoulders are just swivels hurts. The wheels do not roll freely, although they can be turned by hand, whee. You can use the tail stump on his hunchback to wag his tail in this mode, plus he's got a ventriloquism gimmick. By pulling his visor back a bit (it doesn't go all the way down over his face) his mouth opens to reveal clear red plastic (which is also linked to his eyes and brain). Legged Robot Mode: 6.5" (16cm) tall at the head, 7" (18cm) including the hunchback. the legs have double knees and the hips are ball joints with swivels right below them. The ankles are ball joints, and the heel spurs are on hinges that do not lock them into any particular position (but are fairly stiff). VERY poseable legs, and as the feet are a total of 2.25" (6cm) long, it stays standing in a wide variety of poses. The tail becomes a hand weapon in this mode, and can be held in either hand. It plugs into a hole on the palm, and then you fold the hinges so that it doesn't look like it's actually coming out of the palm. The joints are stiff enough that you can use the whip as a hook to hang Rattrap from a shelf or pole in a dynamic swinging pose. Finally, in this mode the wheels (now mounted on the sides of his knees) can be turned a little to make blades pop out. I suppose that when Rattrap knees you in the groin, you remember it. Overall: This is one of the few Megas that's worth the extra price. So many are badly hacked-down Ultras or Deluxes with some big part that makes it too expensive for a Deluxe (like Minitron). Lots of gimmicks, no missiles to lose, and great poseability. The wheels are a bit disappointing and the proportions wrong for Rattrap as seen on the show, but it's a good toy. Dave Van Domelen, was net.dropped by AT&T @Home four times during the writing of this review. Time to get a helmet, as the ad says. Whoops, just had a fifth drop now. And a sixth, while trying to correct a typo in the previous line. Gahhhh.