Dave's Beast Wars 10th Anniversary Rant: Trans-Mutate Assortment 1 Rhinox Cheetor Waspinator A note on ordering: I used the P/N on the bottom of the box to order these, although you could also order them by the number of the Trans-Mutate part each comes with. Just being obsessive. :) The files below have the reviews of the original molds of these toys. For reference if you don't want to check, Rhinox and Waspinator got Recommended, Cheetor got Mildly Recommended. http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Phase1/DeluxeW1 http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Phase1/DeluxeW2 For reference, I have owned or reviewed three previous versions of the Cheetor mold (original blue-eyes, original Tigatron, Japanese Shadow Panther) and three previous versions of the Waspinator mold (original, Buzzsaw (never reviewed, bought a used one for two bucks years later), Dirgegun the BWII Cyborg Beast). However, there's only been one U.S. recolor of Rhinox before this, and I didn't get it (Fox Kids version, not sure I even ever saw it in stores). Of course, counting all eye variants and Japanese color schemes, the Cheetor mold has been used a LOT. There are no mold changes here that I noticed. The trademark stamps are even the same as the original. Before I go into the Capsules, I'm going to put a disclaimer here: I am not making my recommendation for those who are like me and have at least one version of each mold. While this is a nostalgia line and aimed in part at long time collectors, they ARE ten year old molds, and I'm thinking many of my readers either weren't buying back then, or were just kids and lost or destroyed their toys, and might be interested in new ones. :) CAPSULES Rhinox: A shellmaster, but a reasonably well designed one, especially for so early in the design evolution process. A tad overpriced, but mildly recommended. $14.99 at Target. Cheetor: Clearly an early design, and one with many color variations in its history. Decent colors, but the mold problems remain. Mildly recommended. $14.99 at Target. Waspinator: Decent mold, excellent recolor. Recommended. $14.99 at Target. RANTS Packaging: These are in faceted window boxes, similar to Voyager class Cybertron toys, but a bit smaller and different in what corners are angled. Start with a rectangular box 9" (23cm) wide, 8" (20cm) tall and 3.5" (9cm) deep, with a window running around the front and sides, leaving margins of about 4cm. Then take shallow cuts from the top right and left corners, so that the right and left sides are only about 7" (18cm) tall, and the flat top is only 5" (12.5cm) wide. Now take shallow cuts from the front right and front left, so that the right and left sides are only 2.75" (7cm) deep. Unlike Cybertron boxes, the sides are vertical. The front three panels have a top border with the red scale background typical of old Beast Wars toy packaging, but a Cybetron-like bottom bit of wainscotting. On the top left is an image of a DVD with "DVD included!" in a burst. On the top right is the BW packaging eyeball flanked by "10th Anniversary". In the middle top is the classic Beast Wars logo under a G1-style "Transformers" (instead of the RiD-era version seen on toys since, well, RiD). At bottom left is new character art of the toy inside, robot mode. Decent art, not as airbrushy as most Cybertron art. Lower right, in a burst, says, "Build TRANS-MUTATE! Includes part X of 6! See back panel for details. (each figure/part sold separately.)" Replace X with whatever part is relevant, capitalization error is theirs. An arrow from the burst points at the Trans-Mutate bit inside. Center bottom has the character name and faction symbol in the faction-appropriate color (green for Maximals, purple for Predacons). Below the name it says "Series 1". Series 1 is split into two waves, and carries the promise of a Series 2 if sales are good. The top three panels have the logo and 10th anniversary bit from the front. The center panel has a window that lets you look down on the top of the toy. The side panels have clawmarks and holes at the deepest parts of the clawmarks that let light into the box from above as well. The right-side panel (as viewed from the front) has the logos again, and a so-so drawing of Trans-Mutate. The left-side panel has the story of Beast Wars: "Cut off from CYBERTRON and trapped on a primitive planet, OPTIMUS PRIMAL and his crew are forced to become warriors in defense of a helpless world. The rogue PREDACON leader MEGATRON and his deadly clan of lunatics have come to gather vast quantities of Energon, but the discovery of alien artifacts leaves MEGATRON with another goal: use the power of the Golden Disk to alter the future and return to CYBERTRON as conquerors!" The bottom panel has the usual legal stuff, and co-sells for the other two toys in the wave, shown in beast mode. On the back panel, we get a photo of Trans-Mutate, numbering the six parts and putting a glowing halo around the one included with the toy. The pictures are misleading in that they make it look like the head tentacles plug onto the shoulders, when they actually connect to the back. Below that are photos of the main toy in both modes, with the weapons pointed out using little eyeballs (I'll be listing their names for the weapons in the individual reviews). To the right of the Trans-Mutate pic is the bio note and techspecs. The techspecs, in general, have been tweaked to be more show-accurate, presumably. You only need to cut a single piece of tape on the top panel to open it up, they use tabs to keep the clawmarked pieces in place without tape. Inside is a corrugated cardboard structure that almost totally conforms to the opaque parts of the outer box. The back of the cardboard tray has a faded version of the "eyeball on red scales" background with lightrays emanating from the large faction symbol at the center. There's a dual layer blister glued to the tray. The main toy is twist-tied onto the top blister, while a DVD and the Trans-Mutate piece are snug between the two layers. The inner layer is generally two separate pieces, by the way. And the twist-ties do not go through the tray back, so you have to pull off the outer bubble to get at the ties. Of course, you have to do this to get at the DVD and Trans-Mutate part, so no biggie. The DVD has no sleeve, but each has a reproduction of the box art for the character. Each has a single episode of Beast Wars, chosen as being a good one for the character (although some would dispute a few of the choices). The DVD opens to a start screen with the logo, episode name and number, and a single option to play. No easter eggs or settings. The episode is a single scene, cheapest possible setup. The quality of the episode itself is good, though. The instructions are loose between the outer box and the inner tray. They use the line art from the original card-back instructions for the toys (I think...I'm NOT digging through boxes to find the original cardbacks, presuming I still have ones this old), plus a new bit showing how to put Trans-Mutate together. MAXIMAL: RHINOX Altmode: Rhino Weapons: Spinning Chain-Gun "of Doom!", Energon sword Episode: The Spark (Airazor's introduction) Trans-Mutate Part: 5 - Right Leg/Lower Torso MAXIMAL second-in-command and chief science officer, RHINOX prefers to remain at his station aboard the Axalon to engaging in battle, but that doesn't mean he can't fight. On the contrary, his triple-plated steel skin and wide variety of medium range and hand-to-hand weapons make him dangerous to even the toughest opponent. There's a good reason RHINOX is the last line of MAXIMAL defense, after the perimeter is breached and all weapons systems are offline - no one's ever got past him. STR 9 INT 8 SPD 3 END 9 RNK 8 COUR 10 FRB 6 SKL 6 Avg 7.375 (Old tech spec for comparison: STR 9 INT 6 SPD 3 END 9 RNK 5 COUR 10 FRP 6 SKL 6 Avg 6.75) It's worth noting that the package art is show-accurate rather than toy-accurate, where it comes to the head. Three twist-ties hold the figure to the outer blister. Two rubber bands hold the toy together, one of which being really deep in there. Colors: The main body shell is made of a slightly pearly light brown plastic, with a bronze spray over the back and the top of the head. The general metallic look seems intended to evoke the somewhat shinier CG modeling of Beast Wars. The eyes are white with black pupils and a black outline around them, unlike the red eyes of the original. There is a red Maximal symbol with a silver border printed on the right front hip (the photo on the package is mirror-flopped). In robot mode, the green may be a little darker than the original, the black is the same. The mutant face has red eyes, silver teeth and a black unibrow. The inner face has show-accurate paint, although the grimace itself is uncharacteristic for the show version. Removing the mutant head halves gives a more show-accurate look as well, but downplays the toy's original samurai motif. Trans-Mutate Part: Warning - the hip joint does NOT move. You'll break it if you try. Some careful fiddling reveals that it's glued in place onto a peg with a flattened side. The glue is gooey and the limb is probably removable without breakage, but it won't turn, glue or not. [Later note: wiggling it back and forth carefully will let you remove the leg. I used a Dremel to turn the D-shaped hole into a round one, so now the leg moves at the joint.] The connection for the left leg is a round peg, however, so that leg will be poseable. There's no other jointing for this piece. It's made of light blue plastic with pale gold paint on the abdomen, hip, lower leg, and details on the feet. Black wash is in the panel lines. Overall: A major shellmaster, although they did make lemonade out of it by trying to give it the appearance of samurai armor. A decent early BW toy, though. MAXIMAL: CHEETOR Altmode: Cheetah Weapons: Laser pistol, water-squirting cannon Episode: Equal Measures (teleportation via unstable energon) Trans-Mutate Part: 2 - Upper Torso The youngest of the MAXIMAL crew, CHEETOR is fiery, impulsive, and just plain dumb sometimes. Youthful overconfidence combined with incredible speed can quickly get him into deep trouble from which he lacks the skill to escape. Still, beneath his reckless desire to impress his fellow MAXIMALS is the heart of an honorable and capable warrior, and great potential as a future leader. STR 6 INT 5 SPD 10 END 8 RNK 6 COUR 9 FRB 7 SKL 7 Avg 7.25 (No change from original stats.) Four twist-ties hold the beast mode into the outer blister. A rubber band keeps the buttmaster gun attached. Colors: Essentially the same colors as the original, but I am chagrined to find I barely mentioned color in my original review. The original had flatter colors and solid blue eyes in beast mode. Cheetor is mostly a pearly yellow plastic with black cheetah spots. The face has some cheetah patterning, but lacks the white bits (aside from white teeth). The eyes are green as on the show, but have vertical slit pupils (the show version has circular pupils). A few bits of blue paint are visible in beast mode, and they're somewhat metallic. There's a red Maximal symbol in a silver background printed on the right front shoulder. In robot mode, the blue plastic is a little pearly, but not as shiny as the blue paint on yellow pieces. The regular face is painted gunmetal gray with green eyes, the mutant head is shiny blue with green eyes. Trans-Mutate Part: The chest pegs solidly onto the lower body, but there's no waist poseability as a result. There's ball tips on the shoulders for arms to plug on, and a ball tip at the neck. The neck piece can slide up and down in a slot from straight up to straight forward. Made of light blue plastic, but mostly covered in pale gold paint and some black wash. Overall: I'm not quite as down on this mold as I was originally, but it's still got serious problems. Low-poseability beast mode, huge gappy chest. There have been many Cheetor toys, and while this isn't the worst, it's definitely in the bottom half. PREDACON: WASPINATOR Altmode: Wasp Weapon: Cyber-venom stinger cannon Episode: Possession (Starscream's ghost) Trans-Mutate Part: 1 - Head WASPINATOR not know why he even here! MEGATRON boss WASPINATOR around, and all WASPINATOR ever get for it is blown to pieces! WASPINATOR sick of being stockpile of parts for MAXIMAL rat-bot's collection! WASPINATOR has big plans! Big plans that don't concern stupid BEAST WARS! From now on, WASPINATOR on his own! (I gotta break in here to say I LOOOOVE this bio note! This sort of thing deserves to be rewarded, so go buy this toy!) STR 8 INT 5 SPD 8 END 5 RNK 6 COUR 7 FRB 7 SKL 6 Avg 6.5 (Techspecs unchanged from original. I'd have dropped the Rank and boosted the Endurance...he comes back from stuff that should've killed him many times.) Six twist-ties hold this bad boy onto the blister. The missiles are packaged in the wings. No rubber bands. Mistransformed in the package, with the hip joints in robot configuration to make the toy smaller. Colors: Wow. Again, a slightly shinier version of the original, but they went the extra mile. The insect eyes are a light blue with a thin coating that looks purplish when you're not looking straight on. There's extra golden details on the rearmost legs. The wings are a little less iridescent than I remember from the original, but that could be just the contrast with the generally shinier body. There's a very dark bronze on the mandibles. There's a purple Predacon symbol with a white border printed on the back of his thorax. In robot mode, the lightpiping is dampened, with the pearly blue bits being rather cloudy and requiring a very bright light to shine through the eyes. The humanoid head has a gold face and darker metallic blue forehead, while the mutant head (which is the show head) has gold and black paint detailing to make it much closer to show-accurate. Trans-Mutate part: Also taped into place, to keep the flexible head tentacles from wandering. The cables are light blue plastic with black wash, the head is mostly pale gold paint over light blue rigid plastic. The eyes are red with a lot of kohl-like black wash around them. Its connection to the neck post has some wiggle room in addition to being able to turn. Overall: A decent mold, greatly enhanced by an excellent recoloring. If you only get one of this wave, get Waspy. NEUTRAL: TRANS-MUTATE Altmode: None Weapons: Warp scream No techspecs, bio note, episode, etc. This is a pack-in toy. Wave 1 has enough to get a good idea of the height and stance. With the head all the way up, the height is 7" (18cm), but it's generally supposed to be hunched over at only about 6" (15cm). It doesn't quite look right, unfortunately. I think the blue is too saturated, and the face doesn't quite work for me. Dave Van Domelen, now to find a place to put Trans-Mutate until she has a second leg to stand on.