Dave's Transformers Rant: Beast Wars Regular Beasts

     See the Leader Pack Rant for general line comments and packaging opinions.

CAPSULES:

     Iguanus - Body identical to Megatron's, same plusses and minuses.
Recommended.
     Terrorsaur - Suffers from undercarriage garbage, otherwise neat.
Recommended.
     Razorbeast - A Pretender who carries his shell on his back, basically.
Moveable beast form legs somewhat compensate.  Mildly recommended.
     Rattrap - Like Razorbeast, but worse.  Clever gun design, but not enough
to redeem this design.  Neutral.
     Overall - The Maximals got the more clever gadgets and gimmicks, but the 
Predacons got the ones that *worked*.  Get the Predacons first, Maximals second
if at all.

     Each is $4.99 at Target (and Leader Pack is $9.99, I forgot to say in that
Rant).

RANTS

Predacon: Iguanus
Function: Demolitions
Secret Weapon Location: Inside tail
No quote.

Note: A lizard unlike any other, his internal intelligence processors are 
specifically programmed for combat sabotage.  If Optimus Primal installs an
infrared detection dish near a Predacon outpost, Iguanus will destroy it.  If
the Maximals create a weapon, Iguanus will alter it to self-destruct when
fired.  Body scales are actually titanium-plated armor, as is the deflective
headplate that shields him from laser fire.

STR 5  INT 8  SPD 7  END 5  RNK 5  COUR 7  FRP 6  SKL 6  Avg 6.25

     Not quite "unlike any other," since his body is almost completely
Megatron's.  The only differences other than coloration are the neck frill and
new heads for both modes.  All the good and bad points from Megatron (see
Leader Pack Rant) apply to him, although his paint job is a little better.
     I'll leave picking his taxonomy apart of Raksha, but my guess is that he's
got elements of at least three different species in him (Gila Monster plus
frilled lizard plus gator).
     If his scales are titanium plate, he's not too organic, is he? }->
     His card art is pretty good, and implies that he can generate energy fro 
his hands, not just his gun.


Predacon: Terrorsaur
Function: Aerial Combat
Secret Weapon Location: Behind robot head
No quote.

Note: Striking from the sky like a demonic dragon, this organically enhanced
robot warrior is seldom seen...until it's too late!  Megatron personally
supervised his genetically engineered creation, ensuring his devastating aerial
combat efficiency.  Truly a terror, he is known to ingest entire flocks of
birds by flying opened mouthed [sic] through their flight pattern.

STR 6  INT 5  SPD 8  END 4  RNK 6  COUR 7  FRP 5  SKL 6  Avg 6

     That last line in his quote ranks right up there with chopping down
telephone poles in its inability to inspire fear.  However, it does add to the
information that these guys eat organic matter to survive.
     In beast mode, Terrorsaur's a fairly convincing pteranosaur save for two
things: he's bright orange-red, and he has these humanoid legs hanging under
his chest.  The feet get in the way of his mout opening, even.  And the tabs
holding his robot-arms in place as beast-legs aren't too secure.
     Pulling up his beast head causes his transformation, making him the only
reverse-form transform, with his robot head at his beast tail.  From there, all
you need do are fold down his hands and feet at the wrists and ankles.
     In robot mode, he's very poseable, but the mass of wings on his back makes
him hard to keep standing.  The paint job's a bit sloppy, especially on his
head.
     His pistol is a clever little thing that folds up and slides into a slot
behind his head, rather than being a detachable body part.  I recommend putting
it back in with the handle facing up, or you'll have trouble getting it back
out.
     I'm not too keen about the face on his card art, but otherwise it's good.
He also has the energy fist trick, although you have to look to the techspecs 
card version of the art to see it.


Maximal: Razorbeast
Function: Infantry
Secret Weapon Location: Behind boar's mane
No quote.

Note: An infantry soldier with the power of a Predacon twice his size!  
Stubborn, aggressive and always eager to fight, Razorbeast battles with the 
ferocity of a starving pit bull!  Even his fellow Maximals try to stay on his 
good side, although he would never dare to disobey a direct order from Optimus 
Primal, who he respects as both a leader and a comrade.

STR 9.2  INT 6.2  SPD 4.5  END 8.1  RNK 5.6  COUR 10  FRP 6.3  SKL 7.9
     Avg 7.225

     Get the feeling the person who did his stats decided to go hog wild with 
the decimals?
     The beast mode is okay, with moveable legs (although he really can only 
stand in one pose) and good paint work, but his lower jaw has a hole in it and 
doesn't move like the Predacon jaws do.
     The transformation concentrates more on clever mechanism than on actually
giving us a good robot.  A series of gears moves the head down as the flanks of
the beast pull to the sides, making this like a Pretender in a way.  Then you 
rotate the boar's legs out of view and pull the arms off the pegs that hold
them onto the flanks during transformation.  It's a neat mechanism, but the
robot form has too much hanging off the back.  The gun is basically the mane
with barrels sticking out of it, kinda dippy (the card art had a neater
concept, but would have required the mane split in two), and also kinda gross
(check the inside and you'll see veins!).
     The robot mode has Cyberjet poseability, not the improved poseability of
the Predacons.  No wrists, no ankles.  And with that block of animal flesh
on the back, you really need ankles to help pose.  You can see the retrofitting
seams where the "light up eyes" were replaced by solid gold-colored material
and then plugged up in back (actually, this is the case on all of the toys, but
it's more obvious on this one).
     Cool card art, too bad the toy doesn't look as good.


Maximal: Rattrap
Function: Spy
Secret Weapon Location: Inside rat's hind legs
No quote.

Note: Scouring city streets for Predacon enemies, Rattrap maintains his 
strength by feeding on grunge and grime and any wretched refuse he may 
encounter along the way.  A top-notch soldier, his fellow Maximals rely on his 
reconnaissance reports to locate enemy outposts.  They respect him...but they 
wouldn't dare to share his meals!

STR 6  INT 7  SPD 8  END 5  RNK 5  COUR 8  FRP 6  SKL 7  Avg 6.5

     Could they possibly be making the Maximals more unsavory?  A warthog, a 
rat, a bat...did Raksha infiltrate Hasbro or something? }->  Nah, if she did 
then Optimus Primal would be the garbage-eating rat.
     The rat mode looks like a rat, although it has no lower jaw.  The feet 
rotate and the tail moves, but that's it for this unposeable block.
     Pulling up his tail transforms him, then all that's left is to pull his 
arms from the pegs on his flanks and pull out the halves of his gun.
     The robot mode is pretty bad.  All the problems of Razorbeast, plus these 
big pink feet on the edges of his "backpack Pretender shell."  His "brain" 
shows through the top of his head, and it looks like that part would have been 
transparent under the old "glowing eyes" motif as well.  The only neat thing 
about him is that his gun breaks into two parts for storage, a commendable spy 
thing.  But look at the flanks carefully before removing the gun parts, or you 
may have trouble getting them back in...the instructions don't help.
     On the card art, he's at least kinda cool, a rat-ninja motif going and the
energy fist trick.  But the toy just isn't worth the bother unless you either 
like rats or want a complete set.

     Dave Van Domelen, thinks that overall there's a few too many veins in this
set....