Dave's Deluxe Beast Rant: K-9 Retrax Grimlock (review appended at end) CAPSULES K-9: Not just a recolor of Wolfang, it's an extensive remolding, with very few parts left untouched. Many flaws present in Wolfang's design have been addressed, but not all. Recommended. $9.99 at Target Retrax: Funky gimmicks, but marginal robot mode. Mildly recommended as a Transformer, but strongly recommended as a War Planet. }-> $9.99 at Target RANTS MAXIMAL: K-9 Function: Guard Duty Transformation Difficulty: Not given (I'd give it a 5-6) Quote: None Placed in charge of guarding his fellow Maximals from a surprise Predacon attack, K-9 is always alert thanks to his lightning-fast reflexes and ultra-sensitive canine nose. While other Maximals plot defense strategies, K-9 stands guard to survey the surrounding area for signs of Predacon spies. But even if he encounters an entire attack force, he can hold them off with his fast-fire missile launcher until reinforcements arrive. When it comes to combat, K-9's bite is definitely worse than his bark! STR 5 INT 8 SPD 7 END 6 RNK 4 COUR 7 FRP 4 SKL 6 Avg 5.875 With stats like those, he's not holding off too many for too long, eh? K-9 has the same basic framework as Wolfang, but numerous changes aside from just the colors and the more doglike face and tail. Beast Mode: K-9's back/shield is larger than Wolfang's, giving him proper hindquarters that th e wolf lacks. Additionally, the shield handle has been reduced in size and blends in better with the back. The tail curls upwards more like a dog's, and the trigger is on the underside, not the top, again improving the look of the beast mode from above. The forelegs are stouter and in different positions (where Wolfang has his left front paw forward, K-9 has his right front paw forward). His hind legs have the paws reshaped in a way that looks awkward at first until you realize it lets each leg be stable in two poses, paw forward and paw back. This gives K-9 just a tiny bit of poseability, enough that he can look static or dynamic in dog form, while Wolfang's pretty much stuck in static mode. Transformation: Virtually identical, except the hind paws don't snap into the shins like on Wolfang, and the forelegs of the dog fit better under the head halves. Robot Mode: Well, K-9's talled, for starters. An extra quarter inch or so was added to his abdomen, so that when you squash the bits together his proportions are far more reasonable. Extensive surface remolding has been done on the robot parts, including the mutant head visor (which actually looks GOOD, a rarity for a mutant head), the pattern on the torso and forearms, and the shape of the pelvis. The new tail looks slightly less silly as a weapon, although it's held a bit loosely. The new shield is a major improvement, working with a single tab rather than the weird multiple swivel joint Wolfang's has. The new design also allows for multiple ways of holding the shield including a sort of Captain America deal. The crossbow bolts have been remolded as well, looking significantly better. The only remolding which works against K-9 is the hind paw shape, which makes the robot feet look kinda dippy. Okay, there's two. The little tabs which hold Wolfang's crossbow bolts in place in his torso are missing from K-9, so they tend to fall out more easily. Overall: Wolfang was already a pretty good toy, and K-9 improves on him in almost every way. PREDACON: Retrax Function: Desert Demolition Transformation Difficulty: Not given (I'd say 3-4) Quote: None Burrowing deep into desert sand dunes, Retrax survives in a series of cool, cavernous tunnels lined with the remains of fallen enemies. His greatest defense is his ability to curl into a ball and escape danger by racing across the desert like a turbocharged tire screaming down a mountain. Or, when attacking, he can roll over a similar-sized enemy and crush their body upon impact, then use his powerful front pinchers to dissect them in seconds. STR 8 INT 8 SPD 1 END 9 RNK 7 COUR 7 FRP 2 SKL 8 Avg 6.25 Sheesh, talk about disconnect between specs and the note. Yeah, he blazes along with his turbocharged Speed of 1. Methinks this was a typo. OTOH, we finally have someone without a ranged attack with the kind of low Firepower you'd expect. It's worth mentioning that this is the first Deluxe I've seen that had to be wired into its packaging, this being a result of the spring-loaded gimmick the beast form has. Beast Mode: A disgusting puke-green pillbug sort of thing a little over 7 inches (18 cm) long, the cashier was reluctant to even pick it up to scan it. }-> It has ten tiny legs which can be positioned separately, two independent (but hinge-jointed, not ball-jointed) antennae, and spring-loaded front jaws and back spike. The back plates undulate creepily when you handle it. Ball Mode: Pressing two tabs on the back causes Retrax to curl up into a ball which looks vaguely Unicron-like. It's roughly the size of a baseball (3.5 inches or 9 cm in diameter), but has too many protrusions on it to actually roll. Both spring-loaded blade weapons work in this mode. Between the shape and the colors, I'm strongly reminded of the War Planets toy, Bone Planet. Transformation: Pretty simple from non-ball mode. Pull down the legs, pull down the chest and pull up the head. Then pop off the tabs which keep the head and tail secured to the body. Robot Mode: 5.5 inches (14 cm) tall, it's very top-heavy because it's carrying almost everything on its back and arms. The oversized hands are open in palms and can be separated from the insect weapon parts with a little fiddling around. Unfortunately, because they're linked to the mechanism which rolls Retrax into a ball, they're virtually unposeable. They have two positions...spread wide, and bear hug (which can be activated using the same tabs that turn the bug into a ball). Also, the chest plate flops around loosely and is easily popped off. All in all, while not a total loss, the robot mode is disappointing. Overall: The bug stuff is neat, but at the expense of the robot stuff. A so-so Transformer. But he works very well as a War Planets accessory. Oh, a side note on War Planets, while I'm thinking about them. As I recently discovered rec.toys.* groups are pretty much solid marketplace traffic, I'm going to keep posting War Planets reviews to alt.toys.transformersm which at least has reviews. Heck, rec.toys.misc should be called rec.toys.marketplace.beaniebabies...it's 80% Beanie Babies, 15% Tamagotchi and 5% crossposts from rec.toys.action-figures. Dave Van Domelen, thinks Retrax looks like a face with Fu Manchu mustache and beard in ball mode.... Dave's Beast Wars Rant: Grimlock It's Dinobot in very light grey, very dark blue and non-translucent gold. The colors look a little better than on Dinobot, and the claws are colored, at least. If you don't already have Dinobot, get Grimlock instead, he's slightly better based just on the color scheme. All gimmicks the same as with Dinobot. MAXIMAL: Grimlock Function: Attack Specialist Recolor of: Dinobot Quote: None In another era when wars waged between Autobots and Decepticons, Grimlock was a stalwart defender of the heroic Autobot cause. Today, disguised as a vicious velociraptor, Grimlock continues to battle against interstellar tyranny as he fights the evil Predacons. After converting to robot mode, his spinning slashed sword - hidden within his tail - slices through the Predacon legions. And when the attack is over, you can usually find him flossing his fangs with the internal wiring of his battle-beaten enemies. STR 8 INT 7 SPD 7 END 5 RNK 5 COUR 9 FRP 6 SKL 7 Avg 6.75 Ah, the importance of dental hygiene. Looks like Grimmy's taken a demotion and a power down, retaining the brains of his ActionMaster incarnation but none of the power and toughness of his previous bodies. It's worth noting that this is the first of the recycled BW names to specifically claim to be a modification of the original name-holder. Grimlock's rubsign was added to his robot's abdomen, concealed by the raptor head. In order to bring his color scheme more in line with the original's and to make the rubsign visible, I recommend an alternate transformation in which the raptor head is left behind the robot head, bent back as far as it will go. This not only reveals a golden chest, it also puts the head roughly in the same position as on the real Grimlock. Oh, and to make this work, you'll have to remove the mutant head parts, but you probably already did that, yes? }-> Here's a possible quote for the new Grimlock: "Me Grimlock say brains and speed beat dumb strength any day!" Dave Van Domelen, didn't find Lazorbeak or any non-repaint new ones today, sadly....