Dave's Beast Wars McRants: Manta Ray Beetle Panther Rhino Under-3 Toy Predacons Box Maximals Box CAPSULES: Manta Ray: Very nice beast mode, painted and everything. Simplistic transformation, okay if unstable robot mode. Mildly recommended. Beetle: Very nice beast mode, but could have used some paint. Fairly complex transformation, looks good and stands well as robot. Mildly recommended. Panther: Very poseable in both modes, but looks pretty stupid in both modes too. Too top-heavy to stand well in robot mode, transformation amazingly simplistic, even for a Happy Meal toy. Neutral. Rhino: Looks good as a beast, looks pretty sad as a robot...looks like a robot shoved up the bum of a rhino, basically. No real poseability. Neutral. Under-3: A lion's head that unfolds to reveal a robot painted on the inside. Very safe for kids, kinda boring as a result. MANTA RAY RANT: No tech specs, although you can always go in the spirit of the Classic Cyberjets and give this guy Seawing's name and stats. Overall, I gotta say this toy is definitely worth a dollar, perhaps a little more. Like the Regular Beasts, the beast mode looks best from above and pretty bad from below. The main body and head are light blue plastic painted dark blue on the top for that camoflage effect. The legs stick out the back as a sort of weird second tail, and the arms stay put against the underside of the "wings" of the ray. The transformation is pretty simple, but much more than I'd expect from a Happy Meal toy. You rotate the legs so that the feet point forward and then pull out the legs (you can force them down without turning, but I wouldn't recommend it). Then you can rotate them back out a little to lock the legs down. You can see the locking slots in the ribcage of the robot mode, very nice little trick. If you don't lock them, they may slide back in a little, which will make the topheavy robot fall over. The next step is to pull back the manta head to form a backpack and rotate the robot head 180 degrees to face front (the back of the head fits flush with the manta head, which is really nice. The arms aren't really involved in the transformation. Robot mode is a little unstable, thanks to small feet and huge torso and wings. The torso and upper arms are tan, with the fists, legs and head being dark blue and the face having some silver accents. The legs look a litle gimpy, since the thighs are thin rods. Popeye limbs, I'd say. The hips do not move, but the arms swivel at the shoulder and the head turns...which is about as much as the non-transforming McAction Figures from past Happy Meals have done. The "techno-organic" appearance is minimal, for those who dislike that...it's more like a Seacon. Robot mode stands 8.5 cm (a little over 3.25 inches) tall. Manta mode is 9.5 cm long with a 8.7 cm wingspan (3.75 by 3.5 inches). Oh, and the toy itself comes in a plastic bag (#5) with a small plastic tray holding the toy in it. No instructions, not that you really need any. BEETLE RANT: The beetle mode of Beetle is very nice, although it could use a little paint. Dark red body and grey legs, with very little undercarriage garbage. The thorax and abdomen sections are made of rigid plastic and the head and mandibles of softer plastic (which lets you make it bite stuff). Beetle mode is 3.25 long by 4 inches legspan (8cm by 10.5cm). Legs are soft plastic. Transformation is rather nice, and like the Manta Ray requires more steps than you'd expect from something of this level. First, the legs are unfolded from under the abdomen. They move independently and have knees and limited hips. Then the arms (which carry the beetle legs) must be moved out from the body a little. Finally, the beetle's head is folded down to form the chest of the robot form. The robot is quite nice, although of limited poseability and somewhat garish colors. The jointed legs make it far more stable standing up than the Manta Ray, but the shoulders only move the arms up and down, not around in a cufflike motion. And the head is rigid. The robot's legs are a bright green, and the head is bright yellow with bright green lower jaw and red eyes. And get this...it's Megatron's head! Allowing for slight differences in head size and dimensions, Beetle has an almost exact replica of Megatron's head. The beetle legs hanging off the arms are a bit much, but they're closer to Tarantulas's than Waspinator's in terms of looking at least okay. The beetle head makes an EXCELLENT chestplate for Beetle's robot form. My only real objection to this toy is the color scheme, and the fact that they used weird triangular-head screws that prevent me from taking it apart and repainting it. If the yellow and green parts were grey like the arms, and if the abdomen had some color, this could be a very nice looking toy. Also came in a little plastic tray inside the bag. Bag #6. PANTHER RANT: Beast mode is a tad stocky and spindly-legged, with an over-large head and a tail that's plastered to its back, making it look at first glance like it has no tail at all. Not too much undercarriage problems, although the white belly looks awfully out of place on a panther...this is more of a housecat by color. All four legs are totally poseable, but this doesn't get you much since the knee joints only bend 90 degrees and the paws don't bend at all. Transformation involves flipping back the panther head and repositioning the legs into arms and legs of the robot mode. Whee. The robot looks a bit dorky, with too-short legs, too-long arms and too-low shoulders, plus a face that looks like he's been beaten up. The head and chest are white, with red inner arms and blue inner thighs. However, where this robot has its one saving grace is in poseability. The shoulders and hips are full-motion dual swivels (no ball and sockets like the regular toys, too much chance of popping off an arm and eating it with your fries, I guess). The elbows and knees bend 90 degrees both ways, and the head turns. Unfortunately, the tiny feet/paws and massive upper torso defeat much of the purpose of this poseability, as the robot is very hard to get to stand. The panther head hanging off the back doesn't help much, forcing you to pose him slouched over or he'll fall. Beast mode is 3.5 inches (8.5cm) long and 1.75 inches (4.5cm) at the shoulder. Robot mode is 3.75 inches (9.5cm) tall. No tray, just the cat in the #7 bag. RHINO RANT: Okay, in beast mode this is pretty good, although a lack of paint hurts the appearance a bit and the lack of a tail also doesn't help (there's a little molded-on tail like Panther's). There's no undercarriage garbage at all, and only a little of the hideous orange of the arms and legs visible. I'd suggest adding a little paint to the horn and eyes. Poseability is pretty good, the forelegs want to move together but don't have to. The transformation is reasonably complex for a dollar McToy. Pull back the rhino head to reveal the robot head like with Panther. Fold the beast legs out of the way a la Razorbeast. Deploy the stubby little arms from inside the forelegs and pull down the stubby little legs from inside the rear. Then spend forever trying to get the legs into the single position that will allow the robot to stand. The robot mode is just plain sad. Stubby arms that reminded me of Brawn's, short legs that swing at the hip and refuse to stay locked in any position that'll let this overbalanced monstrosity to stand, general appearance of "rhino with arms and legs sticking out of it" and so forth. The color scheme is grey with purple and orange head, orange limbs and red strip down the middle of the torso...ew. The face is some hideous fanged thing. This is one Maximal with extra reason to stay in beast form. Beast mode is a dinky 3 inches (7.5cm) long and 1.5 inches (3.5cm) tall at the shoulder. Robot is 3.75 inches (9.5cm) tall. No tray, just the rhino in the #8 bag. UNDER-3 TOY RANT: U3: Basically, a hinged contraption that no one under 3 could fit in his or her little mouth and choke on. When closed, it's a 2.5 inch (6 cm) tall lion's head all in yellow, with Prime's forehead piece on it. It's also 2.5 inches wide and about 2 inches deep. The transformation involves opening it up. The result is a 4.75 inch (12 cm) tall "robot" that's in relief on the inside of the lion head shell. No other moving parts. The robot is mainly black with silver accents and red upper arms and boots. It looks kinda like Optimus Prime in shape, and is strictly techno-, no -organic. Basically, a really simplified Rock Lord. No tray needed, bag not numbered. PREDACON BOX RANT: The box has two lame jokes and 8 punch-out cards on it. There's a Predacon box and presumably a Maximal box as well. I got the Predacon one. The cards are: "TRANSFORMERS Beast Wars" - So-so art of Primal and Megatoron facing each other. Uses the G2 Autobot symbol in the logo (all of the cards have this logo, in fact...despite being Decepticons/Predacons). "Manta Ray" - Rather nice art of the toy in robot mode, and of a realistic-looking manta ray above it. Predacon symbol accompanies the "name," which is simply Manta Ray. All of the cards have realistic pics of the beast forms, rather than ones based on the toys. "Beetle" - Looks like his transform will be about the same as Manta's, but all his bug legs will be on his forearms, like Waspinator. Colors are red body, green robot legs, grey arms/beetle legs, yellow head. Waspinator - Decent art, uses Mutant Head, no weapon shown. Megatron - Pretty good art, gator in the pic is a bit too happy- looking. Tarantulas - Art's pretty close to the toy's package art, but without the gun. Terrorsaur - Very nice picture, much better than the toy's package art. Although the Ptero in the background isn't so good. Scorponok - So-so drawing of the robot mode, nice beast mode. Looks like this one's definitely coming out in the translucent yellow-orange color scheme. Background art - Much more techno than organic. It's green, but otherwise looks pretty much like straightforward circuit board stuff. MAXIMAL BOX RANT: Maximal Box: Similar to the Predacon box, with techno designs all over it. However, instead of being green, it's purple. Two more lame jokes, the same "Transformers" logo card, and 7 Maximal cards. The one omitted this time is Rattrap, probably a very wise move. Optimus Primal: Pretty good picture, very Batman-ish. Dinobot: Yes, he has his weapon, but the sword is still in the shield. Guess they didn't give the artist a fully-transformed version or something. Razorbeast: His beast shell is drawn a bit bigger, making him look like a leathery butterfly. Polar Claw: The as-yet unreleased Mega Beast is no longer Barbearian or Grizzly-1. Now he's white where the catalog shows black, and red where it shows yellow. Panther: Pretty sad art. I've seen the toy in the displays now, and it looks better than this art, but not a whole lot. Rhino: Ditto. Cheetor: Decent art, but nothing special.