Dave's Mega Beast Rant:

     B'Boom
     Transquito (review appended at end)

     Finally found him today at a Wal-Mart (Columbus residents, there was at
least one left, it was the Morse Road Wal-Mart).

CAPSULE

     Big, solid, poseable triple-changer (baboon, robot, gun platform) with
lots of weapons, challenging but not insane transformations and a good
gimmick or two.  Strongly recommended.  $14.76 at Wal-Mart.

RANT

MAXIMAL: B'Boom
Function: Guerilla Warfare Specialist (ow, pun)
Transformation Difficulty: Advanced (6)
Secret Weapon Location: Missile launcher inside mouth
Quote: None

A guerilla warfare tactical expert, B'Boom is one of the fiercest and most
unpredictable of the Maximals.  Though hard to control and often driven by a
temporary fury that sends him speeding up and down trees, his focus while in
battle is easily apparent in the savage fire in his eyes.  Dextrous, brave
and clever, B'Boom is fiercest while in mega artillary [sic] attack mode, a
state in which his arsenal is as fully loaded and functional as a battle
emplacement.  His favorite weapon, a launcher hidden within his mouth,
deploys pulse missiles that detonate but do not burn - leaving his best
weapon, the wilderness, unharmed.

STR 8  INT 7  SPD 6  END 7  RNK 7  COUR 9  FRP 9  SKL 6  Avg 7.375

     The notes are getting longer, but kinda purple in the process.  And the
racing up and down trees ranks right up there with one of the Laser Rods'
penchant for cutting down telephones in the book of stupid character traits.
}-> 

     Beast Mode: A silvery-blue-furred baboon with silvery-grey feet, gold
ears, and the red and white face of a baboon.  The hindquarters follow the
basic Cheetor style (albeit without detachable butt) so he's a bit robotic
from the rear.  Highly poseable, as an ape should be, although his head is
fixed in position.  Pushing in on one ear causes his mouth to open and his
eyes to fly open (normally they're in a nicely sinister squinty position),
revealing his missile launcher, which can be fired by pushing it forward with
a lever on the baboon's back.  The springs aren't too strong, though, but
that's a good thing in my book.  And the missiles both store next to the
launcher, although when you push the launcher back into the body, the
missiles stay forwards and have to be pushed back in manually.  There's some
undercarriage junk, but not a lot, less than on Polar Claw, for example.
Measures 4.5 inches (11 cm) tall and 5.5 inches (14 cm) long in hunched over
beast mode.  Stretching out his arms and legs into a "Superman flying" pose
gives a total length of 11.5 inches (29 cm).

     Transformation: Both transformation to robot and to battle station are
fairly reasonable, and the robot mode can be figured out without the
instructions.  Mind you, the transformations are complex, just not
complicated.  In other words, many steps, but no brain-buster ones.  The only
mistake I think I've found is a peg and hole that look like they should go
together to solidly connect the chest missile pods to the torso, but I can't
get them to line up.  Wait, never mind...after taking the things off their
joints and plugging them into the holes I was able to figure out how the rest
of the gimbals spun around to fit.  I take back that "no brain-buster" line.

     Robot Mode: Seven inches (18cm) of bad-ass Maximal, complete with mohawk
cut.  The mouth gun comes out of his back to become a long-barrelled pistol,
and this guy's got actual hands, albeit monkey hands.  There's a peg-hole
worked into the grip so that he can easily hold his gun and still slap
Predacons silly.  Hips swivel, arms are fully poseable (four joints PER ARM,
including wrist joint), legs are fully poseable (although a little more
poseable if you use them in reverse, since the heel spur has more range of
movement than the reversed back hands), head is free to move.  VERY good
beast mode.  The only disconcerting part of it is the way the rear hands of
the baboon turn into the robot's feet...it looks like he's walking on the
backs of his hands.

     Battle Platform Mode: 5 inches (12.5 cm) tall and about 7 inches (17 cm)
long, this is a walking tank.  Not only is the main gun facing forwards, but
two new guns pop out of the missile pods to come to bear.  The overall result
is somewhat floppy, with the gunpods needing to be supported by the robot's
arms (which are fortunately very stiff-jointed), but it looks good.  And it
really *is* a platform, there's space for a Regular Beast (or small MW)
driver to stand or sit behind the main gun.  Finally, a third head (which is
hidden in beast mode and best ignored in the backpack part of the robot mode)
comes into play.  It strongly resembles Ironhide's robot head, but is smaller
and gold.  I'm reminded of the battle platform mode of the main character in
Robert Powers's "Corrosion of War Without End" series.  Lots of guns all
pointed at YOU.

     Overall: Not a "true" Triple-Changer, in that the third mode is sort of
arbitrary "stuff on legs," rather than a complete third form, but still a
really neat toy.  Buy it if you can find it.

     Dave Van Domelen, got an "Aren't you a little too old for that?" look
from a 3-year-old at Wal-Mart when he gleefully snatched up B'Boom....

Dave's Mega Beast Rant:

     Transquito

CAPSULE

     A valiant effort, but sabotaged by dependence on dodgy springs and a
lack of stability in robot mode.  A serious disappointment compared to other
recent Mega Beasts like Inferno and B'Boom.  Very mildly recommended.  $14.76
at Meijer.

RANT

PREDACON: Transquito
Function: Air Assault and Reconnaissance
Transformation Difficulty: 6 (Advanced)
Quote: None

There are few that can match Transquito's uncanny ability to track and
discover hidden Maximal outposts.  Converting to combat mode, he can hold off
several Maximals at once with huge, poison-tipped pincers.  Any unfortunate
robot surviving a strike from these pinchers is immediately afflicted with an
irritating rash and sent into a delirious rage.  His powerful wings hurtle
him to blazing speeds and create an annoying high-pitched screech known to
drive Maximals out of their minds.  His manner is highly obnoxious and
dangerous, a point well illustrated by a frequent and destructive habit of
firing his missile launcher incessantly when upset.  Transquito is hated by
all who know him.

STR 5  INT 4  SPD 9  END 8  RNK 6  COUR 8  FRP 7  SKL 6  Avg 6.875

     A real winner, eh?  One gets the impression this guy was devised during
a company picnic as the skeeters swarmed about.

     Colors: A pale greyish purple and muted gold are the main colors, with
brown insect legs and yellow transparent wings.

     Beast Mode: Not horrible, but saddled with several flaws, mostly related
to overproduction.  It's too heavy, so it can't really stand on its own
legs.  The detailed robot hands are too visible in insect mode.  And most
damning of all, the clever spring-loaded mechanism in the head is so finicky
that looking at it funny makes it pop open and fire the missile.  I'd have to
say that the ConvertaBot mosquito toy (still available in some Kay Bees and
Toys R Us's under various names) is far better at being a robot mosquito, and
it costs under three bucks.
     One other problem worth noting here.  There's these spikes/antennae
things on the insect head which are ball-jointed to move around.  But the
joints are stiff and the spines thin...I'm already seeing the plastic getting
lighter near the base of the spines, a sign of plastic about to break.

     Transformation: Much simpler than the 6 rating on the box would
indicate.  I'm starting to wonder if all Megas will be 6 by default or
something.  In fact, it's hard to keep the head from transforming.  There's
no hidden trick like with B'Boom, it's all very straightforward.

     Battlestation Mode:  Probably the only really cool part of this toy.
The legspan is extended to about ten inches (25cm), although the lack of side
to side motion of the insect legs prevents them from spreading out and making
the look complete.  And the toy doesn't rest on the insect legs in this mode,
rather on a sturdy tripod of the abdomen halves and the insect head
assembly.  The "backpack" containing the wing mechanisms flips out to form
the third head, and the wings are hinged at their tips, folding out into 7
inch (18cm) long pincers which open and close using the same slider that
makes the wings flap.  This head is rather reminscent of the Violator from
Spawn, and the whole battle mode looks demonic.  There's also an obvious
chair in the back of it where a Regular Beast sits reasonably well, depending
on how much garbage it has (Drill Bit does NOT work well, Snapper does).

     Robot Mode: The legs are gimpy and the feet feel cheap, with very little
backwards balance.  The head faces downward too much, worsened by the fact
that to keep the toy balanced, you have to lean it forward some (the wing
unit and lack of real heels hurts Transquito a LOT here).  The only weapon it
has in this mode is the mouth-missile, which pretty much just shoots down
unless you move the head...but thanks to the springs, it only holds a couple
of positions well.  The head is very much like Jetstorm's, but longer and
movable (because there's no squirtgun in this one), and oddly enough, you can
remove the face.  The robot stands about 7 inches (18cm) tall, and has
open-palmed hands like Bonecrusher's.  Full arm and leg poseability, no waist
swivel, though.

     Gimmicks: There's the mouth missile, which is a royal pain.  You can't
load it when the toy is in full mosquito mode, yet it forms the proboscis of
the insect.  The springs surrounding it are very sensitive, and the wrong
ones are strong, leading to the previously mentioned problems.  Not to
mention, the missile fires very easily, often leading to Transquito shooting
itself in the gut.  Worse yet, there's no place to store the missile other
than in the launcher...I may need to do some spring-ectomies.  
     The other main gimmick is the flapping wings/moving pincers.  This uses
a slider bar and gears to move the wings forwards and back (they're hinged to
flap, but the hinges are stiff), or when the wings are pulled open, it moves
the pincers.  The problem is, the gears slip and strip easily, and the
controls are non-intuitive: you push the slider back to move the wings
forwards, and vice versa.  The slider is also awkward to work.

     Undocumented Features: Like most toys which are too complex for their
own goods, there's a few things you can do with it that aren't in the
instructions.  One, discovered by another online reviewer, is to turn the
head around backwards in robot mode, giving a somewhat downcast Shockwave.
Another involves the insect legs, which are mounted on rotating "hips" on the
robot forearms, in theory to allow for better positioning of the insect mode
in classic mosquito poses.  But with a little work rotating things around,
you can get a big capture claw on each robot arm (or blender blades?) or a
set of big "Wolverine" claws.  And, of course, the insect wings can act as
extra legs in robot mode for some poses, although they're a little too long
and hard to work with for more than a few stances.

     Overall: A lot of the stuff in Transquito sounds great on paper, but the
execution didn't come off well.  I think this design might have worked better
at a smaller size as a Deluxe, light enough to support itself, even if that
meant abandoning some of the gimmicks.

     Dave Van Domelen, kinda likes the "walking blender" mode he
discovered....