Dave's Deluxe Transmetal 2 Rant: Cheetor II Dinobot II Ramulus (review at end) Well, I decided to risk Parking Hell (TM) on campus this afternoon and zapped up to Toys R Us to find the TMet2's. I found two of them (and got a reasonable parking spot on my return to campus), but unfortunately Ramulus is SHORT-PACKED. This, to be frank, sucks. I think it's the first time we've seen short-packing of a new figure in Beast Wars...I guess they decided to emulate Todd Toys packing while they were emulating the design philosophy. Each box of Deluxes has one Ramulus, and I think two Dinobots and three Cheetors. CAPSULES Cheetor: Bleah. Not only is he fugly, he's got very limited poseability, weak gimmicks and several things which could have been cool but were instead cheaped-out on and hence ended up lame. Not worth the ten bucks, that's for sure. Mild recommendation to avoid. $9.99 at Toys R Us. Dinobot: Not too bad. I prefer the colors used on the prototype, and he's kinda loose in both modes, but some of the cool things actually work on him. Mildly recommended. $9.99 RANTS MAXIMAL: Cheetor Function: Robotic Jungle Patrol Transformation Difficulty: Intermediate (5) Quote (of my invention): "I guess there IS more than one way to skin a cat." Emerging from an explosion caused by Megatron's dangerous cloning experiments, Cheetor is experiencing some unusual growing pains. The lines between beast and robot have blurred, creating a new Cheetor even faster and more ferocious than before. But he must learn to control his new capabilities - instead of being controlled by them. Oufitted [sic] with a new high-powered missile launcher and leap-thruster, the new ultra-strong and somewhat unpredictable Cheetor strikes fear into the circuits of all Predacons he encounters. STR 8.1 INT 7.2 SPD 10 END 9.2 RNK 7.1 COUR 9.5 FRP 7.2 SKL 7.7 Avg: 8.25 Well, aside from one typo, this note isn't too awful. They seem to have gone whole-hog into fractional techspec numbers with TM2, however, which I think just serves to make the numbers even more useless. Packaging: Take the Transmetal packaging image and rip gaps in the metal around the eye. Cheetah fur shows through these gaps. Also, technogarbage is visible in the eye itself. The art of Cheetor is the standard mediocre painting with a snarling expression. The plastic bubble is techno-patterned. Cheetor is pretty much in beast mode in the package, secured with two twist-ties. Beast Mode: Ignoring the tail, it's about 5" (12cm) long and 3.5" (9cm) tall at the hideous hump. He has no cheetah spots on his yellow fur, and gaps in the fur show brownish grey technobits. Purple chrome with some red accents finish out the color scheme, with the chrome mostly on his left side for that kewl asymmetry. He has more joints than he knows what to do with, but lacks them in very important places, like his painfully arched back. His foreleg "elbows" don't bend, they merely swivel back and forth...added to his really bad wrist jointing and the forelegs really only have one position. His hump-cannon can raise up, it's held on by one joint. The bits hanging down from it are merely decoration, not part of the actual supports. His forepaws look pretty bad, especially because the "thumbs" only come out to the wrong sides (more on this later). The new spark is pretty neat, but the long elbow-blades get in the way of opening the spark chamber in the hip. Attack Mode: Pop up the gun and raise a little chrome shield on one foreleg. However, you have to bend the paw down to raise the shield even a little. Very lame. The gun fires a couple feet, and will load in a way that it won't stay in (as opposed to previous goof-proof loading of missiles in other TFs). Spark: Worth mentioning here. It's a piece of glass molded to present a spherical face, and the back is molded in the shape of the Maximal symbol. I'm guessing a piece of chrome is placed on the back to make it look like it lights up. It really catches the light quite well, I can see how people seeing early prototypes might have thought it was LED. Transformation: Like the other Cheetors, it's pretty much "stand up on the hind legs and then mess with the torso a bit. But it's even simpler than the other two, since the forelegs become the robot arms. Robot Mode: Not counting the tail or the possibility of leaving the gun on, he's a little over 5" (13cm) tall with a bad case of scoliosis. He cannot straighten his legs all the way, and his elbows only swivel around, they don't straighten at all. His left wrist swivels, making it the better choice for holding his gun, but the awkward OpOp-like thumb arrangement seems better suited to holding his tail as a weapon than the gun. Unfortunately, the thumb only moves about halfway rather than being fully reversible (which is a problem in beast mode), and it only holds the tail loosely. The other wrist has a hinge with limited range, but no swivel, so it doesn't hold the gun well at all. The legs have plenty of joints, but they're all hinge joints. There's no mid-hip swivel to help with posing. The waist swivels, as does the head (it also wobbles a bit, the pieces of the chest which are supposed to keep the neck in place don't quite fit). A fair amount of posing is still possible, but nothing that requires straight arms. Things That Could Have Been Better: I've already complained about the hands, and would like to add that the wrists should have both been ball joints. Ditch the forearm shield, it doesn't work well anyway and prevents that wrist from moving much. Make the tail a bend-em. Make the stupid elbow blades removable or something, so not only can you get them out of the way, maybe they could form a crossbow or something. This toy is not without potential, they simply squandered a lot of cool opportunities. Overall: Give this one a pass unless you're a completist. It's not 100% bad, but it's extremely disappointing. PREDACON: Dinobot Function: Special Operations Combatant Transformation Difficulty: Intermediate (5) Quote (of my invention): "No, *I'll* send *you* to the boneyard!" An eerie and amoral regeneration of the former Maximal hero, Dinobot was synthetically reanimated on-line as a vicious combat expert. Silent and utterly depraved, Dinobot wields his deadly warrior skills at Megatron's beckon [sic] call. A skeletal hybrid of organic and Cybertronian life, he slices through any substance with Transmetallized talons. Moves at lightning speed with reptilian cunning. This ruthless clone paralizes [sic] his prey by channeling Rampage's noxious Spark energy, which now fuels his existance [sic]. STR 8.6 INT 6.3 SPD 7.7 END 7.5 RNK 6 COUR 8.9 FRP 6.8 SKL 9.5 Avg: 7.66 GAAAAH. One of the worst techspec notes yet. Not only chock full of misspellings, but also just badly written and purple. "Synthetically reanimated on-line" indeed. Packaging: Same idea as Cheetor's, but under the torn metal are red scales from the original BW packaging. The art is penciled and inked like a comicbook drawing in too many places, as if the artist forgot to airbrush over the guidelines or something. It looks cheap and cheesy. Dinobot is not quite in beast mode in the package, being somewhat "exploded." He's secured with two twist-ties. Beast Mode: From snout to tail tip, he's a full foot long (30cm), and 4" (10cm) high at the hip when his body is properly horizontal and his legs bent. They designers did a pretty good job of evoking the skeletal raptor appearance, although the forelegs look pretty much like robot legs swung up. They aren't pegged into place or covered up or anything, there's just a guide slot. The mouth opens quite wide and reveals a freaky inner set of jaws instead of a tongue, but unfortunately the head can't look down (just like the other raptor toy I got recently). The arms and legs are pretty poseable, but hindered in several places. The claws in front can't even close, because of pegs put in place to prevent them from doing so! Both the forelegs and hindlegs have not-very-flexible tubes connecting a moving part to a non-moving part, hampering poseability as well. One neat detail on the forelegs, though, is that between the front claws protrude a pair of machinegun barrels. There's a clip in each forearm. Nice effect. The tail is rubbery and has two straps running down between the vertebrae. Twisting a lever on the tail pulls on these straps, making the tail thrash about quite nicely. The top of his head flips up to reveal his spark, which isn't as striking as Cheetor's due to lack of contrast (there seems to be a second color inside Cheetor's). The main colors are beige and navy blue with magenta chrome bits and red accents. I much prefer the white and copper color scheme shown on the package and in the art. Another case of Torca-ing. Transformation: Not terribly difficult once you get the hang of it, but it does have some nicely challenging nuances (i.e. things not mentioned in the instructions). There's a couple of tabs on either side of the chest which I'm not sure what to do with, for instance. Everything pegs together pretty firmly once you slide things into the right places. Robot Mode: A little over 5" (13cm) tall at the head, tack on another centimeter for the shoulderpads, which look kinda ugly and are always in the way, or so it seems. The oversized hand-claws look okay, but the nonflexible tubing keeps the main toe claws from being moved into position as weapons. The face reminds me of the BW2 Cyborg Beasts, specifically Max B's face. The spark chamber becomes the chest, which is a nice look. It's also worth noting that while Cheetor is asymmetric, Dinobot has fairly good bilateral symmetry. He also lacks hip swivel joints, and his feet are restricted by more of that stupid tubing (I may take a knife to this guy and replace the tubing with flexible stuff). His thrashing tail can be removed and placed in his left hand as a weapon, but the peg intended to hold it (which isn't shown in the instructions, BTW) isn't thick enough or long enough to hold the weapon firmly. Hrm, it's actually simultaneously too thick and not thick enough. There's a rim inside the tail socket that blocks the peg from getting in any further. Use of excessive force doesn't help. Moot point anyway, the tail's so heavy the figure can't hold it up anyway. Tail's a neat gimmick, though...it can even knock over Optimal Optimus with a little effort. Things That Could Have Been Better: If you're not going to make the tubing flexible, don't attach it to movable parts, duh. And the peg for holding the tail could have been better. And, of course, use the prototype color scheme, not the leftover navy blue from Torca. Overall: Not too bad. But it still indicates a general lack of quality in the Transmetal 2 line, all things considered. And the techspec writer needs to finish gradeschool. Dave Van Domelen, hopes Ramulus is better than these two, as he's heard the toy is.... Dave's Deluxe Transmetal 2 Rant: Ramulus Larger shipment came in during the week (Morse Rd. Toys R Us, for interested Columbusites), big enough for the shortpacking to be less of a problem, thanks to people buying the show characters more. CAPSULE Ramulus's beast mod looks pretty good, albeit a little unstable and stuck in a head-down position. Nice transformation, very nice robot mode, okay weapon. Easily the best Deluxe TMet2, and I'm not damning with faint praise in this case. Recommended. $9.99 at TRU. RANT MAXIMAL: Ramulus Function: Scout Transformation Difficulty: Intermediate (5, I'd give it a 6) Quote (of my creation): "You don't want to butt heads with me." Ramulus' stasis pod crashed in a mountainous region of prehistoric Earth during the onset of the quantum surge. Isolated, damaged and forced to develop his own survival tactics, Ramulus trusts neither Maximal nor Predacon alike. He is reluctant to fight, but brash and impulsive when provoked. Characteristically calm and reliable when venturing through unexplored territory on his own. Relishes adventure and argues that the Maximal's success depends on their continual repositioning and relocation. Longs to see Cybertron. Ramulus wields a double slagmaker cannon in robot mode and his fractured Spark crystal generates disruptive ion pulses. [all sic, so many errors I'll rewrite below.] STR 7.2 INT 8.3 SPD 5.7 END 8.2 RNK 5 COUR 7.8 FRP 6.3 SKL 8.1 Avg 7.08 Rewritten techspec, corrected for grammar, spelling and style: Ramulus's stasis pod crashed in a mountainous region of prehistoric Earth at the onset of the quantum surge. Isolated, damaged, and forced to develop his own survival tactics, Ramulus distrusts both Maximal and Predacon alike. While reluctant to fight, he is brash and impulsive when provoked. He is usually calm and reliable when venturing through unexplored territory on his own, but he relishes adventure. Argues that the Maximals' success depends on continual relocation rather than their current seige mentality, but ironically longs to see Cybertron, where Maximals have lived in the same place for generations. Ramulus wields a double slagmaker cannon in robot mode, and his exposed Spark crystal can generate disruptive ion pulses. Anyway, despite the technically bad writing, this techspec note does have pretty much everything you'd want: personality, background, motivations, and abilities. It also points to a possible evening-out of the sides in TMet2, where there's a 2-to-1 ratio of Maximals to Predacons. Not all the Maximals are really that loyal. Beast Mode: 5" (13cm) long and about 4.5" (11cm) high at the horns in beast mode. A coolish grey (very slightly purple in fluorescent lighting) and chocolate brown form the main flat colors, with some dark blue accents. The chrome is a sort of maroon, with green accents. The figure is mostly symmetric, with only slight asymmetries in the horns and the pattern of "ripthrough" on the fur. Very poseable except for the head, which is kept lowered by the position of the horn unit. Another problem with posing is that the hindquarters have a tendency to hinge up, although this may be a result of my not yet finding the proper way to transform it back to beast mode. As others have reported, if you remove the horns and swing the head up, you get a sort of mane-less horsey thing. The Spark is housed in the head, with a hole in the chrome piece so that the Spark is always visible. I suspect that this is what the techspecs meant by "cracked Spark," a cracked Spark *casing*. The back of the head has a slit in it, so you can see the back of the Spark as well, and it does NOT have a foil backing as I surmised with Cheetor. Just the natural internal reflectivity of the glass. You can get a great "glowing eyes"-style effect by positioning the hornless head properly. The horns' gimmick mechanism cannot be used in beast mode. Transformation: Fairly simple, in that it stands on its hind legs and then the robot head and arms come out of the chest, with the forelegs folding out of the way (like Transmetal Cheetor). But the details of it are challenging enough to be a feature rather than a bug. Be careful when pulling the robot arms out, though, it's easy to break the chrome chest bits on either side (as Doug Dlin has found out). Just about everything snaps very firmly into place for robot mode, although the reverse conversion to beast mode doesn't seem to be able to say that. [Late note: Doug had trouble with the chrome tab under where the rear hips come together in beast mode, actually.] Robot Mode: Sweet. Forearm blade units, the big weapon (which must have been glued into place for the package photos...it does NOT fit into the gap in the forearm blades), great poseability and all the joints that were missing from Dinobot and Cheetor put together! Each arm has FOUR joints: ball shoulder, upper arm swivel, double elbow (like TM Terrorsaur's knees). Stands up to 5" (13cm) tall on his satyr-like legs, balanced by extra struts that deploy from his feet. For a Spark Attack, his beast head can be moved up into position over his robot head, where the backlighting can shine right through it, a very nifty trick. You can also mount his slagmaker atop the beast head for a somewhat demonic look. While the beast forelegs mostly get in the way, it's possible to keep them mostly out of sight, or deploy them as shoulder cannons. He's got a LOT of "fiddling around" potential for alternate attack modes. About the only real "fault" I can find with his robot mode is that because of the funky way his waist assembles, he can't have waist articulation. Overall: A few problems in beast mode and the possibility of breakage in transformation are about the only problems I have with this one, an otherwise very good toy. I'm almost tempted to go back and give it a Strongly Recommended rating. Dave Van Domelen, doing Optimus Minor next....