Dave's War Planets Rant

     Planet Bone

CAPSULE

     Looks like something out of H.R. Giger's vegetable patch, and would more
accurately be called Planet Organic or Planet Plant.  Even the reptilian
warriors could easily be plant-based life, and the Wardog looks like a
fungus.  I think I got a second "printing" version, since some new elements
introduced in the Beast Planet are present.  Several parts are mediocre or
even disappointing, though, and I can only mildly recommend it.  $9.99 at Kay
Bee Toys.
     Side note on Planet Remora: I got a chance to look at it more carefully
in the store the other day, and there's very little about it which isn't the
same as Planet Beast...same warriors, same jet launchers, same motifs.  Get
one or the other, not both (Beast Planet is much better, but also more
expensive). 

RANT

     As mentioned, Planet Bone in planet mode looks like something out of the
Alien/s/3 movies, in places getting about as close to Giger's designs as
possible without drawing down a lawsuit.  It's a sort of neon green with
black ink wash over it to give it more of a "corrupt vegetation" look, a wash
applied even more heavily on the three bendable tentacles (yeah, it's
probably airbrushing, it just LOOKS like an ink wash).  Places where the
black isn't present, like under the locking cap, look a tad garish by
comparison.   Speaking of the locking cap, it's easily the toughest one of
the toys I have to open, there's very little purchase for fingers and the
action is a bit stiff.
     The exterior shares one thing in common with Planet Rock, and that is a
pair of flip-down panels with stickers behind them showing "interior"
scenes.  The clash isn't as great here, since the surface is already pretty
bright.  On the plus side, these panels have small pegs on the flipdown
parts, which fit into holes in the feet of the Heroes or bracket the knees of
the Drones, making them much better firing platforms.  On the minus side,
there's no doorway into the interior as with the Tek, Ice and Rock planets,
meaning you have to open the toy up to put smaller parts back in, which in
turn means working around the tentacles.
     Storage: Somewhat awkward.  The pegs are slightly larger than the holes
in the corresponding vehicles, depending on the squishiness of the vehicles
to make it work.  And they do go on, but the "peg smaller than hole" trick
makes it a royal pain to line things up by touch, and you can't see around
the blade tank to line it up by sight.
     Vehicles: The Sawblade Tank looks pretty neat and plant-like, but it's
squishy, not a particularly fitting trait for a tank.  It launches a
claw-tipped missile a respectable distance.  The only other "vehicle" is the
War Dog, a large purple wormlike thing which has just enough of a cavity in
its mouth to partially eat some of the figures.  The Beast Planet Drones are
particularly edible, it turns out.
     Weapons: Aside from the Sawblade Tank's turret, there's three other main
weapons.  The planet's tentacles are about 10 inches (25cm) long and fully
bendable, with floppy clawlike fronds which can grasp figures (again, Beast
Planet figures are eminently grabbable).  The Disk Thrower is a small
beetle-like construct with a big spring-loaded arm which can flip the
included disks far farther than you expect, leading to disk-hunts.  Finally,
there's the cruddy standalone launcher, which fires soft-tipped missiles but
can't stand up on its own while loaded...the tentacles forming its base don't
extend far enough to support it.  It needs to be propped up against something
to stand.
     As with the Beast Planet, the missiles and launchers have little colored
dots (yellow in this case) to help kids tell how to line up the missiles.
Unlike the Beast Planet, the Bone Planet comes with extras of all three kinds
of ammunition...two each of the missile types and three disks.  At least the
extra missile in the Rock Planet was a different shape...there's a bit too
much ammo and no place to keep it.  Although the disks are stackable, at
least. 
     Warriors: There's four Drones and four Heroes.  The Drones are lizardmen
in a firing crouch, with purple "hair," magenta skin and silver/blackwash
guns, and they have a bit of trouble staying upright on a tilted surface.
The Heroes are violet reptilians with Gigeresque heads.  They have backpacks
connected to pistol-like guns, although you can easily miss the unpainted
connecting tube.  They can turn their heads and tails, and while their arms
seem movable, in practice they snap back to original position anyway.

     Overall: While it has some redeeming features, Planet Bone is definitely
weaker than Planet Rock, and probably a little below Tek and Ice as well,
although at the moment I'll put it ahead of Planet Remora.  I have yet to see
Planet Fire anywhere, so I can't compare it to that.

     Dave Van Domelen, feeding Beast Planet Drones to the War-Dog....