Dave's War Planets Rant:

     Beast Tank Scorpizoid

     Thanks to Tengu for picking up one of these for me in Long Island.  They
*still* haven't gotten to Columbus for some reason.

CAPSULE

     Suffers from a few "they just weren't paying attention" design flaws,
but is otherwise quite cool in both planetoid and scorpion modes.  Definitely
one of the best War Planets toys so far.  Recommended.  $14.99 at Toys R Us.

RANT

     The one big problem I had with this toy was the lack of instructions.
On the one hand, it's kinda fun to discover all the nifty features, but on
the other hand, it'd be nice to be sure if I'm missing any parts (I think I'm
missing one of the small guns), as well as the terms for things.

     Planetoid Mode: Sort of a lopsided egg shape, six inches (15cm) long
(ignoring the main gun, which adds about an inch) and about five inches
(12cm) wide and tall, bristling with guns and a couple of buzzsaw blades.
The color scheme is black with rust-brown patches airbrushed onto it.  Aside
from the "Killer Christmas Pudding" shape, the main aesthetic problem of the
planet mode is that the main gun points down like an elephant's trunk or
something.  You can correct this by removing the piece the main gun is
attached to and turning it upside down.  It'll point straight out, and the
front panel will be openable as well, resulting in a sort of assault carrier
mode.  
     In terms of stability, it's pretty good once you get the hang of
fiddling with it.  But you can't store the airship inside with the wings
attached, or the sides of the planet won't stay closed.
     The planet rests on three small wheels, and the back two are connected
to a pullback motor.  Pulling the planet back until the motor clicks will
cause it to trundle along in a convincingly tanklike fashion for about 2-3
meters, depending on how smooth the floor is.
     The "footprint" innovation added to Planet Fire is present her as well,
with one set of prints behind the main gun.  Not much use in planetoid mode,
admittedly.  

     Transformation: The planetoid unfolds into a scorpion in a satisfyingly
complex fashion.  There's an order that parts have to be manipulated in, not
just a simple "crack it open" action.  It's tricky without being
frustrating.  

     Scorpion Mode: The proportions are, obviously, all wrong for a real
scorpion, with the tail being extremely wide and the weird mouthparts bearing
no resemblance to the real thing.  But the fact it only has 8 limbs is a bit
irksome, since scorpions all have ten.
     The legs are quite poseable, but the claws are rather restricted in
their range by all the stuff around them.  The head has more potential range
of motion than it can use, and the mouthparts (separate from the head) can
open and close.  With the tail in the up position, the footprints on it
provide a nice gunnery position for one of the Heroes or Drones.  There's a
slot for the airship to land in, and some odd little claws under the head
which can trap a figure.  The little claws took me a while to discover, being
almost hidden back by a joint.  There's also a gunpost by the claws, but its
position is bad for putting any guns in.
     The toy looks quite cool scuttling along the floor in scorpion mode.
Legspan is a full foot (30cm), length front to back is about nine inches
(22cm), and height is about six inches (15cm).  Quite impressive.

     Vehicles: There's only one separate vehicle, a batwinged and mandibled
flying craft with detachable wings.  It has a post for putting in one of the
guns, and in theory has a place to put figures.  But the space is too small
for them to sit down in, and they can't stand if a missile launcher's in the
gunpost.  In some ways it almost looks cooler without the wings, a sort of
aircar feel to it.  And, as mentioned above, it cannot store inside the
planetoid mode unless you remove the wings.

     Weapons: Lots.  Two single-barrelled missile launchers, one
double-barrelled launcher, six (although I only got five) non-firing blaster
guns, a central buzzsaw and two auxiliary buzzsaws on the left front claw.
     The buzzsaws are fixed into position and the main gun (double barrelled)
only has one place it can be put, but the other eight weapons have small ball
joints which can be inserted in any of about a dozen holes on the toy, most
of which are part of the exterior of the planetoid mode.  This gives a lot of
versatility in weapon deployment.  The only problem is that these joints are
not the same size as those on the Shadowraiders, so you can't swap weapons
with them.
     The claw-mounted buzzsaws are on swinging joints which let them either
be on the inside or the outside of the claw, although there's no way to
easily deploy them when the planet's all closed up.
     The launchers all share four identical missiles, and fire them about 2
meters or so at best range.

     Figures: There's 12 of them, four each of three types.  First there's
the poseable Drones of the mold used in the Beast Planet, done in monochrome
metallic violet.  Then there's the Beast Heroes, in roughly the same color
scheme as found in Planet Remora.  Finally, there's a new type of poseable
figure, a stumpy dark red creature with big red claws strapped to each wrist,
which I've taken to calling Trolls.  They look the part.  They also look a
little like the MAXX, but the faces are wrong for that.  The Trolls are the
only figures which can't man the gunnery platform, but they come closest to
being able to sit down in the airship.

     Storage: Pretty good.  If you remove the wings from the airship, it and
all the figures fit easily inside.  The movable guns can all be mounted on
the outside of the planetoid, as is the main gun.  More could be stored
inside, except the scorpion leg parts get in each others' way and eat up a
lot of space.

     Overall: Despite a few flaws, this is a very good toy.  The design
department seems to be getting the hang of things, much like the later Beast
Wars toys were almsot universally better than the first wave.

     Dave Van Domelen, just knows he'll see shelves full of Scorpizoids now
that he's spent extra on postage to get one mailed to him....