Dave's Mutant Beast Wars Rant: Icebird For the first time ever, I actually spotted a new Transformer first at Family Toy Warehouse...and I got two! Icebird and Snarl (plus recolored Airazor, which I also saw for the first time today). CAPSULE Icebird: Pretty good in both modes, interesting transformation if a bit unstable, iffy gimmick. Mildly recommended. $9.99 at Family Toy Warehouse RANT MUTANT BEAST: Icebird Forms: Owl/Polar Bear Function: Mutant Beast Commander Motto: "He who fights with monsters should take care lest he become one." Icebird is the sage-like leader of the mutants, and is known for his wisdom and power. He has colossal strength in polar bear mode and aerial stealth as an owl. He deeply resents the loss of his robot mode. Despite this, he strongly believes that the reason he exists is to lead the charge in wiping away all technology, transforming Cybertron into a purely organic world. He does not consider himself an ally of the Maximals, but does think they will play a vital role in the organic revolution. Icebird was granted several almost mystical abilities by the Oracle, including telepathy, mind control, the ability to become invisible at will, and the power to shut down any sparkless machine. He considers Optimus Primal a misguided compromiser, but tolerates his heroic foolishness. While Megatron has a personal animosity for Optimus Primal, he fears Icebird from the core of his being, as a totem of everything Megatron wishes to eliminate. STR 8.4 INT 8.9 SPD 7.9 END 7.5 RNK 10 COUR 9 FRP 8.9 SKL 9 Avg 8.7 For those coming in late, I rewrote the techspec note to make more sense and have better grammar. }-> I also tried to emphasize how the existance of the Mutants faction pushes the Maximals to more of a centrist position on the organic/inorganic scale. Polar Bear Mode: 5" (13cm) long and 3" (8cm) high at the shoulder, this is yet another bear from Hasbro designers that has ultra-long foreclaws for no very good reason. They're even too long in owl mode. Standing in quadrupedal poses, Icebird is very stable, although his rear legs do wobble a bit on the hip unit. Mostly white, with red eyes and claws, black nose, steel-blue teeth and a pink tongue (the mouth opens). Grey flanks are some owl kibble, and he has some black and yellow patterning on his chest from the owl coloration. Not too bad in the kibble department, although the owl face peeking out from under his tail is a bit odd. Icebird can go up on his hind legs in this mode, standing 5" (12cm) tall. His head can tilt down to face forward in this pose. Undocumented feature: On his front right shoulder is his faction symbol. This is on a panel that can flip up to reveal some robotic patterns. Icebird's robot head can replace his beast head in this mode. It's almost totally spring-loaded, but you have to push the beast head in a bit to finish the revelation. Unlike the other robot heads so far, this one is pretty much a normal robot head, not distorted or molded onto a flat piece or whatnot. It can't turn at the neck, though. Transformation: Pretty intuitive, I didn't need to use the instructions until it came time to figure out the gimmick. The springs on practically everything tend to make it hard to get some bits to stay in the right place while you fold things around them, though. I recommend not straightening the legs like shown in the instructions, the owl comes closer to being proportional if you leave the thighs in their bear-mode slots. Owl mode: Stands 4.5" (11cm) tall if you keep the legs bent, with a 9" (22cm) wingspan. The recommended transformation leaves it taller, but looking more like an owl on stilts or something. And in any case, the talons are way too long. Additionally, the tail is spring loaded and keeps wanting to fold forward against Icebird's butt, which is a pretty stupid design element, considering the spring doesn't really seem to help with anything else (okay, it's the same spring that's supposed to pop the bear head into the body when bringing out the robot head, but it doesn't really do THAT very well either). The wings are multiply hinged so they can fold away in bear mode, but they can't fold down in any sort of owl-like wing furling pose, which limits the usefulness of the hinges. The sides of the owl are open to reveal the bear's hind legs sitting inside the chest. And, to end the litany of sorrow here, you're supposed to be able to push down on a tab on the top of the owl's head and gets its beak to move, but the tab cannot be made to line up with the lever inside the head, so the gimmick doesn't work. Not that the action is terribly impressive when you just go in and press the lever directly. This mode has the right colors, at least, but otherwise is pretty disappointing. Overall: A bear turning into an owl is certainly an ambitious transformation, and it could have been pulled off. But a number of totally avoidable design choices pretty much sink the owl mode. Dave Van Domelen, and now to do Snarl....