Dave's Mutant Beast Wars Rant: Poison Bite Picked this up at Target on Friday, it was the only one they had (but they had three Razor Claws). They also had both the Rhinox and Rattrap recolors. Rattrap's new colors aren't that appetizing. CAPSULE: Poison Bite: Very nice barracuda mode, decent transformation, good scorpion. Recommended. $9.99 at Target. RANT: For those just joining the show, I've started to rewrite the techspecs, trying to keep the intended meaning while eliminating the horrid grammar and really bad prose style. MUTANT: Poison Bite Modes: Barracuda/Scorpion Function: Special Operations Motto: "A strong spark ought to bear calamities and not flee them." A silent warrior, Poison Bite is completely loyal to his leader, Icebird. He doesn't care for the mission Icebird has set for the mutants, but accepts it as a necessary means to a higher end. Poison Bite feels that, as an almost totally organic entity, he has been abandoned by the Oracle. As a result, he believes that his kind will soon be extinct, regardless of Icebird's grand plans. He can often be found brooding on this matter. Despite this, he is well-liked by his fellow warriors, who often feel compelled to console him during his moments of depression. Despite his fatalistic nature, he is extremely dangerous in combat, able to shatter armor alloys with ease with either his powerful jaws or his mighty claws. His stinger in scorpion mode contains no poison, but in a surprise to his foes can emit electrical charges. In both barracuda and scorpion modes he is able to teleport up to 30 meters in a single jump, making him a master of surprise attacks despite his decidedly unstealthy coloration. While he does not go out of his way to attack Maximals, neither will he come to his rescue. After all, they have the Oracle on their side, what do they need HIM for? STR 8 INT 6 SPD 7 END 8 RNK 6 COUR 8 FRP 6 SKL 9 Avg 7.25 Okay, so I added a LOT to this one. The electrical stinger was completely my idea, since his firepower score isn't low. What can I say? I'm tired of badly-written techspecs, I'm going to replace them with my own. Anything following a "UF:" is what I consider to be an undocumented feature. These are things that seem to have been designed into the toy, but aren't mentioned in the instructions. Barracuda Mode: Red with yellow, black and metallic blue accents, this fish is nearly 8" (19cm) long. For the most part the texturing isn't very fishlike, and the colors are way "tropical fish" for a barracuda, but it looks nice. Unlike a green wolverine, a red barracuda looks pretty nifty. Poseability is pretty low, given that it's a fish. Jaw opens, pectoral fins can move around a bit (and cover the face), tail fin can thrash but int he wrong direction (up/down instead of side to side). You can see the robot face in this mode by poking around in the underbelly kibble, but the fish is generally pretty solid. No blatant hanging stuff, although the tail is a bit baroque. Transformation: Fairly simple, with some limb-swinging that reminds me of the Cyberjets. Clever how the pectoral fins cover the fish face so that the scorpion claws don't look like head-halves. UF: Be sure to fold the sides up as far as they can go, there's a sort of halfway position that's stable but doesn't work well for posing. Also, rotate the tailfin pieces so that the tips point down. This is not only a LOT more stable, it also reduces the appearance of "the legs are just the tail split apart" that haunts the photos of this toy. Scorpion Mode: With tail in striking position, it's from 6-7" (15-17cm) long with a legspan up to 6" (15cm). By pushing down on the stinger you reveal the robot head, which isn't really any better looking than Razor Claw's. Additionally, the faction symbol is on a small panel on the right claw, and that panel can be folded down to reveal some tech stuff. Maybe a blaster that wasn't mentioned in the techspecs. The claw arms are very poseable, with three ball joints, a swivel and a hinge on each arm (woo!), plus the claws open and shut. The fins acting as covers for the fishface don't peg into position, so they can be displaced pretty easily. The other legs, however, pretty much have to stay in one position for the toy to stand, not much meaningful poseability there. And the tail can't go forward very far at all. Some have commented that this is a pretty flat-bodied scorpion. Well, I've seen flatter in person. Scorpions like to hide under rocks in the day, and some have evolved to fit into really narrow crevices. Despite the fish pieces still visible and the general undercarriage exposure (like the dorsal fin of the fish mode hanging down under the scorpion's belly), this is a rather nice looking scorpion. Overall: While neither mode is great in poseability, both modes look pretty good. So, while Razor Claw poses better, Poison Bite looks better, I'd almost call it a tie. But I think Poison Bite comes out a bit higher. Others must agree with me, since I've only seen one PB on the shelf so far, but half a dozen or so RC's spread through four stores. Dave Van Domelen, on to Blackarachnia....