Phil's Back to Basics Reviews

[Philip Ayres]

One of my other aims in updating the reviews is to do all the BW basics. Terrorsaur, Lazorbeak, Iguanus and Megatron worked their way in the Dinobot thread.

I'd intended waiting till after my holiday to start this but Bump turned up and so .....

My vague plan is to push on doing the BW Leaders one thread at a time - they're big and deserve the attention. But the BW basics are pretty easy to write so I might get an odd one in here and there.

The plan is vaguely: Razorclaw (Rockbuster) and Razorbeast (Randy) cos they're in Neo (look in the Neo Cybertron thread for their review) and Snarl (Tazmania Kid/Bound Rogue) cos he's in RM

After that Snapper cos he has no repaint and then the rest as I feel like it. There's also an impending Cybershark/Sharpedge review when Sharpedge turns up (en route from Japan as i write this !)

So....

[Philip Ayres]

Beast Wars Snarl / Beast Wars II Tazmania Kid www.tfu.info/1997/Maximal/Snarl/snarl.htm

Beast Wars Snarl & Beast Wars II Tazmania Kid are essentially the same toy, just under different names in different toylines. Snarl doesn't appear in the Japanese Beast Wars, while Tazmania Kid is C-14 or part of VS-14 with Dirge - the blue Flipchanger jet (the one that doesn't have Megatron's head !) I'll refer to the toy as Snarl throughout.

Snarl is a Tazmanian Devil, mostly in reddish brown but with a grey stripe down his back & into his tail, and on his forelimbs. The forelimbs are jointed at shoulder, elbow/knee and ankle. The jaw opens and the upper part of the head can move a bit. The back legs move only at the hip. The tail isn't articulated but has a trigger underneath it that should launch the rest of the beast forward. I say should because it didn't work on my original one ! The tail becomes the gun in robot mode so you'll need to remove it. It occurs to me a peg hole in the grey stripe in the back would have allowed the gun to be mounted in Beast Mode.

TF: Remove the tail. Fold the side panels up - they may catch on the forelegs. (There's some lovely detail only visible here on the inside of the body - there's 4 ribs molded into the panels exposed) Separate the head in half then fold out to the sides bringing with it the robot legs which are folded up the robot's back. Fold these down folding the upper jaw halves forward to form the feet and fold the heel spurs back. Fold the lower jaw down to form the robot chest. Bend the back hip panels in, and rotate the back legs round so the feet face upwards. Straighten out the robot arms and peg the gun into a forearm.

As you'll see by the last comment there's no fist. Bad sign, especially with the oversized hands he has (and an odd coincidence later ...) Standard basic articulation of ball joints at knee, hip, shoulder, elbow and neck applies but with a bonus of bending ankles and ball jointed wrists.

Overall: Decent enough. But the bust gimmick on my first one, the "head as feet" and a chronic misuse of the Snarl name (He's a Dinobot ! not anything else !) biases me against the toy.

Robotmasters Bound Rogue www.tfu.info/2004/Cybertron/BoundRogue/boundrogue.htm

Bound rogue is a straight repaint. Dark blue for the reddish brown, cream for the grey. Odd colours. He's one of two Beast Wars toys recoloured in Robotmasters. The other - Armadillo/Psycho Orb - also suffers from having to pin the weapon into the forearm due to lack of fists. Bound Rogue also has an additional weapon - it's a gun cast in the same clear green Energon as the combining Destron weapons, but here it's been chromed in silver. It's an odd shape as what looks like the shooting end is closest to the handle and can't be faced directly forward due to the rest of the gun behind it. If the other end is meant to be facing forward then the cartridge bellow the gun hits the hand so in neither mode of handling can the gun be positioned directly forward ! I can't help wondering if he got the right weapon ! An alternate design - a longer one with nothing hanging down might have worked better !

So you get a bonus if odd weapon, and an odd colour scheme. Hmm. Not really worth bothering with. And that's what fans at the time thought leaving this on the shelf for new small BW & G1 versions and some great new Cyberjet and Flipchanger repaints. A rare RM failure.

[Philip Ayres]

Beast Wars Airazor www.tfu.info/1997/Maximal/Airazor/airazor.htm

Airazor is one of the first basics that was released following the elimination of the Flipchanger gimmick. She came in the second wave the UK received and was popular due to her cartoon appearances.

Airazor is a Bird of Prey. The main colour of the bird is brown, but there's some yellow visible on the feet, upper legs, tail feathers and beak. The legs bend at the ankle, have a ball jointed knee, then a joint above that and are finally ball jointed to a waist beneath the bird. A few too many joints perhaps ? The tail lifts up, the beak opens & closes, the wings can lift up and the tips of the wings can be folded out to the sides or back.

The wings feature a flapping gimmick. Find the yellow tail feathers sticking out to the sides and pull back on them - the wings flap forwards. There's also an attack mode - sections on the top of each wing fold out forward to become blades that move when the wings do.

This is quite a bit crammed into one basic beast mode !

TF: Straighten the legs under the beast and turn each lower leg round at the knee. Fold the waist piece back. Fold the head down. Simple.

Resulting robot mode has a lot more yellow - feet, upper legs, waist, body and upper arms are all yellow while the mid legs, bird's head on chest, head, shoulder pads and forearms are brown. Standard ball joints at knee, hips, shoulder and elbow, plus bending ankles and the bonus articulation in the upper legs. The shoulder pads are held in place by tabs on each side of the shoulder. They can come off and are frequently missing on loose examples. The head is very much a bird's head over the top of the head, with a pair of bright green eyes. Hidden in her tail is her hand gun which can be held or pegged into the underside of the forearm. Wings - which are now mounted angel like on her back - still flap.

Overall: Cracking basic. One of the best. Mine has worn a little with age - the ball joint for the head is especially loose now and could do with a layer of clear nail varnish to make it tighter. Strongly recommended to all.

She appears in Japan as C-10 or in CS-10 with Kuwagaigar(Insecticon)

Beast Wars Video Airazor www.tfu.info/1998/Maximal/Airazor/airazor.htm

Airazor was chosen to be one of a pair of recoloured toys released with a videotape containing Aftermath and Call of the Fuzors 1.As far as I'm aware they were a US exclusive.

Her companion Rockbuster was extensively recoloured. Airazor has to settle for gaining a darker glossier brown and the yellow turning orange. Not the most imaginative repaint ever. I suppose a black version might be in order at some stage.

Not really worth the effort finding to be honest !

[Philip Ayres]

Snapper www.tfu.info/1996/Predacon/Snapper/snapper.htm

Snapper is one of the few Beast Wars toys never to have any form of repaint. He was part of the second US wave of Basics and as such is one of the last toys to have a flipchanging gimmick. He appears in Japan with Armadillo as part of the VS-X1 Volcano Base set.

Snapper is a turtle, mainly green but with a slight yellow pattern on his shell. There's some red visible on his back leg which is hinged by a ball joint at the hip and before the flipper. The front legs move up and down a bit, and the jaw opens. By teasing the flipchanging gimmick you can get the head to move in and out.

TF: Push down on the tail, which folds onto the robot's chest extending the robot head out the beast's bottom, pulling the beast head in and pushing the robot legs out in front of the beast.

Robot mode reveals a lot more of the red on upper limbs and body though the robot head is green still. He has yellow eyes painted over the end of an aborted lightpipe gimmick - you can see where the clear plastic would be in the back of the head. Standard BW Basic articulation of ball jointed knees, hips, shoulder, elbows and neck with some bonus bending ankles.

A square portion of shell immediately behind the robot's head detaches to form the robot's weapon. From it you fold out a tri barrelled gun which can either be pegged onto the forearm or reattached behind the robot's head to fire over the head or point straight up. Unlike the on other two "plug the weapon into the forearm cos we have no fists" BW Basics (Armadillo and Snarl) here the weapon looks reasonable probably because it's covering the robot's hand giving the impression it's being held.

Overall: OK beast, nothing special it the articulation stakes - slightly bellow par in fact - but the usual cracking BW robot mode full of articulation, a good contrasting colour scheme and a decent weapon. Recommended.

[Philip Ayres]

Clawjaw / Scuba www.tfu.info/1997/Maximal/ClawJaw/clawjaw.htm

Clawjaw is one of the first - along with Airazor & Razorclaw - basics to appear after the flipchange gimmick is removed. In Japan an identical toy appears in Beast Wars II as Scuba numbered C-15 or in VS-15 with Thrust - the yellow recolour of the Megatron/Megaplex flipchanger jet.

Clawjaw is a squid. He has 6 stationary tentacles, 2 larger ones flexible where they meet the body and half way down by means of two ball joints, plus a pair between eyes and mouth that move up and down independently. There's a lever on the back of the head - if you push this in then Clawjaw's jaws open. I'm not sure how authentic the peach and red used on this toy is for a squid ! He's also got some purple markings on him.

TF: Fold the eyes and tail forward. Split the tail in two to form the legs and turn at the robot's waist. Rotate the legs in at the knee and bend out the feet. Bend down the tentacles by the mouth, and fold down the articulated tentacles to become the arms. Split the set of 6 tentacles in two down the middle and fold each half out to the sides Fold up the head.

Robot has the tentacles floating out to the sides of each shoulder. Ball joints feature at knee, hip, shoulder, elbow and neck. He turns at the waist and the feet bend at the ankle. The claw gimmick works in this mode. The lever behind the beast head - which may be a tail of some sort - has a weapon clipped onto it. This fork like objects pegs into the end of the arm where his hand would be.

Overall: Beast mode is a bit different, robot mode is a bit odd. not universally well received and shelf warmed badly in the UK.

Ikard www.tfu.info/1998/Cybertron/Ikard/ikard.htm

Ikard is effectively a straight repaint of Clawjaw: Peach becomes white, red becomes blue and the purple - if altered - tends towards lilac. It. makes the toy look much better, a great improvement.

Ikard was sold only in Japan in Beast Wars II set X-5 with the Tako Tank. Pay through the nose for the only non actionmaster vehicle in the TF line !

Video (TM) www.tfu.info/1998/Maximal/ClawJaw/clawjaw.htm

While the original Clawjaw was still shelf warming his repaint turned up with a video tape. I had the pleasure of breaking the unannounced existence of these toys to TF Fandom on Thursday October 28th 1999 Here's what I said in my message to the TMUK group (and I assume alt.toys.transformers)

"Found the video repaints in TRU Woking this morning.

Thing is they're not Airazor and Razorclaw - like the US got. We've got
Clawjaw and Spittor. Clawjaw is green with blue tentacles, Spittor is red.
Both are on TM Cards with their original illustrations, but Spittor is this
time labelled as a Predacon.

The videos are just a cassette with a plastic inlay over the top.
Clawjaw's tape is labelled BW Episode 27 and the tape does indeed contain
Aftermath. Spittor's is BW Episode 28 so I'm assuming it's Coming of the
Fuzors 1.

12.99 each".

Clawjaw looks very nice here substituting green and dark blue for the orange and red - a very aquatic look. He gains a new olive green patterning on him which includes circuit lines - he was marketed as a Transmetal toy. Worth picking up if you can find one cheap

[Philip Ayres]

Insecticon www.tfu.info/1996/Predacon/Insecticon/insecticon.htm

Insecticon is the second Beast Wars toy to take an old faction name and turn it into a character's name after Dinobot (Predacon would follow in Armada)

Insecticon is a basic sized beetle. The main shell of the toy is blue, while the legs and mandibles are green. The legs are in a fixed position, but the front legs is mounted on the robot's upper arm and the back 2 legs are mounted on the robot's lower arm. So by bending and the elbow and the shoulder you can get some poseability out the beast mode. The shell on the back of the beetle splits in two and folds out to each side to form what looks like wings.

TF: Flipchanger. Push down on the beast head, it will fold under the body to become the robot's chest and reveal the robot head. The robot legs get pushed out from under the insect behind it.

Robot maintains the colours used in beast mode. Frustratingly the eyes and the back of the head are both painted - surely it would have been easier to actually implement the light pipe ?? Standard BW Basic articulation - ball joints at knee, hip, shoulder, elbow & neck. The ankles also bend. The arms have the beast legs sticking out of them.

He has a concealed weapon like all the BW basics: Open his wings up and under each of them is half of the weapon. Remove them, fasten the blue bits together and then spread the green bits to the side to form a crossbow. One of the best hidden flipchanger weapons it doesn't have any bits of beast hanging off it.

Available in Japan as Kuwagaigar D-10 or in VS-10 with basic Airazor.

Overall: Decent enough basic. Looks like an insect and you get a nice poseable robot out of it. Good as all the other BW Basics.

[Bogatan]

Clawjaws always been a favourite especially getting the TM version which is one of my favourite colour schemes on any TF.

For the record Ikard isn't that expensive and is great fun.

Andy

[KnightBeat]

Sept 26, 2008 13:00:15 GMT Philip Ayres said:

Overall: Cracking basic. One of the best. Mine has worn a little with age - the ball joint for the head is especially loose now and could do with a layer of clear nail varnish to make it tighter.

You're not wrong about the ball joint on the head. My father bought an airrazor from a car boot sale that had the head of Inferno jammed into the ball joint. I imagine it as some kind of winged angel of death.

PC World sold the PC Beast Wars game with a choice of one of four basic BW figures approximately 10 years ago. I bought a copy with Snapper, though I vaguely recall Armordillo being one of the others that I passed on (only remembered b/c of the orangish colour).

[Philip Ayres]

Spittor www.tfu.info/1997/Predacon/Spittor/spittor.htm

Spittor is one of the last of the pre fuzor/transmetal Beast Wars basics to be released. He's a frog, mainly molded in clear blue plastic with and orange pattern painted on and with some black features including the jaw, which opens, and his upper back legs. The blue is a very odd choice of colour - I can't remember a blue frog. Surely red would be better ? The back leg is in 3 sections - the first black one is connected to the hip by a ball joint, the second blue one is connected to a ball joint at the knee and the third - the flipper - is connected at the ankle by a simple hinge. The front legs are fixed apart from a ball joint at the shoulder. He has an action feature in this mode - press a trigger on his back and a battering ram like tongue shoots out of his mouth.

TF: Turn the robot over. The robot legs are folded up underneath the beast with the feet facing together just behind the jaw. Fold them out the back of the frog and straighten. Fold the beast head down to form the robot's chest. Fold the shoulders for the beast back from the robot chest and fold the beast forelegs across the back of the toy. Fold the beast hips up - they're connected by a strut to the centre of the robot's body - so they become the shoulders and the legs become the arms.

Resulting beast shows off a lot more black on the robot's chest, waist and upper limbs. He bens at the ankle - mine bends a bit too much and won't stand up properly - with ball joints at knee, hip, shoulder & elbow and another bending joint at the wrist - however the hands are the huge rear flippers and it's hard to pose them in such a way that they look right. The head is the same clear blue - it's the tip of the battering ram in beast mode. If you trigger the action feature now the head extends about four centimetres into the air - he's the Mechaneck of Beast Wars !

They'd got more experimental at this stage of BW - both in form and in gimmick. Spittor suffers a little because of this. The colours aren't right, the gimmick is so so but means he lacks a hand weapon (and proper hands) On the plus side the frog is a nice addition to the list of beasts available in BW.

Spittor would return as a blue Transmetal 2 frog.

Diver www.tfu.info/1998/Cybertron/Diver/diver.htm

Diver was available in Japan as Beast Wars Neo toy X-2 with Niagra base.

Straight repaint - opaque pale green for blue and white/grey for black. He gets a new metallic green paint pattern on his back. Solid realistic repaint (see repaint rule 3)

Transmetal Video Spittor www.tfu.info/1998/Predacon/Spittor/spittor.htm

I believe the original blue Spittor was still on the shelves when his repaint turned up with a video tape. I had the pleasure of breaking the unannounced existence of these toys to TF Fandom on Thursday October 28th 1999 Here's what I said in my message to the TMUK group (and I assume alt.toys.transformers)
"Found the video repaints in TRU Woking this morning.

Thing is they're not Airazor and Razorclaw - like the US got. We've got Clawjaw and Spittor. Clawjaw is green with blue tentacles, Spittor is red.

Both are on TM Cards with their original illustrations, but Spittor is this time labelled as a Predacon.

The videos are just a cassette with a plastic inlay over the top. Clawjaw's tape is labelled BW Episode 27 and the tape does indeed contain Aftermath. Spittor's is BW Episode 28 so I'm assuming it's Coming of the Fuzors 1.

12.99 each".

Spittor swaps the blue for red, keeps the black and gains a yellow/orange circuitry detailing on him. The repaint looks nice (are there red frogs ?) Curiously when TM2 Spittor was recoloured as Slapper in Car Robots/Robots in Disguise this was the colourscheme they used ! So this is effectively BW Slapper !

[grahamthomson]

I think Spittor was based on a Poison Dart frog or something, which are blue in colour and have the stripe things.

[Philip Ayres]

Ah - I thank you Mr Thomson

[grahamthomson]

I am a closet biologist.

[Philip Ayres]

Altered on the web version and credit given to G. And I spotted a very silly Typo too !

[Philip Ayres]

Finally a few spare minutes to get back to the BW reviews

Drill Bit www.tfu.info/1997/Predacon/DrillBit/drillbit.htm

If there's one toy I could speak to the BW designers about it would be Drill Bit. There's some odd stuff going on here you see. Drill bit is a sort of burrowing insect with fixed purple limbs and a clear orange body sprayed with a brown paint op. From under his mouth a drill folds out which would turn as you pushed it along except the wheel on the bottom doesn't quite reach the floor.

TF: fold the back and the waist out the back of the beast and the drill at the front. Find which shoulder the robot arm with a hand is connected to and swing that round inside the body so the arm is out to the sides. Unpeg the drill and the antennae at the front and again swing round inside the body so it forms the other robot arm. Fold the insect legs up revealing 2 pegs - we'll come back to them - then fold the front of the beast onto the robot's waist. Position the limbs.

Ball joints at knee, hip, shoulder, neck and the arm with the the hand on. The other arm has a bending joint in the middle for the antennae as the drill. Roll your finger along the bottom of the drill to get it to spin.

Right what about those pegs ? They're not needed in beast mode, they don't lock into anything in robot mode - in fact they get in the way a bit. So what are they for ? They match holes on the back of the robot legs which would be in the right place in beast mode for the posts to slot into *if* they pointed the right way - which they only will if you lift the legs up. My guess is that it's some sort of abandoned vehicle mode with the beast legs raised up and the drill pointing forward. Either that or it's a huge mistake on Hasbro's part !

Decent enough beast and robot. Drill's nice.

Drill Nuts www.tfu.info/1998/Cybertron/DrillNuts/drillnuts.htm

Drill Nuts was in Beast Wars II as toy C-21. There was no VS-21 pack. It's a simple colour swap - all the purple becomes grey. Not an essential repaint to own in your collection !

[grahamthomson]

*shudders*

In my opinion, Drillbit has to be the worst Beast Wars toy ever made. Clumsy/unworkable gimmick, ugly as sin and annoying, uberfragile insect legs that get in the way of any robot mode articulation (not helped at all by fixed feet/ankles).

[Philip Ayres]

There's something going on with the toy that's for sure. It doesn't quite work and there has to be a reason why.

Now for one that does work !

[Philip Ayres]

Powerpinch www.tfu.info/1997/Predacon/Powerpinch/powerpinch.htm

Powerpinch was one of the last pure Beast Wars basics released before Transmetals and Fuzors took over the line. He's an earwig mainly molded in dark clear green plastic with orange legs, antennae and claw on the end of the tail. The Antennae move up & down, the limbs move up and down where they're attached to the sides of the toy, the claw opens & closes - there's a small lever underneath - and the tail bends in two places allowing the claw to be positioned facing forward.

TF: Pull the beast head down a bit, separate down the middle and fold out to the sides. Remove the claw at the lower of the two joints. Open the plate on the back of the insect up and fold what's left of the tail into it locking the plate closed again afterwards. Fold the front of the beast down to become the chest and reveal the robot's head. Straighten the limbs and put the claw weapon in his hand.

Resulting basic has the usual BW basic articulation - ball joints at knee, hips, shoulder, elbow and neck, plus a bending ankle. The beast legs are attached to his arms making him look a little like a mini version of Tarantulas. Eyes are picked out in yellow.

Decent fun toy.

Scissor Boy www.tfu.info/1998/Cybertron/Scissorboy/scissorboy.htm

Powerpinch was released in Japan during Beast Wars II as Scissorboy numbered C-22. There's minimal changes to the toy except the alteration to the rub sign.

Vice Grip www.tfu.info/1998/Predacon/ViceGrip/vicegrip.htm

Powerpinch is then recoloured for Botcon 1998 as Vice Grip. The clear green becomes blue, the orange grey and the eyes are now lilac. Nice but expensive.

[The Doctor]

Powerpinch frightens the hell out of me. I don't even want to touch it!

Freaky evil demon toy!

-Ralph

[Philip Ayres]

He almost looks like a mini Unicron in robot mode !

[Philip Ayres]

Rattrap www.tfu.info/1996/Maximal/Rattrap/rattrap.htm

Rattrap is one of the first wave of Beast Wars Basics. He's a show character which always enhances a toy's popularity and as such can go for some decent money now days if he's complete. His show character had some personality too which lends further plus points to the toy. I found a carded one on eBay that went for £42 recently. £42 ! for a basic ! He was available in Japan as Beast Wars toy C-05 and in VS-05 with the basic version of Terrorsaur.

As the name might suggest he's a rat, mainly grey with a brown back & tail and four pink feet, each attached by a ball joint to legs which are molded into the body. The tail is hinged (up & down) at the point where it joins the body. So not God's gift to articulation then. His case brother Razorbeast has somewhat more meaningful articulation.

TF: Flipchanger: Pulling the tail up and unlocking it from the body causes the sides of the rat to fold open, the beast head to fold down underneath and onto the robot chest - revealing the robot head - and the robot legs to extend out the back of the toy. The arms are then pulled off the pegs that hold them in place in beast mode, then the gun halves can be removed from beside each hip and slotted together (has anyone got a spare of the half with the handle on it ?)

Robot has standard BW articulation - ball joints at the neck, shoulders, elbows, hips and knees. The chest and head are the rat grey, with the upper limbs and body (under the rat head chest) a brown, and the lower limbs painted silver. Head is another aborted lightpipe, which is a real shame in this case because the top of the head looks like an exposed brain - picked out in silver here - and that would have looked cool in clear plastic. As I mentioned his weapon is a 2 part assembly job - this type of weapon I associate with flip changers (because of the 2 jets and the racing car molds) yet Rattrap is one of only two BW Flipchangers to have it.

Overall: OK if stationary beast mode. Robot mode somehow packed with character (it's the head I think) even before the words "We're all gonna die" were uttered for the first time ! Worth getting if you can find one cheap

Botcon Pakrat www.tfu.info/1997/Maximal/Packrat/packrat.htm

Rattrap was used as the basis for the Botcon toy Pakrat (Pack Rat is apparently slang for a compulsive hoarder, one of Rattrap's traits in the cartoon) The grey becomes a metallic flake blue, the brown becomes white and the silver is exchanged for gold. Nice enough repaint, and the colourscheme turns up again on the Transmetal version of Rattrap when Walmart wanted an exclusive repaint !

[Philip Ayres]

One more BW basic to go !

[Philip Ayres]

Optimus Primal www.tfu.info/1996/Maximal/OptimusPrimalBat/optimusprimal.htm

Like Megatron, Primal's first appearance in Beast Wars isn't in his familiar form (an ape) but as a bat in a vs pack with Megatron that had a small comic included. In the UK this was I believe a store exclusive to Woolworths. In Japan he was sold on his own as C-06 and was also in VS-06 with the Megatron alligator.

The bat is a mainly grey toy, with the only colour being provided my the blue robot parts hanging underneath the bat's fixed wings. The only articulation is a hinged mouth.

But why a bat ? Yes it's a mammal, but it's almost more suited to being a Decepticon/Predacon - the only previous TF uses of a bat were both cons - Ratbat and Mindwipe.

TF: Flipchanger: Pull the tail up causing the beast head to fold down to become the robot chest, exposing the robot head in the process. At the same time the robot arms fold up from the sides of the bat onto his shoulders and the legs extend out the back of the bat.

I don't often throw comments in on Transformation but what was the idea with the arms ? Why have them moving at all ? If you'd have had the shoulders fixed in place the arms would still have been under the bat. As it is the movement can cause problems with the gearing to move the shoulders up quite frequently slipping out of place - indeed if you look at the version of TFU.info linked above this is exactly what's happened here (it's right on both the repaints bellow - compare and contrast)

The resulting robot has a Prime like blue face, blue upper limbs & lower body with grey lower limbs each with a Prime red stripe on them. He's got 2 swords, one hidden in the top of each wing. The swords were obviously a hit as they were carried over into the Ultra ape version.

So overall: Beast mode is very stationary and has bad robot kibble underneath. TF has big issues - see above. Robot is good.

Could quite easily had a reuse as a Predacon but alas it never happened.


Onyx Primal www.tfu.info/1996/Maximal/OnyxPrimal/onyxprimal.htm

Onyx Primal was an exclusive to the 1996 Botcon convention, and is the closest a toy has been used as a convention exclusive to it's release. It's a straight colour swap - black for grey, white for blue and gold for the red paint. The start of a long line of black stealth repaints for TFs !

There's a variation on this - an exclusive dealers version with the words Botcon 96 stamped in red on it's back.


CD Primal www.tfu.info/1997/Cybertron/ConvoyBat/convoybat.htm

Primal is reunited with Megatron in this 2 pack and both are recoloured in their more traditional colours schemes. Grey becomes red, Blue becomes white, red becomes blue and the head gets painted blue with a red faceplate. Looks like Prime. As I indicated when I reviewed the Megatron basic it's rather expensive to obtain though. The pack also includes a CD Rom.

[grahamthomson]

I am sure my basic Primal was a very light blue bat, not grey?

Also, anyone think the Maximal logo is based on this feller?