Phil's Beast Wars Transmetal Reviews

[Philip Ayres]

Thank you !

There's 2 to go now in the TM Range - plus three more I'll do later when I get the toys as I don't feel I can remember enough about them without the toys in hand (Optimus Minor, Sonar, Scarem & Prowl) Magnaboss is the only BW toy remaining to do after that, and one of them is en route to me as we speak

So we're nearly at the point where I can start Fuzors.

[Philip Ayres]

Nov 18, 2008 22:45:13 GMT Philip Ayres said:

Tigerhawk


There's another trigger that launches the feather missiles which form the first & largest feather on each wing. Early photos of the toy show him with two feather launchers on each wing for the first and second feather but quite late in the day the second missile was replaced by a rubber attached feather. Over time this second feather has distorted very badly on my toy, both bending in the same direction due to the long term effects of gravity on them in storage.

I've since remembered where I saw the photo of him with two missiles on each wing - it's on the packaging ! So the change must have occured quite late in the day.

[Philip Ayres]

Optimal Optimus

Optimal Optimus is the largest Beast Wars toy released - it came out towards the end of 1998 - the Transmetal year - and remained on sale through 1999 (the TM2 year) In Japan he's sold as C-47. I don't know if there's a VS-47 with him and Dragon Megatron in but it'd be nice if there was !

As well as being the largest BW toy he has the most modes - four - and he's the only BW toy to have electronics.

His Beast mode is once again an Ape. The design of the chest and head are quite similar to the Transmetal mega version but are this time molded in orange plastic as is the hands, feet, waist and robot gun. His upper legs, forearms, wings and blast shields round the forearms are grey. He's carrying a brown missile firing back pack. His upper arms are purple chrome and his shoulders and lower legs are blue chrome. He bends at the ankle, knee - odd joint here, it bends where it leaves the lower leg and again into the upper leg allowing you to contract the legs legs in beast mode. He bends at the hip and his legs fold to the sides. He turns at the waist but not at the beast head. His shoulders - arm and shoulder are quite close together in this mode - move back & forth, he's got a low bicep rotational joint above the elbow that bends, his wrists rotate and bend in & out and his thumb folds to the sides.

As I said above he's carrying a backpack. This can fold over the neck so the two clear missiles (there's a spare on each leg) are pointing out over each shoulder - this reveals a cockpit on his back. If you pull back on the rear of the back pack a little then the missiles glow red and the beast eyes glow yellow. Pulling back right the way causes the missiles to fire. Having consulted with the instructions I see there's a second way to do this: slide the lever halfway down the backpack to one side. The back pack separates in two allowing just the missile launcher to fold over the shoulders. The lights and missiles are then fired by pullin back on a tab on the back of the missile section but this is even more hair trigger than the other way I explained about.

I mentioned he had blast shields on his forearms - these cover three sides of the arm and on the fourth side (the front) there's a trigger that shoots them off. To remmount them the out shields need pushing into the centre section which in turn is then clipped into the back of the arm.

TF to Ground mode (Ground Assaul Mode in the instructions: Fold the missiles up over his shoulders. Uncouple the cockpit from his back by pulling up slightly then pull/fold it down onto the beast's bottom. Fold the missile section back and then rotate through 180 degrees so the missiles are pointing down. Pull the blue shoulder pads away from the body at the front - they and the arms will swing out to the sides. Fold the chest panel up from the bottom, fold the wheels out from under the chest and fold the head back under the chest panel - this is about the only point you'll see the energon chip rubsign under the head. Fold the shoulders back in locking them back onto the struts that hold the chest armour in place. Swing the arms round so the they point upwards. Extend the legs as far as possible straight under the beast and lock together at the lower legs. Fold the side panels on the legs forward exposing the wheels. Place on wheels at front & back and fold the feet at the ankle so the front of the foot is furthest back. Swing the entire gun/cockpit section through 180 degrees so it no faces the other way. Fold the cockpit down a bit but keep it level and facing forward. Fold the forearms in so it locks onto the front wheel

Ground Assault Mode is .... well it just about works. It rolls freely, it's got big guns and it's got an opening cockpit. But compared to the other modes it does look a little bit like an odd afterthought.

TF (from ground mode) to Air Mode: Unlock the beast arms from the wheels and straighten out. Pull the arms to the sides. Turn the fists so the back of the hand faces up. Fold down the wings on the upper arms. Fold the wheels back under the beast chest and the beast head out. Open the shoulders up, fold the chest in and lock back in place. Raise the cockpit up and forward a bit.

Hypersonic Attack Mode: Well it looks slightly more like a plane than the ground vehicle looked like a tank, and less like an afterthought. Here it's easiest to get at the cockpit and find you can open it up. It's far too big for a Zoids pilot but I wonder if you could fit a Diaclone man in it ?

TF (from Air mode) to Robot Mode: Flatten the feet up and stand on the feet. Fold the cockpit up and swing the backpack through 180 degrees so the missiles point down. Pull the shoulders out from the front again, fold the wheels out onto the beast chest, fold the beast head down into the beast chest and close the chest up. Bring the shoulders back to lock them back into place, but just before you do rotate each of them towards you 180 degrees raising them up a couple of cm. Then lock them in. Split the wheel on the beast chest in two and fold to the sides. Fold the cannon assembly back into the newly raised shoulder blades. Rotate 180 degrees at the waist. Fold back the wheel panels on the lower legs. Fold the cockpit up to lock on the robot chest. Turn the lower arm so the unshielded part faces forward. Turn the hands so the side of the hand is out to the side. Then fold the thumb so it's facing forward and in opposition to the other fingers. Unpeg the gun from the backpack and hold in the hand - there's a peg on the wrist that fits into the rear of the gun to help you. Finally pull forward and up on the back of the grey panel on the missile pack which folds forward with the robot head appearing and locks into place.

Resulting robot has all the articulation of the beast mode plus some shrugging shoulders and a turning head. When you activate the light gimmick the eyes in the robot head glow green. The head is the only new piece in this mode and is a Prime head with a mouth molded in orange with some blue paint on top. Personally I'm a traditionalist when it comes to Prime heads - blue with a face plate - and the head here looks particularly glaring due to the orange.

Overall: 10 out of 10 for effort. Very good beast and robot, OK jet and sort of OK ground mode. Nit picking there's the colours on the head and if I'm honest the rest of the toy as well - the blue on the legs makes you think of Optimus Prime but the orange is just wrong. Making the chest, cockpit shoulders & upper arms Prime red, and the rest of the orange blue would improve the look of the toy.....

Primal Prime

..... and that's just what they tried to do in Beast Machines. Orange becomes blue, grey becomes white or clear red (forearms and blast shields) ad the shoulders become a similar chrome to the upper arms. The problem here is it's just too dark, the Prime red is a really bright one not a dark almost burgundy purple red. For some reason the head also ends up in this colour. You can see what they're getting at with this repaint but it misses the mark by just enough to make you mad.

This version of the toy also features a modification - the lights are now powered by a button on the back pack and not by the missile trigger. This improves matters somewhat especially if you're looking headlong at the missiles when they light up and accidentally go off ! This modification *may* be present on the Japanese Optimal Optimus if my memory serves me right.

[Philip Ayres]

Beast Wars Metal X-9 Ravage

Oh Ravage. Forever the hole in so many Beast Wars Collections. I don't own one at present but I did a few years back so I feel I can talk on it with some authority.

When Ravage appeared in the cartoon as the Agent of the Tripredacus* council the animators cheated somewhat and used most of TM Cheetor's model to make Ravage - just changed the head, chest plate and forearms.

* (hence the name applied to the US release the Hasbro Toy Shop of Shadow Panther and the black TM2 repaint of Cheetor)

The fans think "Woo, G1 Ravage, I want, Hasbro can give me one of these easy by remolding bits of TM Cheetor"

Hasbro however didn't oblige.

We had to wait till 1999 and the Japanese release of the last two series of Beast Wars toys as Beast Wars Metals for Ravage to appear as toy X-9 Because he's an X release he's made in lesser numbers, and BW Metals was coming to an end so that's never good for the number of toys produced. Factor in a huge demand from fans world wide and you were paying a penny or two for Ravage when he was released. Now he goes for about £100 a time ! If ever a toy warranted a re-release it's Ravage.

The most obvious change from TM Cheetor in beast mode is the new head which can look up & down. His rear legs now have a pair of guns clipped into the vents on the back. The robot arms are slung along the underside of the body. This mechanical version of the beast is mainly black with some grey on the tail, feet and upper rear legs. Closer inspection reveals that some of the black is a very dark purple chrome. The tail is the same as Cheetor's, fixed in shape, but can be removed and inserted the other way round giving him an axe for a tail. He's got ball jointed rear hips and rotating front hips, plus bending knees and ankles on all 4 legs. The beast head can be folded down much more than Cheetor's could.

Ravage also has Cheetor's third mode: open the panels on his sides and flip out 2 jet boosters. On Cheetor it was poor as a vehicle mode. Here it's stunningly appropriate as it's reminiscent of the cannons G1 ravage carried on his sides.

TF: Straighten the rear legs behind the beast and fold down the heel spurs. Fold the bottom of the front legs up along the front of the top of the leg. Fold the front legs up so they face forward. Pull the back armour the legs are attached to up and back along the beast. Fold the arms out to the sides from under the beast. Fold the chest plate down and position the arms correctly. Remove the guns from the legs and peg onto the underside of the arms. Collapse the joint between the robot body and the beast neck bringing it flush with the body and fold down the beast head to form the robot head.

Resulting robot is bang on for the animation model. Looks fabulous. He bends at the ankle, twice near the knee, has ball jointed hips & shoulders, bends at the elbow, has a waist joint and can look up & down. It's nearly impossible to fold the boosters out in this mode. The guns under the arms fold down & forward so he's holding them under his hands. His chest panel opens up revealing a space where you can put one of three included stickers: A Decepticon/original Destron symbol, a Preadcon/new Destron symbol and original Megatron's head.

Overall: Superb update to an already good figure. Sorely needs a re-release.

Botcon 2001 Tigatron

Fans were of course up in arms at being unable to get Ravage making the toy a target for a convention recolour. The name picked was Tigatron - a recolour of the original Beast Wars Cheetor - when then drove the colourscheme: black becomes white, grey becomes blue with a slight metallic hint and the chrome becomes chromed blue - while Tigatron's secondary colour was green but his latter form Tigerhawk had lots of blue on it. The chest panel now opens up to reveal a sticker of a spark.

Decent repaint, with some thought having gone in to what to do with it.

HASBRO ARE YOU LISTENING ? WHERE'S MY TRANSFORMERS UNIVERSE BEAST WARS RAVAGE ?

[Philip Ayres]

We interupt your WFC & Generations related reviews to plug one of the holes in my Beast Wars reviews.

For the entertainment of all, and especially Mr Cook we have......

[Philip Ayres]

Beast Wars Transmetal 2 Prowl

Prowl's first Beast Wars toy was a Lion, part of the team that formed Magnaboss. This original was a little odd having no resemblance to the original Prowl and the most Prime like head you've ever seen on a non-Optimus toy !

Prowl returns in Beast Wars Transmetals II as an Owl. He's got a tec spec that makes it quite clear this is the original Prowl from Earth. The major colour of Prowl's body is white being used for the feet, upper legs, head, neck, back, tail and outer wings - though the front of this last part is heavily coloured blue. The lower legs plus the joints between the body and the wings & tail are a dark metallic grey. The chest panel, thrusters beside he tail and inner wings are blue chrome while the body sides, his larger right eye and the dome on the head are clear red plastic. So there's lots of colours going on here that resemble those used in the original Autobot version. I like the clear eye - it's covering moulded detail similar to his left eye and is like some sort of targeting display. Similarly you can imagine that the dome on the head is some forward facing laser cannon. Said dome rotates down into the head to reveal his green Maximal symbol spark. I like having Sparks in the head -it's like the Transformer's soul is sitting in the brain pan! Prowl has a small gimmick in this mode: There's a little lever to the side of the head. Press it and the head spins round ! The owl has some more articulation that's not related to the gimmick: ball jointed ankles & knees and wings that bend back at the base and fold out halfway along.

Transformation: Fold the tail back revealing the arms attached to the thruster. Fold the thrusters onto the sides of the bird in front of the wings. Straighten the legs under the bird. Unclip the wings and fold them and the chest & head forward 90 degrees. Fold down the tail and fold the panel on top of he toy onto the back. Flip the head up. Fold the wings back onto the neck. Fold the shoulders forward and pose the arms. Turn the owl head so it faces down on the chest.

Most of Prowl's robot mode has already been seen in the beast mode. The new additions are the metallic grey upper arms, clear red lower arms and white robot head with clear red lightpipe. Prowl's got a great asymmetric face with one round eye and one narrowed eye. There's also a crest above the eyes bringing to mind the horns on the original Autobot Prowl. The owl head has ended up on the chest with the dome pointing forward again making me think it's some form of cannon. The owl head can still be cranked here but it makes sense to be looking down as that means when you flip the dome over the Maximal symbol is the right way up. Articulation is good - as it is for most Beast Wars toys: restricted ball joints in the ankles and lower knee, bending upper knee, ball jointed hips, turning waist which also bends forward, ball jointed shoulders & elbows - eliminating the need for a bicep swivel - and a ball jointed head. The wings can either point up from the shoulders or out to the sides and maintain their joint in the middle which allows them to unfurl by swinging the wing tip out. The thrusters that previously framed the tail now stick out the back of the shoulders - these might have looked better pointed down as a jet pack or forwards as cannons. Similarly the wings might have been better positioned if they'd have ended up on the robots back. Small niggles really, just like the lack of a hand weapon but I recall that he can hold Beast Wars Scourge's sword in his open left hand.

Overall: Unique beast mode - not enough robot owls in the world, though there's a very nice one in the Zoids Blox range. Robot mode has some very small issues, but nothing huge. Well worth a look.

This version of Prowl was sold in the USA in early 1999. It wasn't sold in Japan - who didn't get any of the non-show Transmetal 2 toys. Similarly it didn't come to England in 2000 because.....

Beast Wars Transmetal 2 "Black" Prowl

.... a few months after his initial release, Prowl (and Dinobot) had a recoloured release in the main Beast Wars toyline.

The second Prowl has the following colour swaps:

White becomes black
Metallic Grey becomes Dark Blue
Blue Chrome becomes Silver Chrome
Clear Red is still Clear Red but may now be a darker shade

So from a toy based on one of original Prowl's major colours we get a second based on the other. But where the white of the original had the metallic grey standing in for the black here we have no white to accompany the black used on lots of the toy resulting in a version that's less reminiscent of the original. However it's still a good colour scheme and probably my favourite of the two.

This version of Prowl appeared in US toy assortments in mid 1999 - around the time of Jawbreaker & Iguanus' release and was in the small quantity of later Transmetal 2 toys that escaped into the wild in the UK though if memory serves these were all on the French Ani-Mutants cards rather than the more familiar Beast Wars Biocombat ones seen in the UK and also sold in Italy.

Future Repaints

How about a bronze/gold coloured version as a homage to Bubo the mechanical owl from Clash of the Titans ?

[Philip Ayres]

It's taken ages to get one of these to review. Just hauled one with Ramulus - who I reviewed from memory - with the description indicating "the coverfor the spark is missing" The seller didn't seem to know that the top of the owl head rotated !#

That also completes my westen Beast Wars dlx reviews. I'm 3 basics shy of completing those - TM2 Optimus Minor, Sonar & Scarem is anyone fancies getting me a present ;-)

Then the only Japanese Beast Wars toys I need to do are Megastorm, the auto-rollers, Gigastorm and the remaining 2 Cyberbeasts. Megastorm is simple to do even though I don'town one at the mo, the auto-rollers are waitung upstairs, Hellscream's in the mail, I can see Max-B on eBay so that just leaves Gigastorm .....

Hmmm might have to risk that one without the toy in front of me too!

[Shockprowl]

Ahhh, magnificent review, sir! Yes, I, as an obsessive Prowl fan as you're probadily aware, am a BIG fan of Owl Prowl. When I first learnt that Owl was a Prowl, I mean, that Prowl was an Owl, I was a little disapointed, feeling the character fitted a Lion, or Wolf type creature better. But once I got to know the figure, I realised, NO, this is Beast Wars Prowl! The owl suits the character perfectly, and, as you say Big Phil, he's a darn good figure n'all! I also slightly preffer the black colouration, but find the white more 'Prowl-like'. Owl Prowl's tech specs is also one of my fave tech specs OF AAALLLLL TIIIIIMMME, the inferance that he is G1 Prowl is a wonderfull touch, and I also love his telekinetic ability. They did Prowl proud in Beast Wars!

[Shockprowl]

One question for all you Beast Warers out there. If Prowl is the Owl, what do you call your Magnaboss (Grrrr!) Lion? I actually call him Leo Breaker, and I have him as the 'rebodiment' of Bumblebee -teamed with Ironhide and Silverbolt to form Magnaboss (Grrrr!).

[Philip Ayres]

That's an easy one. He's Lio Junior. You want the BW II Version anyway because the head on the lion is coloured right. Yes it's called Prowl on the west but it makes sense that it's a Convoy toy given the head and the central position in the combiner.

[Shockprowl]

Ah, of course Lio Junior! I'd forgotten about him. Yes, the figure fits a Convoy character far better than Prowl.