Phil's Beast Wars Neo Cybertrons reviews !

[Andy Turnbull]

Tis from Studio Ghibli and it even has a good english dub, with the likes of Clancy Brown, Tress MacNeill and Maurice LaMarche involved.

Andy

[Philip Ayres]

Heinrad

Heinrad is an unusual Beast Wars Neo toy. He's numbered Beast Wars toy S-3 (I'm guessing the S is for Special, whereas the X releases stand for eXtra ?)

Heinrad is a Tanuki - a Japanese Racoon dog. See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanuki for details about these beasts. Our one has an alarm clock buried in it's chest. The workings for the alarm clock are accessible in robot mode so we'll cover it there. He's generally posed standing upright - the legs have a ball joint at the hip, the arms have shoulders that move back & forth and to the sides, ball jointed elbows & wrists and an opposable thumb which can be folded down. The head can't turn but thanks to a pair of struts that are hinged to the body and attached via a ball & socket to the head he can look straight up. This then means Heinrad can be posed on all fours. He has a tail that's hinged at it's base and quite close to the base. With him comes a jar & a book - both associated with the creature in Japanese mythology - and two missiles. This is the only Beast Wars toy that can't stow it's weapons properly in Beast Mode according to the instructions although if you leave them attached in robot mode (see bellow) then they'll just about stow correctly when he's TF'd back to beast.

TF: Set aside the jar and book (& missiles if necessary) Pull the back panel out and down. Separate in two to form the robot legs and swing out to the sides of the tail. Swing the dark grey blocks at the bottom of the beast out to the sides (yes they are the beast's testicles - read the Wikpedia entry) and fold so they're down the side of the robot's hips - revealing a red Cybertron spark on the right testicle. Swing the beast back legs back so the feet are pointing away from the clock. Fold the tail up. Fold the robot waist so it locks into the underside of the beast. Swing the legs round so the blue lower legs and the yellow knee caps face the same way as the clock. Fold back both flaps on each leg. Fold the robot feet down from the bottom flap, fold the heel spur out from the back of the foot and fold the flap back down. Split the beast head and the body above the clock in two down the middle. Fold each half to the sides taking a beast arm with it. Push down on the shoulders to lock in place and then fold the head halves behind the shoulders. Fold the thumb down on each hand so it's opposing the fingers. Mount missiles on the sides of the robot legs - there's a peg on each missile and a hole bellow each knee. Take the book and fold the brown panel up and out to form a handle. Peg the jug into the other side of the book forming his weapon. The handle has a rectangular slot in it matching a rectangular peg on the robot's right hand. The weapon can take one of the missiles and is fired by a trigger on the jug.

The resulting robot is a similar height to Big Convoy. The ankles bend as part of the tf, the knees bend - but are restricted if the top leg flap is left folded up. The legs swivel above the knees, the hips move to the side as well as back & forth. The waist turns - something of a surprise in a toy that clips together at the waist. Shoulders shrug up and move back & forth. There's a high bicep swivel immediately underneath and then a folding joint in the middle of the upper arm. Elbows and wrists are ball jointed. Head turns. The head has a wonderful pair of fold down goggles on it !

The head itself is the trigger for the alarm mechanism and needs to be raised for the alarm to be on - push down to turn off. The battery socket is found in the robot's back as is the mechanism for adjusting date & time which will be familiar to anyone who's ever had a cheap travel clock. I've never put battery in one of these but I'm assuming there's noise when the alarm goes off by the placement of a series of slits that I assume cover a speaker in the robot's chest. It might have been nice if the eyes illuminated as well but alas they're just painted.

It's a pretty decent Beast Wars toy. The only comments I would make is that the ball joints are weak resulting in it not being able to hold the gun with the arm folded up - in fact you need to orientate the lower arm so the restricted parts of the sockets in it prevent the arm from drooping down. This also means that lower arm, hand and testicles can pop off rather too easily !