Beast Wars Combiner Reviews

[Philip Ayres]

To round off the original Beast Wars line I need to review the two combiners. I've opted for a review for each component and then one to tackle putting them together and the combined form.

I haven't got a Magna Boss to hand to review - you'll have to wait for that.

[Philip Ayres]

Cicadacon

Cicadacon is a Cicada, an insect. This one is mainly in green with 4 clear wings ball jointed to the body - a smaller pair and a larger pair containing some fold out blades. It's got some stationary leg underneath and a fold out stinger under the head.

TF: Fold down the panels on the side of the insect. Pull the robot feet & legs out and fold out behind the insect. Close the panels. Fold the robot arms out from under the insect body out over the panels at the sides. Fold the stinger out and fold the beast head down to form the robot's chest (oh dear - that stinger has ended up in an unfortunate position) Fold the wings out to the sides, unhook the back panel, fold the robot head up and close the back panel. Place the blades from the larger wings in the robot hands.

Resulting robot is rather good - you'll see worse in the Tripredicus box ! Ball jointed head, elbows, shoulders and hips, a bending join and a ball joint at the knee and a bending ankle. The green and revealed white and purple work quite well together. My one complaint is the head has a green square in the back of it - obviously an abandoned light pipe gimmick !

You'll see worse BW dlx toys than this.

For details of how to combine Cicadacon, Sea Clamp & Ram Horn see the Tripredicus review.

D.J.

D.J. is the Japanese version of Cicadacon, released as C-23 or in X-3 the Tripledacus boxset.

Of the three Tripledacus components D.J.is the closet in colour to his US counterpart: Green becomes olive green, white becomes silver and purple becomes a brassy gold colour.

Looks nice. This is quite hard to find individually now, possibly due to D.J. being the only one of the Jointron Brothers (as the Insecticon combiner was known) not to be reissued in Japan !

For details of how to form Tripledacus consult the Tripredicus review.

[Philip Ayres]

Ram-Horn

Ram Horn is a Stag Beetle. It's quite a nice looking stag beetle with 4 stationary rear legs and 2 front legs which have a bending joint inside the body and a ball joint at the knee. The head bends at his base and it's antennae bends where it's connected to the head. Ram Horn's shell is the same nasty clear brown as Sea Clamp. There's some purple and white visible from robot mode pieces underneath and to the sides.

In this mode the shell can flip up and you can unfold 2 blades that will sit between the abdomen and the thorax of the beetle.

TF: Turn the toy over so you're looking at the beetle's under side - this exposes lots of the robot all folded up. Pull the robot feet away from sides of the lower robot chest, bend down at the robot's knees and twist so the rear beetle legs form adornment on the front of the lower robot legs. Fold the robot shoulders forward, and then pull the robot arms out from under the sides of the shell - they're not pegged in and just hidden where you can get them folded away to. Split the halves of the thorax and fold forward, locking them together to cover the robot chest - whoever TF'd Ram Horn for the TFU photos has left these back which is an alternate way of displaying the toy. Peg the grey robot neck piece is back into the remaining central piece of the beetle thorax, and fold the insect head forward onto the neck piece. Open up the helmet halves to reveal the face. Flip up the robot body shell, slide out the claw weapon and place into the robot hand.

Resulting robot looks odd. That face is just a joke, especially with the ball joint sitting between upper and lower jar providing some odd articulation. There's lots more purple revealed in this mode - robot chest and upper limbs are purple as is the head - though face plate is painted white. "Hands" and lower legs are molded in a similar brown to Sea Clamp Gimlet's

Covering the rest of the articulation: Ball joints also feature at shoulders, elbows, hips and knees, with fore and aft joints at wrist and ankle. His "hands" are essentially 2 big flippers with a standard sized peg hole in the middle. But although this is the right size for the Requiem Blaster etc it isn't of any use as the joint at the wrist is in the same plane as the peg hole and putting any weight in it causes the hand to flop back.

Overall: OK beast mode, odd robot mode. Not my favourite BW toy.

For details of how to combine Cicadacon, Sea Clamp & Ram Horn see the Tripredicus review.

Motor Arm

Motor Arm is Beast Wars II toy C-24 or he's also in X-3 the Tripledacus boxset. Purple becomes a brassy colour & red and the shell becomes black. Looks an improvement on Ram Horn.

Reissue Motor Arm

Motor Arm is a repaint of the original BW Tripredicus Combiner Ram Horn. He's BW reissue toy TM-13

I've been dreading this review. This is partly because I truly despised the original BW Ram Horn. The colours clashed for me and I could never remember how to TF it right, especially when converting it to limb mode - Ram Horn formed both arms of Tripredicus linked bar a bar that passed through Cicadacon. In fact the other part of the reason I was dreading this was because Motor Arm has spent the last 2+ weeks sitting as the arms of a Tripledacus using a spare Cicadacon to substitute for DJ. I suspect the Japanese name is sourced from this use of the toy

Motor Arm's shell is painted a nice chocolate brown reddish colour, while his legs are darker. There's some red and grey visible from robot mode pieces underneath and to the sides.

There's lots more grey revealed in this mode - robot chest and upper limbs are grey as is the head - though face plate is painted red. "Hands" and lower legs are molded in a similar red which is a close match for Gimlet's and make for a cohesive whole when used with him in the combined form - sea he Tripledacus review.

Overall: Decent repaint.

[Philip Ayres]

Sea Clamp

Sea Clamp is a Lobster, mainly brown in colour with purple limbs. The lobster mode has universal jointed shoulders and first elbows with the second elbow bending in and out. The claws open up, and the larger outer claw contains a nifty little cerated blade which swings out. The antennae are adjustable up and down.

TF: Swing the tail round 180 degrees exposing the legs. Unpeg the legs and swivel each leg so the outside half is facing up. The space behind the legs should house the missile launcher for Tripredicus. Separate the lobster head and swing to the sides and down to form the arms. Swing the head halves up 90 degrees so the head halves are to the front, upright and looking out to the sides - the silver patch in the middle of the robot chest should face forward. Fold the lobster legs up behind the lobster head shoulder pads. Fold the arms down, open the claws and fold out the knives. Pull the chest down, flip up the head and close the chest.

Robot mode has bending feet and heel spurs, ball jointed knees and hips, a waist. Ball jointed inner shoulders and elbows, universal outer shoulders, bendable wrists, posable claws and ball jointed head. The colours bring it down in this mode making it look very plain and unappealing.

For details of how to combine Cicadacon, Sea Clamp & Ram Horn see the Tripredicus review.

Gimlet

Gimlet is a repaint of Sea Clamp part of Tripredicus. In the west as Sea Clamp he was a Predacon, in Japan as Gimlet he's a Maximal. Gimlet is Beast Wars II toy C-25 or he's also in X-3 the Tripledacus boxset.

He's a substantial repaint of Sea Clamp with the purple becoming a bronzey colour and the clear brown becoming solid red.

Looks rather nice.

Reissue Gimlet

Reissue Gimlet is numbered TM-12

This new version is a Predacon again. Since Ram Horn (Motor Arm) is coming out as a Maximal next we will call this "Reason number 1 that we doubt all of Tripredicus will be reissued" Gimlet was bright red with dark grey limbs. With this release we learn that the arms and legs of this toy are on different parts trees as the upper arms are still dark grey but the upper legs are now silver. Personally I think Gimlet looks much better in red (I somehow associate this colour more with Lobsters) and this release adds some patterning to the shell. See My Repaint Article - rules 3 & 4 are in place.

Remember I said the missile launcher for Tripredicus was located in the tail ? It doesn't appear there on this version. ("Reason number 2 that we doubt all of Tripredicus will be reissued") I can't see it pictured on the instructions, which in turn don't contain combining instructions ("Reason number 3 that we doubt all of Tripredicus will be reissued")

Has anyone else got the words "Rescue Force" going round in their heads yet ?

Robot mode - and you thought the lobster looked good ? He's stunning in robot mode ! Colours working well together, with the knives painted silver it does make him look armed. Blows Sea Clamp away. Lots of new silver paint over original Gimlet.

Overall: Honestly ? Best Japanese BW re-release IMO. Blows out Western Sea Clamp out the water. Looks a decent improvement on the BWII Gimlet. You need to get this.

[Philip Ayres]

Tripredacus

For details individual toys see the reviews of Cicadacon, Sea Clamp & Ram Horn. All 3 components are assumed to be in beast mode. Which means I have to remember how to put Ram Horn back into Beast mode to write this !

Take Cicadacon. Fold out the stinger. Fold the legs out to the sides, then fold the bottom of the arm onto the top of the arm. Fold the arms back onto the underside of the insect as far as you can and link the forearms together. Open the side panels out. Fold the sides of the beast head down besides the arms. Separate the robot's waist and fold each half to the sides and up - effectively moving the robot legs out into the sides of the insect. Remove the blades in the wings. Fold the robot head forward and open the back panel.

Sea Clamp: Turn the claws so the larger part faces down. Open the claws out leaving the inner blade hidden and stand on the claws. Separate the body as far back as you can to form the combined robot legs. Fold the beast legs in. Turn the head panels so they are sticking out the sides. Fold the robot legs down and remove the missile launcher. Fold robot legs up. Rotate beast tail/robot legs 180 degrees. Fold tail back exposing clips and a peg.

Ram Horn: flip the shell back up, remove the robot weapon and set to one side. Separate both halves of the head armour. Pull the front claws and the horn up through it. Pull the robot legs away from the side and straighten behind the insect. Fold the top half of the insect up at the back and the bottom (mainly the robot chest & legs) down at the front. Extend the bar that connects them to it's maximum length. Swing the top of the beast through 180 degrees so it's hanging down. Fold the robot legs up onto the plate in the arm, then swing the entire plate in through the arm so the robot legs are through the arm and the robot arms are hanging down.

The bar between both halves of Ramhorn slides into the back of Cicadacon - it'll only go in one way round and in one direction. Close the back up and fold the head back locking Ram Horn in place as the robot's arms (hence the name Motor Arm for the repaint) There's two thin strip posts at the base of Cicadacon - these mate with the clip at the top of Sea Clamp and Sea Clamp's peg has a hole to fit in Cicadacon's tail. When it locks together it's frequently quite solid but it may take some work getting it there. Then on other occasions you think you've combined it and it just falls apart in your hands.

Take the launcher and put the wing blades into it. Lock this onto Ram Horn's weapon. Place into the "hand" formed by Ram Horn's robot legs

Tripredacus combined form is a little biot of a mess colour wise - the purple and brown look mucky and clash rather with the green and the white. He bends at the ankle, has a ball joint bellow the purple knee cap, a bending joint above the knee cap, a rotational swivel joint above the knee cap & again bellow the hip and finally a ball jointed hip. That's a lot of articulation, perhaps too much in a toy that's supporting a fair amount of weight. The head turns. Both shoulders move back and forth. The claw arm rotates and bends to the side bellow the shoulder, bends in at the wrist via the tf the folds the legs onto the outside of the arm and the claw opens via 2 ball joints and a folding joint. The claw has a peg hole on either side that allow it to hold the weapon. The other arm rotates & folds to the side bellow the shoulder and also at the wrist. From there down we have the bending and ball joints on Ram Horn's fore legs, the bending joint under his neck and the ball joint for the head. A little bit of fiddling can get a passable three fingered claw out of it but it won't hold anything and it hangs so low that it virtually is scraping along the floor. Overall: I like one of the components a lot, and one of the others is a good mold just bad colour choices. The combined form however doesn't work for me and most of the problems come from the arms/hands (no proper hands !)

Tripledacus

Tripledacus is formed from toys C-23 DJ, C-24 Motorarm & C-25 Gimlet or by buying the X-3 Tripledacus boxset

I like the name. Ls and Rs are somewhat interchangeable when translating from Japanese to English. One way we get Tripredacus and the other we get Tripledacus and something appeals to me having the word triple in the name of a three way combiner.

Tripledacus combines the same as Tripredacus - just substitute D.J. for Cicadacon, Gimlet for Sea Clamp & Motor-Arm for Ram Horn. Somehow the colours work better on the combined form - much brighter and less murky. Comments about construction and hands remain.

[Philip Ayres]

Beast Wars Prowl

Prowl is a Lion in Beast Wars, part of the Magnaboss combining team. He's slightly larger than your average basic cast mainly in yellow plastic with a brown mane. The back legs bend at the hip, rotate above the knee and bend at the knee & just above the ankle. The only movement in the front limbs is as part of a joint that's involved in the TF and shouldn't be moved in Beast Mode. The tail bends at it's base.

Prowl has an attack mode - raise the panel at the back of the mane slightly and then fold a pair of spike/guns forward over the beast's head.

TF: Straighten the rear legs behind the beast. Rotate 180 degrees at the waist and then 180 degrees at each knee. Fold the leg up at the lowest leg joint which will pop the robot foot out. Fold the back panel on the mane and the metallic panel it's connected to back. Split the mane in two along the top of the head, open to the sides and fold forward. Fold the beast legs back, fold the lower half of the limb out to the side at the ball joint half way along it, fold the beast foot back, and swing what is now the arm round so it's pointing up. Split the box that was inside the mane in two noting that the smaller robot head is looking forward - v important for TFing back to beast mode. Fold the box halves and the arms out to the sides. Fold the smaller robot head up. Fold the beast/larger robot head down into the chest cavity. Using the joint halfway along it's side fold the sides of the box back in round the larger head. Fold the metallic panel up to form the chest then fold the mane spikes either side of the head. Fold the mane halves down onto the back.

Resulting robot is all yellow with metallic blue chest and upper leg fronts and a brown mane pair of wings. He's got ball jointed shoulders and elbows, a turning waist, ball jointed hips, a swivel above the knee, bending knee and ankle. But by far his most prominent feature is the head. When using a G1 name I feel it's quite important to have the head looking like the G1 character's head. Here we have a yellow version of the Optimus Prime/Primal head ! The face plate is painted silver and the eyes are pink - but obviously a separate piece and close examination of the back of the head reveals there's a filled in block there so I suspect we're dealing with out old friend the abandoned light pipe gimmick. So why put a Primal head on this toy ? Was it originally meant to be Primal as the leader of this combining team but the idea was junked when the Beast Wars TV series established him as a monkey ? We may never know. But further evidence is presented bellow ! The tail can be removed and used as a weapon but to be honest you're better leaving it attached to the back of the waist.

Overall: Not bad for a smaller toy. We'd be singing it's praises if it had been released as a basic by itself.

Beast Wars II Lio Junior

Lio Junior is the younger relative (brother ?) of Lio Convoy in Beast Wars II. His & Prowl's lion modes are identical, it's the robot mode where the differences are noticed. The metallic blue becomes silver with some brown added to the edge of the chest with some red detailing, the waist piece is painted a gun metal gray and the head becomes dark metallic blue like a decent Prime head should.

There are some further differences in the pieces that make up Magnaboss, see the review of that toy.

So.... we now have a lion that looks like a little version of the Japanese leader complete with fold forward guns in beast mode like Lio Convoy. Was Takara influencing the development of Magnaboss to do this or did they take advantage of the abandoned Hasbro concept ?

If you want a BW Prowl get the Japanese version Lio Junior - the little differences make it so much better. The Korean version can be acquired quite cheaply on eBay. Lio Junior was available in Japan as toy C-26 or as part of X-4 the Magnaboss giftset

White Lio Junior

Lio Junior has two different colour variations released as promos/exclusives. This version casts the toy in white - like Lio Convoy - with a bright yellow mane.

Black Lio Junior

Lio Junior's second variation casts the toy in black with a bright red mane. A bit more garish !

Beast Wars Prowl

Prowl is a Lion in Beast Wars, part of the Magnaboss combining team. He's slightly larger than your average basic cast mainly in yellow plastic with a brown mane. The back legs bend at the hip, rotate above the knee and bend at the knee & just above the ankle. The only movement in the front limbs is as part of a joint that's involved in the TF and shouldn't be moved in Beast Mode. The tail bends at it's base.

Prowl has an attack mode - raise the panel at the back of the mane slightly and then fold a pair of spike/guns forward over the beast's head.

TF: Straighten the rear legs behind the beast. Rotate 180 degrees at the waist and then 180 degrees at each knee. Fold the leg up at the lowest leg joint which will pop the robot foot out. Fold the back panel on the mane and the metallic panel it's connected to back. Split the mane in two along the top of the head, open to the sides and fold forward. Fold the beast legs back, fold the lower half of the limb out to the side at the ball joint half way along it, fold the beast foot back, and swing what is now the arm round so it's pointing up. Split the box that was inside the mane in two noting that the smaller robot head is looking forward - v important for TFing back to beast mode. Fold the box halves and the arms out to the sides. Fold the smaller robot head up. Fold the beast/larger robot head down into the chest cavity. Using the joint halfway along it's side fold the sides of the box back in round the larger head. Fold the metallic panel up to form the chest then fold the mane spikes either side of the head. Fold the mane halves down onto the back.

Resulting robot is all yellow with metallic blue chest and upper leg fronts and a brown mane pair of wings. He's got ball jointed shoulders and elbows, a turning waist, ball jointed hips, a swivel above the knee, bending knee and ankle. But by far his most prominent feature is the head. When using a G1 name I feel it's quite important to have the head looking like the G1 character's head. Here we have a yellow version of the Optimus Prime/Primal head ! The face plate is painted silver and the eyes are pink - but obviously a separate piece and close examination of the back of the head reveals there's a filled in block there so I suspect we're dealing with out old friend the abandoned light pipe gimmick. So why put a Primal head on this toy ? Was it originally meant to be Primal as the leader of this combining team but the idea was junked when the Beast Wars TV series established him as a monkey ? We may never know. But further evidence is presented bellow ! The tail can be removed and used as a weapon but to be honest you're better leaving it attached to the back of the waist.

Overall: Not bad for a smaller toy. We'd be singing it's praises if it had been released as a basic by itself.

Beast Wars II Lio Junior

Lio Junior is the younger relative (brother ?) of Lio Convoy in Beast Wars II. His & Prowl's lion modes are identical, it's the robot mode where the differences are noticed. The metallic blue becomes silver with some brown added to the edge of the chest with some red detailing, the waist piece is painted a gun metal gray and the head becomes dark metallic blue like a decent Prime head should.

There are some further differences in the pieces that make up Magnaboss, see the review of that toy.

So.... we now have a lion that looks like a little version of the Japanese leader complete with fold forward guns in beast mode like Lio Convoy. Was Takara influencing the development of Magnaboss to do this or did they take advantage of the abandoned Hasbro concept ?

If you want a BW Prowl get the Japanese version Lio Junior - the little differences make it so much better. The Korean version can be acquired quite cheaply on eBay. Lio Junior was available in Japan as toy C-26 or as part of X-4 the Magnaboss giftset

White Lio Junior

Lio Junior has two different colour variations released as promos/exclusives. This version casts the toy in white - like Lio Convoy - with a bright yellow mane.

Black Lio Junior

Lio Junior's second variation casts the toy in black with a bright red mane. A bit more garish !

[Philip Ayres]

Beast Wars Silverbolt

Silverbolt is a bird of prey, probably an Eagle. A basic bird of prey has been done before in Beast Wars - as Airazor - this is more deluxe sized. The bird is cast in a mixture of brown & gold plastic with some white making up the extremes of the toy and some yellow paint on head and feet. The tail moves up & down as do the wings at their base. The legs are ball jointed at hip & knee and bend at the ankle. The head leans forward and the mouth opens. The wings themselves are straight - no joints in them - but the wing tips fold in exposing a missile launcher. The missiles can be fired out to the sides or both wings can be pointed so the missiles fire in the same direction. The toy does an excelent job of hiding it's robot parts away with very little of the robot being visible in bird mode.

TF: Look at the underside of the beast. Fold the wings and body down from the front exposing the chest and partially pulling the arms through from under the tail. Fold the body and arms out via a hinge at the base of the body, locking them in place with a click then fold the body and wings back so they lock into the rest of the bird. Straighten the arms, and rotate at the knees so the front of the knee faces forward. Remove the backs of the wings to act as swords for the robot.

Almost all the exposed robot body uses the brown plastic with the forearms, head and lower legs in white and the feet in gold. Ball joints abound - head, shoulders, elbows, hips and knees with just the ankles being normal bending joints. The wings may be worn bent back, to the sides or bent forward for shooting.

Decent bird, decent robot, good weapons. Strongest of the Magnaboss trio overall

Beast Wars II Skywarp

The only difference between Beast Wars Silverbolt and Beast Wars II Skywarp is that Skywarp has a head painted silver. I broke my Skywarp out the box and have had to patch it together with Silverbolt - when close examination revealed that was the difference I swapped the heads.

Skywarp is Beast Wars II toy C-27 and is available in the X-4 boxset with the other members of the team that combine to form Magnaboss

[Philip Ayres]

Beast Wars Ironhide

Ironhide is - like Prowl - a new animal form for the Beast Wars: he's an elephant. In beast mode he's mainly grey. His back legs move at the knee but his front legs are virtually stationary. He's got a small tail that bends up. His ears move back & forth and have a gun behind each of them that can fold forward. The tusks have a ball joint within the head and a joint that bends to the sides just outside it. The trunk does not move.

TF: turn the beast over and look at the underside. Pull the rear panels away from the sides and fold back. Turn the rear legs so they stretch out behind the beast. Fold the heel spurs - actually the combined robot fists - back from the legs. Bend the ears forward and fold the side panels at the front down. Separate the trunk in two down the middle and fold the halves of it plus the front legs to the sides. Fold the elephant head halves behind the shoulders. Fold out the bottom of the feet to become hands and rotate so the peg holes face up. Fold the large panel down his back and raise the trunks over the shoulders. The guns/staves can be removed from the ears and used as hand weapons.

This is another of Beast Wars' odd alien modes - see virtually any of the insect figures. He's squat and wide with a bending head that's mounted very far forward. Credit to them they've got the robot parts coloured right (red). The head looks a little like Rhinox which is odd cos I've always imagined a Beast Wars Ironhide to be a red and black Rhinox repaint. The universal joints behind the head are virtually immobilised in this mode so your first arm articulation is found further out at the shoulder where it bends to the sides and moves back & forth. The elephant head halves are attached to the shoulder by a strut that's ball jointed at both ends. There's a bicep swivel joint and the arm bends just bellow the shoulder. The forearm is very long and ends in a bending wrist. The hips move back & forth and to the sides, there's a swivel beneath them and the knees bend. Ironhide's main problem in this mode is that bits of elephant hide keeps getting in the way of limbs making it very difficult to pose.

Overall: Decent beast but odd robot with kibble problems.

Ironhide is the only member of the Magnaboss group not to have his name reused on a later Beast Wars toy.

Beast Wars II Santon

Santon is the Japanese version of Ironhide numbered C-28 or available in X-4 with Lio Junior and Skywarp.

Elephant modes are identical but transforming to robot mode reveals a painted mouth (white) and black markings round the face plus some white markings on the chest & shoulders. His function is down as being a medic so someone at Takara is trying to make the Ratchet is a repaint of Ironhide link !

There's more repainted pieces that are only apparent when he combines to form Magnaboss

[Philip Ayres]

Beast Wars Magnaboss

Magnaboss was available in the west solely as an Ultra sized giftset containing Prowl, Silverbolt & Ironhide. See their individual reviews for details on their beast modes, how to transform them and their robot modes.

To form Magnaboss start with Ironhide. Remove the weapons behind the ears and slot them together - the peg on the one with tabs on the side fits into the hole on the one with the flared sides. Fold the rear side panels and the front side panels back. Unclip the elephant head halves and fold to the sides. Fold the back panel and horns right the way back over the beast. Straighten the front legs out in front of the beast. Fold the front down as the robot feet and fold the heel spurs back. Stand. Swing the section the head halves are attached to back so the back of the socket is pointing backwards and the head halves are behind the legs/ Pull on each of the back legs separating Ironhide's torso in two and fold each half out to the sides. Turn the shoulder so the gold paint faces forward. Turn the arm so the elephant foot faces up. Flip out the fists and set Ironhide aside for later.

Next take Prowl and remove his tail. The tail itself folds down and the sides fold out. Slot the weapons from Ironhide into the top of this. Pull the back of the mane back and fold down the sides of the mane. Fold the front feet up. Turn the head so the large robot head faces forward instead of the beast head. Fold the mane back up locking it round the robot head and the front legs with just the small robot hands showing out of the bottom of the mane. Fold the back of the mane back down. Fold the feet up. The instructions say to bring the back legs up to rest in the back of the mane just behind the robot hands, but I'd fold them back at this point.

Next take Silverbolt. Remove the swords from under the wings and slot onto the sides of Ironhide's weapons to form the super robot sword.. Fold the arms backwards at the elbows and fold the legs the wrong way at the hips. Fold the wings and the body down so the waist folds into the beast. Fold the body up and tuck the hands back into the body cavity. Fold the tips of the wings back to expose the missile launchers.

Time to combine - lock one wing clip and peg on Silverbolt into the side of Prowl. Repeat with the other side. Clip the insides of Ironhide onto the sides of Silverbolt - I'd start with the trunk side as there's less peg holes to get confuse with. There's a tab on the front of each wing that fits onto the large chest plate on Ironhide. If you've folded Prowl's legs back they can now be lowered to cover Ironhide's face in the bottom. Silverbolt's body and head fold forwards and the bird neck clips onto Prowl's mane with the head bending down so the beak touches the top of the head. Ironhide's horns fold back either side of the head and the sword fits into his hand.

The resulting robot looks much more cohesive, stable and solid than his counterpart Tripredicus. Most of the robot seen is made up from Ironhide with Prowl & Silverbolt filling the chest cavity and forming the head. Silverbolt is parked round Prowl but inside Ironhide's shoulders so the wing cannons point forward. A new idea for Transformers but Power Rangers/Sentai did it some years earlier with the Shogun Mega Falconzord The robot's face is yellow with many of the exposed robot parts being cast in red.

Overall: Better of the two Beast Wars combiners.

Beast Wars II Magnaboss

BWII Magnaboss was sold as giftset X-4 or by combing C-26 Lio Junior, C-27 Skywarp & C-28 Santon.

The differences between Japanese and western Magnaboss are some quite subtle paint work - the large robot head is now red and silver almost giving the illusion of wearing war paint. All of Ironhide's red panelling has gained some red and white highlighting. It's only subtle differences but it makes for a superior toy.

Alternative Magnaboss can be formed by including either of the colour variants on BWII Lio Junior.