Dave's Transformers Rant: Beast Wars Leaders Pack

Yay! Beast Wars has finally reached the not-so-snowbound-anymore wilderness of Ohio, and I found and snagged the leaders pack and all four regular Beasts today (separate post for them).

CAPSULE: The comic is lame, little more than a catalog. Megatron is a very good toy for his size and cost, Optimus Primal is okay (bad animal mode). High poseability overall. Recommended.

RANTS

I'll cover each part separately, packaging, comic, Megatron and Primal.

Packaging - Both on one card with the comic, pretty impressive. I like how the bubble isn't just a rectangular block like on many toys, actual work seems to have gone into designing it. Craggy outline makes the removed bubble useable as a display stand, especially if you paint it rocklike and spackle it or something. Stickers on the bubble front show the transformation of each toy. Unfortunately, there is no nicely-painted watercolor art on the front of the card, as it relies on the comicbook images instead. The bubble is very easily cut away from the card, unlike the struggle needed for last year's toys, so the card is preserved. The huge green eye behind the toys on the card is worth hanging one of on your wall.

The back of the card has clip-and-save instructions and techspecs, although I'd recommend keeping them all together on the card. It also shows the Maximal and Predacon lines, with Leaders, Regulars and Deluxe. Mega Beasts are not shown on the cardbacks.

It is interesting to note the absence of Robot Points on the cards.

It is further interesting to note that Takara's name is still on the product.

The techspecs have been changed to include a larger portrait of the characters (taken from the comic here, but from the card art on the others), with the actual stats being given as numbers and hence taking up less room. Primal and Megatron have no notes, instead having extended quotes. The Regular Beasts have notes, but no quotes. A picture of each character's weapon is included under the portraits.

The names of the toys are given in the upper right corner of the cards, in white or yellow type on a black band. This is great, because when the cards are hanging on pegs, that's generally the easiest part of any given card to see on the lower pegs (on the upper pegs nothing is easily seen, so why bother).

Overall, I rather like the packaging for this line so far.

"Comic" - Here's the excuse for a plot. The Maximals, having discovered the advantages of merging with organics, are scoping out a Decepticon lab, where the Cons are reforming themselves into similar forms, the Predacons. Despite the obvious fact that the Autobots/Maximals have discovered the technology themselves, Megatron blows up the lab when it looks like his forces might not be able to hold it. Then he leaves, threatening to be back, possibly in a new form.

The art is so-so, and uncredited. And Megatron drools.

From the comic and some of the techspec notes, I think I have a reasonable explanation for why the Transformers would go for the organics. Part of it is for the ferocity angle, but I'd guess the main reason is energy. By bonding with organic elements, they can now eat organic matter and derive sustenance from it (see Terrorsaur and Rattrap). After years of conflict on Earth, it simply has become untenable to maintain forces at the old levels, too energy- expensive. Now the fight has gone underground, with the Transformers able to live off the land in less ostentatious ways, in ways that don't require visible and shootable energon extraction plants.

The last several pages of the comic are a catalog of the line, with slightly larger (and sometimes mirror-flipped) versions of the pictures from the card back, and then the card art (but no photos) for the Mega Beasts, Grizzly-1 and Scorponok. Scorponok's art confirms that his claw turns into a bee.

Oh, and the size of the comic is about 4 by 5 inches, roughly.

Megatron - He looks pretty good in gator mode, with a moving jaw and a minimum of undercarriage garbage. Some painting sloppiness, his eyes just didn't come out right. His legs as a gator aren't too poseable, but then again, neither are a real gator's legs, yes?

When transforming him, you pull up on his tail and this releases a spring-loaded series of gears and joints that pops him into a more or less robot form. From there, you fiddle with a few bits to hide the gator feet and pull down the robot's feet, and detach the tail/gun. I'd recommend actually removing the gun first, it's easier to get the leverage.

The robot mode is VERY poseable. As a result of some of the joints needed to swap out hands and feet, he has moveable wrists and ankles, something few toys have these days. All the joints are either ball and socket or snap-on hinge style, which occasionally pop off, but pop right back on. His collarbone area is a bit hollow, giving him plenty of droolspace, I guess. His head is on a ball and socket like the Cyberjets, and is similar to the standard Bucket Head design for him, with green bucket and purple face. However, he has some stupid and brutish looking fangs as well. His eyes are red-orange, and he has some gold accents on his legs.

The spring mechanism prevents any stable transitional forms, but if you pull down a little bit on his tail lever, you get a gator-headed version.

The gun formed from his tail is so-so. It's really not that impressive, unfortunately.

Techspecs: Predacon: Megatron Function: Predacon Commander Secret Weapon Location: Inside Tail "Prosper or perish is the Predacon way of life, and we plan to survive by driving the Maximals into extinction! That bat-brained Optimus Primal thinks he can challenge our strength, but he has yet to feel the painful punishment I'll give him as I sink my teeth into his furry flesh! He may still be a robot on ths inside, but on the outside...he's my lunch!"

Note: None.

STR 10 INT 9 SPD 10 END 10 RNK 10 COUR 9 FRP 7 SKL 10 Avg 9.375

Aside from sounding like a professional wrestler, I note that Megaton's outlook has become virtually identical with my Antiochus V character's extreme evolutionary viewpoints. Hrm, has someone at Hasbro/Kenner been reading this newsgroup? }->

Also note that Megs has traded firepower for speed in this incarnation (not counting the GoBot version), and is in general buffer than previous versions.

Optimus Primal - The bat mode is a disaster. Too much undercarriage garbage, and too many robot-mode colors are visible. The mouth hangs open on the batface.

Pulling the tail up a bit unleashes his spring mechanisms, and if you have him in the proper bat form, his arms end up looking stupid on transformation and need to be moved around some. Then unpoint his toes, and that's it. Less to do than on Megatron.

Fortunately, the robot mode is pretty cool. The combination of his ankle joints and his bat-tail allow you to stand him in a wide variety of stable poses, and the batwings make an excellent cape. He also lacks Megatron's hollow collarbone, which is nice. The head is a sort of merger of Prime's standard head and a Batman mask, with an opening for a mouth...but no mouth. His swords clip onto the underside of his wings and hold securely but not stubbornly. Unfortunately, the holes in his hands don't go all the way through, so the swords don't fit that securely in his hands.

Techspecs: Maximal: Optimus Primal Function: Maximal General Secret Weapon Location: Beneath wings "The Maximals and I have no choice but to stop Megatron and his Predacon minions before they destroy us all! Freedom may be the right of all sentient beings, but to protect the greater good we must vanquish the earth from these evil Predacon creatures! It won't be easy, but nothing worthwhile ever is!"

Note: None

STR 10 INT 10 SPD 10 END 10 RNK 10 COUR 10 FRP 7 SKL 10 Avg 9.625

Aside from the second sentence having numerous grammatical problems, it's worth noting that Primal has gone McCarthyist. He's compromised his principles for "the greater good," making him a somewhat chillingly obsessed leader. A bit too much of the endless corrosion of war, yes? And I thought Victory Leo was his meanest incarnation....

Fun question #25: How does he have a FRP of 7 when he has NO GUN?

Dave Van Domelen, Regular Beast Rant to follow tonight....