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Beast Machines figure reviews

Posted: Fri Aug 29, 2014 10:11 am
by Shockwave
Beast Machines Rattrap. I never had this figure when it came out and I'm not sure why. I certainly saw plenty of them and there were certainly worse figures that I did get (I'm looking at YOU BM Megatron!). Anyway, I got Rattrap in the mail yesterday so here we go.

Rat mode: First thing I noticed is the automove gimmick between the tail and rat head. It also seems that movement includes moving the rat's ears too. And the head seems to tilt at odd angles from the auto move. Not something that would make me dislike the figure or anything, but it seems like it could have been engineered better. Other than that, it seems to be a pretty faithful representation of the rat mode seen on the show. Articulation for the rat limbs is pretty decent and the paint and detailing are all pretty good.

Transformation: Rattrap has a pretty complex transformation but it is pretty intuitive and easy to figure out. Basically, the rat head winds up in the chest where the robot legs come out from and the rat hind legs turn into the robot arms. I really like the legs, giving the option of actual legs with feet or the wheels seen on the show.

Robot mode: Robot mode is also fairly faithful to the show, with the exception of the full robot legs. My only couple of complaints about it are that the robot head winds up in a position where he is perpetually looking down and there's not ball joint to make him look forward. The other complaint is the arms seem a little oversized, but I don't really know how they could solve that and I also wish there was a way to bend the arms at the elbow and still have the hands look like they're in a normal position, but those are all relatively minor complaints.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with RT. Some of that might be that I have no other Beast Machines figures to stand him next to, so the usual problem of reverse scale with the rest of the line isn't an issue at the moment. But, it will be if I decide to get other figures. The updated Tankor for example, is still only deluxe scale and is going to be dwarfed by this figure. RT really should have been a deluxe figure, but again, my issues with the scale of for the line in general, not the figure specifically. I still think this is a pretty decent representation of the character from the show and if you're looking for a figure that does that, this is cerainly one of the better ones from this line.

Re: Beast Machines figure reviews

Posted: Fri Aug 29, 2014 1:35 pm
by andersonh1
I agree, Rattrap is a good figure, and has one of the more accurate show likenesses as well. Nice color scheme, nice transformation options with the legs, etc. His size compared to the others is the only real flaw. I remember when I was working on my Beast Machines photocomic I would always shoot Rattrap separately and remove the background so I could Photoshop him into a scene at the proper size! :lol:

Re: Beast Machines figure reviews

Posted: Fri Aug 29, 2014 1:57 pm
by Shockwave
andersonh1 wrote:I agree, Rattrap is a good figure, and has one of the more accurate show likenesses as well. Nice color scheme, nice transformation options with the legs, etc. His size compared to the others is the only real flaw. I remember when I was working on my Beast Machines photocomic I would always shoot Rattrap separately and remove the background so I could Photoshop him into a scene at the proper size! :lol:
Did that work in reverse for undersized characters like Silverbolt?

I mean, I really do have to wonder what Hasbro was thinking. Did they deliberately just reverse the scale of everyone on the show? It was ridiculous. Nightscream is one of the largest toys they made and should have been the smallest while Megatron was way too small. And Megatron really should have been a repaint of the Transmetal II Dragon with the "housecoat of doom" as an accessory.

Re: Beast Machines figure reviews

Posted: Mon Sep 01, 2014 7:40 am
by andersonh1
Shockwave wrote:Did that work in reverse for undersized characters like Silverbolt?
I think I picked him as the "main" character size since I had more basics in the story than anything else. So anyone larger had to be composited into the picture. It cut down on the workload.
I mean, I really do have to wonder what Hasbro was thinking. Did they deliberately just reverse the scale of everyone on the show? It was ridiculous. Nightscream is one of the largest toys they made and should have been the smallest while Megatron was way too small. And Megatron really should have been a repaint of the Transmetal II Dragon with the "housecoat of doom" as an accessory.
I have to admit, I've never quite figured out what caused the size problems with Beast Machines. My best guess is that Hasbro made what they thought would be the most popular characters the largest, hoping the kids would buy them up and they'd make more. So that's why Nightscream is so big, for example. They hoped he'd be a hit with the kids. It didn't work, I'm sure. I got Supreme Cheetor for $10 with free shipping off Amazon, months after Beast Machines ended. Clearly they had a glut of those things and just wanted to get rid of them.

Re: Beast Machines figure reviews

Posted: Thu Sep 18, 2014 2:02 pm
by Shockwave
Generations Beast Machines Tankor: Figure is packaged in bot mode so I'll start there. It's pretty clear from the bot mode that this is meant to be and updated figure to be more screen accurate version. In that regard, it's pretty effective, the colors, the look and feel of the character really come through on this toy and it even has great articulation to boot. I do think this would have been better as a voyager, but since size reversal has been a thing for the BM toyline from day one, it's par for the course on that one.

Tank mode: This is where it kind of loses me. The front part if it looks fine. Up until you get to the back, behind the head/turret. Well, first I should probably mention that it annoys me that the cannon isn't just directly attached to the head. That was one design aspect that really defines the character to me and not having that present really hinders the figure. But, even that would be tolerable if it weren't for the back end/arms section. The arms and shoulders basically fold up to make the back of the tank. The problem with this is that on the show, those parts end up on the side of the head/turret with that being the back of the tank. So what happens here is that the tank mode essentially is longer than the show model and it looks off as result. Unfortunately there's no way to alternately transform it to fix this look either. A hinge in just the right place would make Tankor transformable in a way that would look more screen accurate but the back is all one piece with no moving parts so you're stuck with the elongated mode.

Anyway, if you can get past that, it's otherwise a good figure. Transformation is interesting and different but not too complex that you can't figure it out. Fiddle value is definately there. It's a good toy and if you don't already have Tankor then I would certainly recommend it.