Rattrap is one of the signature characters in the Beast Wars series, thanks to his sarcastic and cowardly personality as well as the voice work provided by the awesome Scott McNeil. Seriously, it's amazing how one VA can pull off four distinct character voices in the same series while the WFC trilogy cast almost always sounds the same in terms of the same young Autobot voice, the same generic Decepticon voice, etc. Anyways, Rattrap's such a staple to the show he made his debut in that it's weird to see his fame contrast his first-ever toy. Much like how some of the G1 toys were pretty character-less until Marvel and Sunbow got involved with the comics and cartoon, respectively, the Beast Wars toys were not initially made with defined characters in mind until Mainframe went in and made characters out of the handful of toys they chose to add in the show. So let's see what this rodent infestation's all about as the plastic before the computer graphics.
Here is Rattrap in his beast mode. It's a fairly standard toyetic rat with a few transformation gaps here and there, though instead of it being panel-liney, it's all from the one-step gimmick that Basic class toys had in the first year, other examples including Terrorsaur, Razorbeast, and the first versions of Primal and Megatron. The sculpted fur on the beast mode is subtle enough and doesn't look too bad for an old toy. The eyes are painted back, and the teeth are picked out in white with a snarling look to them that I guess was meant for a radical look that the 90s had. Apart from the face and nose, the rear of the rat is given a faded brown deco to go with the tail, and the feet are painted in a faint skin tone color to represent them being bare. Oh, and all four of the feet are ball-jointed while the tail is on a hinge.
For a beast mode comparison, here he is next to the Kingdom version. While the original one is bigger than the newer version, which had some fans complain about the different size vs the price points they went for, you can tell that one figure was in that size because the budget they had made him much cheaper to produce without the inflation in addition to the gimmick that the toy's built around. Also, the result of not having the gimmick for the Kingdom version makes for a more proportionate rat that's also not as exaggerated in terms of proportions than the original, especially the face. Some think he's a little inaccurate to the cartoon, but the Beasties in Kingdom were designed to be realistic while the robot modes remain cartoon-accurate.
Transformation is very simple, as you hinge the base of the tail up so the sides of the rat hinge back while the rat head forms the chest. The robot legs can then be straightened out and the arms can be untabbed from the hands that are held within the rat halves. The resulting robot mode does not look that great. Because it was designed around the gimmick, Rattrap ends up being a mess of a body without any proper definition; the arms are disconnected from their torso while also hanging low on the body. The rat head's oversized and makes the figure look fat, and the silhouette of the toy is messed up thanks to the rat kibble sticking out too much. The side of the robot mode doesn't feel too bad apart from the feet sticking out and the tail from the back not being hinged all the way up for a more flush appearance. As for the back, it almost looks like a rat was flattened with the head cut off. I know this guy was made with the gimmick in mind, but looking at the other figures with the gimmick, notably Bat Primal and Terrorsaur, did a pretty decent job being made with the gimmick in mind. I'll give the toy credit that it has some paint to break up the colors and make it look less monochromatic, but it's still not the best we've gotten.
Head sculpt is close to what Rattrap's character model would look like, but it notably lacks the bronze head paint that the character model has, making the eyes and silver brain be the only parts that pop on the toy's head. It's amusing how Rattrap's head design was made before it was refined with the CGI model. Articulation for this guy consists of ball joints on every part of the toy, from the head to the shoulders and from the elbows to the hips and from the knees to the aready mentioned rat feet. Thanks to Generation 2, Transformers articulation has been improving more and more, and Beast Wars went a step further with the cheaper figures having ball joints. While not on the same level of the War for Cybertron trilogy's level of included waist swivels, ankle pivots, and occasional wrist swivels, it's still an amazing feat that the toys had at the time. Oh, and his gun halves can be removed from within the rat parts and combine to form his blaster, which pegs on his hands with a 3mm peg.
As far as reuses are concerned, we'll not cover the original Hasbro version since it looked too similar to the current reissue, and we'll go straight to the Takara version. Their version of Rattrap has pinker feet, a gray nose, red beast mode eyes, and bronze paint for the hands and robot head, both of which don't blend in with the rest of the toy but are appreciative. Weirdly,, his teeth are not painted.
And this is Packrat, who has been given a blue makeover with the addition of white plastic for most of the joints and as well as having gold paint apps, interestingly enough. This was a Walmart-exclusive version of the toy, and I kind of want to see this deco again for the Core Class toy.
For a comparison with his Kingdom self, you can tell how night and day the differences are in terms of the engineering, coloring, and overall accuracy for the character model. The original Rattrap is slightly taller, but he feels bigger because of the kibble sticking out more. The Kingdom version may have cost you more now than the original toy did back then, but the original toy now costs twice the price you'd pay for the Kingdom version, and 4 times the price you'd pay for the original in 1996. Overall, Vintage Rattrap is the weakest of the Kingdom releases, On top holding up mediocrely, the figure suffers from an aged mechanism for the automorph as well as having a price increase that doesn't correlate with the price he went for originally. Honestly, I get that Hasbro wanted some synergy with the Beast Wars figures that were out in Wave 1 to match up with what Kingdom had at the time, but I'd rather they choose Blackarachnia or Waspinator to have an even Maximal/Predacon balance than having 3 good guys and one bad guy. Plus, those two are more fitting for the price points and hold up better than Rattrap does. If you have to get this guy, don't pay too much for him. $20 is a little easy to stomach for Cheetor, but not for Rattrap. While I never saw this guy on clearance like the others, you can be better off finding him at a toy shop or online for a cheaper price.
Final ranking: ⭐⭐ and a half ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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