Hasbro's current methods of handling size classes vary on the figure's design or engineering. Their past experience with the Robots in Disguise line has been an early example where they'd put a group of figures or accessories with one figure to justify its designation in the selected size class. For example, the Commando limbs coming with pieces of Ruination make them part of the same Basic Class size a la the Spy Changer 2-packs; the flipchanger 2-packs featuring Machine Wars redecos such as show-characters Tow-Line and Skid-Z each accompanying a non-show Decepticon gave them the Deluxe Class price like with the Autobot Brothers and Build Team; and the main trio of Predacon stooges ranked below Megatron and Sky-Byte are priced as a Mega Class set, the same size class featuring larger, more independent toys like Sky-Byte and the Team Bullet Train members (but not another set of repainted Beast Machines Basics!). I guess these could have been put in the Basic Class size individually, but maybe Hasbro felt the difference in engineering between the Beast Wars repaint trio and the reused G1 Combaticons and G2 Gobots wasn't going to be fair. With all that said, let's see how these three hold up!
Here we have the Predacons in their beast modes. While Predacons are known to be based on more cold-blooded animals, two of them instead represent mammals. From left to right, we have Gas Skunk (aka Gaskunk), Dark Scream (aka Guildo), and Slapper (aka Goosher). There are minor differences between these Hasbro versions and their Takara counterparts, but nothing that major where it'd make me recommend one over the other. These three are repaints of Basic Class Transmetal 2 molds from from the Beast Wars toyline, and they now receive their first ever Takara uses for Car Robots before returning stateside under the RID01 line. They each retain their chrome of varying colors, such as the silver and orange on Gas Skunk, the champagne color of Dark Scream, and the trio of orange, green, and blue for Slapper. Of the three, I think Gas Skunk and Slapper work very well in terms of looking like the beast modes they're based off of while including the spikes and mechanical bits; Dark Scream feels rather static with only staying in a flight pose. I love the asymmetrical details that are put between their body parts, which is a signature trait for the TM2s in comparison to the way regular Transmetals work. However, I wonder how well Dark Scream could fly if his winglets have holes in them.
Gas Skunk is one of the two beasts in the set with useful articulation while in his animal mode, utilizing ball joints on what will be the robot shoulders, elbows, hips, and knees. He also has a claw in case the scorpion-like pincer on the tail isn't enough. Both of the hind legs feature panels that flip up to reveal a bit of molded detail on the right hind leg, though the left one is noteworthy for housing the spark crystal within.
As for Slapper, his ball-jointed limbs mean he could freely be posed as if he was hopping...or pretending to fly while standing on some cologne product placement. Go out today and buy your copy of Jordan cologne at your local stores! Oh and the blue chrome claw can be deployed while the tongue accessory can be pegged into the mouth.
Gas Skunk's transformation mostly has the forelegs straightened, the hind legs folded into shoulder components while the forearms are straightened out, and the backpack goes on the back along with the literal ponytail. The robot mode continues the trend of asymmetrical robot details throughout the figure, from the claws of the feet to the lower region of the torso, the thighs, and just about anywhere on the figure's surface area. For a repainted Beast Wars basic, the figure manages to hold up very well in terms of the overall aesthetics; apart from how far out the backpack is, the toy doesn't feel held back in terms of its sculpted details or the paint apps present on the torso and back. I feel that nowadays, Hasbro would try to stick with a certain budget or regulation on what parts can't be painted if they're meant to be for structural purposes. The hollow forearms from the front are a bit distracting, and the ball joints are more common for smaller figures and non-Legacy/WFC figures, but it's able to hold its head up along with the current stuff we get nowadays. Hell, as a toy usually aimed for ages 5 and up, this manages to excel a lot of stuff we had from the mainline offerings of AOE, RID15, TLK, Bumblebee, and Earthspark.
His head sculpt is the strongest out of the trio so far, as it's sculpted decently wel to make the domino-mask pop from the rest of the robot head, and who could forget about the silver teeth and blue eyes. All this and it had to have the tail of the skunk mode stuck on the back! As expected, ball joints are used on the neck, shoulders, elbows, hips, knees, and ankles, He does have a waist swivel, at least. No accessories are included.
As for Dark Scream's transformation, it's like a manual version of Basic Terrorsaur from 1996, with the a huge backpack made up from the wings with limbs untucked and free to pose around now that the toy is in robot mode. Said backpack comes at a problem for our little guy here, as it's quite backheavy for the poor ankles to deal with. Not to mention the tail hinging up on the back doesn't really help matters much unless you use it as a tripod. This guy's robot mode doesn't hold up as well as the design we have for Gas Skunk, mostly due to how basic the conversion feels on top of how little pegs in place. Seriously, some of the limbs come off at certain angles, and the beast mode arms don't tab in place. At least you can see the spark crystal in the chest.
His head sculpt looks very rough, both in terms of sculptwork and paintwork. I could even tell what expression Dark Scream is going for if the face is very soft-focus. His points of articulation are the same as with Gas Skunk, though he has a sword accessory this time around.
As for Slapper's transformation, it's quite asymmetrical given how the front and back sections of the toad mode become the huge shoulder pads of the character design. It is comparable to the way the head and tail stump of the T-Rex Zord from Dino Charge works, though with Slapper being a quadruped instead of a bipedal animal. The resulting robot mode is quite the hunchback compared to the other Predacons in the set, from the head sticking out more on to the gangly arms from the hind legs of Slapper's toad mode. His spikes almost make him look more hideous in appearance as well, almost to the point where he'd be an abomination if he was organic instead of mechanical. The Transmetal II design traits fit Slapper the most, from the sculpted details we've mentioned earlier on the other figures to the different shoulder pads.
His head sculpt is second-best in the set as he's not as soft as Dark Scream, though Gas Skunk still has the best head sculpt of the three. Oh, and Slapper's roof of his mouth has the spark crystal.
His articulation is the same as the others, though his hands being on hinges give hin an extra bit of range; the same goes for the neck if you want to put him in poses like these.
And here we have the set as a whole. It's kind of appreciative that Hasbro went with a 3-in-1 set to make them comparable to a Mega Class toy, even if they have more engineering than any Spy Changer or Ruination limb, but it does make me wonder how Hasbro would tackle them in the Generations line...
For Gas Skunk's original Beast Wars iteration, Stinkbomb appears to be the least altered of the three, at first glance, though the paint apps on the torso, beast mode back, as well as the chrome on the exhaust ports and tail, are notable changes. Stinkbomb was also originally a Maximal rather than a Predacon.
Up next, this is Nightglider, who is more of a Sunflower than anything with how bright and orange he is. He, too, was once a Maximal before Takara made him into a Predacon (or in their case, a Destronger, given how RID01 was originally made by them only).
And finally, we have Spittor, who received the honor of being the only non-show character to have a Transmetal 2 figure in addition to an original organic and regular Transmetal figure (which was a European-exclusive repaint of the first toy). This feels like a player 2 skin for Slapper if you think about the usual trope of red and blue color swaps, especially since Spittor remained a Predacon while the other two had faction switches as they were brought over to Car Robots. Takara never had this toy originally, though they did make their version of Spittor into a Maximal named Diver in Beast Wars 2.
For a Predacon size comparison, here is the trio standing in front of the larger two Predacons of the roster, Megatron and Sky-Byte. While their quantity does make them feel like they have the power of one (but hopefully not the power of two nor many), they still are rather undersized by comparison. I guess if Takara had a budget to make new molds, we could have seen these figures in a Deluxe height than being old-school Scout Class figures.
I think this should hammer down why updates would be appreciative for the Predacon trio, as they remain about a head shorter than the Autobot Brothers. When it comes to RID2001 updates, they are quite sparse with only HasLab Omega Prime, Velocitron Scourge, and Buzzworthy Tow Line only representing the line, and even still, one is only available by helping fund the project while the other two are repaints exclusive to Walmart and Target, respectively. We'll see if Hasbro is willing to make these feel worth getting not just as Deluxes, but also as new molds. Until then, this set is occasionally available online, but be ready to look out for missing parts and paying extra to get them complete.
Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐ and a half out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
No comments:
Post a Comment