Transformers Beast Wars Iguanus review

The first two of the three Vintage Beast Wars purchases I had at Ollie's were at least a reminder of how different toys used to be in the past; Terrorsaur wasn't accurate to the cartoon while Wolfang was a lot more toyetic in design with how much kibble he had. That being said, there were some positives for each toy apart from the nostalgia factor and the discounted price, such as Terrorsaur being a whole lot more creative with his simple transformation while Wolfang could have been a character in the cartoon. Iguanus, on the other hand, might be the black sheep of the three in terms of interest. Still, let's see what we got.

Here we have Iguanus in his beast mode, which is not an actual iguana but a gila monster with a frill. I don't get it either. That aside, the animal looks mostly convincing in terms of remaining organic and realistic in spite of the alterations to its appearance. The only real issue would be the cream-colored components disrupting the sculpt. The only articulation is the jaw.

For a size comparison, here he is with his G1 counterpart. Anyone think they could be the same dude, or could the BW name be a direct descendant? Sharing the same name could be intent, like with Beast Wars Inferno and Rampage.

Transformation has you flip the tail back so the arms and chest can be shifted in position. The robot mode we end with has the typical Beastformer trope of making the beast head the chest while the arms and legs are loosely made up from the same limbs in animal mode. In his defense, the hind legs are part of the actual robot legs, by which I mean they are sticking out on them. Out of the three flip formers I reviewed so far, Iguanus feels the least imaginative compared to Terrorsaur or even Rattrap, mostly with how they handle the kibble or what parts are used to form the chest and the like. My copy also seems a bit wonky when standing straight, though it might be an issue with the quality control on my copy.

His articulation consists of ball joints at the neck, shoulders, elbows, hips, and knees. His tail can be removed while the tip can flip to reveal a barrel, continuing another trend of making guns out of the tails.

As far as reuses are concerned, this is the Takara redeco known as Crazybolt. While Japan did release Iguanus unchanged, this was sort of the Neo line and had a more visually interesting color scheme, even if he has red poking through.

One thing that could be interesting is the mold's association with Megatron. To those unaware, the Beast Wars toyline initially began as a continuation of the Great War in present day, with Optimus Primal and Megatron being the same leaders shown in Generation 1. Megatron was initially an alligator included with a bat version of Optimus, and they came with a comic book showcasing a version of the fiction that'll be rendered meaningless once the cartoon establishes its continuity with G1.

And here he is with the Takara purple repaint. This is meant to be the actual G1 Megatron since Takara would have no story where G1 OP and Megs were the Beast Era dudes. This, along with a red bat Prime/Convoy, would at least keep have versions of the characters in the toyline.

For another size comparison, here we have the two Iguanus figures together once again. Though one is a Core Class figure and the other is a flipformer, it's easy to stomach buying both for $20 together rather than pay $20 for Iguanus by himself. Though he is the weakest of the three Basics I got, at least the figure isn't completely worthless. You can pair him up with the G1 version and that might be a reason to justify buying a character whose merchandise can only be counted on 1 hand more or less.

Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐