When I was a lad I had a hiatus with my love of Transformers for a while. I mean, I HAD Transformers, but video games were starting to take up more and more of my time. Not that I consider it a bad thing, mind you, it gave me an appreciation for the old style games of the 80's and 90's and turned me into a snob when it comes to most new games that come out these days that prevents me from gaming as much as I used to because really, why would I want to spend my life playing utter garbage like call of duty?
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But I digress.
My interest in Transformers was thankfully renewed due to Beast Wars! Today it still strikes me as the best written of the myriad of Transformers cartoons that have come out. I've not even watched the current one, but just knowing it has Bumblebee in it makes me want to vomit. I swear if I have to see any version of Bumblebee again (other than the one from the 80's) I'll punch Hasbro in the kidneys. I'm too old for this crap.
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One of the first new Transformers I had gotten in a long time was Razorbeast! Shown here in colours that are no where near accurate to an actual warthog. His features include a remove-able mane that becomes a double-barreled laser gun, and an automatic transformation that is achieved using springs and gears. His beast mode doesn't really do much other than make me TRY to not make Timon and Pumbaa references.
Because the Transformation is literally as easy as flicking a switch and letting the springs do the work, taking pictures of the transformation in progress is a b***h and I had to keep resetting and taking pictures over and over again. But hey, the result was worth it!
In robot mode, Razorbeast is more-or-less a warthog shell with a robot inside. Thankfully the robot mode makes up for the lackluster beast mode with the neat colouring and interesting robotic details. The ball-and-socket joints allow him to pull of some decent poses, thought the entire beast mode on his back makes him hard to balance. At least he can do the Iron Man ground punch (I refuse to say "Superhero landing").
While the character never showed up in the (dated) CGI cartoon, he did show up in the comics produced by IDW about a decade or so later. I've never read them, but he was a bit of a bad-ass from what I can gather. He led his own group of Maximals to fight a dude named Magmatron (who needed to trisect himself into three different beasts to transform). Razorbeast is kinda short to be a leader, but I'm sure he's full of anger or something.
So while I have a lot of nostalgia for Beast Wars, I find that not a lot of people share in this, and they say things like "The original was better!" I can understand this point of view, but after having watched an episode that had a Japanese human character shouting (in an offensive accent) "OH! YOU AUTOBOT! VEEEEERY HONOUR!" I think I'm being fair in saying that Beast Wars was at least slightly better. That won't stop me from liking the original too though. If Beast Wars isn't your thing then that means no worries for me, I can enjoy it myse-
Oh dammit.
Aw, thanks.
[ Click to attempt signal recovery... ]
