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Don't make me choose. I can't. There are too many Beast Wars figures that I love, waaaay too many !

If executed properly, I don't mind shellforming at all. Heads as hands, same there.

Legs as arms and/or rear legs are legs? So? What's wrong with that? G1 Predacons anyone?

Some of these gripes seem silly to me. It's like asking that doors don't become arms and that rear wheels don't end up on legs/feet or that vehicle mode front ends/hoods/canopies don't end up on the chest of a figure. They're silly complaints because such rules are pretty contradictory to how one would logically engineer a transformation from one mode to another, be it from car to bot, jet to bot, helicopter to bot, tank to bot or beast to bot.

This thread has actually just made me want to buy the Animated Dinobots.
They're adorable! And look really good from what I can see.

Does Animated Blackarachnia get a mention in here? Both modes look fantastic.

Va'al wrote:This thread has actually just made me want to buy the Animated Dinobots.
They're adorable! And look really good from what I can see.

Does Animated Blackarachnia get a mention in here? Both modes look fantastic.

I have the Animated Dinobots and Blackarachnia and they are awesome. I particularly like the triceratops formerly known as Slag in beast mode. He's awesome.

RhA wrote:Hun-grr's beast legs become his arms.

yes. his rear legs. his fore legs fold in the back and his beast mode heads become his robot legs.

G1 Predacons just look bada$$. The color scheme is great. As a group, they are very cohesive. Oh yeah, they turn into Predaking! Yes, they are bricks, but it was G1.

I also like G1 Snapdragon.

Rid Megatron NEEDS some attention. In robot mode, he's awesome. His articulation has aged very, very well, lacking only a ball jointed neck and maybe slighlty limited shoulder movement. Kibble? Virtually nonexistant, with only a tail that encumbers nothing on his back, and his wrists are slightly hindered by dragon claws. Still, it's a very minor gripe after all, how many Transformers even have wrist articulation?. Finally, I really do like the design, it's not quite organic, but not quite robotic either. It's actually kind of regal, like a suit of armor. With giant bat/dragon wings. Big articulated wings. The wings are awesome.

Moving onto his beast mode, well the bat mouth doesn't really cover his robot face all that...wait, I don't want to talk about that one. Ah, ok it's kind of terrible because it only bears a passing resemblence, no a glancing resemblence to any kind of mammoth, and...no, not that one. Aha, mytholigical beast modes are such a rarity, and the griffon is a pleasant...bah, not that one either!(But truthfully, the griffon mode rocks). What I'm really wanting to talk about is the dragon mode, which is more or less the bat mode backw....wrong again...

All joking aside, his twin dragon mode is fantastic. It's very obvious it was what was designed before anything else, and even if it was Rid Megatron's only alt. mode, the figure would still be a success. The transformation is simple, but satisfying. The design is very awesome, and still has that neither truly organic nor truly mechanical look to it. The stability is ok, as the tail is required for standing, but it can be posed. The arms are smallish, but so are a T-Rex's arms, so who cares? The thing that really sells the mode though is the necks/heads. They necks have a very good range of motion and are articulaed at three points(four if you count the double hinge at the *knee*). The heads are on very good ball joints, have opening mouths, and are full of personality. Then there's the gimmickless wings, which open, close, pivot, and are general goodness.

So as you can tell, I really enjoy Rid Megatron. He's so much better than TM2 Megatron(who actually has not aged well, heck the Beast Machines version is almost better...), and is all around better than BWII Galvatron(who is still quite good).

Couple quick mentions since that turned out longer than I anticipated:

Bayverse Insecticon: He looks awesome in both modes and has four robot arms. Wonderfully articulated too.

DOTM Hatchet: A great little jet that turns into a great little...dog? I...I'm not sure what it is...

DOTM Laserbeak: The alt. mode isn't movie accurate in the least but it's good and the bird mode is very articulated. And it gets major points for looking like the Giant Claw...

Universe Frostbite: A very well done repaint. From super spiny artic hyena to squat but equally as menacing evil robot!

I posted in the wrong topic, please delete.

xyl360 wrote:

Va'al wrote:This thread has actually just made me want to buy the Animated Dinobots.
They're adorable! And look really good from what I can see.

Does Animated Blackarachnia get a mention in here? Both modes look fantastic.

I have the Animated Dinobots and Blackarachnia and they are awesome. I particularly like the triceratops formerly known as Slag in beast mode. He's awesome.

They're all awesome. What sucks is their non-integrated weapons. When they're in beastmode, the weapons just... Lie there. Also- Swoop's all and chain in neutered for no reason.

Whining aside, you should already have owned these guys.

RhA wrote:

xyl360 wrote:

Va'al wrote:This thread has actually just made me want to buy the Animated Dinobots.
They're adorable! And look really good from what I can see.

Does Animated Blackarachnia get a mention in here? Both modes look fantastic.

I have the Animated Dinobots and Blackarachnia and they are awesome. I particularly like the triceratops formerly known as Slag in beast mode. He's awesome.

They're all awesome. What sucks is their non-integrated weapons. When they're in beastmode, the weapons just... Lie there. Also- Swoop's all and chain in neutered for no reason.

Whining aside, you should already have owned these guys.

I never saw Animated until last year, so never discovered the amazingness of it all.
I have managed to secure Snarl and Swoop, still looking for a Grimlock.

Oh shoot, I had multiple threads open at the same time and I posted in the wrong one. Sorry!

On the topic of Beast Bots: Beast Wars was my first TF series. It holds a special place in my heart, and the toys were super duper awesometastic. I don't see "animal legs as robot limbs" being a cardinal sin, nor do I see "beat head as robot hands" as a bad thing. Shellformers can be either/or, depends on how they're handled. Big Convoy, for example, is awesome despite being a shellformer. The fact that there's certain "common" modes of beast-to-robot transformation seems no different from the generally similar "front of car becomes chest, back of car becomes legs and feet, doors become arms" or vice-versa. There's plenty of stock transformations for vehicle-based Transformers as well, so as long as there's significant shuffling around of parts to make the robot look like more than just the beast stood on end, I'm cool with it, and I welcome Beast Hunters with open arms.

I can't say which is the best one, all in all, but I think that BW Razorclaw should be able to give anything a run for its money based on just how neat such a small, cheap figure is. He was either my second BW figure or joint first with Airazor (which is also outstanding but slightly less to my preferences). This is the sort of stuff you hook a kid on a toyline with.

http://www.tfu.info/1997/Predacon/Razor ... orclaw.htm

Neither of his decos are great because the orange and teal respectively clash with the rest but the sculpted detail is very good. The crab mode isn't the most exciting because, well, it's just a crab with oddly large hind legs. The transformation is simple but you still end up with an impressive-looking robot mode, especially when you take into account that his claws house two hidden weapons. The large one has serrated spikes that pop out when you pull a little lever and the small one has a silver-painted blaster. Of course, they're also fully usable in beast mode so I suppose that the crab can be a lot more exciting than first thought.

Basically, as a toy, this guy is amazing. Articulation, a truly excellent gimmick, no accessories to go missing and he's cheap. Too bad his colours are so-so. The video version is a little nicer but way more expensive. As a last note, the way his head works means that the beast mode has crab mouth gnashing action. That is attention to detail.


As for beast transformers in general, there is one thing that I think makes up for the awkward issues they can have: uniqueness. Basically, there are hundreds of car transformers. Even less common things like motorcycles, helicopters and tanks have dozens each. Beast modes are by contrast a lot more tied to a character. You have plenty of different characters that are some variety of plane but if you want a rat, an elephant or something odder like a squid or rabbit there is pretty much one character each for those. Finding a new kind of animal is admittedly a lot easier than new kinds of vehicles and there have also been far more vehicle transformers so it might not be an entirely fair point to make. It still adds a lot of novelty to beast modes, though, even ones that aren't done better than a high-quality standard Cliffjumper or whatever.

Jungle Planet Megs......Freakin' sweet tyrannosaur beast mode....No visible robot mode kibble.....He my favorite toy hands down...

Sabrblade wrote:

AdamFett wrote:Jungle Planet Megs......Freakin' sweet tyrannosaur beast mode....No visible robot mode kibble.....He my favorite toy hands down...

Save for his... um, let's say "unfortunate" placement of his key when inserted in Beast Mode.

Look, if you don't power up a lil when stuff is put into your butt, I don't even know what to say to you.

Lmao....put good tings in, get good tings out.....

I dunno...

I normally don't like beast formers. The only ones I don't mind are ones where the beast mode doesn't even try to look organic. The G1 Insecticons and Dinobots, Energon Insecticon, and the like, for example. And if it uses the "Stand up on hind legs, flip head forward or back, stick tail in hand" transform scheme, it may as well be melted down into slag plastic for making new toys, IMHO.

Still, if I had to decide, the "best" beastformer is, without a doubt, Masterpiece Grimlock.

Valandar wrote:The only ones I don't mind are ones where the beast mode doesn't even try to look organic. The G1 Insecticons and Dinobots, Energon Insecticon, and the like, for example. And if it uses the "Stand up on hind legs, flip head forward or back, stick tail in hand" transform scheme, it may as well be melted down into slag plastic for making new toys, IMHO.

Well, with the exception of the tail becoming a weapon, G1 Kickback transforms exactly like that. In fact, his insect legs even transform into his arms, something most more modern beast formers don't even do:



Like I said way earlier in this thread, it's a natural decision in engineering a robot that transforms into an animal to do such things.

Guys like Kickback and Grimlock don't do a very good job of being 'robots in disguise' but they are definitely some cool toys.

I can definitely see why many hate/don't like organic looking alt modes though. It is a very big departure from the concept of a robot transforming into/being composed of mechanical parts.

xyl360 wrote:Guys like Kickback and Grimlock don't do a very good job of being 'robots in disguise' but they are definitely some cool toys.

That's quite true, but I think some people take the "Robots in Disguise" slogan a bit too far. If every TF *had* to be disguised when in alt mode, imagine how many fewer TFs we'd have!

xyl360 wrote:I can definitely see why many hate/don't like organic looking alt modes though. It is a very big departure from the concept of a robot transforming into/being composed of mechanical parts.

Sort of. Other than Beast Wars and Beast Machines, most of the Transformers that transform into an animal/insect/organism still look pretty mechanical.

xyl360 wrote:

Valandar wrote:The only ones I don't mind are ones where the beast mode doesn't even try to look organic. The G1 Insecticons and Dinobots, Energon Insecticon, and the like, for example. And if it uses the "Stand up on hind legs, flip head forward or back, stick tail in hand" transform scheme, it may as well be melted down into slag plastic for making new toys, IMHO.

Like I said way earlier in this thread, it's a natural decision in engineering a robot that transforms into an animal to do such things.

Agreed. I recently got Transmetal 2 Cheetor, and that's pretty much how he transforms. He's not great, but it's a solid figure and I like it. Another fave of mine, Energon Battle Ravage, transforms almost exactly the same way, but looks cool enough to pull it off. Same with Universe Frostbite. It might not be the most glamerous transformation, but it makes for a somewhat posable beast mode.

Is there any beastformer that doesn't use the limbs for both modes or is any combination of a shellformer/partsformer? I guess maybe some of the old G1 ones might do it but they're really quite blocky so I suppose that's the price they pay.

There are two particular figures that spring to mind as brazen shellformers. They're the Japanese Beast Wars exclusives Dead End and Break who appropriately came in the same set.

I'll say that Dead End does actually pull it off. It looks fairly functional as shields go but above all his beast mode is one where the whole point of the creature is that it hides its body in a shell. So however the mechanics were done he'd be a shell transformer. Break, though... well... He's pretty neat for being one of the few who turn into a penguin.

Energon Insecticon does a good job of not having a "normal" transform, though his articulation is exceptionally poor, especially for an Energon Basic.