Beast Wars Bonanza
So the Parramatta Fair was on today, and I braved the hot weather to go to it. I ended up adding three Beast Wars toys to the collection, all of them Maximals.
First, Bantor. He's a Fuzor, a freaky fusion of two animals. In his case, he's a tiger fused with a mandrill (incorrectly labelled as a baboon-only mandrills have the blue and red muzzles that Bantor has). It actually works quite well-there's even a weird little touch where Bantor's back legs are asymmetrical, one being a tiger leg and the other a mandrill leg. The only really shitty thing about the beast mode is that the lower jaw of the animal head is also an arm, so it's perpetually open unless you want an arm randomly hanging off his chin.
After a very interesting transformation, we end up with a small poseble robot covered in animal bits. While the left arm's has no point, being the animal's hindquarters, the right arm houses a spring-loaded punch gimmick, which is also useful in robot mode. Bantor's cool in a weird 90s way.
Second, Night Glider, the only flying squirrel transformer mold ever made. He's a Transmetal II, so he's a strange metallic cyborg monster thing with VTOL fans and holes in his 'wings'. You can't do much in this mode, because he's posed as flying. Night Glider's robot mode is a simple affair that nonetheless works. Unfortunately I got mine incomplete, as I didn't know that the toy had a sword that usually stowed in the tail. It doesn't really matter, though, because it's not like in early BW toys where one missing part resulted in an incomplete-looking animal.
Finally, Transmetal Optimus Primal is the greatest toy ever made ever. He has a third mode which is the ape on a rocket-powered hoverboard, which is the Best Thing Ever. He is a suitably large and chunky toy for a faction leader. The chrome looks excellent and the moulded detail is similarly well done. Finally, I got him for $15, complete. Getting a big chunky toy for far cheaper than it's worth makes the whole thing so much better.
I saw some other BW toys there, most notably Transmetal Tarantulas. I wanted to get him but the toy was missing two spider legs, and a six legged spider isn't a spider at all.
First, Bantor. He's a Fuzor, a freaky fusion of two animals. In his case, he's a tiger fused with a mandrill (incorrectly labelled as a baboon-only mandrills have the blue and red muzzles that Bantor has). It actually works quite well-there's even a weird little touch where Bantor's back legs are asymmetrical, one being a tiger leg and the other a mandrill leg. The only really shitty thing about the beast mode is that the lower jaw of the animal head is also an arm, so it's perpetually open unless you want an arm randomly hanging off his chin.
After a very interesting transformation, we end up with a small poseble robot covered in animal bits. While the left arm's has no point, being the animal's hindquarters, the right arm houses a spring-loaded punch gimmick, which is also useful in robot mode. Bantor's cool in a weird 90s way.
Second, Night Glider, the only flying squirrel transformer mold ever made. He's a Transmetal II, so he's a strange metallic cyborg monster thing with VTOL fans and holes in his 'wings'. You can't do much in this mode, because he's posed as flying. Night Glider's robot mode is a simple affair that nonetheless works. Unfortunately I got mine incomplete, as I didn't know that the toy had a sword that usually stowed in the tail. It doesn't really matter, though, because it's not like in early BW toys where one missing part resulted in an incomplete-looking animal.
Finally, Transmetal Optimus Primal is the greatest toy ever made ever. He has a third mode which is the ape on a rocket-powered hoverboard, which is the Best Thing Ever. He is a suitably large and chunky toy for a faction leader. The chrome looks excellent and the moulded detail is similarly well done. Finally, I got him for $15, complete. Getting a big chunky toy for far cheaper than it's worth makes the whole thing so much better.
I saw some other BW toys there, most notably Transmetal Tarantulas. I wanted to get him but the toy was missing two spider legs, and a six legged spider isn't a spider at all.