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COLUMNS Main Page Logon Sound Off Why Scalping Is Wrong The Movie 'Cons -- Redeemed! FEATURES Cover Story -- Toy Fair 2000 -- As Covered by Daniel Lipkowitz -- Thoughts from Phil Zeman Cover Story -- Beast Machines in Depth REVIEWS Toys Shows FUN 'N' GAMES ASM net.TransFan of the Millenium -- Stage 1 Name Beast Wars Crew Contest Winners Name Phil's Car Contest Winners INTERACTION Inbox E-Mail List Poll Outbox ASM INFO Who We Are Submissions Copyright Page loaded on: [an error occurred while processing this directive] A SkyJammer Enterprises Publication |
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Text and Photos by Daniel "SwiftEagle" Lipkowitz PART 4: BEAST MACHINES DELUXESWarning! All pictures are linked to high-quality scans! Expect larger load times if you click on the links. On to the Deluxe shelf. The first thing to catch my attention was Blastrax, the Vehicon six-wheeled missile tank. This toy is huge. If my eyes weren't playing tricks on me, Blastrax is close to Tankor's size in both modes. It's painted in shiny hues which make the toy look like a big heavy chunk of metal. Slightly sparkly metal, which isn't the most tasteful look, but it definitely gives the figure a sense of solidity. I assume that the rather inconvenient chest launcher can fold down when not in use. And yes, in the grand tradition of Tankor, Blastrax appears to have a visible robot head in "tank" mode. That's one bow-legged, cinderblock-like robot mode, isn't it? Weeeird design, but very neat. Next is the lion, which has been called Ravage and Snail (which I can only hope is a typo for "Snarl"). [Editor's note: The lion is, in fact, slated to be named "Snarl."] The lion's body proportions are a bit humanoid (or possibly ursine), but it's another nice, sleek, cyber-organic design with some great sculpting around the mane and face. The surprisingly large robot mode is also very streamlined and powerful, with a design evocative of a lion face on his chest, lending the character a rather savage, warrior-like appearance. Next up was a bit of a surprise - a repainted Jetstorm which could probably stand in as an Aerodrone from the show. The Hasbro representative couldn't tell me anything about it, so I'm not sure when (or if) the alternate deco will be showing up in stores, nor under what name it will be packaged.
A carded Thrust was on the wall here, and I photographed what I could of the card-back. The tech spec is an odd mixture of interesting and bizarre (does that quote at the end actually sound nihilistic, or just nonsensical?), and the instructions indicate that the robot-mode photo is indeed mistransformed. Although a three-wheeled robot mode is shown, I imagine that a show-like unicycle stance would be easy enough to achieve.
Part 1: Fox Kids' Beast Wars Altered States Magazine would especially like to thank the kind folks at Hasbro and Benson Yee of www.bwtf.com for their help. Daniel Lipkowitz is a contributing editor of ASM and can be reached at asm_lipkowitz@skyjammer.com. He also loves penguins and his digital camera. |
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