Death's Head
23-08-11, 10:10 PM
An imposing looking figure, Scorponok was portrayed as a slightly dim but loyal Predacon in the Beast Wars TV show. As with Animated's Bulkhead, his outwardly dim demeanour belied a knack for engineering. Given his lack of smarts and general incompetence, it's not suprising the similarly skilled Tarantulas wasinvited along to Megatron's raiding party of rogue Predacons.
As a Mega class toy (what today would be Voyager Class), Scorponok is nicely sized black african scorpion. His claws are a little on the large side, having to house two of the toys gimmicks, but he's still better proportioned than his 1980s predecessor. The beast mode doesn't have much in the way of articulation, with just movement at the arms. However, he makes up for this with some fun play features. Pushing a lever on his tail causes this to lash forward and down - just like a real scorpion. A feature, like those hidden in the claws (which we shall come to shortly) , that can be accessed in robot mode too.
Transforming to robot mode is a slick process. The robot mode legs are formed out of the Scorpion head/ body - these swing out and around on a couple of balljoints on the hips. The tail rotates around 180 degrees and flipping the robot mode head out of the base of the tail reveals a small clip to connect to the chest of the robot mode to hold it in place. The Scorpion legs fold down against the robot midrift and a few twizzles move the claws into place to form the arms. The 'mutant head' then splits down the middle to reveal a much more attractive robot head with nicely sculpted shouting face.
The nice balance of reds, blacks and blues make the robot mode look very sharp. He does have some balance issues though. The weight of the tail mechanism and those huge claws do frequently cause him to topple over - mainly because of the ball joints on the hips which move a little too freely, frequently causing him to do the splits or over balance. With a bit of careful posing, he does manage to stand in a range of poses without too much bother though. The claws, due to their sheer size, do dominate the figure's appearance though. So it's just as well that there's a point to them being so big.
Lifting open the left claw causes two missiles to shoot out. As a word of warning, always make sure this points away from you as it's a suprisingly powerful spring loaded mechanism! The right claw also features one of the best Transformers gimmicks I've ever come across. Flicking the tab on the wrist causes the top half of the claw to launch and transform into a bee! Again, this is flung a fair distance, but tends to nosedive rather sharply due to the weight of the bee's head. The bee itself is quite a cute little thing and a really nice additional feature.
As a package, Scorponok is great fun, mixing in a good number of gimmicks which work and feel necessary...or in the case of the bee, just plain fun and a fearsome beast mode to boot. Only the balance issues really let the toy down, particularly as those ball joints on the hips will get progressively loose over time with repeated play.
380381382
As a Mega class toy (what today would be Voyager Class), Scorponok is nicely sized black african scorpion. His claws are a little on the large side, having to house two of the toys gimmicks, but he's still better proportioned than his 1980s predecessor. The beast mode doesn't have much in the way of articulation, with just movement at the arms. However, he makes up for this with some fun play features. Pushing a lever on his tail causes this to lash forward and down - just like a real scorpion. A feature, like those hidden in the claws (which we shall come to shortly) , that can be accessed in robot mode too.
Transforming to robot mode is a slick process. The robot mode legs are formed out of the Scorpion head/ body - these swing out and around on a couple of balljoints on the hips. The tail rotates around 180 degrees and flipping the robot mode head out of the base of the tail reveals a small clip to connect to the chest of the robot mode to hold it in place. The Scorpion legs fold down against the robot midrift and a few twizzles move the claws into place to form the arms. The 'mutant head' then splits down the middle to reveal a much more attractive robot head with nicely sculpted shouting face.
The nice balance of reds, blacks and blues make the robot mode look very sharp. He does have some balance issues though. The weight of the tail mechanism and those huge claws do frequently cause him to topple over - mainly because of the ball joints on the hips which move a little too freely, frequently causing him to do the splits or over balance. With a bit of careful posing, he does manage to stand in a range of poses without too much bother though. The claws, due to their sheer size, do dominate the figure's appearance though. So it's just as well that there's a point to them being so big.
Lifting open the left claw causes two missiles to shoot out. As a word of warning, always make sure this points away from you as it's a suprisingly powerful spring loaded mechanism! The right claw also features one of the best Transformers gimmicks I've ever come across. Flicking the tab on the wrist causes the top half of the claw to launch and transform into a bee! Again, this is flung a fair distance, but tends to nosedive rather sharply due to the weight of the bee's head. The bee itself is quite a cute little thing and a really nice additional feature.
As a package, Scorponok is great fun, mixing in a good number of gimmicks which work and feel necessary...or in the case of the bee, just plain fun and a fearsome beast mode to boot. Only the balance issues really let the toy down, particularly as those ball joints on the hips will get progressively loose over time with repeated play.
380381382