Death's Head
30-08-11, 10:07 PM
I am so unenthused for these things that I am lumping them together in one. Easily the weakest part of the Beast Wars toyline, these unimpressive playsets are up there with the weakest Transformer toys of all time. On paper, they are a decent enough idea. A fairly cheap way of getting a city-type set of figures into the line at minimal cost. If only they were more Micromaster than Polly Pocket. The pricing I thought was a little off at the time. Both playsets are the size of a Deluxe figure, but fell into the 'Mega' price bracket possibly because they came boxed. The rather exciting painted artwork on the front of the box didn't quite match up to the contents. Mind you, the Maximal playset Orcanoch's artwork still can't make such an odd looking base mode look dramatic or exciting.
Orcanoch is a killer whale. Unlike the other Beast wars toys, he looks decidly kiddy and friendly. Bizarrely for a Maximal toy, he is also an underwater base. Not terribly practical when you've only three sub aquatic capable warriors to your team (Clawjaw, Cybershark and Depth Charge in case you were wondering). The base mode is an odd looking thing. Launching the head of the whale off (which, um...you then put to one side) reveals a command tower that your feeble looking Optimus Primal cracker toy can sit in. A small craft is formed out of the fins and the figure stands on its tail and bits of the body swing out to reveal various....bits. Plug in a few tiny and easily lost blobs of plastic into these disc sections and you're done. There's missile storage in the tail and Primal can face off against an equally unimpressive Tarantulas who can attack the base...using its own craft.
The Predacon base is a little better, but still a bizarre monstrosity. Arachnid is a huge spider that opens up to reveal a webbed sled tank...that's towing a volcano. Yeah. You read that right. The back of the volcano splits open to reveal a kind of aircraft hangar for the two bug- like manned craft which either Razorbeast (a Maximal) or Megatron can pilot. There's some small plastic bits to clip onto the spider legs and volcano sections, which again, are small enough to be easily lost. Although you do have half a chance of finding them again on the carpet as they are neon green.
For play things they are distinctly average, even in terms of take-along fun they are pretty minimal with small, easy to loose parts. Most of these can be stored in the beast forms, which is quite neat but even if you're careful you can still find yourself hunting for the bloody things when you drop them on the carpet. Lacking the detail of the main range, they are something of a curiosity and not really worth the bother unless you've got everything else the line has to offer which is my sole reason for owning these underwhelming cracker toys.
488489490
Orcanoch is a killer whale. Unlike the other Beast wars toys, he looks decidly kiddy and friendly. Bizarrely for a Maximal toy, he is also an underwater base. Not terribly practical when you've only three sub aquatic capable warriors to your team (Clawjaw, Cybershark and Depth Charge in case you were wondering). The base mode is an odd looking thing. Launching the head of the whale off (which, um...you then put to one side) reveals a command tower that your feeble looking Optimus Primal cracker toy can sit in. A small craft is formed out of the fins and the figure stands on its tail and bits of the body swing out to reveal various....bits. Plug in a few tiny and easily lost blobs of plastic into these disc sections and you're done. There's missile storage in the tail and Primal can face off against an equally unimpressive Tarantulas who can attack the base...using its own craft.
The Predacon base is a little better, but still a bizarre monstrosity. Arachnid is a huge spider that opens up to reveal a webbed sled tank...that's towing a volcano. Yeah. You read that right. The back of the volcano splits open to reveal a kind of aircraft hangar for the two bug- like manned craft which either Razorbeast (a Maximal) or Megatron can pilot. There's some small plastic bits to clip onto the spider legs and volcano sections, which again, are small enough to be easily lost. Although you do have half a chance of finding them again on the carpet as they are neon green.
For play things they are distinctly average, even in terms of take-along fun they are pretty minimal with small, easy to loose parts. Most of these can be stored in the beast forms, which is quite neat but even if you're careful you can still find yourself hunting for the bloody things when you drop them on the carpet. Lacking the detail of the main range, they are something of a curiosity and not really worth the bother unless you've got everything else the line has to offer which is my sole reason for owning these underwhelming cracker toys.
488489490