Death's Head
01-09-11, 05:37 AM
In the Beast Wars TV show, a few of the on screen cast weren't upgraded to Transmetal forms (notably Rhinox, Waspinator and Dinobot - all of whom were in stasis pods and so immune to the Transwarp wave, along with those Transformers native to the alien planet - Airazor, Inferno and Tigatron). Obviously a budgetary requirement and poor Terrorsaur was unceremoniously killed off by tumbling into a lava pit, being converted to a Transmetal form as he went.
For the toy range, Terrorsaur was granted a new Deluxe sized Transmetal toy and it's a beautiful thing. The pterodactyl beast mode is excellent. Colour-wise, hes a great mix of purples, golds and brown accented by greens and yellows. There are bags of sculpted details on the toy, mimicing muscle structure and mechanical parts. Its also a lot more streamlined and impressive looking than his earlier Basic toy. In fact, the pronounced difference in quality is mark of how well Beast Wars was selling that it could facilitate work of this quality. Mind you, having a small 'cast' of 13 new mould Transmetal toys probably helped too - allowing more money to be put into development of the figures. With some moveable arms/wings, movement at the neck and beak, that's as far as articulation for the beast mode goes (you can also unclip the robot mode legs from underneath to have the beast mode 'perch').
The intermediate transport mode is a mess. I've done my best with it for the purposes of these photos, but I still can't figure out what's the front and what's the back. The instructions are no help either. I think its supposed to be a jet of some sort. Probably best to pretend this mode doesn't exist. It's just a mess of dinosaur and aircraft parts.
Terrorsaur's robot mode (achieved after a very swift conversion that doesn't really involve much more than rearranging the beast mode head and standing the pterosaur on its back) is suitably thuggish and brutal looking. A really nice detailed sculpt , and quite taught and muscular looking too. I love his angry red face too! Even though it really sticks out. He's also tightly engineered and even now remains quite stiff. There's no loosening of the joints as is common with all my other Beast Wars toys. He also has some good articulation at the hips, knees, shoulders and neck. His elbows are hinged, rather than ball jointed, something which will have some folk in fits of rage (as with Classics Hot Rod).
If there are faults with the toy, its with his feet and forearms. The feet are pretty much those circular jet boosters. The talons of the beast mode are just there for decoration which means posing Terrorsaur is difficult, as the whole surface of those boosters really needs to touch the floor to keep him stable. The other problem is in those huge arms. Not so much with the length and appearance, but in the clearance of the wings. If you straighten the arms at the shoulders with the toy in the position I have him in, the tips of the wings will touch the surface and lift him off his feet! As the wings are just clipped in place, it is possible to remove them, but this will wear the plastic clips down over time. Both these things mean that while Terrorsaur has got the same superb range of movement as other toys in the range, he's not really best positioned to take advantage of it. However, as an aerial character, its not hard to imagine that he spends most of time hovering above his allies and enemies in either form. Its just more of a pain for standing him on a shelf.
A great looking toy that with just a few tweaks could have been excellent, but he's still a great piece of work nonetheless. I also thought the mould would have made a great Universe Swoop...
526527528
For the toy range, Terrorsaur was granted a new Deluxe sized Transmetal toy and it's a beautiful thing. The pterodactyl beast mode is excellent. Colour-wise, hes a great mix of purples, golds and brown accented by greens and yellows. There are bags of sculpted details on the toy, mimicing muscle structure and mechanical parts. Its also a lot more streamlined and impressive looking than his earlier Basic toy. In fact, the pronounced difference in quality is mark of how well Beast Wars was selling that it could facilitate work of this quality. Mind you, having a small 'cast' of 13 new mould Transmetal toys probably helped too - allowing more money to be put into development of the figures. With some moveable arms/wings, movement at the neck and beak, that's as far as articulation for the beast mode goes (you can also unclip the robot mode legs from underneath to have the beast mode 'perch').
The intermediate transport mode is a mess. I've done my best with it for the purposes of these photos, but I still can't figure out what's the front and what's the back. The instructions are no help either. I think its supposed to be a jet of some sort. Probably best to pretend this mode doesn't exist. It's just a mess of dinosaur and aircraft parts.
Terrorsaur's robot mode (achieved after a very swift conversion that doesn't really involve much more than rearranging the beast mode head and standing the pterosaur on its back) is suitably thuggish and brutal looking. A really nice detailed sculpt , and quite taught and muscular looking too. I love his angry red face too! Even though it really sticks out. He's also tightly engineered and even now remains quite stiff. There's no loosening of the joints as is common with all my other Beast Wars toys. He also has some good articulation at the hips, knees, shoulders and neck. His elbows are hinged, rather than ball jointed, something which will have some folk in fits of rage (as with Classics Hot Rod).
If there are faults with the toy, its with his feet and forearms. The feet are pretty much those circular jet boosters. The talons of the beast mode are just there for decoration which means posing Terrorsaur is difficult, as the whole surface of those boosters really needs to touch the floor to keep him stable. The other problem is in those huge arms. Not so much with the length and appearance, but in the clearance of the wings. If you straighten the arms at the shoulders with the toy in the position I have him in, the tips of the wings will touch the surface and lift him off his feet! As the wings are just clipped in place, it is possible to remove them, but this will wear the plastic clips down over time. Both these things mean that while Terrorsaur has got the same superb range of movement as other toys in the range, he's not really best positioned to take advantage of it. However, as an aerial character, its not hard to imagine that he spends most of time hovering above his allies and enemies in either form. Its just more of a pain for standing him on a shelf.
A great looking toy that with just a few tweaks could have been excellent, but he's still a great piece of work nonetheless. I also thought the mould would have made a great Universe Swoop...
526527528