Phil's
Beast Machines
Review
This page contains all of the Beast machines reviews that I originally wrote that i haven't been able to alter or update due to no longer owning the toys.
Hammerstrike: We're just missing an Ultra sized Cybershark now :-) Bigger than the tank drone with a restricted missile launching gimmick out of the hammerhead. The tail splits to form the feet and the side and jaw the arms on another strange looking maximal beast mode - looks like some sort of mechanical alien creature. No real hands - the weapon is secured using a peg.
Beast Changer: Noble is a sort of winged werewolf type in it's default pose - the wings can be removed and it posed on all 4s for a pasable wolf. Posable mouth and ears. The gimmick is the spinning attack on the right wrist - crank a lever on the back and switch the Spark to release the mechanism. Lots of blue highlights visible here that are absent in Savage - a very nice TF hides lots of things away under panels and turns Noble's legs into Savage's tail. Dragon is diffrent to previous TF Dragons - more chinese if anything - though must be on a similar scale to the Mega Megs Dragon.
Finally got this - package got a little delayed in the mail along with a spare Tank Drone and Hammerstike (Home found, don't all write in at once) Rat mode is nice and articulated. If I find a knack to making the head/tail gimmick work I'll let you know. The robot legs are folded up inside the rear of the rat which becomes the robot chest and hold the rat head and forelegs. The robots head is lodged in the now traditional position for a BW/BM toy. Robot is nicely articulated with the tail forming either a hand weapon or attaching (to a different spot) as a tail in robot mode, where it's useful for balancing the wheeled robot which is so so, but as it appears in the cartoon so....
Generally the BM stuff has been improving all the time - although a "stand on hind legs toy" I'm looking fwd to the BM Stealth (Night Slash) Cheetor as proof that Cheetor only really works as a delux and the upcoming Stryka, Noble Cycle drone and Unicorn * look nice too (* why do I always want to use the other spelling ?) If this improvement continues BM could turn out to be rather good after a fairly shakey start - especially in the UK
(Hasbro - do you remember what a case refresh is ?)
Ultrastorm we all know about now but for the first 24 hours I had it I had terrible problems with the upper torso/shoulder assembly locking in place. If you're finding this a problem raise the trigger for turret as far as it will go - this should eventually lock the entire thing in place. Yet another undocumented step.....
Email Philip
Phil's TF Review Page