Phil's
Beast Riders Che & Mechatron
Review
Normally when I write a review I try to only talk about one mold per review. Tonight we'll make an exception. The beast riders are a rare venture for Transformers into the world of vehicles for the Transformer robots. Both toys are seemingly completely different yet have the same mechanism and TF. Actually they're just different shells attached to the same base base.
Each beast rider is shaped like an animal's head with a pair of swept back limbs as exhaust pipes and a double missile launcher inside the animal's mouth. Press down on the animal's nose and it cranks a motor causing the animal to shoot forwards with the arms behind it spinning.
Each beast rider has a transport mode: fold the arms under the sides of the vehicle so they point forward. Lift up the panel on the back of the head, point the gun barrels forward and the claw back. You can then stand a basic or deluxe figure on the back of the beast rider and use the claw to hold it in place (In Mechatron's case you'd go for Mega Megatron !)
Yellow cheetor head with clear yellow face and clear green to the sides. Black spots and claws, Black missiles and gun unit. The image of Cheetor. Shame you can't use the matching toy with it. Illustrated as being driven by Buzzsaw.
Clear red dragon head with blue sides and arms. Black missiles and gun unit. Illustrated as being driven by Mirage. Surely a more blocky tank like vehicle would have been more appropriate for the Vehicons ?
Che's repaint swaps clear blue for clear yellow and clear yellow for clear green. The black of the missiles and gun unit becomes yellow. The main painted colour is black and the spots become silver. An ideal vehicle for Night Slash Cheetor to pilot.
Mechatron's main body becomes clear purple with purple paint, the base sides and missiles become yellow. Interesting repaint and a pointer to a future colour scheme for Megatron ? The purple ties in nicely with that used on Combat Hero Megatron/Archforce and Beast Wars Ultra Megatron.
Not the most complex TFs in the world but they're a bit of fun. And unlike some friction drive toys these do actually go !
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