Scorponok is one of the first Beast Wars Mega toys released. He was in the first series basically playing dumb enforcer to Megatron before being killed off at the start of series 2 (They were Transmetalling as they fell - somewhere down there are buried TM Scorps & Terrorsaur !) so his popularity as a toy is enhanced. He has also never been reissued - a cruel error that could have given us some great Ultra sized double packs by putting the Mega sized toys in with basics.
He's a scorpion, basically monochrome in black with red highlights - especially the eight beast legs. Close examination of the claws reveals they are a very dark purple colour. His right claw contains a dual missile launcher - open the claw and the missiles pop out. The left claw has a trigger built into it - click the trigger and the entire outer side of the claw shoots off to become a bee shaped drone. Both claws swivel at the wrist, bend at the elbow, swivel at the bicep, bend at the shoulder and move up at the shoulder. The tail has a lever on it which pushing makes the tail extend and jab forwards between the claws. To get it to work properly in beast mode you really need to hold the base of the tail as it's on a hinge and will bend forward as soon as you move the lever instead of the tail extending.
TF: Turn the toy over. Fold the beast legs out to the sides as far as possible. Pull the head out and back exposing the robot legs. Fold one out to each side and then bend down & behind the beast legs. Flip the robot head up from the base of the tail and make sure the peg beneath it is pointing up. Fold the tail up into the cavity vacated by the robot legs. Fold the beast legs back. Turn the tail round. Turn the robot round so you're looking at the top of the beast. Fold the feet out and the beast head halves back as heel spurs. Bend the beast claws down at the shoulders to form the robot arms.
Resulting robot hides a lot of the red away but reveals more of the dark purple on the lower legs. He has a very sinister gas mask style mutant head which open straight down the middle and folds to the side to reveal the Cyclops visored robot face we know from the cartoon. The tail is sticking out from his back and pulling the lever makes it sting above his head. Legs bend at the ankle & knee and are ball jointed at the hip. The head turns but is limited by the mutant face. Arms have the same articulation as the beast claws did, though the gimmicks have now swapped sides. The arms are a little (very !) oversized but somehow that looks OK.
Overall: Very good toy. Possibly the best of the BW Megas. Long overdue a re-release !
This recolour takes Scorponok and molds all the black & red in clear red and the dark purple in a slightly different shade. It's a very impressive repaint. Forget trying to get one though !
Again another superb repaint.