Phil's
Classics Minicon Nightscream,
Movie Minicon Dragoyell
and
Universe Brimstone
Review
A red dragon - the sides and head are a dark red with the tail, neck and wings more orange. Now if I were choosing a good guy name from Beast Machines for a Red Dragon I'd have probably gone for something along the lines of Beast Changer or Savage Noble. As it is they've gone for the bat's name which infers something of a darker colour scheme. (Slight aside - did you know that Nightscream in Beast Machines is voiced by Alessandro Juliani who plays Lt "#1 candidate to actually be a Cylon" Gaeta in Battlestar Galactica ?) His wings are hinged, as is the tail, the neck is on a ball joint and his upper jaw can raise. What I didn't spot the first time I reviewed the toy was that the beast mode here and the way it's coloured makes it look like it's the BW basic Razorbeast with an orange snake stuck through it and wings on the top !
Minicon port under the base of the tail. Useful for mounting the dragon Laserbeak like on a larger toy's forearm. For anything else, less so.
TF: Fold the sides of the body down 90 degrees to form the robot legs. Swing the upper robot body round a ball jointed pivot and fold back. Swing the legs down and pose the neck and tail as the arms.
Robot is a little odd looking. Heads on arms I can live with - dragon Megatron homage - but the tail as the other arm just doesn't look right especially as it curves out to the side - replacing the hinge with a ball joint would have improved things here no end. He's got hinged hips and knees, with ball jointed shoulders. and the aforementioned hinge on the tail arm. Not the worst of the Beast Minicons by a long stretch, just very limited by his arms.
Nightscream was sold in the Clear Skies team set with Thunderwing & Steel Wind
Dragoyell is a Maximal that was a mail-order exclusive from the September 2007 issue of TV Magazine (aka "TeleMaga") in Japan, limited to 2000 pieces. The dark red becomes silver and the orange becomes red.
Brimstone appears in the Decepticon Overcast Minicon Team in the Universe 12 Pack which was exclusive to K-Mart & Woolworths. He's shortly due to be released individually carded. Red becomes yellow and orange becomes grey on this inferior repaint.
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