Beast Wars Fuzors Bantor
Story time! Okay, I went to a KB Toy works around 15 mins from my house because for some
reason I wanted to buy an Optimus Minor and I knew they had a few of him (I found three without
any deep searching). While I was there I also remembered that last time I had been there they
had a Scarem left as well. So, me being the Beast Wars fan, I looked for that one. I stumbled
upon Bantor instead (though I did find Scarem a minute or two later). They also still had an
Optimal Optimus. Never before have I seen so many Beast Wars toys in a show twice removed. They
had some BM stuff and RID stuff as well. No G2, so they didn't go back that far. Ah well.
As with all Fuzors, Bantor's beast mode is made up of two animals. He's a baboon/tiger. Yes,
if that doesn't strike you as an odd combo, I don't know what will. The tiger parts are limited
to him walking on all fours and his mid-section which has some tiger stripes on it. The rest is
baboon, though thankfully his baboon butt is not naked and red as many baboons have theirs (damn
DIscovery channel).
The detail level is really nice on such a small toy. All his fur is molded in from his tail to
his legs. Speaking of his legs, they're weird. Like Silverbolt he has massive front legs and
small rear legs, but the size difference between to two is so huge that his rear legs almost
appear to be useless aside from keeping him from fragging his ass on the ground. You can
switch the direction of his front knees by rotating his lower legs and then his feet (via RID
Prowl's transformation). This allows his front legs to be lower to the ground without looking
stupid.
Stability is also somewhat of a problem for Bantor. The pegs that hold his front legs in
place can come out, which is no more than annoying since they can be put back easily, but his
butt, well, it's a flip up butt. His butt and rear legs are on a hinge joint (used in the transformation)
and there's nothing to hold it down in place, so he can actually detach his butt from his body and
put his legs and tail on his back. Weird.
Transformation is very simple (though if you've never played with BW Silverbolt, you may not
realize what to di at first), but also very clever. He has the feel of a BW Neo toy as he has
his beast head attached to one arm and his beast butt attached to the other.
I seem to be talking about his butt a lot, and I'm not about to stop. In robot mode it detaches.
Yep, you can remove his ass. Actually, this is to position his beast tail better as it becomes a
blade of some kind. Pop the stuff off his left arm and then reattach it upside down. Now he
has a blade, though the thing you notice most is how he's aiming his beast ass at you. "Bantor,
baboon fart attack!" Take that Predacons!
Robot mode also seems to be a bit lacking in paint. His chest has some great detail, but
it would be so much better with a little paint me thinks. Same goes for his robot head which
has a little paint on it, but a little on his mouth wouldn't have hurt. His eyes are very bright
green as well (same as his beast eyes) and look very cat-like. Nifty.
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention his gimmick! Press a button on his back and his entire head
springs forward. In beast mode this is supposed to be a head-butt attack, but all he ends up doing is
having his robot arm (which is part of his lower law) flip out and punching the table. Kinda funny,
actually. In robot mode it works better, as Bantor has a mean right hook that can knock over a basic or
a deluxe or even an unstable mega (poor Scorponok).
All in all, Bantor's not bad. He has a pretty cool beast mode, an okay robot mode, a nifty
gimmick and a removable ass. Can't go wrong with that. I got mine for $4 ($3 after the employee discount),
but if you can get it for $5 or even $6 it's probably a good buy.
