Beast Wars Transmetal 2 Iguanus
The final one of my TM2 reviews for today (if you're reading these in sequential order)
is the TM2 version of Iguanus.
In beast mode Iguanus is some sort of lizard. He's got some weird frills, but his
beast head is fairly weird looking. It has a shark sort of look to it (but not quite due
to where the mouth is) and one eye is too big and another is too small. He also fires a
long missile out of his mouth which makes me want to gag when I load it. Talk about deep
throat. Ahem.
Anyways, Iguanus is a bit lackluster for a deluxe. He's too big to be a basic of course,
but there aren't enough gimmicks for a deluxe (or enough coolness to overshadow the lack
of gimmicks, like with Ramulus). If you press a button on the bottom of his head (more like
the throat, with further supports my gag-reflex idea) the missile will fire and his frills will
sort of stand up a little. They'll stay that way until you close his mouth or re-insert the
missile or close his lower jaw. That's about it. Not to spoil the surprise or anything
either, but he can't use that in robot mode (lest he fire missiles from his ass).
He also has a neat pose in beast mode that makes him really look like a lizard. Position his
body so it's low to the ground and his front legs are far forward and he's pretty neat, though
the undersized eye kinda creeps me out for some reason.
Transformation is so simple, it makes me think he should be a basic. I won't
go into it more than that, you can do it yourself.
Robot mode is short (same height as Ramulus) and stocky. He's actually kind of fat for
a transformer, really. He also has one eye and very little paint detail. Robot mode is not
his strong suite. However, the beast frills are now a half skirt type deal (similar to
the original Rhinox and RID Prowl) which looks pretty cool and gives him a samurai sort
of look.
He's severely lacking in the weapon department however. All he gets is his missile which
he can hold in his hand and use like a club. Not very impressive to say the least. Speaking
of his hands, they have articulated thumbs, which is always excellent, however because they
double as his beast feet, they're stuck in a flat position. You can make him do some crazy
stuck-in-an-invisible-box miming action, which I sure would scare off most Maximals, but
other than that they end up looking dumb.
Also breaking the trend of disturbing places to hide a spark, Iguanus has his spark
in his robot chest behind a little door. Very tasteful and not weird like the other three
deluxe TM2's I have (Dinobot, Scourge and Ramulus).
All in all Iguanus is okay, though he may not be worth the deluxe price point. If you can
get one for under $10, it's probably worth the cash, unless you hate weird looking lizards and
fat little robots of course, then you should probably avoid him.
