Beast Wars Transmetal 2 Ramulus

I went on a TM2 binge on eBay being that some guy (seller name: cliveguy, very cool guy, good prices and shipping) had three up for relatively cheap (okay, two were $3 each and this one was $14, but if you average them together he cost me $6.67 ($8.33 after shipping) which is quite the excellent deal for a deluxe TM2 no longer in production (Ramulus is one of the more popular non-show toys).

So, as his name would suggest, Ramulus is a TM2 ram in beast mode. Beast mode is really cool looking, though it would be nice if I could find a way for his waist to snap together. It does allow for the cool kicking action (like goats often do), so I'll let it slide I guess.

One of the major complaints I've seen about Ramulus was the inability of his beast mode head to look up (it's intended to be in a ramming position). However, this is easily fixed by simply removing the horns, positioning the head, and then sticking the handle (the brown peg) in the hinged peg hole on the back of his head. The peg that moves the horns should rest in the screw hole in the back of his head. It looks relatively good that way and now he can see where he's going.

Also Ramulus has the same disturbing spark location that TM2 Scourge has going for him. Swing down his beast face and you'll be able to see his spark. Very weird.

Transformation is simple and hard at the same time. Most of it is pretty easy, though you may have some problems with his robot chest which is on a very clever swinging mechanism that somehow manages to fold down through the small space allowed below the beast head. Very nice.

It all fits together very nicely and you get a somewhat short (maybe because he's next to BM Thrust in my collection, who is an abnormally tall deluxe) but very cool looking robot mode. He has neat looking arm blades and cool shoulder pads formed by his front beast legs. It's also funny to note that he can't look to his side in this mode as his shoulders block the view. Still, this is always a cool look, and I suppose he could easily turn his whole body or something.

All in all I would have to say Ramulus is by far the best deluxe TM2 I have (which includes Scourge, Dinobot and Iguanus) and possibly the best ever (I haven't heard overly good things about Jawbreaker or TM2 Cheetor), even rivaling TM2 Megatron in coolness. If you can get this guy, do it, he's an excellent investment.