(NOTE: Because this is a repaint, this is not a full-blown review. This mainly covers any changes made to the mold and the color scheme, and merely compares it to Beast Wars Buzzclaw. For a review on the mold itself, read the review of Beast Wars Buzzclaw here.)

    Dirge is the second use of the Beast Wars Buzzclaw mold in the "Descent into Evil" core 7-figure convention set, He's one of the two Insecticons that Deathsaurus uses to make clones of, so of course he needs to share some classic "Insecticon" color characteristics with his teammate Buzzclaw, while still retaining his own unique look. The toy designers did this by simply switching Buzzclaw's purple and yellow around. The transparent yellow used on Dirge looks pretty nice, though not quite as nice as the transparent purple on Buzzclaw. The glossy metallic purple paint used, however, looks fantastic, though I question the use of it on the head, as it doesn't provide enough contrast against the transparent yellow on paint apps as small as the ones on Dirge's face. The other plastic parts and paint apps on Dirge are identical to his partner Buzzclaw. The black contrasts quite well with the yellow, red, and purple and gives Dirge a bit more of a "Decepticonish" scheme, and the red also looks very good on the eyes and bug "tail", but ESPECIALLY the insect wings. Gotta love all the wonderful black "wing vein" and red detailing on the wings, it's the most eye-catching part of the toy. Dirge also has a little Decepticon insignia on the underside of his tail, in case you had any doubts about his allegiance after seeing the way he looks.
    No mold changes have been made to Dirge from his predecessor; however, like on the other Botcon Buzzclaw repaints, the mandibles have been assembled the wrong way; to fix this, you need to unscrew the bolt connecting the insect head to the neck, crack open the halves (don't put too much force into it), switch the mandibles around so they're facing the other direction, and then reassemble the thing again. It's rather difficult, though, and you can break some of the pegs holding together the two head halves if you're not careful, so I only recommend doing this is you're experienced with taking apart and reassembling toys.
    Dirge is a great repaint of the Buzzclaw mold, though I wish perhaps a few more color swappings had been used to differentiate him from Botcon Buzzclaw. I like the yellow used for his main body, but not quite as much as the purple used for Botcon Buzzclaw, so Buzzclaw wins out a little in the looks department between the two in the "Descent into Evil" set.

Review by Beastbot

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