Before I get to the review, a bit of background information on this toy: Although this toy is packaged labeled as "Beast Changer", it is a toy version of the character on the show called Savage/Noble. Hasbro named the toy "Beast Changer" because of copyright reasons of which I do not know the details. Savage/Noble was a completely organic transformer on the show, and morphed, rather than transformed, between his two modes. His dragon-beast mode was called "Savage", while his wolf-man mode was called "Noble". Now, onto the review....

    Beast Changer's "Savage" mode is great, and very show-accurate. Considering how completely different Savage/Noble's two modes looked on the show, Hasbro did a nice job in nearly every way except the colors in the "Noble" mode, which we'll discuss later. This mode looks very fierce, with a definite reptilian look to it. The wings are nicely done as well, with veins and small holes showing. Savage's head, as always, looks extremely cool, being just a huge jaw full of teeth, with no eyes showing whatsoever. By pressing in on a small tab on the side of Savage's mouth, it opens his jaw, and by releasing the tab, it automatically closes, sorta like a "snapping" action. A bit more blue shows on the legs than I would like, but it's still rather close to the completely red-and-yellow show version. The proportions are slightly off, though; Savage's two legs and two tails are a bit larger than they should be proportionally. Savage's articulation is somewhat limited in this mode, due to his stature. You can move his legs a little, as can you move the upper parts of his two tails and his mouth, but that's it. Some wing articulation would have been greatly appreciated.
    Beast Changer's "Noble" mode is somewhat decent and show-accurate, at least in overall design. However, Noble on the show was almost completely light purple and blue, where this Noble has a lot of red on him. Still, considering how next-to-impossible it would have been to create one mode with a completely different color scheme than the other, I'll give the designers a bit of leeway there. What's rather corny, however, is that you have to detach the wings from the figure to make Noble show-accurate in this mode. A more creative way of tucking the wings out of the way would have been better than just popping them off, especially since the wing slots tend to wear down a bit after a while, and it eventually gets to the point where the wings can fall out of their slots at the slightest movement. However, you can leave the wings on in this mode, which ironically looks like Savage/Noble just before he finishes morphing into Noble mode on the show. Plus, the transparent blue wings look mighty cool, too. The huge design problem that I have with this mode, however, is that his Savage head just folds back halfway above the Noble head, and it doesn't hide very well at all. Rather distracting, I'd say. Beast Changer does not have the usual "Spark Crystal", but rather, a half-orb of dark blue plastic with a half-Maximal, half-Vehicon symbol etched on it. Although the symbol is cool, and relates to his Vehicon origins, I wish a real Spark Crystal would have been used. Beast Changer's action gimmick is activated by sliding down the spark piece from the top locking position (which doesn't "lock" that well, really) to the bottom "loose" position, allowing the action feature to activate. After doing this, lift up Noble's back panel, and the lift up on the organic-looking piece of plastic under it. It causes Noble's right arm to twirl around, and it looks pretty darn doofy. It also interferes with that arm's articulation, as it makes the lower part rather floppy. However, to this mode's credit, it does have extremely good articulation, and is pretty posable. Even Noble's small ears and mouth can move! His eyes are oddly hollow in this mode, making him look very creepy. The detailing is also just as amazing in this mode as it is in the Savage mode, with fur detailing all over. He's also surprisingly stable on those small feet of his.
    A GREAT Savage mode, and a pretty decent Noble mode, too. If not for the really bad action feature, the wing extras, and the obvious Savage head in the Noble mode, I'd recommend Beast Changer highly, but as it is, he's just a "slightly above-average" toy.

Review by Beastbot

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