Scavenger
(Beast Machines)
Vehicle mode is named
on the box as a "destruction vehicle". It looks somewhat like a crane with
a mouth, front tank treads, and claws in back of it. This mode looks VERY
cool, especially the menacing face on the top of the crane with a gun and
rocket launcher. The weapons, however, don't fire. Ah, well. There is a
little lever on the middle part of the crane's neck that you can push and
pull to make his mouth open and close. A very nice effect. Although the
tank treads themselves don't actually move, there are small transparent
light orange wheels on one end of them to compensate for this. It is very
hard to tell exactly what extras there are, if there are any, in this mode,
because it is not directly related to any known vehicle or creature. The
only extras that may be on this mode are the obvious robot legs in between
his tank treads. The spark orb is inside a panel on the main vehicle body's
side. A very impressive vehicle mode indeed.
Robot mode isn't as
good as the vehicle mode, in my opinion, but still looks kinda cool. The
transmetal silver claws with the red tips are a nice effect, as is the
weapons on both sides of Scavenger's chest and his slight hunch. This mode
is not, however, without its problems. The most obvious problem is the
ridiculously small head Scavenger has in this mode. It looks like he's
peeking his head out of his chest, trying to see if it's safe to poke all
of his head out. This makes this toy look less menacing, in my opinion.
Another problem can only be seen when you turn this mode to its side. Scavenger's
main body looks very wide in this mode, as his back seems to stick farther
past his shoulder blades than it's supposed to, and this looks odd. The
third and final problem I have with this mode is that when viewed from
the front, it looks like the robot's missing something There's a large
and noticeable gap between the sides of his main body and the center of
it, especially on the right side, and trying to cover it up with his chest-mounted
weapons doesn't help much. The transformation instructions suggest that
you rotate Scavenger's tank treads on his robot legs so that they rest
behind him, but this looks odd. I suggest you rotate them 90 degrees and
leave them at the sides of his legs; it looks a little better, in my opinion.
A very nice transformer,
although Hasbro sacrificed some things in robot mode to give this fig a
good vehicle mode.
Review by Beastbot