Beast mode is a lion. This mode is pretty well-done, and the color scheme is pure eye candy. The gold and silver complement each other very well, as do the transparent blue and orange. If you turn his lion face from side to side, a "growling" action will activate, but this is only so-so. The only problem I have with this mode is the fact that Snarl merely looks like a humanoid lion crouched down on all fours. His front feet reveal his robot hands very easily. I wish Hasbro could have come up with some way to hide his thumbs. His back legs also look a bit oddly jointed, but this is no big deal. His spark crystal can be found by using a rather creative tactic- on his left back leg, slide the hip panel up. What was before a transparent blue circle now reveals the spark crystal! Very creative.
    Before I get to the robot mode, a few notes about the transformation. First, Snarl's transformation is very uncreative and boring. It's basically a "stand me up and flip my head" transformation, with only a few slight moderations. The instructions say to turn his feet around so that what looks like the heel is facing front, but this looks rather odd, and very few people actually do it. His mane pieces also have a tendency to pop off during the transformation, but this is no big deal.
    Snarl's robot mode is also very appealing visually. I especially love the large "mane" coming off his robot head- it definitely adds character. This is one of the few Maximals that actually looks more technological than organic, which is a plus in my book. He has a lot of transparent blue in this mode, but most of it is covered up by various opaque paints, adding to the diversity of colors. However, Snarl's legs are, again, oddly jointed in this mode, and it's hard to get them into a "normal" position. His weapon is also pitifully small, and not very sharp-looking. Snarl's action gimmicks also ruin part of this toy. Although the gimmick where you can open and close his robot mouth by pressing a button are cool, the other two are not. His right arm has a knob that you can turn for a karate chop/slashing action. This inhibits the movement of the arm a lot, as the elbow can not stay in certain positions very well unless you hold the knob and forcefully push the elbow into a locking position. Otherwise, the elbow will always be stuck in a "straight out" position. The gimmick on the other arm, although it doesn't inhibit movement, is just plain lame and wasn't needed. Press the button and Snarl's arm pops out, like, not even half an inch, for a stupid "punching" action. There are also some posability problems with this mode too. First off, Snarl's upper leg and shoulder articulation is limited because of the large "metal" plates on the upper part of the appendages, which are bulky and can prevent some movement. The wrist guards also get in the way of hand articulation some.
    All in all, a very visually appealing character, but the bad gimmicks and the uncreative transformation hurt this toy a bit. Still, a great Maximal to have.

Review by Beastbot

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