Ripclaw
Ripclaw's beast mode
is one of the more "traditional" dragon modes of the Predacons, resembling
a "skinnier" version of Predaking's general
design; she's got less body proportionally and more mass dedicated to her
appendages instead. The proportions in this mode are fairly dead solid,
with only the wings being a bit on the small side, and then only a bit.
Other than some odd panels on her middle back legs, there really aren't
any robot mode extras to speak of in this mode, either. She's got some
excellent mold sculpting, with a mix of armor plating and "royal" decoration
that adorns most of the other Prime Predacons. Her head is also incredibly
well-sculpted and looks quite fierce, with a red mouth inside her metallic-green
head, a yellow head crest, and bronze eyes. Her general color scheme is
certainly quite fitting for a dragon, with the bluish green and red serving
as nice contrast, and the tan being a nice "in-between" color that serves
as a more neutral base for the other shades to play off of. Her blue-green
plastic is also mixed with a good amount of tan in and of itself, giving
her a slightly more "organic" feel on those parts. Her red also has a bit
of black mixed in, which makes her wings look like they're charred slightly--
certainly appropriate for a dragon. I really like this whole "mixing plastic
colors" thing; I wish it had continued past Beast Hunters. Ripclaw's central
gimmick is quite a cool one-- the "core" of her substantial tail is made
of a rubbery plastic, and you can flip up the tan portion and move the
five tail sections apart a bit to give her a more floppy (but articulated)
tail, or push the segments together and flip the tan portion down to give
her tail a more stiff (but less articulated) feel. It's one of the coolest
gimmicks of the entire line, since it allows you to customize her tail
articulation to your preference. At the end of her tail is a claw weapon.
You can push apart the three red prongs of her claw weapon, and then press
either in on the center tan segment or back on the side tan segments behind
each individual claw to cause the claws to snap back closed. It's a neat
idea, but the claws themselves doesn't move much; I wish the "clamping"
action had been a bit more dramatic. In this mode, Ripclaw can move at
the jaw, neck, shoulders, front knees (at two points), front ankles, and
at the hips (at two points), back knees (at two points), rear ankles, at
the base of each wing, and the aforementioned tail movement. Thus, she's
pretty poseable in this mode-- her wings are the only parts I wish had
a bit more movement.
Ripclaw's transformation
is for the most part a pretty standard "stand me up and flip my head" transformation,
but it's got a few unique touches, like the way her neck splits to form
shoulder armor and how the panels on the back feet fold down to make her
robot feet look more proportional. Overall she looks fantastic in this
mode, though if you hadn't told me she was a female I wouldn't have guessed;
she has your pretty standard Transformer proportions, and her face almost
looks like a Power Rangers monster, with a rather metallic, "angry w/ mouth
open" look. The royal-like, armor plating detailing on her chest and midsection
also looks fantastic, and the addition of charcoal gray and dark bronze,
along with the yellow as an accent color, really makes her look pretty
good visually, with no large area of solely one color. Her arms are well-proportioned,
and I love how her front dragon claws fold back into her lower arms to
reveal her robot hands, but without either claw/hand being too obvious
in the mode it's not supposed to be prevalent in. She does have a few obvious
dragon mode extras, though-- the wings I don't mind since they frame her
silouhette pretty well, but there's two panels that make up her dragon
stomach just hanging out behind her arms, and the dragon head is also folded
up against her upper back (though thankfully the latter stays out of the
way and isn't really that unsightly). Her tail does make her a bit back-heavy,
but again you can spread her tail segments out a bit if you want it to
flop around behind her so it doesn't affect her balance much. Her tail-claw
weapon also comes off and can be held in either of her claw-hands. For
articulation, Ripclaw can move at the neck (somewhat restricted because
of her "collar"), shoulders, two points on each shoulder armor piece, and
at the elbows (atr two points), inwards a bit at the wrists, waist rotation,
and at the hips (at two points), knees, and ankles, along with the aforementioned
wing articulation. Thus, you can get some pretty nice dynamic poses out
of her.
Ripclaw looks fantastic
in both modes. Sure her transformation isn't super original, but there's
something to be said for simplicity sometimes. Her lack of a bunch of extras
in each mode (the dragon stomach panels behind her shoulders in robot mode
notwithstanding) is quite impressive, she's got a good color scheme, an
excellent look to her, good proportions, a really cool tail movement gimmick,
and is just generally a fun and nice-looking toy. My favorite of all the
Prime Predacon molds; highly recommended.
(Continued from Chapter 7, Deluxe
Starscream)
Even before she fully shakes off the
disorientation of emerging fresh from the Hyperevolution Chamber, Ripclaw
can hear the smooth, strange voice of Shockwave. "Predaking is alive,"
he says, "but in danger. Enemies known as Autobots have stolen weapons
powerful enough to harm even the king of the Predacons." Ripclaw needs
to hear nothing else-- she blasts out of the lab and into the sky, turning
her ultra-sensitive snout into the wind, sniffing for any hint of the stolen
weapons. Instead she finds Lazerback, smiling his cunning grin. "Whatever
the Decepticons told you is a lie, my dear," he tells her. "Predaking is
long gone. But that's no reason we shouldn't destroy the Autobots-- and
the Decepticons along with them."
(Continued in Chapter 9, Deluxe Bulkhead)
Siphon Claw:
-Strikes faster than a cobra.
-Claw crushes enemies, injects mech
venom, and then hurls them away.
-Mech venom injection causes total cybernetic
shutdown.
Strength: 8.0
Intelligence: 4.0
Speed: 6.0
Endurance: 9.0
Rank: 8.0
Courage: 9.0
Fireblast: 9.0
Skill: 6.0
Review by Beastbot