Triceradon
Beast mode is a triceratops.
This figure is a repaint of one of the Japanese Beast Wars toys, Guiledart.
The only part remolded is the tail gun, used in robot mode, so that the
spark allegiance orb can be placed in it. This mode is very nice, and quite
large for a deluxe. All four legs are moveable, but other than that, there
aren't many moveable parts in this mode, save for the "action feature"
described later. This gives this Dinobot a very limited number of poses
in this mode. There are few extras in this mode, however. The only major
ones are the robot legs sticking out of the back of the back beast legs;
although they are covered up a little, they make the legs look very odd
and chunky. The other, less major, one is the upper right robot arm where
the triceratops' lower neck is supposed to be. This doesn't get in the
way much, however, it just looks weird. There is a little gap between the
top of the back legs and the beginning of the rear flesh plate, and this
makes it quite obvious from a side view that this is a robot in disguise,
plus, it doesn't look right. The detailing in this mode is very good, with
many scales, ridges, etc, etched into the plastic. The really cool, and
really funny, "action feature" in this mode is revealed when you push Triceradon's
front horn forward or backward. The eyes and tongue move as you do so!
While this can be used to move Triceradon's "eyes" around as if he were
searching for something, the funniest thing to do with this is push the
horn all the way back- this makes his eye pupils roll back into his head
and his tongue stick out, like he's dead!
Robot mode has a nice,
mean look to it, but has a bit too many extras. The most cumbersome one
is the large shoulder pad over Triceradon's left arm, and the two "leg-guns"
hanging from it. These extras tend to hinder a lot of movement in the left
arm, and since this arm is the only arm that can hold the tail gun, it's
pretty annoying. More large, annoying extras are the large back plate on
Triceradon's back and the two side flesh plates next to it. While the large
back plate is okay in itself, it prevents the side flesh plates from going
back further, which in turn prevents arm movement toward the back half
of Triceradon's body. Yet another large extra is the triceratops head that
is supposed to be Triceradon's right hand. I have been against this concept
of the beast mode head becoming the robot's hand, as in many cases, it
looks just plain weird. It also gets in the way, as this hand is really
bulky in this mode. The robot legs look rather odd as well. The robot feet
are merely swung out under the triceratops feet, and this makes it look
like Triceradon is walking on some kind of stilts. On a positive side,
the overall "brute, angry warrior" look in this mode is very well done,
especially with the detailing of the armor plates and "machine gun ammo
clip" on the chest. The "ribs" on the shoulder pad are also a nice touch,
and add to the overall "mean" look of this toy. His face is surrounded
by a triceratops-face mask, and looks pretty cool. The spring in the tail
gun is also of a very good quality (or at least the one I own is), and
it fires its missiles farther than just about any other Beast Wars or Beast
Machine Transformer toy I own.
A very nice transformer,
but with a little too many extras in robot mode. Also, the transformation
sequence is very complicated for a deluxe- only recommended for people
who are sure they can handle this kind of stuff.
Review by Beastbot