Why am I writing about Beast Wars in the writeup for an Alternators model? OK, kids... this is where it gets complicated (and also involves a major Beast Wars spoiler for anyone who's not yet enjoyed that series): In the TV show, Tripredacus agent Ravage - a rebuilt version of G1 Ravage - is sent back in time to put a stop to Megatron's plans, but ends up helping due to a fragment of message from the original Megatron, encoded on the Golden Disk. He ends up getting destroyed, but not before downloading his consciousness into his ship's black box, only to be recovered in the present day and installed in a Binaltech body... along with G1 Ravage, stasis-locked in his cassette form, in the dashboard of his Chevrolet Corvette Z06 alternate mode to provide the body with a Spark. So Binaltech Battle Ravage = Beast Wars Ravage + G1 Ravage... but BW Ravage is a future version of G1 Ravage, for whom the events of the Binaltech story must already have happened, so Binaltech Battle Ravage represents an infinite temporal loop of Ravage personalities.
Or something...
Now, I hadn't planned on buying BT11 both because I wasn't overkeen on BT06 Tracks and because a humanoid form of Ravage didn't appeal... but then my best mate gave me the Alternators version for my birthday!
Vehicle Mode:
I took a few more pictures of Tracks than I did this version of of the Z06 Stingray because I find it a rather bland car compared to the 1970s Stingray that the G1 Tracks turned into... But then, I think all contemporary cars tend to be watered-down versions of their forebears, as they gradually morph into a single, homogenous body type across all manufacturers.
Even being a black repaint - and a convertible, at that, doesn't save Alternators Ravage from being a de-curved snooze-fest of a vehicle, and the lack of die-cast metal - or paint, or even just a clear, glossy overcoat on the plastic - makes him feel a bit on the cheap side. He's been made a 'convertible' by simply removing the roof section and remolding the section of the rear where it used to sit, giving it a couple of bumps behind the seats. The windscreen is the same part as the original, so it still has the tabs that the roof would plug into.
Both of the Corvette flag badges - one on the nose, one on the boot - feature full colour tampographs on the raised details, while the exhaust pipes, wing mirrors, hubcaps, and even the disk brakes behind them are chromed, the lights are all coloured translucent plastic parts glued into the car shell (aside from the tiny one in the middle of the rear), all just like the Binaltech figure... Even the engine/weapon is essentially identical, since the version included with Tracks was grey plastic with red and black paint applications. In case it wasn't clear what make of car this was, the name 'Corvette' is stamped in white in place of the front license plate, as well as being embossed on the rear. Both the Alternators and Binaltech versions of Ravage even have the same numberplate - the whole area is painted silver, the left side features a Decepticon insignia, while the right has the letters 'RVG'. The seats are fully coated with red paint, where the seats in Binaltech Tracks left the padded outer areas of the seat as unpainted black plastic.
There is a minor difference in the design of the area just in front of the rear wheel wells, where Tracks has a small, triangular vent-like detail, while Ravage does not. Really, the only significant difference between this and its Binaltech release would be the absence of die-cast metal and its paint... and, on this mold, the die-cast metal was only used for the front of the car anyway.
For what it is, it's not a bad rendition of the car... it's just that the black plastic doesn't feel black or glossy enough. Some of the plastic exhibits minor molding flaws - there are even minor surface fractures on the part behind the seats - all of which would be corrected or concealed by paint on the Binaltech version. Furthermore, if Dead End is anything to go by, BT11's black paint job is likely to be phenomenal.
Robot Mode:
...And the weird thing is, as a Binaltech/Alternators version of Beast Wars Ravage/Tripredacus Agent the Corvette Z06 mold actually works quite well. That said, it's still not one of the greatest molds from the series, and the presentation here has dropped a notch or two. Where Tracks used a mixture of metallic-looking plastic and metallic paint, quite a bit of Ravage's robot parts are molded in a plain-looking grey plastic - the same colour used for the engine/weapon. As far as I can see, the same was true of the Binaltech version, which seems bizarre in retrospect. Equally strange is that there is a pearlescent swirl to this grey plastic, but the particular shade of grey seems to cancel it out entirely unless it catches the light in a very specific way. Thus, in comparison to any Binaltech figure - but particularly Tracks - Alternators Ravage looks a bit like a cheap knock-off... Which, to a Binaltech collector like me, it kind of is.
Perhaps the strangest choice in his paint job is keeping red for the tertiary colour, particularly since it occurs on Ravage in exactly the same locations as on Tracks, with only a minor change to the extent of the application on his knees and additional applications on the missile launchers and the blasters that deploy from his wrists. In all fairness, though, it's not as if there was much variation between Hound and Swindle, or Lambor and Dead End. There were, of course, differences in the primary colours between them - green versus yellow on the former pair, red versus black on the latter - but the main visual difference came from the predominance of their primary colour in robot mode. Very little of Tracks' vehicle mode blue had any real impact on his robot mode, which appeared largely black, supplemented by a dark, bronzy colour on the torso, biceps and thighs. Both Tracks and Ravage have black forearms, lower legs, feet, and groins, so they end up looking far too similar. That said, I believe the red paint on Tracks was flat, where this is metallic... or, possibly translucent red over silver?
As mentioned above, Ravage has the same handgun as Tracks, with exactly the same paintwork, so the fact that both the missiles and the wrist-mounted guns are painted with the metallic red make him marginally more interesting... though I think the missiles, at least, should have been chromed instead. At least that was corrected for the later Jaguar version of Alternators Ravage... The torso is painted silver, so there's not as much contrast between the main part of the body and the chromed exhaust pipes running down the middle.
I'm really in two minds about the head sculpt. On the one hand, it's closer to the right shape than the strangely elongated Jaguar XK version, but it looks a bit cartoonish, particularly because of the goofy canine teeth which are painted white and permanently exposed due to the receded lower jaw. This jaw is a separate piece that was sculpted in such a way that the mouth is permanently open at the sides, and opens very little further via its hinge. The eyes are sculpted in a frown and painted the same metallic red as is used around the rest of the figure. Due to the overall styling of the head and the shape of the ears and nose, Ravage looks to me more like a robotic teddy bear than an anthropomorphised feline.
The one advantage Alternators Ravage has over his Binaltech equivalent is that the black plastic won't get horribly scuffed, scratched or cracked during transformation, the way the black paint would. I know from experience with Tracks that the bonnet is particularly prone to accruing damage. Then again, the bare plastic isn't flawless, can be mildly scuffed quite easily, and attracts both dust and fingerprints far more readily than Binaltech paintwork.
Transformation isn't significantly easier than on Tracks - the joints that collapse the leg into vehicle mode are just as stiff, and working the two halves of the front into position is every bit as fiddly and frustrating. The main difference is that, in the absence of all that glorious paint, one needn't handle him with quite the same caution. Some caution is still required, as the plastic feels flimsy in places, but I'd imagine it's flexible enough that damage is unlikely except through carelessness.
The all-plastic construction has no discernible effect on his articulation, and - since I had to re-take all the photos - I've been able to remind myself how bad this mold is for poseability. The windscreen/dashboard are right behind the hip joints, and the doors get in the way of almost all leg movement. The arms are OK in and of themselves (bar the lack of bicep rotation which was typical of the Binaltech/Alternators lines), but the section of car rear on which the missile launchers are mounted infringes on the shoulders and doesn't even peg in anywhere. The strangest thing is the head: mounted on a ball joint with a large channel in the back, it's nevertheless unable to tilt up or down due to the squared-off back of the head. I have found that it can be popped forward slightly, such that it's technically still attached and won't fall off, but then also able to tilt all the way back so he's looking straight up. If left facing forward in this position, the nose would scrape on the ground in vehicle mode, but clearance can be created by tilting the head back.
I still don't think I'd have bought this for myself, but I'm glad to have received it as a gift. The mold per se isn't great - definitely not among the best Binaltech/Alternators forms. While I think the Corvette Z06 vehicle mode is dull, and robot mode failed to adequately represent Tracks, it makes a pretty good update to the bipedal version of Ravage who turned up for the season two finale of Beast Wars. The fact that this incarnation was actually worked into his Binaltech bio was the icing on the cake.
Ultimately, I like this figure a lot more than I'd expected, but it doesn't quite transcend the inherent flaws of the mold.
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