As a Collector who didn't become a Beast Wars 'fan' until long after the toyline had ended, the myriad reissues have been a great benefit to me. Much of my BW collection was obtained via the secondary market, but Takara Tomy's Telemocha reissues back in 2007 allowed me to pick up new versions of key characters featuring more TV show-accurate paintwork, and the Beast Wars Reborn set from the previous year even included retooled parts for greater accuracy.
Hasbro's more recent reissue strategy has been haphazard at best, trickling out random figures, with a strong bias toward recycling the same old G1 molds we've seen in previous reissue lines, but the decision to reissue Beast Wars toys - in recreations of their original packaging, no less - allowed for some more direct comparisons with their contemporary output in the War For Cybertron: Kingdom toyline... and, surprisingly, some of the new toys came off worse for that comparison.
One such example, in my opinion, is Scorponok. I've covered a version of the Kingdom figure in another post, so let's take a look at the original figure... or as close as one can get outside of the secondary market.
I have to admit that, in retrospect, I rather like Kenner's Beast Wars packaging, not least because it was pretty much the last time any of the toys came with a proper character bio, on a cut-out-and-keep panel all of its own. The bold, scaly-textured red, the yellow interior of the box and the large beast eye on one side are all iconic brand elements and, coupled with the almost fluorescent green of the logo, make for a very eye-catching box. The large window on the front/top of the box, framed with a yellow glow, shows off the toy in its beast mode, emphasising the line's uniqueness. The one oddity is that the box art seems to show Scorponok in his original toy colourscheme rather than the updated, show-accurate colours of this release, but I guess they were aiming for authenticity.
Of course, in a way, the box art is an oddity all by itself, since it's a highly embellished, far more horrific and spiky version of the character than either the toy or the CGI in the TV show. Even his Cyber-bee looks terrifying.
Now, I don't have a lot of original Beast Wars toys that I bought in-packaging, so I don't have very many original bio cards but, based on the few I have, I'd have to say that reissue Scorponok's is better. It may have only a two-line bio in five different languages, but that's more than was included on Optimus Primal or Megatron's cards. It also includes details on the 'secret' weapon locations, along with the four-point (Strength, Intelligence, Speed and 'Fireblast') stat system that Hasbro settled on a few years ago for the War For Cybertron Trilogy, but seem now to have unceremoniously dumped again.
The instruction sheet appears to be a fairly authentic 2-colour print, so nothing really exciting. I believe the format - folding out as a long strip rather than a poster - is also accurate to the original Beast Wars instructions but, without digging out those that I have, I'm not completely certain of this.
Beast Mode:
Well, it's pretty certain that this toy isn't going to trigger any arachnophobes. Quite apart from its bizarre colourscheme, the cartoonish proportions and minimal detailing could never be mistaken for a real scorpion, and the best one can say for the beast mode head sculpt is that it's reasonably similar to the TV show's CGI.
Based on what I've seen of the original toy, the main difference here seems to be that the black plastic has been replaced by metallic grey. The red remains consistent with the original, and it's difficult to say whether the translucent, metallic blue of the claws is the same shade, but it's certainly in the same ballpark. Sculpted detail is inconsistent, perhaps due to wear on the mold: the bobbles on one arm are well-defined and prominent, while the others are variable, some almost completely indistinct. Head and torso are sharp and clean, but the tail is patchy. The legs are almost comically short, and each set of four is molded as a single part, hinged at the base and bridged across the middle segments.
There's very little in terms of paintwork, but that's about par for the course for most Beast Wars toys. The tip of his stinger has a spray of red paint (a fairly close match to the red plastic), but everything else appears to be bear plastic.
All of the toy's play features are as accessible in beast mode as they are in robot mode - the left claw can launch his Cyberbee, while the right can launch a couple of missiles, and the blade-tipped tail can be made to strike by pushing a protruding tab near its base. The tail is not especially effective in beast mode, and clears his own head by less than an inch when the spring-loaded action is deployed, even with the tail bent fully forward at its first hinge. The tail also leans to one side, possibly as a result of imprecise assembly or the softness of the red plastic used for the geared sections.
While the beast mode head can't move, as such, the robot's feet protrude, and can move up and down on their transformation joints to (very loosely) resemble mandibles. The slim eyes are picked out in the same red paint as the tip of the tail, but they're so small, the paintwork really doesn't help them stand out against the metallic grey plastic.
Robot Mode:
Part of the reason I didn't get into Beast Wars back in the day was that the robot modes looked so daft. Scorponok, in particular, barely looks robotic, and his proportions are every bit as wonky here as they are on the Kingdom version. The only difference is that the body and legs are better matched... even the shoulders and upper arms don't look too out of place, but the scorpion claws are comically oversized thanks to the spring-loaded features contained therein.
Due to the simplicity of his transformation, the robot's torso is made up of the beast mode's abdomen, so the sculpt has to serve a dual purpose. The sculpt works well enough in beast mode, but it was clearly designed with robot mode as the priority, with the armour broken up between the chest and the pelvis by a slimmer section that appears to feature some kind of pipes/cords/springs, and this detail is repeated on the inner face of the thighs, while the outside of each thigh has a large vent with three large braces over the top. The lower legs, molded in the translucent, sparkly blue plastic, are alarmingly hollow, with the kneecaps and the upper part of the shin comprised entirely of structural 'waffling', the inner faces featuring only the implication of detail, and the outer face bulked out to accommodate a hollowed-out design. The arms are perhaps the most depressing aspect of the toy as, while they look clean enough in beast mode, robot mode exposes the screws - three in close proximity on each shoulder, and another on the outer face of each elbow.
While the weapon gimmicks are accessible in both modes, they certainly make a lot more sense in robot mode, with the two independently spring-loaded missiles (now in the left claw) triggered by pulling the top of the claw open (or pressing down on the raised plate at the wrist), while the Cyber-bee is launched by pushing a dedicated lever just behind the claw. The missiles fire quite forcefully and travel a fair distance, but the Cyber-bee sort of just flops out of its claw and tumbles to the ground... it is substantially larger than I'd expected, though, since its wings are made out of two halves of the upper claw part. It's also nicely painted, with a yellow and metallic blue abdomen, silver mandibles and black eyes. Of the two gimmicks, the Cyber-bee seems to have been affected most by the age of the mold: the 'wings' are sometimes reluctant to peg together securely, the transformation spring on the abdomen is sufficiently strong to push the claw out of alignment, and the tooth on the trigger doesn't do a particularly good job of holding it in place - sometimes just trying to re-seat the Cyber-bee causes it to try to launch.
The tail is also accessible as a weapon in robot mode, but its mounting on his back leaves its default position either sticking out backwards, or hinged up approximately diagonally upward behind his head. In this latter position, when triggered, it lashes out forward maybe a couple of inches, but rests more than an inch above Scorponok's own head height, so he'd have a hard time attacking anyone shorter than himself.
Where the likes of Optimus Primal and Megatron had head sculpts that were familiar enough to those of us who started collecting with G1, Scorponok's looks like a caricature. The top half looks like the answer to the question "What if Robocop was a Conehead?", while the lower half is frozen in a robotic scream the likes of which would give Edvard Munch nightmares. The square 'mouth' appears to contain a grille, which reminds me of the image of Megatron on the cover of Marvel UK's TransFormers issue #56. That the exposed 'face' below the mask is so gaunt adds to the unsettling look, and I'd have to say I much prefer the stylings of Scorponok's animation model, which made for the one good thing about the Kingdom toy. His 'mutant' mask seems almost more appropriate to the overall look of the figure, combining insectoid mandibles at the front with subtle robotic details along the jawline, and a crown that reminds me of the Cylon named Lucifer from the 1970s version of Battlestar Galactica. The mask also features more paintwork than the 'true', robotic face, with red added to the crown and the sides of the jaw on both sides, and the eyes picked out in a thin, greenish-gold, possibly representing the glow from the gold inner visor filtered through the mask's lenses.
As one might expect from a figure of this era, transformation is very simplistic, but not without its interesting points. Where the new toy opens the robot's chest and tucks its head into the gap, to be covered over by a folding panel, this one keeps the torso intact, but swings the tail and the robots head 180° via the pelvis, then has the legs rotate back 180° to peg into the inside of the chest, allowing the feet to close up and form the head. The tail has to be twisted 180° at its base in between modes, but the arms do practically nothing that can be called 'transforming' - the most you'd need to do is reorient the claws - and the scorpion legs simply unwrap from the torso.
Given the heavy use of ball joints throughout most of the Beast Wars toyline, I was surprised to find only two on Scorponok: the hip joints. Even those are supplemented by independent swivel joints at the top of the thigh. They can swing 90° forward, but only manage about 80° backward without also rotating the thigh. His knees can bend about 90° and the feet have independently hinged 'toe' and 'heel' parts, which allow for decent stability in more dynamic poses. In both modes, the arms can swing a full 360° at the shoulder, but only have about 30° outward swing due to the design of the shoulder parts. He has a swivel joint just above the elbow, which can bend 90° on a soft ratchet with just four notches. The claws can rotate a full 360° and the missile-launching claw has a hinged lower part so it can be moved out of the path of the missiles. His head is on a ball joint, sunk below the shoulder line, which allows a tiny bit of tilt and full 360° rotation with the mutant mask closed, but its range is significantly curtailed with the mask open.
Scorponok is another of those figures that I bought on discount - a little below £20 in this case - because the pricing of Hasbro's current crop of reissues is always more than I'm willing to pay, even if I'm particularly interested in a figure. Considering the molds they've chosen to reissue so far, that hasn't happened very often. Nevertheless, for that money, I certainly got an excellent deal. He's a fairly large toy - equivalent to a contemporary Voyager class toy, at least - feels quite sturdy, and is packed with features. Granted, his beast mode isn't anywhere near as lifelike in its sculpt as the Kingdom toy, but I'm not sure that's a bad thing, considering the entire Kingdom line of beasts couldn't seem to decide whether it was aiming for show accuracy or realism. In terms of beast mode articulation, this one does all it really needs to, and does it well, while the geared stinger strike is a fun gimmick in either mode, even if it feels a little rickety due to the soft plastic used on its moving parts.
The bottom line is that I enjoy Scorponok a lot more than I'd expected, and certainly a lot more than the Kingdom version... but it's still not something I feel I could recommend at its full, original RRP.
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