: TOY
REVIEW
Name: CASSIE
Allegiance: Human
Morph: Wolf
Average Price: 24 AUD
Photographs courtesy of Katsuhiro
Wada.
BEAST MODE
Length: Just under 14.5cm
Cassie has arguably the best looking beast mode out of
all the Animorph humans I've seen so far (the deluxe ones anyway). The
colour scheme is primarily grey with black striples on the face and a cream-silver
tinge accenting the facial and underside regions. The sculpting is actually
quite impressive. The fur grain is very nice and the face is sculpted in
a fairly convincingly ferocious look. The eyes are vermillion and the teeth
are white. The mouth can open and close (by either lowering the jaw or
pulling the ears back), revealing a full set of fangs. The main drawback
with the toy in this mode is that there is too much human parts visible
from underneath. Particularly the human head (the human face is fully visible!).
TRANSFORMATION TO MUTANT MODE
Turn legs and lower arms around 180 degrees. Swing wolf back-tail-head
section up (revealing mutant head). Swing down back-tail section (forming
mutant back) and swing tail back. Flip down the shoulder panels.
MUTANT MODE
The legs are the same as the beast mode hind legs, except
the thighs are now green. The arms are exactly the same as the beast mode
forelegs. The torso consists of a (rather curvacious) human body with a
yellow shirt and green overalls. The head is painted with two shades of
brown (lighter brown for the skin and darker brown for the hair). The eyes
are vermillion and the fangs are white. Yes, fangs. The head looks like
some kind of werewolf. Very ugly. I've never liked mutant heads... didn't
like them on Transformers... don't like them here.
TRANSFORMATION TO HUMAN MODE
Flip front paws up, revealing human hands. Flip mutant head
back, revealing human head. Use the right shoulder panel to lock the head
in place.
HUMAN MODE
The head is actually very nicely sculpted. It shows (IMO)
a rather pretty face with a nice undercut. Even parts of the upper eyelid
and cheekbones are defined - something not often seen in action figures!
The head is painted with the same shades of brown as the mutant head. The
eyes are white with dark brown eyeballs. This well sculpted head fits in
well with her aforementioned curvy torso. No, it's not as curvacious as
Angela from Todd MacFarlane's Spawn line, but Angela's got that unnaturally
skinny model proportions, whereas Cassie has a more natural looking proportions.
I have two complaints about the toy in this mode. Firstly, the spring in
the head is too strong, making it lean forward a bit too much. Secondly,
she still looks like a friggin' mutant!! Except for her head, hands
and front-torso, the rest of her body is still mutated!! I don't care how
pretty her head or boobs may be, there's something wrong with a chick who
is endowed with gray fur (talk about needing a leg shave!!), has paws sticking
out of her forearms and a big-arse hairy back (with a tail, no less!).
FREAK!
That being said, she probably has the second-best looking
human mode next to Tobias/Hawk.
INSIGNIA LOCATION
The Animorph logo is sculpted on her chest.
OVERALL
If you're only going to get one female Animorph figure, get
Cassie. Otherwise, don't waste your money. (glad I got all my Animorph
toys for free)
BEAST TRIVIA
The gray wolf, or timber wolf (Canis lupus) is a doglike carnivore of the
Canidae family. Once found in opened and timbered areas throughout North
America and
Eurasia, they have been eliminated from most areas and their numbers
continue to dwindle. The gray wolf is a powerful animal, with robust limbs,
broad head, large
feet and a deep but narrow chest. They have short ears (an adaptation
to colder climates), wide nose and they carry their tails whilst running.
The large Northern
male may reach up to 2 metres in length, including the bushy 50cm tail
and weigh around 45 to 55 kilogrammes. Females and Southern species are
smaller though.
Their fur is dense, long, soft and usually gray, but can also be brown,
reddish (tawny), black or white. They are intelligent, social animals highly
admired by native
Americans. They live in packs and mate for life. Although they feed
on mice, rabbits and birds, their primary prey are the larger herbivores;
deer, moose, caribou etc.
The wolf attacks in a stalk-and-chase strategem. Their hunting serves
to control herbivore numbers and weed out those unfit for survival. Unfortunately,
they have
undergone persecution from humans due to their attack on domestic livestock.
Reaching sexual maturity at 2 to 3 years, they remain with their family
group. They
breed during December and April and produce litters of 4 to 6 pups.
Gestation period is 63 days. Although they are friendly to fellow pack
members, they rarely
tolerate interlopers. All members of the pack take part in caring for
the young.
Bibliography: Encyclopaedia Brittanica
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