BEAST
WARS: TOY REVIEW
Name: INFERNO
(Italian name, Formicula, which is rather strange
because fire ants are not members of the Formica genus [as
many other ants are], but of Solenopsis. And Tarantulas isn't even
a tarantula... *sigh*)
Allegiance: Predacon
Function: Infantry Commander
Beast Mode: Fire Ant
Average Price: 26 AUD
Note: I got the Australian/European version of this toy
which was packaged in English, Spanish and Italian. Cool, eh? Well, it'd
be cooler if they didn't gip out on the Tech Specs (they were abbreviated
so that the only info it gave was name, allegiance, function and weapon
location. Why didn't they print full-length multilingual Tech Specs? We
had full-length multilingual packaging here during Generation 2 for crying
out loud!
[English]
BEAST MODE
As Dave Van Domelen put it, this really is one "****ing"
huge ant. The toy itself is 18.5 centimetres long and 8 centimetres wide
(not including any legs or antennae). The toy is primarily transluscent
metallic red with fuchia accents on the body and front legs. Mechanical
deails can be found throughout the toy, particularly on the fore and hind
legs and abdomen. There are green decos running along the back of the thorax
and abdomen. The head itself is transluscent metallic red with navy blue
eyes and gray mandibles. The antennae, lower forelegs, mid-legs and lower
hind legs are black.
The main flaw with the toy in this mode is its inability
to stand up. It has a dreadful tendency to flop down on its belly and the
ridiculously short mid-legs don't help whatsoever.
Gimmick: Push forward the lever on the head and
the outer jaws open up, exposing the inner jaws which protrude. Gnarly.
This also doubles as a missile launcher, but you have to amputate the hind
legs to use them as missiles.
TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE
Remove launcher/mandibles. Pull legs away from body, then
downwards. Rotate torso 180 degrees. Open up the hatch
on the back and rotate ant head forwards to reveal robot head. Turn robot
head around (oh, and close that hatch before he catches a cold) and fold
the fore legs up to form robot arms. Raise lower legs and lock the hips
into position. Pivot tail up and lock it into position.
ROBOT MODE
Very nice looking indeed. The most striking feature is the
head. Other than being gray with red eyes and four black horns, there's
also a huge white Jokerlike grin across the face. With all teeth bearing,
it looks truly maniacal. Inferno was also one of the first toys without
an alternate head in robot mode. Unlike the ant mode, the robot mode stands
just fine (despite being a bit back heavy). Sixteen and a half centimetres
in height, the robot mode retains the same colour scheme as the beast mode
and the beast and robot parts blend in quite well. The lack of an opposable
digit is rather strange, but the presence of two menacing claws (and one
vestigial looking "thumb") on each hand compensates. A very keen looking
and fun toy with 10 points of articulation. Although the instructions mention
taking the missiles off the legs and putting them aside or using them in
the launcher, Matthew Griffin
showed me he preferred leaving the missiles on the legs, acting as shin-guards
(okay, potentially explosive shinguards, but you'd be more likely
to lose them if you chucked them aside).
TRANSFORMATION TO "BLENDER-BUTT" FLIGHT MODE
According to the instructions, before you lock the hips and
raise the abdomen, you're supposed to open it up, revealing the entire
flight gimmick. Obviously, this looks incredibly stupid, so here's a better
way to do it (and end up looking like the flight mode in the show): From
robot mode, just open up the thorax. Press the honkin' red button to make
the panels spin. It's that easy.
FLIGHT MODE
I'm basing this review on my version of the flight
mode (and probably the same way most fans transform the toy). Besides,
that's how the flight mode looks like in the show, so nyah. The entire
flight array looks very nice indeed. In the middle of the formation is
a gray quad-thruster engine. Protruding from behind this are four silver
propeller blades which are superbly crafted with a plethora of mechanical
detail and four blue vents.
Gimmick: Push on the red button and the panels
spin clockwise. Good ol' blender-butt.
RUB STICKER LOCATION
On one of the propellor blades.
OVERALL
Incidentally, shortly after getting Inferno, I took it to
a picnic. (no pun intended, I actually got invited to a picnic a few days
after getting the toy)
Although I was the only real TransFan there, everyone
else fell in love with the toy and showered it with compliments. Despite
excessive rough-housing (the girls were hugging and petting it and
the blokes were slam-arsing around with it - and everyone wanted
to have a turn transforming it), the toy remains in one piece and is none
worse for wear.
A great looking toy that's fun to play with and
able to withstand intoxicated members of the Sydney Uni Climbing Club (as
well as a few members of that whacky Medieval Society, hell, surviving
any intoxicated university student is a great achievement for a
toy!)... damn, this toy's even more legendary than milk!
BEAST TRIVIA
The Solenopsis saevissima, also known as the fire ant or thief ant,
are insects of the family Formicidae, order Hymenoptera.
Their colour ranges from yellow to red and have a metallic lustre. Their
size varies from one to five millimetres in length. They are capable of
inflicting a severe sting (the stinger is located at the tip of the abdomen).
Their semipermanent nest consists of a loose mound with open craters for
ventilation. The workers are notorious for damaging planted grain and attacking
poultry.
Ants typically have a large head and a slender oval abdomen joined to
the thorax. All ants live in social, organised colonies. However, there
is no hierarchy within the society. Ants seem to operate as a single collective
and the queen has no more control over her fellow ants than would a drone.
They have achieved order within anarchy. Most ants live in colonial nests
located either underground, under rocks or aboveground. The internal temperature
of these nests are maintained around the mid thirties... natural air conditioning!
Pretty neat, huh?
The antennae are elbowed and the mouth has two sets of jaws. The outer
pair is used for carrying payloads and digging, whereas the inner pair
are used for chewing. There are generally three castes or classes in ant
society: queens, males and workers. Some species (including the fire ant)
have five castes, including drones and soldiers.
Ants have extremely poor eyesight and rely on sense other than sight
(whaddaya expect when you're living underground?), particularly smell,
to get around. When traversing across terrain, a lone ant will scout up
and return to the colony. He then literally lifts another ant up and brings
him back to the destination. Both ants wander around and confirm that the
area is safe and secure before returning. During this journey, they've
left a scent trail which the other ants follow in single file.
But all work and no play makes Inferno a sad bubby. So ants periodically
rest while the queen is egglaying. If the colony happens to be on the move
during egglaying, the growing larvae are also carried along.
The ant's life cycle has four stages: egg, larva, pupa and adult and
spans around a period of 8 to 10 weeks. The queen spends her entire life
laying eggs. The workers are all female and maintain the nest. The larger
soldier ants defend the colony.
During certain times of the year, winged males and queens are produced
who fly around and mate. In this situation, I recommend that the male try
and preserve his chastity, because shortly after losing his virginity,
he goes off and... well... dies. The now widowed queen goes off and establishes
a new colony. Yay.
Ants generally live off plants and animal substances/extracts. They
communicate by tapping their legs on the ground, creating sub sonic frequencies
below human hearing range (which is good, because it'd be really noisy
in the mornings if we could here them). Some other insects have learnt
to use the ants' language and communicate with them for mutual benefit.
For example, ants "milk" caterpillars of secretions to be fed to their
larvae. In return, the ants offer the caterpillar protection. If under
threat, the caterpillar will generate a distress signal to the ants (like
yelling, HELP in Antese) and the ants come running in like a miniature
cavalry.
Some ants are downright evil and go around enslaving other colonies
(usually of a different species) of ants. Bastards. There should be some
kind of Abe Lincoln ant to come along and set those slaves free. Slavery
sucks.
Alongside the honeybee, ants have the most complex social behaviour
in the insect world.
Bibliography: Encyclopaedia
Brittanica and some programme I watched on the Discovery
Channel.
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