: TOY REVIEW

Name: Marco
Allegiance: Human
Morph: Beetle
Average Price: 10 USD Toy review written by Kasady Voorhees Photos courtesy of Katsuhiro Wada

BEAST MODE

Height: 4cm average
Length: 14cm
Width: 4cm body
Marco is a beetle. About twice the size of a G1 Insecticon, he patterns himself a bit off of BW Insecticon, and some bits from Waspinator. The toy is primarily dark green, with yellow wing covers and some red spots on his back, and red eyes. The back of the beetle has a fairly rigid mould, including bumps on the wing covers. The front has a pair of large mandibles, which are dark green. The small pair is attached, while the larger pair pegs on. Following with a lot of insect Transformers, the rear legs have large sections, due to them forming the alt-mode legs. The large sections are yellow, with airbrushed dark green. He has a total of 12 joints, one at the base of each front and middle leg, 3 in each rear leg, and one in each mandible pair. The legs are stable enough to support the toy. There is some bad undercarriage garbage, unfortunately. Some flesh from the hand bases is visible near the mandibles,
and when you turn him over, his shirt and pants are visible. His eyes also peek out from just above the shirt. Still, no worse than Waspinator's junk.

TRANSFORMATION TO HUMAN MODE

Since his mutant mode is one-step, I'll do this first. Extend the rear legs, and fold the leg ends up into the hollow backs. Split the bug head, and fold the shell section back. Fold down the shirt, swing the head bases down, and swing the upper halves of the head bases up on the middle hinge. Raise the head, close the shirt, and close the back shell. Open the head halves, remove the large mandibles, swing out the human hands, and close the head halves.

HUMAN MODE

Height: 12cm
Width: 5cm
Well, none of the Animorphs toys make convincing humans, but, it's at least half way. Aside from being mostly bug pieces, his shirt is a full panel, and he has at least shorts, which end in torn legs on his thighs. He has a decent human face, which the head looks like it was taken from a 9.5cm GI Joe toy, and it looks good. However, the teen shown on the front package photos looks to be Hispanic, but the toy is clearly a white person. What, the painters had no photos? Still, they did a good job with the human pieces. But, my main problem is the forearms. They're the bug head halves, but the halves sit on the insides, making bringing hi sarms to the body a bit hard. Also, no matter how you pose the hands, his arm still looks broken. And the size of the forearms? "I yam what I yam....". His shirt is red, and his pants are silver. Again, someone please give the painters some photos? He has 10 joints, one in
each shoulder, upper elbow, elbow, wrist, hip, and 2 per knee. His lower legs are a bit like BW Inferno's, but the end folds back, and with the tough ratchet joint, it's hard to bend.

Gimmicks: The large mandibles fit in his hands as claw weapons. Obviously not guns, at least.

TRANSFORMATION TO MUTANT MODE

Open the shirt, open the back panel, rotate the head forward, slide it midway
through, and position the mutant head up. Close the panels.

MUTANT MODE

Height: 12cm
Width: 5cm
The least involved, you just swap head. It's the same mechanism as Waspinator, with the addition of sliding the head mount. The mutant head is like an intermediate werewolf, with bug eyes(like Waspinator's mutant head). If you want to advance the mutant, open the arms and fold the hands back in, and attach the large mandibles. He comes packaged in mutant mode.

Gimmick: The large mandibles fit in his hands as claw weapons. Obviously not guns, at least.

BEAST TRIVIA

Although there are over 250,000 species of beetle, they are all members of Coleoptera, the largest single order in the entire animal kingdom, although weevils are often distinguished from beetles. Beetles are easily recognised by their forewings, which are modified into hardened wing covers (elytra) that cover a second pair of functional wings. The order includes some of the largest and smallest insects and is the most widely distributed insect order. Most feed either on other animals or upon plants, but some eat decaying matter.

Some beetles are of great economic importance; both adults and larvae may destroy crops, timber and textiles, as well as spreading parasitic worms and diseases. Other beetles are valuable because they prey on insect pests. Althoguh the name beetle applies to all coleopterans, some are known by other common names - e.g. weevil, borer, firefly, chafer and curculio.

Bibliography: Encyclopaedia Britannica

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