BEAST WARS: TOY REVIEW

Name: RAZORCLAW (Video Pack Version)
Allegiance: Predacon
Function: Undercover Attack
Beast Mode: Fiddler Crab
Average Price: 20 AUD
Note: This toy is identical to the Rockbuster figure released in Japan.  

BEAST MODE

A very nice looking crab mode, about 90mm long (50mm across the shell) and 100mm wide. The crab is coloured deep red and dark orange (I have the video-pack version, which is something of a recolour). It has dark metallic blue-green parts all over, including the legs.

Articulation is in the legs (which move in sets of three), the claws (with quite a few points each), and his mouth (sort of). This is a total of 11 points of meaningful articulation.
All in all it’s a nice crab mode, enhanced by the fact that it has different sized crab claws, which is what real crabs have. He also has almost no robot-kibble, which is nice.
 

TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT  MODE

Split open his shell, fold his legs back. Pull the underside of his crab mode down, and then turn his hind crab-legs into his robot legs. Stand him up and take a look (you may need to pull his head up).
Incidentally Razorclaw is one of the first regular Beast Wars toys (along with Air Razor) who had a real transformation and not that spring-loaded bull crap.

ROBOT MODE

REALLY nice. Razorclaw is one of the best looking Regular toys (and IMHO one of the best-looking Beast Wars toys) in robot mode. He has a neutral face, and a very… well… aristocratic look, due to his legs sort of resembling riding pants or something, and him having a kind of ‘coat-tails’ thing going with the underside of his crab mode.

He stands 110mm tall (which is about the height of most regulars) and has 16 points of meaningful articulation, including a head on a ball joint. He’s pretty stable in a LOT of poses, especially when using his beast-underside as a third leg.

His claws conceal his weapons. His small claw conceals a gun, and his large claw a set of blades. He has no hands, but doesn’t really suffer for it (is claws could become hands much the way Tarantulas’ do, and he’s armed to the brim anyway).

I don’t know what it is, but I LIKE this guy. For a brief period after flip-changers and before Fuzors it seems the regular toy bracket was actually worth buying. Too bad a good chunk of them didn’t show up in Australia. It really sucks. This guy and Air Razor wouldn’t have been released in Australia if not for the video packs (which IMHO opinion are superior recolours), and I’m glad they were. I much prefer this guy to Air Razor, incidentally.
 

RUB STICKER LOCATION

Under the shell.
 

OVERALL

Razorclaw is, simply, my favourite regular toy. He’s also one of my favourite Beast Wars toys. A-.
 
 
This toy review was written by Andrew Sorohan.

VIDEO

As Andrew mentioned, this version of Razorclaw came with a VHS video cassette tape (well, it's not like anyone really uses Betamax these days...).
In America and Canada, the video was in recorded in NTSC and was also given away separately at KB Toys. The Australian version was recorded in PAL (and thus had superior colours and resolution).

The video contains the first two episodes of Season Two: Aftermath and Coming of the Fuzors Part I.

This video was the first time Season Two had ever been released in Australia. Later, the entire series was aired on TV and later released on video by Siren Entertainment.
The Siren Entertainment video has superior sound quality (as it replays the Dolby Surround very well) but of course, it doesn't come with a toy. ^_^

ORIGINAL RAZORCLAW

The only difference is the colour, although most fans prefer the recoloured video pack version.
 

ROCKBUSTER

The video pack version of Razorclaw was released in Japan in 1999 as Rockbuster. Although it no longer came with the video tape, like all Japanese Beast Wars Transformers, it was also available in a Taiketsu (Versus Set). Rockbuster was sold both individually and in a Vs Set with Hydra.
However, Rockbuster is not the same character as Razorclaw. One major difference is that Rockbuster is a Heroic Cybertron, whereas Razorclaw is an Evil Predacon.
Consequently, Rockbuster comes with a Cybertron (Maximal) rub sticker.

BEAST TRIVIA

Crabs are short-tailed members of the crustacean order Decapoda. There are approximately 4,500 species of crab, living in all oceans, fresh water and on land.
Unlike other decapods (such as prawns, lobsters and crayfish), the crab's tail is curled under the thorax (midsection). The carapace is broad and serves as an upper body shield. The first pair of legs are modified into chelae, or pincers.

The fiddler crab (a.k.a. Calling Crab) incorporates 65 different species of crab under the genus Uca. Known as "fiddlers" because the male holds one claw much larger than the other, supposedly like a violin (I dunno... I don't name these animals). Both claws in the female are relatively small.

Fiddler crabs occur in large numbers on beaches in temperate tropical regions. They live in water-covered burrows up to 30 centimetres deep and feed on algae and other organic matter. Fiddler crabs have varying body sizes (depending on species), but tend to be about 2.5 to 3 cm long. Colours range from coral red, bright green, yellow and light blue. Males are more brightly coloured than females.

Wanna know something cool? If the fiddler crab loses his big claw, the small claw develops into a large claw while a small claw replaces the old big one! Neat, eh?

Bibliography: Encyclopaedia Brittanica 

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