BEAST WARS: TOY REVIEW

Name: RETRAX
Allegiance: Predacon
Function: Desert Demolition
Beast Mode: Pill bug
Average Price: 25 AUD
Note: There is a repaint of the Retrax toy called Powerhug.

 

BEAST MODE

Retrax has a REALLY good-looking Beast Mode. It’s a ‘pill bug’. IE: a big centipede-type bug, which can curl itself into a tiny little ball, for defence.

The toy itself is about 70mm wide, or almost 100mm including legs. It’s about 175mm long, not including about 40mm or so for each spring-loaded pincher or claw.

The Beast Mode is very promising, with absolutely no robot kibble visible. It’s a kind of puke green that degrades into a dark moss green around the edges. It has 10 little legs, two antennae, mandibles and a stinger for a total of 14 points of articulation… and then there’s the fifteenth. Pull two levers on the top of the Beast Mode (or just nudge the Beast mode enough) and Retrax CLAMPS shut into a ball! This creates the Beast Mode’s only real major problem; he has an unstable Beast Mode. Not because pegs keep falling out of slots, but because he keeps clamping shut! Darnit! Apart from that, I love the Beast Mode, and the idea of curling into a ball is really cool.

 

TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE

Turn him on his side, and then unfurl his body-parts from his Beast mid-section, while pulling his hands out of the undersides of the beast mode head and rear. That’s about it. He’s not very much of a brainteaser to transform.

ROBOT MODE

Let’s start with height. About 130mm in Height, though he’s still 170mm wide, due to beast kibble all over the place. In fact, this robot mode is PLAGUED by Beast Kibble.

Retrax has only one problem in his design: his design. In his robot mode he has a super-skinny body (I mean really skinny… I mean Calista Flockheart skinny). But his top half is huge due to the fact that it’s got his beast mode hanging off it. His chest is a single swivelling piece that comes off both easily and constantly. His spring-loaded gimmick goes off regularly in this mode, making him hug his chest (and usually pop his chest off in the process).

He has a total of about 18 points of articulation in his robot mode. Only about 2 of them are meaningful. The articulation in his arms just allows him to hug his own chest, and the articulation in his legs, except for a few rare exceptions, just allows him to fall down. Only the ball joint in his head, and the ability to move his chest out of the way when his spring-loaded function tries to make him eviscerate himself have any real meaning.

The problem, really is his spring-loaded function. The fact is the entire toy is built AROUND this gimmick. It means that the entire toy (Which seems to have great potential at first) really, really suffers for it. Oh well.
 

OVERALL

I don’t know if I got this across above, but the thing about Retrax is that he’s just got so much potential. If they took out the stupid spring-loaded gimmick, and just let us fold him up manually this toy might be really good. It’s just so damned frustrating. Looking at the toy, almost anyone could see how, with a few simple design-tweaks he could be a thousand times better... make his legs a little fatter... give his arms more articulation, let his beast-kibble fold back fully…

Oh well, ignoring those things, this toy gets a C, for trying damn hard. Add him to your collection or don’t. No recommendation.

This toy review was written by Andrew Sorohan.
 

POWERHUG

Powerhug is a Beast Wars Transformer released in Japan. The toy is essentially a repaint of Retrax. Powerhug and Retrax are totally different characters. Powerhug is not the Japanese of the Retrax character. Retrax was previously released in Japan (as Retrax). One main difference is that Powerhug is a Heroic Cybertron.

BEAST TRIVIA

I personally loathe pill bugs. Don't really know why... just always hated them. Ah well.

Anyway, the pill bug is a terrestrial crustacean of the family Armadillididae and Armadillidae (order Isopoda), When disturbed (by people like me), the pill bug rolls itself up into a tiny ball.

The common pill bug (Armadillidium vulgare) is about 17 millimetres long. The gray body, with its platelike segments, somewhat resemble a miniature armadillo.

Occuring in dry, sunny places in leaf litter and on the edges of wooded areas. Originally found in Europe, it is now found worldwide.

Bibliography: Encyclopaedia Brittanica


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