BEAST
WARS: TOY REVIEW
Name: SPITTOR
Allegiance: Predacon
Function: Special Forces: Amphibious Warrior
Beast Mode: Cybernetic Frog
Average Price: 12 AUD
BEAST MODE
Length: 9 cm
The moulding abounds with warts and legions. The back
is fluoro-green with deep-purple stripes. There are also vacuumised green
mechanical moulding as well. The head is a combination of blue, deep purple
and purple. The eyes are vacuumised fuchia and the top of the head has
meched-out vacuumised green. The legs are purple and blue. The jaw can
open slightly and a lame-arse tongue accessory can be placed inside.
TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE
After a careful analysis of the badly drawn and written instructions,
but mainly by just mucking around with the toy itself, I figured out this
method for transforming the toy. Lift up the entire top half of the frog.
Grab the back of the top section and swivel it 90 degrees. Make sure the
spark crystal is facing you. Grab the fluoro green section and bend it
towards yourself. This should unlock it. Now, straighten it out. Lift up
the frog head and swing the robot head around 180 degrees. Now spin the
entire top section (I suggest leading with the fluoro-green bit) 180 degrees.
Lock the robot head into place and swing up the frog jaw. Turn the lower
legs around. Grab the frog tail and raise up this silly looking claw thing.
Yep.
ROBOT MODE
Height: 10 cm
Go ring them bells, Quasimodo! Yep, Spittor just looks
like a Transmetal Hunchback of Notre Dame! If he were human, his name would
probably be Igor. If he was in the TV show (and thank Primus he's not)
he'd say thing like, "yes, master" in that 'Igor' accent and dribble everywhere.
Yep, like most Transmetal 2s, Spittor is one lame-arse toy. The colour
scheme is pretty much the same as in beast mode; the robot head is purple
with fuchia eyes and fluoro-green mouth and blue accents along the crown.
The mid-section is also fluoro green and everything else is purple and
blue. Nothing to write home about. He also holds the tongue thing as a
weapon... but it's attached to the palms of his hands. Hmmm... the location
of the holes makes it look like he was just crucified. This weapon is almost
as lame as Armourdillo's. However, it's better than Armourdillo's ball
and chain in one aspect... the spiked ball extends beyond the arm! It'd
be a pretty neat close range weapon actually, but I just don't like the
way he holds it.
SPARK CRYSTAL LOCATION
Inside the frog mouth (upper palate).
OVERALL
Do not put him on your Christmas list this year. Spittor
may scare some of the elves.
*****
Photographs courtesy of Benson
Yee
BEAST TRIVIA
Frogs are a breed of tailless amphibians belonging to the order Anura.
The word frog strictly refers to any members of the family Ranidae,
but is often used in a broaded sense to distinguish the smooth-skinned,
leaping amphibians from the squat warty hopping ones known as toads. In
actual fact, the word toad really refers to a separate amphibian all together.
Unlike the frog, toads (who are members of the family Bufonidae)
have no teeth along the upper jaw and only reproduce underwater.
In general, frogs have protruding eyes, no tail, strong, webbed hind
feet adapted fro leaping and swimming, as well as smooth, moist skins.
The are predominantly aquatic, but some live in other areas such as on
land, in burrows or in trees. Nonetheless, several species differentiate
from this generalisation.
Frogs range in length from under 2.5 centimetres (in the African Phrynobatrachus
chitialaensis) to over 30 centimetres in the African goliath frog (Conrana
goliath). The male is generally smaller than the female in most species.
Although frogs have poisonous glands, these toxins provide little protection
against predators. Edible anurans rely solely on camouflage to protect
themselves. Several frogs have bright underbellies which flash when moving,
thus dazzling and confusing enemies (similar to tassles used on some ancient
Chinese weapons, such as the spear). Most frogs eat insects and other small
arthropods or worms, however a small number of them also eat other frogs,
rodents and reptiles.
The annual mating season usually occurs in fresh water (whereas toads
only ever breed in water). After hatching from an egg, the tadpole
undergoes metamorphosis, developing lungs and limbs, losing the tail and
the mouth becomes more developed.
In some Oriental species, frogs emerge not as tadpoles, but as miniature
frogs (froglets).
Bibliography: Encyclopaedia Brittanica
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