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Heinrad’s review of: Beast Wars 10th Anniversary Rattrap

Getting stranded on a remote, empty world to serve as a spy and sneak-thief for OPTIMUS PRIMAL wasn’t high on the list of priorities for RATTRAP. Smart, sneaky, and sarcastic, RATTRAP often rubs other MAXIMALS the wrong way. He’s never been too keen on lobbing artillery around like the others; a stand-up fight just isn’t his thing. Give him the chance to bust into a PREDACON base and snatch some juicy data, though, and that’s when he really shines.

To be honest, I had to talk myself into getting this figure. It wasn’t a long talk, and I didn’t need much convincing, but I still had to.

It’s not that I don’t like the character (Rattrap’s my favorite out of the BW era), but they did something that I’m still not 100 percent sure why they did it. Out of all of the released Anniversary figures for Beast Wars that I’ve seen so far, Rattrap’s the only Transmetal. I’m not sure what Primal and Megs are going to look like, but everybody else is in a non-Transmetal body. However, I do think I know why. If they hadn’t, Rattrap would have been the non-Transmetal version, and therefore would have been tiny compared to the others. And at the anniversary price point of $14.99 (at my not-so-local TRU, which is the only place I’ve seen them), Hasbro may well have figured nobody would buy them.

The main reason I had to talk myself into hit was two-fold. One: my original Transmetal Rattrap figure is still in good shape after roughly a decade of being battered around (not too many scratches), and two; they branded Rattrap with a Maximal emblem. However, I was able to talk myself into it because A) they’d used the show color scheme, and B) I was desperately hoping that the ankles would be tighter.

Also, I’ve had a theory ever since they started putting the Transmetal figures out, if not the Beast Wars figures themselves, that there’s something Hasbro isn’t telling us. All of the figures are held in with larger and more complex amounts of twist ties. I’d noticed the number of them slacking off a little recently, but I was happy to see that they were taking no chances that the Stainless Steel Rat was going to come to life and fight his way out of the packaging. The package is a box with windows on the top and sides as well as the front, showing off Rattrap, the right arm of Transmutate, and the DVD that came with the figure, containing the Rhino release of “A Better Mousetrap”, which, while Rattrap’s showcase episode, is also in his non-Transmetal body.

DVD:

I was hoping for extras, actually. Interviews with Scott McNeill, maybe Forward and DiTillio, about character development and concept, maybe concept sketches from Hasbro…. As I said, I was hoping for extras.

What I got was a DVD with a cut-down version of the first season opening sequence, not much of a menu…. And that was it. Oddly enough, it looked too clear and crisp, mainly because I’ve got all three seasons in Realplayer format on the hard drive, so I’m kind of used to the image quality drop. Picture and sound clarity was wonderful, though. Although they did cut out the replay of the opening sequence shown next to the closing credits. Still, it’s a great episode.


Rat Mode:


He was mid-way in the Broadie mode in when I finally cut him free of all the twist ties, and was the mode they sent him in. The intent might have been to catch him mid-transform.

In beast mode, Rattrap still looks like a small bodied, if well fed, rat. I think it’s the wheels. His head is a roughly even split between brown and silver, with green eyes and red trim on his…. Neck bolts, for lack of a better term. His upper back is bright red vacuumed metal, with a turbo charger with a yellow vent on the front, and detailed piping running down the sides of his upper back. His lower back has his name on it, running between his barely visible exhaust pipes. The sides of his lower back are taken up by the wheels of broadie mode, putting two large vacuumed metal red discs on his back. His tail…. Well, it’s always kind of been my opinion that the tail’s where they dropped the ball. The tail itself is fine, snaking out, ending in a flat, vacuumed metal tip that looks like a blade. It stays with him by…. well…. they have it so it’s still his hand holding the tail-whip. You can turn the base of the tail so it kind of goes flush against his rear end, but the fist is still visible.

Broadie mode:

To transform him, simply straighten out the tail, pull the back wheels away from the body, flipping his hind feet up inside of them, then lower them so they sit on the ground, then flip his front feet up, pull them out slightly, flip the whole assembly up, and fold them back in flush against his neck bolts, flip the exhaust pipes to an appropriately rakish angle, and voila, he’s now “a rat wit’ wheels. Cool.”

A little more detail gets revealed here, in the form of muted orange detailing on the sides that were under his rear wheels. And yes, Dinobot will ride on him in this mode. However, you have to use Rattrap’s tail as a seatback, and they can’t move, because Dinobot will fall off. Sadly, neither one of them comes with a gun to mount on Rattrap’s back… Ah, well.

Robot mode:

Here’s where it gets a little complex. First, flip the exhaust pipes back into his body. Then, gripping his front wheels, pull the halves of his head apart and swing them out. Take his rear wheels and flip them out, pulling them down towards his underside. Grabbing his robot mode legs, pull on them and flip them and his pelvis out until the lock into position beneath his chest. Flip his right arm up on it’s pivot point, then unfold his left arm from the hold that his elbow folds into, then swing it around using it’s pivot point. Neither pivot point will lock yet because of his chest. Well, actually his head, which is flipped inside his chest. Flip the head out and lock it, then flip the chest down. Lock the shoulder pivots into position, then swing the front wheels down and pivot the rat head halves around so it kind of looks like the halves are resting on the front feet and pivot them down to cover his shoulders. Finally, pivots the legs around and fold the feet down, and we have Rattrap, Maximal spy, saboteur, and all around cool rat.

And it’s Rattrap like we’ve never seen him before, sort of, in robot mode. His colors are closer to the show version, and, most importantly, his ankles are tighter. Though they will loosen quickly. The right ankle on mine is already loosening. The arms and legs are light grey, while the torso is blue and grey. His communication unit is still on his chest, but it’s had a Maximal emblem put on the speaker grille. His optics are red, while the helmet stays blue metallic, with a silver band and orange “brain” detailing.

I like this figure. I always have. And I think it’s great that I’ve no got him in show accurate colors, although remolding the mouth and painting it red would have been a nice touch. Something I might do for the future… the paint, not the remolding.

Transformation: 5. The shoulder pads can be a little temperamental.
Durability: 8 As I said, one of his ankles is starting to loosen
Fun: 8 Admittedly, I've just got him standing here, but he looks a lot of fun.
Price: 6 $14.99 at TRU, although I think it would have been better if they'd gone with the Deluxe price point, but we're also paying for extras.
Overall: 10. It's a well-made figure, the image on the DVD is crisp and clear... and if you have all the other Transmutate parts, you'll need this one.
 
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