TRANSFORMERS TOYS AND MERCHANDISE SECTION

Robot Mode:
Alternate Mode:
Box Art:
Technical Specifications:
STR
INT
SPD
END
RNK
CRG
FPR
SKL

Wildfire's review- Waspinator

Name: Waspinator
Function: Aerial attack
Like a rattle snake's tail before an attack, a chilling sound buzzes in the distance as if to forecast approaching danger. Suddenly from the sky the giant wasp appears, revealing its monstrous face and bulging eyes as it streaks down for an aerial attack! The Waspinator launches its secret wing missiles, striking the helpless victims below with the poisonous power of a robotic cyber-sting!
Allegiance: Predacon
First cartoon appearance: Beast Wars: Part 1

Anyone who has watched the Beast Wars TV show knows that Waspinator was the comic relief, not the horror his bio card makes him out to be. Waspinator was released before the show premiered however, as a deluxe sized character in one of the first waves of the Beast Wars action figures. This review will cover everyone's favorite cannon fodder as we first saw him.

Beast mode
As his name would suggest, Waspinator is a large, primarily green, yellow, and black wasp (or perhaps hornet). His head, thorax, and the ends of his rear legs are molded in dark green plastic and the antennae and legs are cast in black. A light black, almost gray, is used for the wasp jaws, stripes on the abdomen (the alternating stripes being yellow of course), and light sprays ops on the rear legs last sections. His wasp eyes are painted sky blue, the wings are ball jointed and cast in an iridescent grayish plastic that reflects bluish-purple. Finally, some light green plastic is used for the sides of the wasp body and the first section of the rear legs. The beast mode has six real points of articulation, ball jointed wings, and two ball joints in the rear legs. If you really want, you could fold the first two leg sets downward underneath the body to make it look like he tucked them in while flying. The illusion of an insect is good, but a few things break it up. Most obviously, the rear legs. They are both larger and a different color then the first two sets and are mounted on the abdomen instead of the thorax like the others. To a lesser extent, are the robot fists, which can be seen if looking at the toy head-on, and the handle of the robot mode weapon which pokes up from the rear of the abdomen. But this is from a mature collector's viewpoint, a child probably wouldn't even notice these things.

Robot Mode
Let me try explain how to do this without people flinging their Waspinators in anger (you're probably better off with the real instructions if you can get them). First, turn the wasp over so it's belly is facing you. Pull the robot arms away from the gray chest panel (the robot arms being the thingies the black insect legs are attached to). Pull them out to the sides until the light green shoulder pieces lock into position. Now, pull down on the rear insect legs, part of the striped abdomen will pull down with them, these are the robot thighs. Straighten the light green sections of the rear legs so that the small peg on each is facing you, next move the lower leg sections so that the holes inside the hollow part of them lines up with the pegs on the upper sections, fold these up and you should feel a light snap as the pegs fit into holes. Finally, pull up on the light green section the legs are attached to until it snaps into place right below the gray chest panel. Congratulations, Waspinator now has legs, you're almost there. Pull down on the insect head and once it is free of the thorax, separate the halves, slide them over towards the shoulders, then push them down next to the chest panel. You may note that one half the insect head has a hole along the inside rim while that side of the chest panel has a peg and vice versa, attach them accordingly. Now remove the robot weapon from the rear of the insect body and place it in the robot hand, remove a missile from inside one of the wings, load it in the weapon, and Waspinator's ready for action! In this mode Waspinator is quite fearsome looking. The insect color scheme stays basically the same but now more gray is added on his upper arms, head, and chest. Waspinator has many somewhat mechanical details molded onto his chest, and arms to offset the biological look, his knees have spiked pads and his head is what a wasp would look like if it were humanoid. The eyes are bugging and have cross hatching to imitate the compound eyes of a real insect, his mouth has feelers and two antennae are swept back over his head. His eyes are made of the same type of plastic that his wings and missile are and they are designed to be a light piping gimmick, but due to the dark, smokey nature of the plastic, they don't glow much. Waspinator has thirteen points of articulation in robot mode, counting his wings, including ball jointed head, shoulder, wings, hips, and knees, swivel upper arms, and pivot elbows, all he's really lacking is a waist pivot but you can't win them all. The only major problem with the robot mode is that the insect legs that dangle from his arms can get in the way of posing him, but it's no biggie. Think you're finished? You're not! Well, you're almost done, one more item of note, the standard head Waspinator has is the mutant, insectile head, but like most of the early deluxes, he can alternate to a more G1-ish looking head. To do this, pull back on the black panel on his back and forward on his chest panel to reveal a swiveling piece with both heads attached, swing this around until his alternate head is in place then close the panels again. This new head invokes Decepticons of the past, he looks like he's wearing a helmet complete with chin strap and goggles (which are same plastic as his mutant head's eyes). It's interesting to note that this head has the grayish black paint applied on the face as opposed to it being pure light gray like the mutant head is. Too bad the mutant head didn't get this, the details on it are somewhat lost with the plain gray. The show of course used the mutant head as it's model, but this is a cool addition as well, for those who think Waspy's too ugly, just flip the head!

Wildfighter's Random Facts!
Do you know Waspy here has had quite a few incarnations? He was released in this color scheme, repainted as Buzzsaw from the Beast Wars line as well, repainted again for Fox Kids' Classic Beast Wars, made into a Transmetal, repainted again for Fox Kids' Transmetal Classics, and finally, his first mold was drastically reworked to become the cybernetic wasp, Dirgegun for Japan's Beast Wars II line!

Transformation:5 - It's not as hard as I make it seem, I promise!
Durability: 8 - He's pretty solid, some parts may pop off, but these will most likely be ball joints and can be popped right back on.
Fun:Fun: 8 - Definitely a fun toy, plenty of neat poses you can put him in, plus an extra head.