DE 
EN 
Series: Beast Wars Neo
Year: 1999
Allegiance: Sonstiger Schurke
Class: Deluxe Blendtron
Function: Execution Ninja
Possesses the form of a lizard and dragonfly fused together. Is able to stealthily approach his enemies and behead them with the sharp edges of his Drancutter. If any enemy attempts to run, he launches his Clap Missile, and watches entertainingly as it seizes his opponent. Any plea for mercy is ignored, and he ruthlessly delivers the killing strike.
Prelude: With interest in Beast Wars Neo renewed by the emergence of a new Magmatron figure next year, I have finally found the inspiration to look at some of the Beast Wars Neo figures stuck in my review pipeline for quite some time now. Introducing: Drancron, servant of Unicron. He is a Blendtron. What’s a Blendtron? Well, a Japanese Fuzor, really. What’s a Fuzor? Well… just read the review, okay? Let’s say go!
Robot Mode: Drancron is a repaint of Sky Shadow, whom I have previously reviewed. It’s been fourteen years, though, so I think we can give this figure another go. One of the great things about Beast Wars was that they allowed their robots to deviate from the standard humanoid norm. Drancron has a totally alien-looking head, asymmetrical arms, and insect wings on his chest. His feet are clawed, his right arm ends in a huge pincer made from another pair of insect wings, and his left arm has a lizard head on the back of his hand. Yes, he actually has a left hand, though you need to push the lizard head all the way back to reveal it.
While Sky Shadow was mostly bright green with some blue highlights, Drancron is a mixture of dark green, rust-red, and beige. Personally I slightly prefer Sky Shadow’s colors, but that is a matter of personal taste. Drancron is as well-articulated as most Beast Wars figures, thanks to plenty of ball-joints. The pincers on his right arm opens and closes via a small lever on the back. He can also launch a pressure-launched missile from his mouth, which… yeah, that’s not a gimmick I particularly like, but you can simply leave the missile out if you don’t like it.
Bottom line, it’s a pretty cool robot mode if you like the Beast Wars aesthetics. Nicely articulated, nicely sculpted, and looking nicely monstrous and scary.
Alternate Mode: As a Fuzor, Drancron’s beast mode is a fusion of two different animals, in his case a dragonfly and a lizard. His body is mostly lizard, but with a dragonfly’s wings and tail. All four limbs are ball-jointed and thus offer quite a bit in terms of articulation. The tail can flip upward and, given that Drancron’s robot head forms the tip, he can shoot his mouth missile from it, too. The lizard’s head is very nicely sculpted, individually sculpted scales, and it can open its mouth, too.
Two of the four wings are nicely articulated as well and could theoretically flip upwards as well, but the other two wings (from Drancron’s pincer in robot mode) are directly above them and can only move backwards and forwards, thus there is no way to fold the wings upwards, sadly.
Overall Drancron’s beast mode looks a lot more wholesome than some Fuzors, but it’s not particularly great, either. It’s a lizard with insect wings, basically. Nice, but not too exciting.
Remarks: Being a computer-generated TV series during a time when computers weren’t really all that advanced yet meant the actual Western Beast Wars series had a pretty small cast. Enter the Japanese, who produced not just one but two companion series to Beast Wars in classic cell animation style and made use of many of the various Beast Wars toys that were left out of the Western series.
Of the Fuzors, only two made it into the Western series, but three of the others served as bad guys in Beast Wars Neo and Drancron was one of them. A servant of Unicron, it was his job to gather the Angolmois energy (really the life force of Unicron; think Dark Energon in Transformers Prime) in order to achieve the resurrection of his master. He and his companions did succeed in the end, but paid for it with their lives when their own master drained them of energy in order to power up.
I got all three Blendtrons as a bundle from a buddy, but to be honest I mostly bought them for Elphorca. Drancron is good, but his Western counterpart Sky Shadow is just as good, I like his paint job more, and he is probably a whole lot cheaper on the secondary market. So if you are interested in this Fuzor, I advise getting Sky Shadow instead, unless you are totally into Beast Wars Neo and NEED to have all three Blendtrons in their anime colors.
Rating: B
Robot Mode: Drancron is a repaint of Sky Shadow, whom I have previously reviewed. It’s been fourteen years, though, so I think we can give this figure another go. One of the great things about Beast Wars was that they allowed their robots to deviate from the standard humanoid norm. Drancron has a totally alien-looking head, asymmetrical arms, and insect wings on his chest. His feet are clawed, his right arm ends in a huge pincer made from another pair of insect wings, and his left arm has a lizard head on the back of his hand. Yes, he actually has a left hand, though you need to push the lizard head all the way back to reveal it.
While Sky Shadow was mostly bright green with some blue highlights, Drancron is a mixture of dark green, rust-red, and beige. Personally I slightly prefer Sky Shadow’s colors, but that is a matter of personal taste. Drancron is as well-articulated as most Beast Wars figures, thanks to plenty of ball-joints. The pincers on his right arm opens and closes via a small lever on the back. He can also launch a pressure-launched missile from his mouth, which… yeah, that’s not a gimmick I particularly like, but you can simply leave the missile out if you don’t like it.
Bottom line, it’s a pretty cool robot mode if you like the Beast Wars aesthetics. Nicely articulated, nicely sculpted, and looking nicely monstrous and scary.
Alternate Mode: As a Fuzor, Drancron’s beast mode is a fusion of two different animals, in his case a dragonfly and a lizard. His body is mostly lizard, but with a dragonfly’s wings and tail. All four limbs are ball-jointed and thus offer quite a bit in terms of articulation. The tail can flip upward and, given that Drancron’s robot head forms the tip, he can shoot his mouth missile from it, too. The lizard’s head is very nicely sculpted, individually sculpted scales, and it can open its mouth, too.
Two of the four wings are nicely articulated as well and could theoretically flip upwards as well, but the other two wings (from Drancron’s pincer in robot mode) are directly above them and can only move backwards and forwards, thus there is no way to fold the wings upwards, sadly.
Overall Drancron’s beast mode looks a lot more wholesome than some Fuzors, but it’s not particularly great, either. It’s a lizard with insect wings, basically. Nice, but not too exciting.
Remarks: Being a computer-generated TV series during a time when computers weren’t really all that advanced yet meant the actual Western Beast Wars series had a pretty small cast. Enter the Japanese, who produced not just one but two companion series to Beast Wars in classic cell animation style and made use of many of the various Beast Wars toys that were left out of the Western series.
Of the Fuzors, only two made it into the Western series, but three of the others served as bad guys in Beast Wars Neo and Drancron was one of them. A servant of Unicron, it was his job to gather the Angolmois energy (really the life force of Unicron; think Dark Energon in Transformers Prime) in order to achieve the resurrection of his master. He and his companions did succeed in the end, but paid for it with their lives when their own master drained them of energy in order to power up.
I got all three Blendtrons as a bundle from a buddy, but to be honest I mostly bought them for Elphorca. Drancron is good, but his Western counterpart Sky Shadow is just as good, I like his paint job more, and he is probably a whole lot cheaper on the secondary market. So if you are interested in this Fuzor, I advise getting Sky Shadow instead, unless you are totally into Beast Wars Neo and NEED to have all three Blendtrons in their anime colors.
Rating: B
Picture Gallery:
