Beast Wars Archadis (Telemocha)

Prelude: Archadis is one of only two figures in the Japanese Beast Wars 10th anniversary series Telemocha which hail from the Japanese spin-off series Beast Wars Neo (Cohrada being the other). The back of his package shows him and Cohrada together with the cast of the main Beast Wars TV show, which is a bit strange. Not sure why they selected him and not a more prominent Beast Wars Neo figure such as Big Convoy, but I digress. Just so you know, despite this figure belonging to the Telemocha line, I’ll be referencing Beast Wars Neo a lot. Now here we go.

Robot Mode: First off, Archadis is a beautiful, if strangely designed robot. It is easily apparent what his beast mode is, seeing as he carries the wings as a sort of poncho or cape across his torso. While he has more or less standard legs, his arms are a different matter. The left one ends in the head of his beast mode, while the right carries the tail plumage of it as a sort of shield. The result looks fabulous, no doubt about it. Side note: Archadis was originally designed as a female Transformer.

Posability is a mixed blessing, though. Archadis has the full range of movement thanks to numerous joints, but the big wings across his chest very hamper the movement of his left arm. The right arm is also somewhat restricted because of the shield thing and that big shoulder piece. No problems in the legs, though he could use some bigger heel spurs for better balance. When you rotate the shield on his right arm, a geared mechanism flips his weapon into his hand, making it seem like he’s holding it. Very nicely done.

As for the differences to the original version, can’t say a lot here as I’ve never owned it, but from pictures I’ve seen it seems that the overall paint jobs has some minor differences, nothing as major as was done for other Telemocha figures, though. Also, he mistakenly contains a Dinobot Spark crystal instead of the Predacon variant, probably resulting from the figure’s brief stint as Airraptor in the Beast Machines Dinobot subline.

All in all Archadis’ robot mode is spectacular look-wise, but somewhat restricted in terms of play value.

Beast Mode: Continuing the trend of strange beast modes in the Beast Wars Neo line, Archadis becomes an Archaeopteryx, the supposed missing link between dinosaurs and birds. For all non-biologists, it’s basically a feathered bird with a reptilian head (including teeth) and claws at the ends of the wings. Compared to the relatively compact robot mode, the beast mode is enormously wide, both because of the wide wingspan, as well as the long tail feathers and neck. The look is fabulous, though, the only slight impediment being the robot feet, which are visible on the beast’s chest. Apart from that, though, absolutely no complaints in terms of look. Posability isn’t hampered in this mode in the least. Neck, wings, and legs can move freely, no problem here, either.

The beast mode actually contains more gimmicks than the robot mode. Pressing the triggers on the backs of the wings causes the wings to slide out, further widening the beast’s already awesome wingspan. You can then pull back the claws, making two gun barrels appear. Also, extending the wings makes the “feather bombs” hanging under the wings drop down, allowing Archadis to drop them on enemy positions from great heights, one presumes. To sum it up: a fabulous beast mode with pretty much no complaints.

Remarks: Archadis was one of the bad guys in Beast Wars Neo, following the lead of main bad guy Magmatron. Which is basically all I know about him, as I haven’t seen much of BW Neo (and what little I’ve seen was in Japanese). The Telemocha version of the figure came with a DVD of the (Japanese-language) Beast Wars episode "Around and Around the Jungle", better known as “Dark Voyage” to Western viewers. Archadis did not appear in this episode, by the way, nor in any other episode of the main Beast Wars series.

As a toy Archadis is one of the most spectacular-looking Beast Warriors I’ve seen so far. Granted, his unique look somewhat hinders his movement and those pesky feather bombs tend to pop off at the most inopportune moments, but apart from that there is nothing bad I can say about this magnificent-looking robot. Whoever isn’t put off by beast mode Transformers in general should definitely take a look at this figure (or either of its other releases).

Rating: B+