Beast Wars Buzzsaw

Prelude: Buzz Saw is a repaint of Beast Wars Waspinator, or rather they are repaints of each other, given that they came out simultaneously. Now while I have reviewed Waspinator previously, it’s been nearly seven years, so Buzz Saw does get a full review of his own, even though there will be some focus on the differences, of course.

Robot Mode: When compared to Waspinator, no changes were made to the mold itself, but thanks to the figure’s mutant head gimmick you can easily switch back and forth between Buzz Saw’s more human-looking head and the rather inhuman looking one Waspinator usually sports. Switching heads aside, Buzz Saw also got a new paint job, one that replaces Waspinator’s green and grey with yellow and purple. Side note: this is the Japanese version of Buzz Saw, but the only differences to the Hasbro/Kenner version are that this guy here features a darker shade of purple.

Colors aside, Buzz Saw is the same figure as Waspinator. Highly articulate thanks to ball joints, he can do all kinds of poses. The wings on his back contain the missiles for his missile launcher, which is hidden in his large wasp butt. The big insect legs on his arms somewhat restrict their movement, but with a little practice you can move them out of the way in most poses. So bottom line: a very good Beast Wars Deluxe robot with no obvious flaws.

Alternate Mode: Buzz Saw transforms into a female wasp (lat. Vespinae). He’s got the same black-and-yellow striped butt as Waspinator, but where Waspinator is mostly green otherwise, Buzz Saw has a more realistic yellow upper body. The one flaw of this mode remains, of course, the hind legs. While the four legs up front look of appropriate size to be a wasp’s legs, the hind legs convert from the much thicker robot mode legs and look vastly out of proportion with the rest of the insect.

Not much else I can write here. Overall the beast mode looks like it’s supposed to except for the aforementioned hind legs. The articulation is restricted to the wings and the hind legs, so you can’t really do much more than have it sit there or fly it around the room making “BZZZZZZZZZZ” noises. Which is fully sufficient, of course. A decent beast mode with but one flaw.

Remarks: Buzz Saw is yet another in a long line of Beast Wars figures that never did appear in the TV series and only has a background appearance in the IDW Beast Wars comic books to his name. I don’t know whether being a repaint of one of the most popular Beast Wars characters ever is a good or bad thing for him.

Anyway, to me Buzz Saw is the variant with the better colours, while Waspinator clearly has the advantage of actually appearing in the TV series and... well, being Waspinator. So I’d call it a tie between the two. Still, given the lack of importance in Beast Wars mythology, I’d say that Buzz Saw is only for Beast Wars completists and rabid beast-former fanatics, everyone else should stick to getting an actual Waspinator.

Rating: B