Beast Wars Iguanus

Robot Mode: It’s not immediately apparent, but Iguanus is an extensive remold of Beast Wars Basic Megatron (or maybe Megs is a remold of him, considering they came out the same year). He’s got a completely different head (in robot as well as in beast mode) and different colours, of course, but the basic body design is the same, as is the weapon.

Iguanus is a more or less average Beast Wars figure from the first year of that toy series. Meaning he is highly articulate thanks to ball joints, has a high degree of detailing considering his size, and follows the standard transformation pattern most of early Beast Wars figures had (beast head becomes chest). His weapon, a pretty big (compared to him) rifle, emerges from the beast mode’s tail. And, yeah, that’s pretty much all I can think of here. A very nice robot mode, but not in any way special when compared to other Basic-class Beast Wars figures.

Beast Mode: Iguanus transforms into... well, not an iguana, but rather a frill-necked lizard (Chlamydosaurus kingii for the Latin lovers). Okay, both are members of the same family (Iguania), but while actual iguanas are Iguanidae, the frill-necked lizard belongs to the Agamidae. All of which isn’t really important, but I like to look up stuff like that on Wikipedia and then boast about how I used to get straight A’s in biology class before such a thing as Wikipedia even existed. Moving on. The transformation from beast to robot is spring-loaded, you basically just need to unhook the tail, while transforming him from robot to beast basically just involves raising the lizard head on his chest until it clicks into place with the frills and you’re almost done.

As for the actual beast mode, the detailing is very good here, so no complaints. The early Beast Wars toys emphasized a realistic beast mode and (as long as you don’t look at it from below) that’s what you got here. Articulation is minimal, though. The front legs can move a bit, the rear legs are basically static. The mouth can open and close and that’s it. Doesn’t need to be more than that, of course. A very solid beast mode that does exactly what it’s supposed to. So no complaints here, either.

Remarks: Iguanus was not among the Beast Wars figures used for the TV series, but he did appear in both the IDW Beast Wars comics, where he was part of Magmatron’s followers, as well as the aborted “Primeval Dawn” story from 3H Productions, where he was created by Tarantulas to help him destroy the Vok. Either way, Iguanus was always more of a follower than anything else. Also worth noting: despite being advertised, Iguana was never released in Japan, though the mold was reused for the Beast Wars Neo figure Crazybolt.

As a toy Iguanus is nothing special, but yet another fine example of the tremendous leap in quality between Generation 2 and Beast Wars. Fully articulate thanks to ball joints, very nicely detailed, auto transformation gimmick and all that at a Basic (Scout) class price point. What more could you ask for? Recommended to all Beast Wars fanatics.

Rating: B