Beast Wars Rattrap (Fox Kids Transmetal)

Series: Beast Wars
Allegiance: Maximal
Categories: Deluxe Transmetal
Year: 2000

Following the quantum surge, Rattrap gained the advantage of a meched-out armor shell and a swift dragster vehicle mode. A top-notch soldier, his fellow Maximals rely on his reconnaissance reports to locate enemy outposts. The new hot rod mode has increased his speed and agility on the battlefield, and a powerful, battle-whip blade that he wields while in robot mode has made him a powerful adversary to all Predacons.

Remarks: This version of Rattrap is a straight-up repaint of Transmetal Rattrap, just like Walmart Rattrap, both of whom I have reviewed previously. Thus just some words on the differences here.

At the tail end of the Beast Wars toyline a number of toys were recolored as ‘Fox Kids’ versions. Not sure how exactly the Fox Kids TV station was involved there (apart from showing the Beast Wars TV series) and what the designers had in mind with the new colors, but the result is that we now have a red Transmetal Rattrap to go with the blue and brown ones we already had. A different shade of grey for most of the robot bits and a bright “BURNING JUSTICE!” red for the beast/vehicle shell look pretty good on him. Plus, Transmetal Rattrap is a pretty cool figure to begin with and it doesn’t hurt that it depicts one of my all-time favorite Transformers characters, too.

And... yeah, that’s pretty much it. Same good figure, new colors, and a packaging that already advertises the follow-up series Beast Machines. Now did we really need another version of Transmetal Rattrap? Certainly not. But he looks good in red and if you’re a Beast Wars fanatic like me, that’s more than good enough a reason to get him. If you’re not a completist, though, I advise sticking with the original version of the stainless steel rat.

Rating: B