Beast Wars Razorclaw (Video Edition)

Series: Beast Wars
Allegiance: Predacon
Categories: Basic
Year: 1998

Capable of remaining motionless beneath a layer of sand, Razorclaw is one of the best quick attack specialists they've got. When enemies approach his hidden location, his powerful pincer claw shoots up through the surface to capture and impale victims with the claw's protruding cyber-spikes. Radar-defeating shell armor allows him to stay cloaked from Maximal sensors. Blaster rifle in secondary claw fires disrupter particles, temporarily paralyzing his unsuspecting prey.

Prelude: This ‘Video Edition’ Razorclaw is a repaint of the original 1997 Beast Wars Razorclaw, whom I have previously reviewed. Seeing as it’s been over seven years, though, I think I can take another crack at him.

Robot Mode: Razorclaw is a Basic-sized robot (today’s Scout-/Commander class) and is a rather typical Beast Wars figure in that he comes fully ball-jointed and is thus very nicely articulated. He carries most of his beast mode on his back in the form of two wing-like halves that fold together when he transforms and the folded-back crab legs. His most striking features are, of course, the two differently-sized claws, the larger one containing flip-out blades, and the smaller one sporting a gun barrel.

Video Edition Razorclaw has a far more elaborate paint job than his predecessor, coming mostly in teal and maroon with numerous color highlights that bring out the detailing of the mold a lot better in my opinion. Add a nicely sculpted head and no flaws worth mentioning and you have a pretty good Beast Wars robot. No complaints.

Beast Mode: Razorclaw transforms into a male fiddler crab (Uca Pugnax for the Latin lovers), now mostly maroon with teal-colored legs. It’s basically the robot lying on his stomach with the legs tugged in, the feet sticking out back a bit. That’s about the only flaw, though. The claws of the robot remain the claws of the crab and their gimmicks still work, naturally. So bottom line a good, if a bit unspectacular beast mode. No complaints here, either.

Remarks: There were several Video Edition figures in the Beast Wars toyline, early toys that got repainted and were packaged with a VHS tape containing two Beast Wars TV episode, in this case the first two episodes of season 2, “Aftermath” and “Coming of the Fuzors, Part 1” (neither of which featured Razorclaw). Kids, VHS tapes were those things us old people had back in the day instead of DVDs and BlueRays. Look it up on Wikipedia.

Razorclaw never appeared in the Beast Wars TV series and had but background appearances in the comic books, but the toy is definitely one of the better Basic-sized Beast Wars figures in my opinion. Certainly not a revelation, but very nicely done. And while it’s certainly not necessary to get both versions of the mold, I personally find the Video Edition paint job much better than the original one. So if you plan on getting one of these boys, I recommend getting this one here.

Rating: B-