Thrilling 30 Waspinator

Robot Mode: The original Waspinator toy was an okay figure, boosted by the fact that it displayed one of Beast Wars’ most popular characters. Now, though, we have a Waspinator toy that is both the spitting image of the TV character and a very good toy on its own as well. The head – starting on top – is a far better likeness than that of the original figure and the loss of the mutant head gimmick doesn’t hurt anyone, I think. This is clearly Waspinator in all his speech-impaired glory.

The basic design of the figure is mostly unchanged, still having the big bug eyes as chest and the stripy wasp butt sticking out back. Said butt also contains Waspinator’s weapon, another similarity to the original toy, but it’s not a missile launcher this time. You can either flip out the stinger barrel here or leave it folded in, giving you either a long or a short weapon for Waspinator’s hands.

Articulation and detailing are both top notch, no complaints here at all. Everything locks solidly into place, so there is no wobbling or anything, either. The insect legs on the arms still get in the way at times, but unlike the original toy you can turn them around here, so moving them out of the way for dynamic poses is not a problem. Oh, and Waspinator is completely ball-jointed, meaning you can easily pull him apart for that authentic blown-to-bits look that Waspinator did so well in the TV series. So bottom line: a great robot mode, a great Waspinator. No complaints.

Beast Mode: Not much of a stretch, Waspinator becomes a wasp. A green, female wasp to be precise (as male wasps don’t have stingers). Now the original BW Waspinator had a bit of a problem here as it didn’t know where to put the robot legs. Generations Waspinator folds up his legs, making for a slightly fat-looking wasp, but at least he now has six identically-sized insect legs instead of four small and two giant ones. The wasp features a lever on its back for wing-flapping action (works in robot mode, too, by the way). The only downsides here are that you can see the robot arms lying snug against the sides of the wasp. Apart from that, though, a good wasp mode.

Remarks: Beast Wars featured quite a few characters that went on to become lasting fan favorites and Waspinator is definitely one of them. He was originally introduced as a running gag (the guy gets blown apart every other episode) and was supposed to be killed off in the finale of season 1 to make room for new characters (read: new toys), but both fans and writers liked him so much that he endured. Waspinator has since been seen in Animated and the G1-based IDW comics (the pack-in comic is his first appearance in IDW continuity), having firmly established himself as a cross-continuity character.

The Generations line finally gives us a pretty great Waspinator toy. Compared to the other Generations Beast Warriors we’ve gotten so far, I’d call him slightly better than Rattrap and slightly below the brilliance that is Rhinox. So bottom line, a must-have for everyone who is even slightly a fan of Beast Wars or Waspinator.

Rating: A-