Legacy United Tasmania Kid

Prelude: Remember Snarl? No, not the Dinobot from G1, the other Snarl. No, not the lion from Beast Machines, either. The other other Snarl. Beast Wars Snarl! Remember him? Well, he is back in Legacy United. Given that most people think of the Dinobot first, though, when they hear the name Snarl, he was instead given the name of his Japanese Beast Wars 2 incarnation, Tasmania Kid. So, ready your Japanese dictionary, yell 変身(HENSHIN!) at the top of your lungs, and let’s say go!

Robot Mode: Let us start by comparing Tasmania Kid to the toy he pays homage to, Beast Wars Snarl (aka Beast Wars 2 Tasmania Kid). The new Core Class figure is slightly smaller than the original Basic figure, but it’s quite clearly meant to be the same character. The animators for the Beast Wars 2 cartoon did make some changes, especially when it came to the character’s head when compared to the toy, and the new Legacy figure reflects that very nicely. The head is a dead ringer for Tasmania Kid as he appeared in the cartoon.

Sure, the lower jaw of the beast mode that forms the robot’s chest is fake, the actual lower jaw is the heel spurs, but personally that does not bother me much. The figure just looks so much like the cartoon character, it’s brilliant. Okay, in the cartoon his rucksack looks a lot smaller than on the figure here, but a transforming toy still must obey physics, you know? Unlike a cartoon character.

Tasmania Kid is very well articulated thanks to being balljointed throughout. He needs to be, really, because his transformation basically requires him to cross his ankles behind his head. I need a few more Yoga classes before I get there. His main weapon is a gun made from his beast mode tail, which he can plug into the 5mm holes in either forearm. On the original figure this was a missile launcher, but seeing as Hasbro seems to have a phobia about spring-loaded gimmicks these days, it’s just a sculpted gun here. You can also turn it around and imagine it as some kind of armblade if you want.

Instead of the standard fists-with-holes in them he has flat hands on a ball-jointed wrist. There is a small peg-hole in his palm (3mm), which doesn’t fit most Transformers weapons. It does fit the muzzle of his arm gun, though, which he can thus balance on his palm… which looks really weird and I don’t really see the point.

So bottom line for the robot mode: pretty great. The character is captured to a T, the robot is nicely articulated, and unless you really don’t like fake parts (the lower jaw on the chest), I really so no grounds for complaint here.

Alternate Mode: Unsurprisingly the Transformers known as Tasmania Kid transforms into a Tasmanian Devil. The transformation is mostly the same as with the original figure, only this time the robot arms become the hind legs, not the forelegs. It is also, in my opinion, a closer match to an actual Tasmanian Devil than the original Beast Wars toy, who looked more like a rabid squirrel in my book. The hind legs are maybe a bit too large when compared to the forelegs and if you look at him from below, you still see the fake lower jaw on his chest, but otherwise, this Tasmanian Devil looks pretty good.

A few minor complaints, though: The way the Devil’s head is assembled, it looks a bit like Tasmania Kid has a badly-healed lobotomy scar up there. And second, it’s not easy to put the Devil in a natural-looking running pose, as the front legs can only swivel at the shoulders, while the hind legs can only move at the knees. So bottom line for the beast mode: looking good, but a few things could have been improved.

Remarks: Tasmania Kid (not to be confused with the Tasmanian Devil from Looney Tunes or ECW wrestler the Tazmaniac aka Taz the Human Suplex Machine) was originally simply known as Kid in the Japanese Beast Wars 2 cartoon, before he accidentally scanned a Tasmanian devil for his alternate mode (he had been aiming at an eagle). In the series he was your typical young hothead, eager to prove himself to his comrades, but dismissive of things like planning, training, etc. He was the stand-in character for the watching kids, usually learning a valuable lesson every other episode or so. I am still unsure how much sense it makes in-story for him to call himself Tasmania Kid (given that the Maximals had no idea they were on a future Earth and probably never heard of Tasmania or a Tasmanian Devil before anyway), but I am probably overthinking this.

As mentioned above, I assume that Hasbro decided to go with the Japanese name of the toy simply because we already have a Core-Class Snarl in the Legacy line, depicting the far more famous G1 Dinobot. It does mean we have our third Beast Wars 2 character to reappear in the last few years after Legacy Evolution Lio Convoy and Kingdom Skywarp. Looking good, Hasbro, now get to it and bring me a new Beast Wars II Galvatron, complete with the vibrato… eh, I mean, drill tank mode.

So bottom line for this figure here, pretty good. The beast mode could use some improvements, especially a more cohesive-looking head, but the robot mode is excellent and very nicely captures the character from the Japanese cartoon. So if you are a Beast Wars fan like me, you will certainly enjoy this figure. Not sure how attractive he is to people who are not into beastformers, though.

Rating: B

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