Beast Hunters Ripclaw

Robot Mode: Ripclaw manages the difficult task of looking both feminine and monstrous at the same time. Her body is slim, lean, and has some definite feminine curves to it (though more starved supermodel than sexy lady), but her head, the claws, and the dragon tail and wings manage to stifle any and all erotic thoughts some fanboys might have had quite well, thank you very much (at least I hope so).

Ripclaw’s robot mode leaves little doubt what she transforms into, featuring numerous elements from her beast mode as mentioned above, as well as having claws for hands and feet. I wasn’t sure about the paint job at first, but holding this toy in hand I must say that the combination of colors works very nicely here. Articulation is also top notch and dynamic poses are no problem at all, aided by the fact that Ripclaw can use her tail for added stability. The shoulder plates do hinder the arms a bit, but since the plates are on separate hinges than the actual shoulders, you can adjust them in most poses.

As a weapon Ripclaw carries the Omega Supreme memorial claw, or Siphon Claw, as its officially called, which she can hold in either hand or fasten to the end of her tail (which looks better in beast mode, I might add). The three digits of the claw can open up and fasten around the torso of another Transformer in order to siphon something (probably his life force or some such). A very nice weapon.

So bottom line: Ripclaw is a very nice robot for anyone who isn’t immediately put off by her undeniable beastformer-ness.

Beast Mode: Like roughly 90 percent of all Transformers who transform into four-legged beasts, Ripclaw does so basically by going down on all fours and switching heads. There is a bit more involved, though, such as some shifting of the torso and moving her thigh plates down to make for skinnier rear legs. All in all a simple, but very effective transformation into a very nice looking dragon.

Ripclaw is a traditional Western dragon in that she has four legs, a tail, a long neck, and wings to go with it. All four legs retain their full articulation, the head can move side to side a bit and open its jaw, and the tail can bend in quite a few ways, too. Whether or not you fasten Ripclaws big Siphon Claw to the end of the tail is up to you, but I think it looks quite fetching and menacing. So all in all a very nice beast mode and probably the most dragon-y dragon of the Predacons so far.

Remarks: And here we have Ripclaw, a racy beauty from Cybertron. Her hobbies are rending, tearing, mauling, and aiding the cause of the Predacon army in destroying both Autobots and Decepticons. Which, you know, would end their war and… yeah, world peace! She definitely wants world peace! Ripclaw is looking to make it big on the TV screen in the current season of Transformers Prime, but she’s still waiting to hear back from her agent. She did show her acting props in the pages of the Transformers Prime: Rage of the Dinobots comic book (using the stage name Ser-Ket) and we can be fairly certain that it won’t be the last we see of this wild, wild lady.

As a toy Ripclaw is a very nice beast-former. Whether you like the fact that she becomes a cybernetic dragon is, of course, highly subjective, but if you do, then there is absolutely nothing wrong with this figure here. Two good modes, great color scheme, nice weapon, and a bit of bonus props to Prime for giving us another female character, the third in fact, which might just be a record, at least in terms of dedicated molds. So bottom line: if you like beast-formers, buy this one!

Rating: B+