Kingdom Rattrap

Prelude: Listen up, Chopperface! We’re all gonna die! And since no one died and made you Prime, take that broomstick outta your tailpipe and kiss my skidplate! Oh, for bootin’ up cold! I know, I know, shut up, Rattrap! We can all get reduced to hot burning slag together then. Oh, and we’re also gonna look at the newest toy version of your buddy Rattrap here! Let’s say go, bird dogs!

Robot Mode: Rattrap in robot mode is one of the most fun figures I’ve had in hand in a good long while. He may be small, but he is extremely well articulated, he looks pretty much exactly like Rattrap did in the TV show (both Beast Wars and Kingdom), and he is just so much fun! I know some people have complained that he is too small (even smaller than the original Beast Wars Rattrap figure), but consider that Rattrap was the smallest of the Beast Warriors by far, so it does fit with the rest of the Kingdom Beast Warriors. The Thrilling 30 Rattrap is better scaled with the with Masterpiece Beast Warriors in my opinion.

He comes with a gun as his sole accessory and that’s all he needs, too. And… yeah, that’s really all there is to it. A perfect little robot, so much fun, so versatile, and portraying one of the best TF characters ever made. Two thumbs up for the robot mode, Chopperface!

Alternate Mode: Unsurprisingly Rattrap transformers into a rat. The transformation is more complex than one would guess, but still pretty easy. Well, mostly. While the rat mode doesn’t look bad as such (a bit overfed maybe), it does have several drawbacks. For one there is the fact that the rear end is assembled by pegging in both the robot arms and robot legs in a very specific way and it’s very difficult to get it all properly pegged in at the same time. This is the kind of thing that causes mentally sound people to imagine sprees of violence. Also, you end up with a rat with robot fists looking out its butt.

One other thing worth mentioning: what’s up with the rat’s nose? It looks like Rattrap got into the powdered sugar supply (or worse) just before the photo shooting. One doesn’t really notice it in robot mode, but in rat mode the way the nose is painted just looks wrong. Also, while I did not expect a highly articulated rat mode in this size class, I would have liked at least some minor articulation. Rattrap can move his rear feet a bit, but that’s it.

So bottom line: the rat mode isn’t bad, but I recommend leaving Rattrap in robot mode. He is so much better there, Boss Monkey!

Remarks: Rattrap was one of many stand-out characters in Beast Wars. He was the snarky complainer, who would rather munch garbage than fight Predacons. He dissed his own leader, he had epic battles of words with Dinobot (who was voiced by the same guy, too), and he kicked more Predacon skidplate than most of his comrades, too. Rattrap is, to this day, one of my all-time favorite Transformers characters.

The Kingdom toyline introduced the new Core Class (really the former Basic / Scout / Legends class) and Rattrap is the only show character for whom it’s the proper scale. I was kind of prepared to pass on this figure in favor of the Thrilling 30 version, but Rattrap’s robot mode is just too much fun. Now I’m just hoping we’re going to get a Transmetal Rattrap one of these days, preferably without flaking chrome paint.

Bottom line: a great robot with a mediocre beast mode. Well worth getting for the Beast Wars fan.

Rating: B+

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