Beast Wars Neo Rartorata

Series: Beast Wars Neo
Year: 1999
Allegiance: Unicron
Class: Deluxe Blendtron

Prelude: Rartorata (aka Latolata aka ラートラータ Rātorāta) is not a Transformer that will win a beauty contest, you know? Now you might easily mistake him for the Beast Wars Fuzor Injector, but they are most definitely entirely different guys. So let us, dear Reader, take a brief trip into the world of Japanese Beast Wars lore and take a look at this beautiful Blentron here. What’s a Blentron, you might ask? You will find out. Let’s say go!

Robot Mode: Like his fellow Blentrons Drancron and Elphorpha, Ratorata, too, is a repaint of a Beast Wars Fuzor, in his case Injector. Unlike those other two, however, the repaint is so minimalistic that one could easily confuse one for the other. In fact, they look nearly identical, the only differences are the upper legs and arms, where Injector’s full black has been replaced with a somewhat lighter shade (looks almost green in the pictures, but it’s actually more of a charcoal grey). That’s it. Well, not entirely. Instead of a Predacon rubsign, Rartorata has a Blentron one. Now we’re done. So basically, you’re getting the exact same figure at the much higher price of a Japanese import.

Seeing as it’s been a while since I reviewed Injector (nineteen years, really? Damn, I’ve been doing this for too long), we can afford to take another look at this figure here, I think.

In a toy line that had the courage to make its figures inhuman, asymmetrical and oftentimes downright bizarre-looking, Rartorata might just take first place for the most out-there design. A huge, huge head with a huge fin on top sits on a relatively spindly body with wings and carries a huge missile launcher on his right arm, too. Articulation is as excellent as you’d expect from a Beast Wars figure, it’s ball joints throughout, and despite his large head, he has no trouble balancing in most poses. Additionally, you can open up Rartorata’s huge mouth to get the most of those pearly whites. Rartorata is so ugly a design, it’s almost beautiful.

Apart from his “ceremonial rapid-fire poison arrow launcher“ (a missile launcher from a time when those actually launched a missile), Rartorata also contains a second weapon gimmick. Pressing a plate on the back of his head tips it forward and those fins on top of his head fold out to skewer some poor, unfortunate Maximal.

Bottom line: Rartorata is definitely a very bizzare design, even by Beast Wars standards. Given that, though, he is pretty cool.

Alternate Mode: Being a Fuzor (or Blentron), Rartorata’s beast mode is a fusion of two different animals. The head is that of a lionfish, the body is a hornet. One has to wonder where exactly Rartorata happened to scan this weird combination of animals for his beast mode. Anyway, the result is, just like the robot mode, bizarre. A hornet with the head of a lionfish. That pretty much describes it, I think.

The wings are articulated due to ball joints, as are the six legs. The missile launcher becomes the stinger on the hornet’s rear end and the gimmick with the head fins works in this mode as well, of course. Not much more I can write here that the pictures don’t tell better. A very weird beast mode for certain, but oddly beautiful.

Remarks: The Blentrons were minions of Unicron in the Japanese Beast Wars Neo cartoon series. Massively powerful and ugly as sin (Rartorata especially), they were the quintessential Japanese bad guy monsters. They had multiple encounters with both Maximals and Predacons (Seibertrons and Destrons, rather) during the TV show and easily cleaned their clocks most of the time. In the end they succeeded in aiding their master Unicron to take over Cybertron as his new body. Their reward? When Unicron ran low on power, he absorbed his minions to bolster his strength. Working for evil overlords has few perks, I always say.

Reading my old review about Injector, I was not a fan of this figure back in 2006. Today it’s still far from my favorite figure, but I seem to have developed a certain appreciation for its courageous ugliness. There are few other Transformers toys comparable to Rartorata, which makes him very distinct. Bottom line: while still my least favorite of the three Blentrons, I am happy to have acquired him, despite already owning Injector. What can I say? I’m nuts about Beast Wars.

Rating: C+