Beast Wars Spittor (Video Edition)

Prelude: I wrote a review for the first Beast Wars Spittor back in 2006. Seeing as it’s been over seven years, though, I think we can give this guy another go.

Robot Mode: It’s not hard to see that this robot transforms into a beast and figuring out that it’s a frog or at the very least something amphibian is not that difficult, either. Spittor has the head of his beast mode as a chest and the long rear legs of the frog become his (overly long) arms. Interestingly enough his legs feature webbed feet, despite them not becoming frog legs in the beast mode. Thanks to ball joints Spittor is a very posable robot, so no complaints here.

Apart from his long arms, Spittor’s most notable feature is his neck gimmick. A black lever on his lower back can make his neck extend upwards quite a distance, making him the Transformers version of Mechaneck from Masters of the Universe. The gimmick is actually meant for the beast mode, of course (see below), but works here, too, and is kind of hilarious. Sadly he lacks any kind of hand weapon. So bottom line: a nice basic robot mode, no obvious flaws, but clearly not the focus of the figure.

Beast Mode: Spittor transforms into a poisonous frog. Now the original Spittor figure was a dark blue and had yellow spots on his back, conveying a nice, poisonous image. This repaint here, though, is red with yellow... stuff. There is bar codes, an arrow, and numbers. Don’t ask me, I have no idea. It’s probably somewhat connected to the fact that the real Transmetal figures have their names written on their beast mode skin, but why they replaced that with bar codes and numbers... I’m drawing a blank.

Apart from the strange paint detailing, this is the same excellent beast mode it was for the first release. Fully articulated hind legs make leaping poses easy, the mouth can open and the somewhat hilarious neck gimmick in robot mode becomes a poisonous tongue gimmick here. Okay, the tongue has the robot mode head as its tip, but still: a pretty neat gimmick for such a small figure. So bottom line: a very nice beast mode with a cool gimmick. Just a very strange paint job.

Remarks: Spittor is one of many Beast Wars characters that was created solely for the toyline and never appeared in the TV series. He did appear in both the 3H Production “Transformers Universe: The Wreckers” comic series as well as in IDW’s Beast Wars comics, though (and died in both). This particular version of Spittor here was a European exclusive figure, repainted as a “Transmetal” (despite lacking both the chromed parts and the third mode typical of Transmetal toys) and sold with a VCR type containing the Beast Wars episode “Coming of the Fuzors, Part 1”. Actually this makes him the only no-show character in the Beast Wars toyline to have a normal, a Transmetal, and a Transmetal 2 figure. Lazily, though, the packaging art and profile text remain unchanged from the first release of the figure.

As a toy Spittor is nothing more and nothing less than a repaint of the first Spittor. In direct comparison I must say that the paint job of the first Spittor is far superior, looking dangerous and poisonous instead of flashy and nonsensical, so unless you are a Beast Wars completist like me, I’d recommend getting that one instead of this one here. Still, a very nice figure given the size class and worth it for Beast Wars fans.

Rating: B-