Hasbro is calling them Transformers Prime: Beast Hunters, but thatās not what Iām calling the upcoming third season of the animated series and the corresponding toys. A dragon that transforms into a robot and a red-and-blue figure thatās vaguely reminiscent of the original Optimus Prime? These are the new Beast Wars, my friends, and theyāre pretty damn spiky.
Perhaps itās just the hope talking. After all, this is the new continuity, and the adventures of Optimus Primal and talk-to-the-T-rex-head-hand Megatron are no longer a going concern. On the plus side, it means that the ending of the Beast Machines series (Cybertron becomes a lush natural utopia and a rat mates with a house plant) never happened. It also means that the Beast Wars series proper, featuring the greatest writing and characterization of any Transformers series, isnāt a thing anymore.
Beast Hunters could be this continuityās Beast Wars. While the Autobots deal with the fallout of season twoās finale, a new threat arrives on Earth in the form of the Predacons, a race of animalistic Transformers created by Shockwave. Turns out old one-eye wasnāt done messing with animal life after creating the Insecticons and Dinobots, as seen in the Transformers: Fall of Cybertron video game. He kept going, splicing together beast and machine. He was probably surprised when he lost control of them. Heās pretty stupid for a super-genius.
And so we come to Beast Hunters. The Autobots and Decepticons have to reconfigure themselves to deal with this new threat, a process that involves lots of spikes. Seriously, these things have spikes all over the place. Just look at the first wave of Deluxe figures.
Those are some spiky robots.
And spiky vehicles too, but Iām not here to talk about the Deluxe figures, which have been showing up on shelves for a couple months now. Weāre here to talk about the first two Voyager-class figures, the obligatory Optimus Prime and the verging-on-blasphemy Predaking.
Oh fine, here are four incredibly quick reviews of the deluxe figures. Bumblebee ā overcompensating. Soundwave ā still a skinny pain-in-the-ass. Wheeljack ā spikes make transforming him a joy (lying). Lazerback ā vicious duck creature. Could use more spikes.
Now that thatās over with, on to the main event, starting with the man himselfā¦
Optimus Prime
One look at this figureās robot form is all it takes to recognize the leader of the Autobots. He might have wings, a jetpack and Rob Leifeld shoulder pads, but this magnificent bastard is definitely the keeper of the Matrix of Leadership.
Heās just a little bit angry about the green-tinted windows.
Splashes of unfamiliar color seem to be a theme with the reformatted āBots and āCons of the Beast Hunters line. Most of the Deluxe figures sport oddly-compelling mottled plastic, riddled with swirls of color. Optimus isnāt having any of that nonsense. Heās red and blue, with windows colored to match the green plastic of the mighty Star Saber he wields.
Heās a bot with a backpack, a streamlined figure that houses all the ancillary vehicle bits in condense form on his back. Tucking it all away without looking at the instructions is a bit of a choreāhe wasnāt quite transformed all the way in the packageābut once you get it right the configuration makes sense.
And hey, that backpackās not just for show. Eons of evolution have failed to grant most Autobots the power of flight, but it looks like theyāve finally figured out the jetpack. Good for them.
Optimus Primeās vehicle mode is a larger departure from what weāve come to expect than his robot form. Heās been a semi, a fire truck and a missile-toting military vehicle, but Iām not exactly sure what sort of truck heās supposed to be this time around.
Some kind of safari vehicle, perhaps? Heās sort of a jumbled mess in vehicle mode, really. Itās the wings. Theyāre a crutch. Instead of giving the vehicle form any sort of interesting back end, the designers have used the wings to haphazardly cover up Optimusā arms. The jetpack folds down over top of them, and the wings themselves fold over the side. Itās obvious this truck is trying to hide something.
Itās a very peg-heavy vehicle formālots of tabs fitting into holes in order to make everything fit. Iām not terribly fond of that style of transformation. It feels like cheating.
Iāll be displaying Optimus Prime in his robot form, which is just fine. Heāll need to be ready to deal with the new big baddie in townā¦
Predaking
His name is Predaking, but in my heart heās just impostor dragon guy. To me Predaking will always be the massive gestalt from the first generation of Transformers, a fusion of five Predacons, the deadliest hunter in the universe. I only ever owned Razorclaw, the leonine team leader. Never collecting the whole set is one of my biggest regrets.
Hello, stupid dragon face.
Heās got the colors right, Iāll give him that.
Instead of five different animals combined into one, Beast Huntersā Predaking is a single entity with three heads, two of which are semi-sentient and the other is not really Predaking so heās a jerk. Iāll get over this eventually.
Heās actually a rather impressive beast with an impressive amount of detail, at least mold-wise. The paint detailing differs a bit from whatās on the back of the packaging, especially in the wing area. The box shows the orange wings punctuated by black edge accents, which are nowhere to be found on the actual toy.
The wings are still impressive, though the joint holding the larger portion to the rest of the assembly is loose past a certain angle, falling to Predakingās sides limply and limiting poseability.
Iām also not sure how I feel about the semi-sentient dragon cannons. Theyāve got lovely detail on the molding, but again they could have used a little detail work. Still, theyāre removable, add a little play-action to the figure and can even be combined to fire simultaneously. If only they came in black.
Why hello there, tall, dark and menacing.
Predakingās transformation from dragon to robot is evocative of the Dinobots of old. The tip of his tail comes off to become a sword. The thick end of the tail splits in two, tiny dragon legs flipping away inside, leaving no indication that they were ever there. Tricky!
The top is more straightforward. The dragon head folds back, the bot head comes out of the chest cavity, and the forelegs become arms.
Predaking the robot cuts a menacing figure, retaining much of his bestial features without re-using everything that made him a dragon. Those feet, for instance, were not feet in dragon form ā they were the dragonās waist, more or less.
I particularly love the wings in robot form, riding low on Predakingās body like heās some sort of metallic demon. This is a villain I can believe in.
If the battle between the Autobots and Predacons came down to a beauty pageant, Predaking would surely come out on top, thanks to the advantage of not needing to fit an established archetype. Too many sacrifices were made to make Optimus look like Optimus. Heās not a bad figureāI adore his robot formābut that vehicle mode was phoned in. Predaking may share a name with one of the greatest Decepticons, but heās his own ābot, and that makes all the difference.
