Transformers Beast Wars Transmetal Mega class Optimus Primal: ... the heck is Mega class?

What do you do when your repeat visit with Transformers Generation 2 fails spectacularly? You use your new assets in the form of Kenner, tell them to go nuts, and as a result, they turn everyone into robots with biological animal bits, then robot animals with biological robots, then a fusion of the two while also deciding to throw animals together... along with implementing franchise wide improvements like ball joints, the move from Die-cast metal to plastic, size classes, having a show that isn't all about selling new toys (ok not everyone adopted that one but there have been some great shows that have), helping to pioneer 3D animation for television... basically there isn't much to mock Beast wars of. While I wait patiently for my foot to heal so that I don't need to roll the dice with select stores and how they handle stock cataloging on their sites, I figured I would go back and review the one Beast Wars figure I personally own, before I eventually review Power of the Primes Optimal Optimus... and maybe one day that Masterpiece Primal if I can find one, that just looks great. Anyway, come and take a trip with me to the distant past of 1998, as we tackle a Transmetal gorilla.

Before going into the toy itself, I think its best to tackle the two big questions you're probably asking. "What is Mega Class?" and "What in Primus' name is a Transmetal?" Let's start with the easy one first. In Beast Wars, the size classes weren't Legends, Deluxe, Voyager and Leader, they were (from smallest to largest) Basic, Deluxe, Mega, Ultra, and Super, though that last one only had one figure, the original Optimal Optimus. Mega-class is a little shorter than the current series Voyager class figures, I put Primal next to Hun-Gurrr and he came up to around his shoulder, but there is quite a bit more weight in Primal then there is in Hunger (yes I will run this joke into the ground). The plastic's definitely thicker in Primal then it is in Hun-Garrr and for a toy that was made when I was two years old, it doesn't feel like time has taken its toll on it. It's not like a lot of older toys where a part of you feels like you need to be gentle because it becomes frail over time. It's honestly quite impressive, and apparently, a step up compared to his Predacon opposite in Megatron suffering from the dreaded Gold Plastic Syndrome (if I ever get a Transmetal Megatron, I'll talk about it then, it's not important for here).

As for what a Transmetal is, in Beast Wars' third year of release, instead of looking for more animal ideas, the designers decided to mix up the animals they already had. Half of the ideas went into "Fuzors" which are sadly not combiners, but instead animals that were a combination of two different type of animal. Wolf and bird, Snake and Scorpion, a lionfish and hornet? The team working on these were clearly trying to find the strangest combinations possible for some of these toys. On the other end of the spectrum, the designers that clearly weren't taking anywhere near the same amount of Acid the Fuzors team was, came up with Transmetals. The main gimmicks for the Transmetal figures were a reversal of the designs from 1996 and 1997, being robotic looking animals and fleshy looking robots, and each Transmetal having a pseudo third mode. I'll explain how that one works in a moment with Primal.

Now getting onto the actual toy, Optimus Primal in beast mode is a robotic gorilla. Grey arms with lots of tech details, a bright chrome blue chest and head which to my surprise is not only still almost flawless on my copy (some detailing not included as that's become a bit grey), but unlike a lot of modern-day chrome on toys, is really hard to smudge. On my past experiences with chrome, I found that it was really easy for smudges thanks to some residue on my fingers, its why I honestly couldn't care less if it was used. But here, I don't know if its the colour or the material, but its almost impossible to either get it to smudge or to at the very least see the smudges. Why can't we have more of this Hasbro? What magic did you use to make this that you cannot replicate?! Anyway, there isn't a lot the gorilla mode can do on its own. The head can't move, however the arms do have full mobility thanks to those also being the robot arms (shock horror, I know). the waist can rotate thanks to transformation and the legs can move on ratchets, but due to other mode kibble, its a little limited. You can at least get him into a gorilla pose. You can store his gun and its ammo (yes you heard me right, the gun has ammo) on the figure, with the gun having a post on the right leg that it can plug into, and the ammo can be plugged into his back. The gorilla mode overall is fine, simple, but fine. It does the job, but there is one more thing it can do.

Know that pseudo third mode I mentioned earlier? Well on Primal, you can use the kibble on the back of the gorilla legs (that will become the robot shins and feet) to create... a surfboard? Officially, its a hoverboard, but it has little wheels on it to let you slide it along surfaces so it can honestly be either. Yeah, this is why I refer to this gimmick as a pseudo third mode. It's like how Transmetal Megatron gets turbines out of his dino legs to fly, Tarantulus gets motorbike wheels under his spider body, and Optimal Optimus... well, lets just say that the reason the Power of the Primes jet mode looks so stupid is because it and every other Transmetal "vehicle mode" had the look of being thrown in at the last moment. Designers moving parts around, seeing what poses they could put figures in and then seeing what was needed to make it look like a vehicle. I still think one of the dumbest is Rattrap's car mode.

To transform Primal into his robot mode, you basically turn him around, open up the compartments to swap mode pieces, and unfold the legs. This guy is pretty basic to transform for better or for worse. He's still a lot of fun to mess around with as it takes 10 seconds to get him from one mode to the other. The sculpting detail is still great in this mode as the new robot chest looks amazing. And this is coming from someone who hated how Beastformers looked thanks to the cyber muscle and metal fur details they kept adding to toys. I especially love the paint and moulded detail on the head, though it really shows how bad the new heads from current toys look by comparison (I'm looking at you Hun-Gar and you pink head). In terms of functionality, he's more poseable now thanks to a head swivel for the robot head, and the lack of robot junk hanging on his gorilla legs let the complete leg be fully poseable. Thighs can move freely and, thanks to transformation, the shins can swivel around and have a 90-degree knee bend. There are two major flaws I have with this toy though. The first is that I wish his backplate stayed in place better, it doesn't lock in place it just rests there and the other...

Let's talk about weaponry. The two shots for the gun you get with this toy can be held as maces, which I personally prefer as the gun has some issues. It feels like a mashup of a spring shooter and a friction fire gun but fails on both fronts. The reason for this is because of how you're meant to fire the gun. A small part of the mace sticks out the other end of the gun and if you push down on it, it releases the locks the gun has on the shot and it fires. The problem is that it sticks out by less than a centimetre and it feels like the only way to fire it is to push down on it (this being a tiny, millimetre diameter post, so it never feels comfortable to fire). Still, though, there are other uses for the gun and ammo at least, including screw holes wide enough for you to arm mount it like the worlds worst fusion cannon.

While I don't think this toy lives up to the hype I've heard about Beast Wars toys, it's hard for me to call this a bad toy. Its still has its charm to it and is still a lot of fun to play with, and gives that nice tease as to what this era had. It's definitely made me curious about the Beast Wars toys and try to collect them (it could take a while cause aftermarket prices could be a big problem). If you can find one and are curious about the Beast era and Optimus's monkey days, pick it up cause you might like what you find. For now, I'm going to work on a review of the Octo Expansion, and next week on here, we're looking at another kind of alien. No, not the kind you're probably thinking of.