Bot Reviews: Transformers: Kingdom Deluxe Covert Agent Ravage, with Decepticons Forever Ravage

Over the years, I’ve been lucky enough to have gotten to own most of my Transformers grails. It helps that they tend to be weird niche things, rather than the kind of large, pricey old thing that most people’s grails are. But there’s one that’s evaded me, ever since I first looked at images of it back in the 90s: Beast Wars Metals Ravage X-9. However, this new exclusive figure that I actually did get may have rendered that quest moot. But let’s back up.

In the three-part finale of the second season of Beast Wars, “The Agenda,” we were re-introduced to the classic Generation 1 character, Ravage. Formerly one of Soundwave’s original minions, changing from cassette to big cat, he’d been rebuilt into a humanoid Predacon (and could now talk, in a thick Russian accent), though he still had his old cassette tape altmode. His deal was that he was a government operative who’d been sent to the world of the Beast Wars to aid the Maximals instead of the Predacons, since this version of Megatron was an outlaw even to his own people. It was a really great set of episodes, and Ravage being there as a cool, collected, Cold War-esque special ops agent wasn’t even the only cool twist, but I won’t spoil the rest here, on the off chance you haven’t watched it (and you should).

If it wasn’t clear from the fact that he changed into a cassette tape, this new Ravage was a part of the Nightbird/Autobot X/Transmutate/Etc. Club, in that he’d been created by the show, not by the toyline, so he didn’t have any plastic representation, until a couple years later. The Takara release of the toyline, Beast Wars Metals, lagged behind the Western one, so they used the extra lead-time to add Ravage to the line, by extensively retooling Transmetal Cheetor, giving him a beast mode as a result. Naturally, as a Takara-only figure in high demand, he goes for crazy amounts of money on the aftermarket, and it wasn’t until Kingdom that we finally saw a new version.

The new version in question, Covert Agent Ravage, is also a bit hard to find, as a Hasbro Pulse exclusive in the US, and a Gamestop exclusive in Canada. Nonetheless, I managed to snag one, giving me a belated chance to own a character from one of the best parts of one of the best Transformers shows. He’s an extensive retooling of Kingdom Cheetor this time, but changes enough things that I’m going to give him a fresh look, before moving on to the other stuff in the box.

Robot Mode

Ravage may be a Deluxe, but he’s a meaty Deluxe, giving the impression of size and heft in hand. The fact that he’s taller and thicker than Cheetor helps. He’s basically a humanoid panther-person, with a barrel chest, and is actually impressively show-accurate for a retool. His chest, his funky belt with the red buckle, the patterns on his thighs, all of the bashed-together parts of his CGI model from the show are faithfully represented. Basically, two big things are different from his show appearance: his lower legs, which are just Kingdom Cheetor’s, and his cat-mode legs hanging off his back.

In fact, I think those might be the only parts they kept from Cheetor. Also, I checked, he has a tail on the show, too, they didn’t make that up. As a bonus, this is definitely more show-accurate than the old Metals figure was.

Ravage’s head is among the totally new parts, and isn’t just show-accurate, but also very expressive, thanks to his opening and closing mouth.

The little dome on his head has mold flash on it, though, and I’ve heard every copy of the figure does.

Speaking of that, he does have some visual jank with his proportions, namely that his arms are oddly puny-looking, with his forearms in particular being noodle-thin. Also, having a joint cut in his shoulders means he’s missing his Decepticon tattoo on one shoulder, and his Predacon one on the other one is off-center. On top of that, his head isn’t actually attached to his neck, but to a ball-joint behind it, and it’s really clear that it’s just hovering there. There’s nothing here that’s too noticeable, and it doesn’t overwhelm his sheer presence, but it is a bunch of small little disappointments.

For colors, Ravage is mostly black and metallic silver-grey. It’s a black that doesn’t photograph well, but in person it doesn’t suck up the details as much. The silvery-grey in both paint and plastic form is a nice shade, too. He also has some gold and red, and in particular, piercingly red eyes. I really love that his teeth and tongue are painted, too.

Unfortunately, that Retool Jank that I mentioned before extends past the visuals, and into how he handles. On my copy, the mushroom peg that his left bicep swivel is on was a bit warped, making it pop out easily, but I seem to have broken it in over time. In addition, a lot of his arm and leg joints feel weirdly stuff and tight. Plus, he’s not as stable as I’d like on his tiny feet, which worked well on Cheetor, but less so here, thanks to his additional size and mass. Still, he can also rest on his tail, which helps if you want him to lean back.

Still, overall, he kind of has a creaky handfeel to him. It makes me get a sense that this is the same kind of gonzo unplanned retool like Takara would sometimes do, with mixed results, though it’s not nearly as bad as, say, Star Convoy (but not as good as Super Megatron).

Still, beneath those shaky hand-feelings, he’s the joints you’d expect. Ankles, knees, hips, a waist, even wrist and bicep swivels, on top of universal shoulders, that odd neck, and that articulated jaw.  Speaking of that odd neck, it means that his head doesn’t move side-to-side as much as I’d like. I wish it could twist more. Build quality aside, though, he communicates personality really well, which goes a long way on this guy. He’s a cool, collected Cold War-esque special ops agent, who nonetheless has a vicious side.

Ravage’s two accessories were a big part of his coolness on the show: A pair of oversized blasters, based on his G1 weapons. He can hold them nicely, and they can also clip onto his thighs, like on the show.

They’re two-tone black and silver-grey, like his body. Initially, they looked kind of oversized to my eyes, but then I realized they were that big on the show, and the old Metals toy came with versions that were just puny. Importantly, he looks really nice doing double-shooting poses with them, especially if you lean him on his tail for some midair-dodging. I do wish he had some gimmick integration, though, since the ends of his weapons can’t fit effect parts very well, and he’s only got some leftover-from-Cheetor War for Cybertron accessory ports on the bottoms of his feet.

Transformation

Not gonna lie, this is kind of a pain. See, it’s simple in theory: You open his torso up, cram his arms in, lift his head up, fold his beast forelegs down, and close it all up (oh, and extend his beast legs). In practice, though, there’s a lot of tough points.

His robot arms fold up and clip together, and the outer edges of them form patches of skin that pop into holes in his back, but in practice, they have trouble fitting in, and the wrist swivels often come out of place as you’re fitting it all together. That, and getting everything to tab together is challenging. For something so simple, it’s all more fiddly than I’d like. I might be a bit biased, though, since I know for a fact that this isn’t a transformation I’m really going to do once I’m done taking photos.

Beast Mode

Rather than his cassette altmode (which, to be fair, was blatantly impossible to engineer), Ravage changes into a panther, in what feels a homage to the Metals figure, who also changed into a beast, thanks to also being a Cheetor retool.

Ravage also comes with an assembly error in this mode that’s very common, but easy enough to fix: You need to switch his front legs around at the ball joints, so that his front knees bend properly. The balljoints are a bit scary to pop out due to their tightness, but aren’t going to break.

So, this is a curiously organic-looking alternate mode thanks to all the fur patterns molded into his back, legs, and head, but then he’s got his robotic thighs just hanging out, and his robotic underbelly, plus the little dome on his head, giving him an unintentional cyborg vibe, like he was a Transmetal 2. He’s also a good deal bigger than Cheetor, again, making him at least impressively-sized.

In terms of build quality, while it’s tough to get everything snapped in, he’s pretty stable once it’s all together, at least. And thanks to most of the available joints in this mode having come from Cheetor, he has less of that Creaky Retool feeling. Speaking of Cheetor, he still has that same surprisingly excellent beast mode articulation that made me like him so much, with three joints to each leg. He’s even more articulated than Cheetor was, in fact, since his head’s now on a ball joint.

For features, Ravage’s guns can still clip on his thighs, in the same position as the G1 toy’s rockets. That being said, the instructions have you point them backwards, like jets, which seems odd at first.

But upon pointing them forwards, I realized he doesn’t have a clear shot, because his forelegs are in the way.

There’s something about this altmode that feels oddly obligatory. Like, they weren’t willing to make a figure that didn’t transform, so he transforms into this, we suppose. Anyway, before I give my rating, there’s some other stuff in this set that I need to have a peek at.

Decepticons Forever Ravage

So, this is kind of a clever, funky idea. Since Covert Agent Ravage can’t actually change into a cassette, he comes with a cassette for you to pretend he changes into. And it’s not just any cassette, it’s a G1 Ravage reissue! I used to have the Classics 1.0 reissues of him, Soundwave, and Laserbeak, so this is an auspicious reunion for me.

So, this version of Ravage comes out of the box as a 1:1 scale Microcassette, and no, he’s not undersized, these really were this exact size. He’s noticeably bigger than the Siege update, too.

He’s got a funky handfeel, too, since he was made with diecast metal, so his folded-up robot legs and their joints are cool to the touch, and he’s a tiny bit weightier than you’d think.

It’s not a perfect microcassette representation, though. While he’s got a pair of circular holes at his tape spools, when you hold it up, there’s more obvious gaps around his legs and head. And his folded-up panther head is just right out there, exposed, relying on the black to kinda-sorta hide it. Still, it’s closer to looking like an actual tape than the Netflix one, and passes a squint test as the real thing.

Colored black and silver like the bigger figure, this deco is working overtime to try and convince us this is a microcassette, and he’s slathered with details like spools, and tiny English labels, as well as a miniscule Decepticon symbol on one side.

Speaking of the deco, the big, new difference here from the G1 original is this one has microcassette-deco on both sides of the tape, instead of one side. Presumably, this is because they wanted to prioritize the tape mode, since that’s what he’s here for. You can tell which side wasn’t meant to be painted like a tape, though, because it’s got more tech greebling. Oh, he hasn’t got any accessory storage in this mode at all, but that’s G1, baybeee

Ravage is really simple to transform, you just fold the tail and head out, and unfurl the legs, then attach the solid chrome missile pods to his hips, resulting in a panther about the size of a modern Core-class figure.

So, every single updated G1 Ravage since this original one has tried to fix the big design flaw in this mode here: This is an extremely flat cat, since he’s still the exact thickness of his microcassette form.

There’s something endearing about his simple, blocky design, though. The silhouette almost makes me think of a kid’s drawing of a cat.

The big problem with him, thanks to that flatness, is his stability. He’s so narrow that it’s hard to get him to stay standing, unless you pose his legs ramrod-straight.

That’s a shame, because he’s oddly and impressively articulated for a G1 figure. His head raises and lowers, as does his tail, and each of his legs has three joints, at the hip, knee, and ankle. Sure, you can put him in a good running pose, but it’s liable to make him topple over, unless you’re super careful. Still, when I take a step back, I realize that he wasn’t meant to be posed and put on a shelf, this was meant to be picked up by a kid and pranced around.

I will say, without a Soundwave for him to fit into, he’s missing a big part of his features, but the original was sold without him, too, so who can say?

The Diorama

This exclusive set seems to be following up on the idea from the Quintesson Pit of Judgement pack, and so includes an additional feature, a packaging insert meant to set a scene. It’s the interior of Ravage’s starship from the Agenda, with an additional, three-dimensional tape slot. I am a sucker for a good Synthwave/Retrowave/Vaporwave color scheme, so the fact that this bridge is cast in purples, oranges, and blues of a type that suggests that aesthetic immediately appeals to me.

The idea behind it, and the way the pair are posed in the package, is to replicate a moment in the second part of the trilogy when Ravage assumed his tape form, and went into a player on his bridge, which is the entire reason this set comes with a G1 Ravage.

I kind of suspect this whole set was supposed to come with the Siege or Netflix tooling, based on some product copy on his order page at one point. But I also suspect based on the fact that G1 Ravage doesn’t really fit into that cardboard slot unless you put him in sideways, but Siege Ravage fits like a glove.

It’s a nice-looking little diorama, but I don’t like it as much as the Quintesson one, mainly thanks to how much of it’s 2-D, namely the chair in the back, whereas the Quintesson set’s diorama was all rendered three-dimensionally. Basically, Ravage can’t ever sit in that chair.

Overall 

I think I’m going to go with a conditional recommendation on this one. See, firstly, there’s the fact that Covert Agent Ravage didn’t really need to transform, they could have done a RED Series figure of him. On the other hand, every RED Series figure I’ve seen has looked kind of….not great, and they’re at a weirdo scale, so this is probably the better option. Still, he suffers from Retool Jank, and an afterthought of an altmode, but his robot mode looks really nice, and if you want a representation of the character, he does it very well. The G1 Ravage is a neat novelty, and a cool way to kinda-sorta still have the larger Ravage’s canonical TV Show altmode. The backdrop is a neat bonus, but doesn’t do as much as I’d like

All that being said, the whole set’s overpriced for a Deluxe and a tiny G1 reissue, and it’s in the odd position of probably never being available for cheap, since he’s being snatched up pretty fast, so you’re unlikely to find it for less than retail. Still, it IS cheaper than the Metals version, though, and doesn’t have chrome on him, so that’s a lateral improvement. If you want Ravage From The Agenda, like I did, I think it’s worth it. But more generally, if it’s not something that specifically appeals to you, it’s a bit rich for what you get.

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