Bot Reviews: Transformers: Legacy United Core Beast Wars II Universe Tasmania Kid

The thing about making a modern Transformers update of a legacy character is that there has to be some kind of value-add when it comes to making it worthwhile. New figures of G1 characters have it easy, the value-add is always modern articulation, modern durability, and show (or comic) accuracy and scale, if they were in either. Make an updated figure of anything past G1, or early G2, and you start to run into the problem of the vintage toys getting more advanced and modern, and often containing gimmicks that present-day figures can’t fit into their budget.

Back when I reviewed the reissue of Beast Wars Cybershark, I talked about what a dicey proposition it is doing updates of Beast-era characters that weren’t in any of the shows or comics. When it comes to the Beast Wars guys in Kingdom and Legacy, the big value-add was that they actually look like they did on the show, and are at the right scale, so you don’t mind if nobody shoots any spring-loaded missiles. But most of the Beast Wars toyline wasn’t on the show, so there’s no media for them to be accurate to, so anything they might gain (ankle tilts, and also being available on store shelves again) doesn’t seem like it’d be worth what was lost (any gimmicks, general levels of paint and plastic). This is probably why HasTak hasn’t really done any non-show updates, except for today’s subject. Well, kinda-sorta.

So, the second year of the Beast Wars toyline saw the release of the Maximal Snarl (no relation to the Dinobot). A Basic-sized figure, he was one of the many, many guys that weren’t on the show, and had a bio note that basically just said he was a fearless fighter, and was good at camouflage. Like every other Beast Wars Basic, he was a really good toy, all ball joints and quick transformations. I never owned one, but my friends did, and I did own the blue Robot Masters repaint for awhile, Bound Rogue. 

But that’s not the name on the figure’s box. Instead, he’s called Tasmania Kid. That’s because the Beast Wars toy was released, unchanged, the following year in Japan, as a different character, one that actually made it onto the Beast Wars Second anime.

Supposedly, Tasmania Kid was that show’s equivalent to Bumblebee, Hot Rod, and Cheetor, the hot-blooded youngster, who the kids would connect to. I say supposedly, because to be real, I haven’t watched the show. It’s never been officially translated into English, and it wasn’t even fully fan-subbed until 2019 or so. I should probably watch it sometime, but I’m gonna make an assumption here: The amount of people who know and remember Beast Wars Snarl is probably greater than the amount of people who’ve actually sat down and watched Beast Wars Second, so I’m going to review the Legacy United Core from that angle. Also because that’s the angle I know him from. It’s my blog, I’ll do what I want!

Robot Mode

Taz is big for a Core-class Transformer. To scale him out, he’s the exact same height as Kingdom Rattrap, and a miniscule amount shorter than Vertebreak/Dracodon, but a good deal bulkier than either of them.

He’s not as big as a Beast Wars Basic, but it’s clear they were going for those vibes.

Sculptwise, he’s about halfway between (screenshots I checked of) the animation, and the original toy. He’s got features like the more exaggerated pectorals on his chest, the pointier elbows and shoulders, and sticky-out ears on his headsculpt that were unique to the anime, while he’s got the big beast-mode-parts backpack of the actual toy. To be clear, the Beast Wars Second anime was pretty good about making its characters toy-accurate, so this still very much reads as Snarl the Beast Wars figure.

Snarl’s a weird-looking figure, when you really pay attention to his details, like the way he’s got these big, open hands, instead of fists. Probably the grossest thing about him is the way his chest is a fake bottom jaw, with a tongue and teeth, since he doesn’t actually transform that way anymore, and it’s all fake beast parts. Plus, that tongue is simultaneously his abs, somehow. What isn’t fake parts is his backpack, a Rattrap-esque hide of skin with two legs hanging off of it, but it’s just compact enough not to matter, mostly. Well, the big flap hanging down behind his head’s a bit unsightly, but that’s the only thing. 

Also not fake: The fact that his feet are made of the top of his beast mode head, split in half, just staring blankly forwards. But this is all a part of his weird 1997-era charm to me. Speaking of that headsculpt, it’s kind of hard to parse what’s going on with his face, and whether or not he’s got a mouth or a mouthplate, but it’s still more distinct than the original toy’s, so I count it as an upgrade. Kinda looks like a frowny mouth to me.

For colors, Snarl…I mean, Tasmania Kid is mostly two shades of brown, a lighter and a darker one. I’d describe both as different kinds of chocolatey.

I never owned the original Snarl, but the lighter brown seems a good match to the original based on internet photos (the photo on the Wiki is deceptively bright,) while the darker brown replaces a black/grey color. Meanwhile, he’s got accents of black and blue on him (for both his robot and beast eyes), and a chest-jaw that’s grossly painted red and white (for the tongue and teeth, you see). He’s almost dead-on to the original in terms of paint apps, though they’ve remixed the layout a bit (his forearms and pelvis were originally the darker color, not the brighter one, same with his animation design). It all looks good and complete, though. 

For build quality, he’s made of a lot of ball joints, which vaguely makes me worry about him loosening in the future, but for now, he seems nice and tight. His parts backpack similarly stays pegged in nicely, and you can even flare the sides of it out a bit to keep it out of the way of his arms. Finally, his gross split head-feet are big enough that he can stay standing nice and stably. 

Beast Wars was the first full Transformers toyline to make good articulation a standard from the drop, so it’s appropriate that (according to the Wiki), Tasmanian Snarl has every joint the Beast Wars original had, plus some extra head movement. Yes, he had wrist swivels in 1997!

Aside from those, he’s got ball-jointed elbows, shoulders, hips and knees, and a ball-jointed head. He doesn’t have ankle tilts, but he does have back and forth rockers on them. I do think his arms are kind of oddly-jointed, in the sense that if you want his elbows to articulate the way a person’s do, you need to rotate them in a way that the sculpt doesn’t seem to think is the ideal placement, with his elbow spikes behind him.

Meanwhile, if you have the spikes at the sides, he’s stuck doing bodybuilder flexes.

Still, it’s not an actual limitation, just an odd detail. Another odd, but much more appreciated detail, is how amusingly expressive those arms are when you combine them with his big, open hands. He was born to overact!

For accessories, he’s got just one, a big blaster made from his Tasmanian tail.

It’s got some interesting cross-compatibility, as do his arms. See, the blaster’s on a 5-millimeter port, when Core-Class figures usually use a smaller 3-millimeter port system for their accessories. This means that larger figures can hold this weapon…

and Snarl himself has 5-millimeter ports on his forearms, letting him use accessories from those same big figures.

Meanwhile, his odd open palms have 3-millimeter ports, so he can still interact with Core-class accessories.

I appreciate how he works with both mini and large scale, it makes him feel like he’s a short member of the big guys, rather than a miniature figure, if that makes any sense. As for the weapon itself, it’s solid brown (unfortunately, as there was more color on the original), and the end of it can host a blast effect.

The odd position of his elbows strikes again, though, and he needs to have his weapon slung under his arm if you want his joints to look natural, otherwise he needs weird upside-down elbows to hold things straight. I also find myself really wishing he had some kind of storage for it, as all you can do is pop it into its altmode position, giving him a tail.

Transformation

This is a wierdly complicated one, but not in a way where it’s hard to do. Basically, his beast mode head is formed from his feet, but you need to raise his backpack, and use the space to contort his limbs so that his feet end up behind his robot head (to form the Tasmanian Noggin over it), while his arms travel down, and become his legs.

It’s oddly creative, and not too complicated, fortunately, even if there’s a couple issues with the results, but more on that later.

Beast Mode

I’m gonna be honest, I had to look up what a real Tasmanian devil looked like, the Looney Tunes one just utterly dominates the image in my head.

And I guess this is decently close? It’s the right shape, though the real ones seem to be mostly a uniform dark brown. One thing is just that the original toy didn’t look much like an actual Tasmanian Devil, so this version’s trying to strike the balance between Snarl, Tasmania Kid the anime protagonist, and the actual animal. And I think it works, mostly. He’s got a lot of nice molded-on fur, he’s got a well-sculpted, if kind of gormless-looking face, it’s generally a pretty clean altmode.

The big issue is looking underneath him, where his horrible fake lower jaw is still hanging there. Well, that and his rear legs still look distressingly like hands. Still, it mostly works.

For colors, as mentioned before, he’s mostly light brown, with some dark brown down his back, and on his limbs, in a way that fades nicely into the brighter shade. It’s not real-life accurate, but it is Snarl Accurate, and it looks good. Beyond that, he’s got painted teeth, and solid blue pupil-less eyes, as was the style at the time. 

For build quality, there’s one big, bothersome problem: His scalp’s too high. It separates during the transformation (making the panel behind his robot head), and it feels like it doesn’t want to sit low enough to look like a natural part of his head.

I’ve transformed him a bunch, and made lots of micro-adjustments, but it still won’t sit quite flush, and it’s a blemish on an otherwise really solid altmode. Well, that and him not being very articulated, but most Beasties aren’t, and he’s got more joints than Rattrap.

His forelegs are on balljoints at the shoulders, and he’s still got three joints apiece on each of his rear legs, albeit slightly blocked by his body. It’s enough to do a few poses, like “walking” and “sitting up.”

Plus, his jaw opens, giving him a good range of expressiveness, and some biting action.

Now, the original toy had an oddd spring-loaded gimmick, where the idea was that pressing his tail would extend it a little bit, and make him lunge forwards. But, honestly, it didn’t work very well, so it’s a rare case of a spring-loaded gimmick I don’t particularly miss.

Not that he has anything else going on to replace that, but them’s the breaks.

Overall

Well, I got a bit negative at the end there, but the thing is that this is probably one of the best Core-Class figures I’ve ever handled. He’s no Kingdom Soundwave, but what is? He’s got a couple odd things, like his arms, and his altmode skullcap, but he’s generally really solid, poseable, and expressive, and gives me those old Beast Wars Basics vibes. So it’s a shame he was a huge shelfwarmer amongst his miniature brethren, because he’s better than a lot of them. Not good enough to save the size class, though, as Taz here was one of the final Core-class figures before they were retired as a product. Honestly, it was always a size class with an identity crisis, with half of it being smaller guys meant to go with the mainline, and the other half being mini replicas of larger characters. Maybe if the Core-class had committed to doing one or the other, it would have found its footing.

Or maybe Core-class was always doomed, as inflation was making the cost of an individual minifigure slide closer and closer to $20, a bad value for guys this small. Either way, if it has to go out, at least it went out strong.

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