Review: #836
Name: Iguanus
Brand: Transformers
Allegiance: Predacon
Line: Vintage Beast Wars
Year of Release: 2023
Size Class: Basic
Mold Status: retool of Beast Wars Crocodile Megatron
PACKAGING:
Rereleased as part of the Vintage line, he comes in a packaging that mimics his original release in the Beast Wars line.
This means that he is in a carded bubble, with the instructions printed on the back of the packaging instead of a separate piece inside. The downside of this is that there are only small pictures of his robot mode.
BEAST MODE:
Iguanus transforms into a frilled Gila monster, and it is a unique looking beast mode.
The frills take up most of your attention, but the rest of the beast mode is pretty good too. Good thing is that his robot limbs don't awkwardly fold or stick out here either.
He was originally in the Basic size class (equivalent to today's Core), but with the shrinkflation happening over the decades, he was classed and priced as a Deluxe instead, but he isn't quite up to Deluxe level.
The head sculpt is probably one of the nicest parts of the figure, although sadly his mouth doesn't open and close.
Despite the relatively long-ish body, he still feels a little bit too stumpy for a lizard.
Overall, still a decent beast mode and the Basic size class works well for what is effectively a lizard.
TRANSFORMATION:
The gimmick of Basic figures in the original Beast Wars line was that they had some automatic transformation, up to a certain degree. Pulling up his tail will flip the beast head down into the robot chest.
It's not really a huge deal and not sure if it is worth the trade-off that the back of the lizard cannot be manipulated and is a big solid piece. Otherwise, to finish off the transformation, you just pull apart and straighten his limbs.
ROBOT MODE:
Despite the age of the design, and the auto transformation, he is proportioned well.
He has the whole back of the lizard as a backpack, and that's probably the most awkward part of the robot mode.
The head sculpt is okay, but a little bit undefined.
It's in robot mode that is clearly apparently that he is nowhere near Deluxe sized, so it's disappointing that that was priced so high.
Articulation is okay, he has balljoints for his head, shoulders, elbows, hips and knees.
The tail actually detaches and you can flip out a barrel so that it forms a gun for him.
Unfortunately, there is no way to store the gun, he has to always hold it, or you put him aside.
The balljoints aren't great either as he is still fairly top heavy, but at least he doesn't lose his balance and keel over as easily as Rattrap does.
To be fair, he can pull off a lot of decent poses, and the articulation is amazing for its time. The color scheme is so so with its yellow and brown though.
OVERALL:
Iguanus is a nice little figure that's a blast from the past. It's nice if you are interested to see how Transformers were designed nearly twenty years ago, and see how far modern engineering has come. Iguanus still manages to stand up okay, although it's probably best if you wait until he gets to a clearanced price as he was overpriced on release.
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