Review: #683
Name: Transmutate
Brand: Transformers
Allegiance: Maximal
Line: Generations Selects
Year of Release: 2021
Size Class: Deluxe
Mold Status: remold of Kingdom Paleotrex
BEAST MODE:
Transmutate, as a repaint of Paleotrex, transforms into a skeletal Tyrannosaurus Rex. It's a unique mode to say the least, but the color scheme makes it very unnatural and sticks out in a bad way.
Apart from that, having a dinosaur skeleton Transformer is actually pretty cool, and probably something that would hide in a museum.
Due to its natural, Transmutate feels very small and light. Above is a comparison against Siege Sideswipe in robot mode.
This is a well formed alternate mode, it doesn't feel lazy at all. She stands easily on her two large feet, and the figure is balanced well.
The head sculpt is one of the best parts of this mode, with nice sculpting.
She has some articulation here, not the best but not a statue either. The mouth can open and close, her arms are on balljoints, the tail can lift up and her legs are the most poseable of all.
Apart from the bright and neon color scheme, this is a good solid beast mode.
TRANSFORMATION:
As a Fossilizer, Transmutate is a partsformer. She splits up into quite a number of parts in order to transform into robot mode. The beast legs form the arms, the head and part of the torso into the robot's backpack and torso, while the remainder of the torso forms the legs. While it may be confusing the first time around, afterwards, it's really easy to remember what turns into what.
ROBOT MODE:
Paleotrex was an ugly figure, and perhaps this is the reason why it works so well for Transmutate. In the Beast Wars cartoon, she was deliberately abnormal, and that is what makes it so difficult to make a figure of her.
So using Paleotrex, replicating her color scheme and plonking on a new head, it is a massive surprise to find out that it actually works really well.
The only piece of remolding is the head, which captures the character model really well.
One of the gimmicks is that the mouth can open up, to mimic the sonic scream she unleashed during an episode.
In terms of height, she's about the same size as Siege Sideswipe, but being skeleton based figure, she is thin and light.
Poseability is excellent, she has joints for her head, shoulders, elbows, wrists, waist, hips, knees and ankles (which are situated so high up, it's really her shins).
She's dominated by large arms and small legs, so it's not wonder that she can be tough to balance. It doesn't help that the bottom of her feet are angled weirdly too.
She has an asymmetrical design, and this is one of the reasons why this mold suits the character.
The end of the tail of beast mode forms a weapon in robot mode.
Alternatively, if you want to try and mimic her Beast Wars appearance even more, you can rearrange the parts to give her a cannon arm, which is quite imaginative and ingenious all in all.
You would not have thought a concept like this to have worked, but it does. The design of the figure feels so well adapted to Transmutate.
FOSSILIZER MODE:
As part of the Fossilizer gimmick of the Kingdom line, Transmutate can split into many pieces to form weaponry for other figures.
First up she can form a part of arms that pegs onto the back of a figure, along with using the dinosaur head as a weapon and a ginormous ax.
The instructions pairs her up with Warpath, but you can use any Deluxe or Voyager figure in the Siege, Earthrise or Kingdom line.
Her second official weapon mode is equally outlandish, which is dominated by a huge spikey weapon.
The powered up figure will also gain shoulder cannons, a shield and what seems like stilts formed from the dinosaur feet.
The feet extensions are awkward at best, and they perform as bad as they look. Good luck trying to balance the weight of two Deluxes on those tiny feet.
OVERALL:
Transmutate is one of the best and imaginative reuses of a mold for years. It's not a popular character, and it is a hard one to use. Despite that, they have managed to reuse an unusual mold with little repaint potential and we end up with a figure that is so ugly that it works so well. While it is a good decision by Hasbro to make her an exclusive (as no doubt she will be a shelfwarmer otherwise), this is a Selects figure that's worth tracking down.
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