Retro Review: Archadis!

"What? Transformers made from animals instead of vehicles and stuff? Doesn't sound so great, throw it to Kenner division, maybe they can make a quick buck or something."
Beast Wars, Machine Wars, Beast Machines... seeing a pattern? Coming soon: "Wars Wars"
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138 Scourge
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Retro Review: Archadis!

Post by 138 Scourge »

Of late, I've been on a kick with the Japanese Beast Wars Neo line, because there's a lot of interesting design choices going on there, and it makes for a very aesthetically interesting array of toys. The latest one I've picked up is this guy, the Destron Air Supremacy Soldier that transforms into an Archeopterix (I have never been able to spell that word right. This review covers the Telemocha rerelease of the mold, but there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of changes to the toy in different releases, the colors appear to remain fairly constant.

Beast Mode!: Since Archadis is a Destron in BW Neo, he's an extinct animal, an Acheopterix to be more exact. Not technically a dinosaur, more like, the link in the fossil record between dinosaurs and birds. Or, to be less accurate but probably quicker, a dino-bird. He's fairly impressively done, with wing articulation, leg and neck articulation, and even tail articulation (thanks to his transformation) that makes for a rather posable bird, something that can be hard for other bird-formers. He's got a lot of sculpted detail, including feathers and scales, especially at the head, feet, and wing-claws. He's fairly brightly colored, with bright green, gold, and light and dark blue dominating this bird. That, however, is not all he has goin' for him. In a fun touch, Archadis has got some weapons goin' in this mode. A switch on each wing activates his action feature, which causes the tips of the wings to unfold, revealing a gun mounted in each wing. This feature also releases "feather bombs", which...fall out, but so so dynamically! Missiles are dirt-common, bombs, not as much. So overall, really pretty good beast mode, good for posing and looking intimidating and for posing in a flight position and whooshing around. The action features make for air-battle play fun, too, so this toy wins in this mode three ways. The only downsides, really, are some robot parts that are very visible in beast mode, especially the right arm, which is just hidden under the tail, and the robot legs, that just sit on the outside of the bird legs. This is kind of a common thing in Neo, though, so think of him as a cyborg Archeopterix, and you might do better with it.

Transformation!: This here, this is where the toy starts to show that he's not what you'd call a normal TF. The robot legs fold out from the bird legs, and the feet rotate around. The left arm is "concealed" in the bird's tailfeathers, and folding that down makes for the arm. The right arm is made of the beast head and neck, and rotating that around on it's head and neck joints make this arm. Then the wings and back feathers fold back, revealing the robot head and chest, and then fold down over the chest and back to make a kind of serape, or poncho for the robot. The back feathers just sorta hang over the left arm, and at this point you just flip up the robot head and you got yourself a Destron. His flip-out pistol is revealed by pulling out and rotating the tail feathers, which rotates the pistol into his open hand and makes the tailfeathers more of a shield. This is certainly a unique transformation, with it's kinda asymmetrical end result, but aside from getting the head to flip up outta the chest, I found it easy enough. Different but fun, He scores here.

Robot Mode!:] Now, what we've got here is a stocky lil' deluxe. Rather a lot of him's hidden from view what with the serape he's wearing, all you really see is the head, legs, and arm that isn't made of the beast head, then these wings draped over him. Don't take this to mean he isn't detailed, though...the robot chest is still under the wings, and it's fully detailed, with feather textures and technological parts, and a spark crystal in the center of all that. So there's a lot of detail sculpted in that's made to be hidden in both modes, but can be revealed. That's just crazy. The legs are borderline-digitigrade, the lower legs have a pronounced curve to 'em. Of course, for a bird character, that's appropriate, and really, it's not as pronounced with this guy as on other toys, like, say, a lot of the movie guys, or BW Scourge. The headsculpt is kinda neat, it's got a helmet design that has elements of a bird-like character in it..wing designs on the sides, and tapering to a beak-like design over the nose. Actually, the helmet reminds me of the headgear on He-Man's Bird-guy homie Stratos, they both have a bird motif worked in.

The colors stay pretty much the same, a little red is revealed in the mask and on the chest if one chooses to reveal it.

The only flaws to this guy are kinda minor, the legs seem awfully big in relation to the rest of the 'bot, and the left arm, as mentioned before, is just a friggin' bird-dino head. This isn't unprecedented for the time (Hello, Quickstrike, Jawbreaker, a couple of Megatrons, etc) so if you're okay with those, you'll be okay with this. Also, the bird feet just stick out of the back of the robot legs, but it's only intrusive from the back view, so this may not bother you at all.

Overall: This toy's really interesting, as I've said, and a lot of fun. I had some trouble figuring him out the first time, since I try to just get the Japanese(or Korean, at least) versions of these guys, so I didn't have English instructions to help out. But after I figured him out, he became a toy that I keep fiddling with. A lot of toys that have a high novelty value sacrifice something in playability, articulation, or stability, but not this guy so much, he's a really solid kinda figure in both modes, and the "attack mode" he has going in beast mode adds to the play value. He's not what you'd call a real common figure, having only been U.S.-released in the "Dinobots" sub-line of Beast Machines, but he's well-worth finding and picking up. According to the Wiki, this guy was designed in a fan contest, which makes me wonder if the fan that designed Archadis got a job with Takara, because dude was clearly not messing around. I haven't found much to dislike about this guy, so I gotta go with an "A", here. He's not the most mind-blowingly awesome toy ever, true, but he doesn't fail at anything, either. Everything this toy tries for, it succeeds at.

And finally, on a note that likely only amuses me, this release of the toy was post-Beast Machines. Now, I go after the Japanese releases of these toys whenever I can, mainly because the American ones have switched most of the Destrons to Autobots or Dinobots, and I kinda like them having the Predacon spark crystals and being the proper characters more. So of course, with this toy, I get the one that has a Dinobot Spark Crystal accidentally. :lol:
Dominic wrote: too many people likely would have enjoyed it as....well a house-elf gang-bang.
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Re: Retro Review: Archadis!

Post by 138 Scourge »

And Pics!:

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Don't you know about the bird?

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Everybody knows that the bird is the word!

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Poppa Ooo Mow Mow, Pop Ooo Mow Mow Mow...

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Mardi Gras Action Feature Go!
Dominic wrote: too many people likely would have enjoyed it as....well a house-elf gang-bang.
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Re: Retro Review: Archadis!

Post by Onslaught Six »

Earlier releases, like the Neo and BM Dinobots version, had bright orange instead of the gold there. I'm interested in the GPS factor, although Hasbro says that's not a problem these days.
BWprowl wrote:The internet having this many different words to describe nerdy folks is akin to the whole eskimos/ice situation, I would presume.
People spend so much time worrying about whether a figure is "mint" or not that they never stop to consider other flavours.
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Re: Retro Review: Archadis!

Post by Mirage »

Onslaught Six wrote:Earlier releases, like the Neo and BM Dinobots version, had bright orange instead of the gold there. I'm interested in the GPS factor, although Hasbro says that's not a problem these days.
Uh... actually the Neo had the gold plastic and BM Dinobots had the orange. Not that it matters much, but...
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Re: Retro Review: Archadis!

Post by Onslaught Six »

I will respectfully say that I am a complete idiot and you should never trust anything I say.
BWprowl wrote:The internet having this many different words to describe nerdy folks is akin to the whole eskimos/ice situation, I would presume.
People spend so much time worrying about whether a figure is "mint" or not that they never stop to consider other flavours.
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Re: Retro Review: Archadis!

Post by 138 Scourge »

http://www.tfu.info/2000/Dinobot/AirRap ... raptor.htm

So Airraptor does have some different color choices, what with the bright orange and the greater amounts of dark blue. Guess I ignored this version of this mold owing to my prejudice against the Beast Machines Maximal versions of these molds. Still, that's not much of a recolor, I could see this mold getting away with all sorts of crazy repaints, but they all stay more or less within the same style.
Last edited by 138 Scourge on Sun Oct 17, 2010 2:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Dominic wrote: too many people likely would have enjoyed it as....well a house-elf gang-bang.
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Re: Retro Review: Archadis!

Post by onslaught86 »

I have both Archadis and Airraptor, and Airraptor's a pretty budget alternative. Some of the BM Dinobots were excellent, like Dinotron, but for the most part they were lesser then the originals. Either way, both are very nifty. Always did want the telemocha releases too, but they were ridiculously expensive for a few extra paint apps.

He's got a nifty mixed aesthetic going, with the mask and the poncho of feathers coupled with the spiffy quickdraw gimmick. I always pictured him speaking like a bandito, all dandy-like.
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