Of all those who have carried his name, he makes the most sense. Beast Wars Transmetal 2 Scourge

When I think of a “scourge”, one of the first things that comes to my mind is a plague of locusts. Some of the last things that would ever occur to me are a spaceship, a tanker-truck, or a dragon. In this way, Beast Wars Transmetal 2 Scourge is the most fitting Transformer to have ever carried the name Scourge.

What says scourge even more than a locust? How about a psychotic locust who “delights in taking depravity to all-time-low levels” and is “obsessed with germ warfare and lethal chemical development”. Alrighty then.

All that and his robot mode is positively horrific.

Mind you, that’s not an insult. As I have said many times before, Beast Wars specialized in robot modes that were awesome in their asymmetrical lack of concern for all the corners and lines and square shapes we have always associated with robots. Also, the innate concept of strictly anthropomorphic robot modes gets regularly skewed. This leads to things like the spaulder on Scourge’s left shoulder consisting of his alt mode’s entire head. Or the fact that he retains his grasshopper-like legs in robot mode or his having an unofficial left arm transformation that leaves him with a massive, dangerous looking claw.

He comes with the requisite spark crystal, hidden cleverly in one of the eyes of his alt mode.

Another thing the Beast Wars designers liked to play around with is incorporating the alt mode thematically into aspects of the robot mode. This contributes to Scourge’s decidedly insect-like robot mode head.

Scourge really embodies a lot of the mid to later Beast Wars design concept; basically “anything goes”. Sadly he didn’t make it into the cartoon but he made a few appearances in the comic book series that came later.

Catch him? He’s dead center and down slightly, getting his wings ripped off by a Maximal. Maybe he just should have stayed in the “No Fiction Appearance” club.

‘Til All Are Displayed! The Collection… well most of it.

I was just looking at the pictures on my “‘Til All Are What Now?” page and thought it was just about time for an updated shot of my Transformers display.

As I sit at my computer typing this out a turn to the left reveals three shelves, each roughly six and a half feet tall, as well as an assortment of smaller satellite shelves. To my immediate right is display shelf 1. Topped by three (soon to be three and a half) shelves of the star of Transformers — no, despite what they would have you believe recently, not Bumblebee: Optimus Primes and Convoys of all shapes and sizes.

Working our way counter-clockwise, shelf-by-shelf from there we have:

• Half a shelf of Hot Rod/Rodimus Primes.
• Ultra Magnus’ (Magni?) and Blaster and his tapes.
• Smaller Constructicons and a slew of Micromasters.
• Constructicons (old and new) and other combiners.
• Scorponok, SkyLynx, and Omega Supreme.
• In the middle is the Dark of the Moon shelf and Kre-O Optimus, which is a bit of a mess at the moment.
• My wife’s “girl Transformers that could kick your tailpipe” shelf.
•  The multiple incarnations of Mirage, Prowl, and Jazz.
• The Targetmasters.
• Finally, the Headmasters and Wheeljack.

On the wall opposite display shelf 1, there are shelves 2 and 3 and two more ancillary shelves.

For this one, I’ll do each shelving unit individually, starting on the top left:

• Various incarnations of Star Saber (except an actual Star Saber, sadly) and Dai Atlas (with an actual Dai Atlas, happily.)
• Two shelves of Minibots and their updates.
• An entire shelf of Grimlocks.
• The rest of the Dinobots, as well as Grimstone and his Dinobot drones.
• The G1 repaints from the newest movies; such as red Ironhide, white and blue Jazz, and Revenge of the FallenSkywarp (look! I finally found my G1 repaint Movie (2007) Starscream!)

Display shelf 3, starting at the tippy top:

• AssortedGods, Monsters, Primes, and one tiny Fortress Maximus.
• The Animated Shelf, including the full 2011 Botcon set and TFCC Exclusive Animated Cheetor.
• The G2 and G2 Classics with all the glorious colours of the rainbow.
• The first section of G1 and G1 Classics Autobots.
• Shattered Glass and the second section of G1 and G1 Classics Autobots.
• The Movie (2007), RotF, and DotM Leader and Human Alliance class toys.
• More Combiners! Predaking!

Display shelf 2, from top to bottom:

• Shockwaves, The Fallen, and movie Megatrons.
• G1, G2, Masterpiece, Classics… just a whole bunch of Megatrons as well as Classics Galvatron, Cyclonus and Scourge and their updates.
• TheshelfoftheSeekers.
• Soundwavesgalore and mini-cassettes (and updates) galore.
• G1 and G1 Classics Decepticons.
• Japanese Beast Wars, including my beloved Tako Tank.
• Another shelf full of combiners.

The last little shelf is a mishmash of stuff:

• Smokescreens G1, Classics, and Alternators (soon to be joined by RotF and Cybertron Smokescreens once I dig them out.)
• The Generations Junkions.
• Scan series Bumblebee, Sideswipe…
• …Ratchet and Ironhide.
• The Power Core Combiner Autobots.
• The Power Core Combiner Decepticons.

Oh yeah, also Supreme class Beast Machines Cheetor standing to the side.

With the exception of G1 Metroplex and Cybertron Metroplex that stand ever vigilant above my computer (which is itself named Metroplex) and an extra Micromaster Tailwind, that is the entirety of my current display.

However, though admittedly a lot of floorspace is taken up by the display (and yes, I am aware that I am very, very lucky to have a wife that is not only ok with, but actually encourages my collecting and displaying), it only amounts to a little under half of my total collection. The rest are in plastic bins in a closet.

One day I will have an entire room devoted to the collection, until then, I’ll keep enjoying them by occasionally pulling them out of their bins to take pictures of them for this blog. That way I get to share the joy this collection brings me (and yes, a little showing off too.)

Xīn Nián Kuài Lè (Happy Chinese New Year!) from Beast Wars Transmetal 2 Megatron!

Two days ago was Chinese New Year, so when the thought first hit me that this post should have a dragon in honour of the fact that we are now in the year of the dragon, only one Transformer dragon came immediately to mind.

The final form of Beast Wars Megatron, his powerful Transmetal 2 dragon alt mode. Currently my wife and I are working our way through the Beast Wars series. This is her first time seeing it, so watching her react to the surprises I already know about has been more fun than anything! Also, Blackarachnia has been catapulted to her new favourite girl-bot. We are at the point, late in the series when we have just been properly introduced to the level of havoc the Transmetal driver is capable of.

I still remember seeing this toy when it came out and being impressed by the sheer amount of detail molded into it. To tell the truth, he’s been sitting in a bin for a number of years and I was a little apprehensive about pulling him out, for fear of finding flaking vacuum metallized parts (like I did when I brought out BW TM2  Prowl). However, with just a couple places of wear and tear, he appears to be doing just fine as his shiny red and gold scaled tummy shows.

He did suffer one issue, though it was unrelated to paint. His neck locks in a straight position using the same piece that allows you to move his head around remotely. For some reason I chose to store him with the lock engaged. He’s been sitting in that straight necked position so long that his neck no longer bowed forward on its own, even when the locking mechanism is disengaged. I had to push the head control all the way up and wedge it into place to get him to stay looking forward for the photo up above. Otherwise he just stares at the ceiling.

After a little bit of being wedged forward, the rubber piece inside appears to be loosening up. Overall the head control is a pretty great little mechanism… in dragon mode. Unfortunately the long, floppy neck and head become a disproportionately long and floppy arm in robot mode.

Though it has great articulation, this leaves him with pretty much two positions for his left arm. Awkwardly bent and straight as a board.

"Gah! Arm cramp! Arm cramp!!"

Not that this hinders his toy as a display piece all that much, I mean, who would have an awesome dragon mode like this and then display him in robot mode anyway?

“Afflicted with ironic, dry sense of humor.” Beast Wars Transmetal 2 Prowl!

I decided that the first Transformer to catch my eye as I start the long, arduous task of unpacking would be today’s post. Quite randomly, we have the white version of the “Hunter Owl”, Maximal Military Strategist, and retroactive continuity nightmare known as Beast Wars Transmetal 2 Prowl.

The asymmetrical nature of the Transmetal 2 design aesthetic gives him a permanent look of skepticism. I love it.

In a misguided attempt at some fanwank, IDW used their limited series Transformers Beast Wars Sourcebook to retroactively assert that certain non-show characters from the Beast Wars toyline — like Prowl, Ironhide, and Silverbolt — were actually updates to their G1 namesakes. However, there were two Beast Wars Prowl characters and IDW decided to make the other Prowl into G1 Prowl. What resulted was a horrifying three-continuity pile-up.

One of the reasons this is so annoying is that, for example Ironhide has nothing in his toy’s tech spec to either support or refute IDW’s claim that he is G1 Ironhide, but TM2 Prowl’s tech spec includes the sentences,

“Prowl strives to find logic and reasoning in everything. A listener, not a talker. Has most sophisticated logic center of the Maximals. Able to analyze and advise on complex combat situations almost instantaneously. Fires highly corrosive acid pellets.”

This is almost a direct copy of G1 Prowl’s tech spec,

“Strives to find reason and logic in everything. A listener, not a talker. Has most sophisticated logic center of all Autobots. Able to analyze and advise on complex combat situations almost instantaneously. Fires wire-guided missiles and high-corrosive acid pellets.”

It even goes on to read,

“Believes himself to have been a great military strategist in a former life.”

TM2 Prowl was already meant to be G1 Prowl! Granted, the phrasing leaves it open to a number of possible explanations and provides a level of mystery to the character. Why does he “believe himself” to have been G1 Prowl? What does “in a former life” mean? Intriguing indeed. In my own personal canon, TM2 Prowl has a portion of the original G1 Prowl’s spark and the rest remains out there somewhere, waiting to be rediscovered. Maybe he reunites with it and becomes G1 Prowl again. Maybe the other part of his spark is given a new body and the two Prowls exist at the same time. Who knows?

The other reason I like his toy characterization a lot is because it randomly includes the line,

“Afflicted with ironic, dry sense of humor.”

As a condition I am also “afflicted” with, this is something with which I can personally identify. Either way, if any animal had to be used to embody the Maximal Military Strategist, the owl was a perfect choice.

I also love the fact that he is a Transmetal 2, that asymmetrical mash of organic and mechanical. Unfortunately, what is becoming abundantly clear with all of the Transmetal toys is that over time large portions of their vacuum metallized paintjobs have become excessively brittle and flake away without even being touched. Beast Wars does not currently have display space on my shelves. Pulling TM2 Prowl from storage in a plastic bin in a closet (where he has been for a number of years) you can see that the paint across his alt mode’s chestplate has cracked and fallen off. No matter how gingerly I treated him, even more came off in this photo shoot.

Looking closely at his feet you can see small flecks of paint.

Other areas, such as his wings, appear to be just fine, but there’s no telling if that will last. Setting aside the “battle damage” to his paintjob, this is a great figure and reminded me how much I loved the Beast Wars lines as a whole. As I mentioned before, this is the white version, for reasons unknown there was a running change for TM2 Prowl in which he was released in a black paint scheme. This post has compelled me to try to locate that one too, check it for “battle damage”, and take some photos of it, so there may be more TM2 Prowl to come.