Review; Beast Wars Vintage Reissue Scorponok

It should be no surprise to anyone now that I am a huge Beast Wars fan, I prefer the Munky to the Trukk. So Today we take a look at a Toy I really wanted as a child, Due to them being a main show character, but never had, it's the evil Predacon Scorponok.

Can you guess what I think of this packaging?

That's right, I love it. The neon green Beast Wars logo and the menacing artwork of Scorponok himself. There is a big plastic window and we see Scorponok in his beast mode. I am not sure if I have said this before, but Transformers need to go back to being in their alt modes when you get them. Back of the box we have a brief bio of Scorponok along with Tech Specs. Tech Specs are always welcome.

Out of the box we have this fantastic Scorpion mode. The colours have been change with this similar to Tigertron to better represent the Beast Wars cartoon. The toy has some real nice colours and is highly detailed. Articulation wise in this mode the legs move up and down as one unit, the claws can lift, pivot inwards, outwards and rotate and the tail can rotate as well as back and forth.

Transformation is surprisingly easier than I expected for this toy, but it is a fun and great transformation, also you know I love a simple transformation. and once we have it in robot mode it is a beast to behold. The fantastic sculpting from the beast mode carries over here into the robot mode and it adds great detail. Only grievance I have with the robot mode design, is the screws are visible in the shoulders and upper arms. I had originally assumed this was a miss-assembly issue but upon looking up the original toy, this is just the way it was. Articulation in this mode is very flexable, claws keep the same articulation, hips are ball joints and knees rotate back.

As was the style at the time, Scorponok here has a Mutant mask. I like the mutant mask design, looks to me like a gas mask or breathing appriatus, which goes with the toy bio having him being a desert ops expert. The Mutant mask looks like it would be good for surviving a sandstorm. The Mutant mask opens up from the centre to reveil his robot face and the face he uses in the TV show. I like the scuplt and the colours, the yellow eye visor really pops. Only problem I have with this face is that it looks like he is screaming.

Being a reissue of an old toy, Scorponok here has gimmicks! Three of them! The first one we will look at is in the tail, by pushing up on a lever on the back of the tail, the tail springs forward to stab an enemy maximal, or if you position it correctly it can stab Scorponok on his own head in beast mode. 

The Second is if you press back on his right claw, he launches his Cybernetic Bee. This gimmick doesn't launch very far an unfortunately I don't know if that was always the case or it was dulled down for modern safety standards. 

The third gimmick is, if you open his left claw, he launches a missile and if you open the claw back again, he fires another missile! And boy do these missiles travel, I was shocked at the power and distance they could go, normally that aren't that well loaded due to safety.

Overall this is a great figure, and I am glad to have it to stand amongst my other vintage Beast Wars toys. Only minor issue I have is due to the size of the claws he can sometimes be a bit unsteady, but if they were smaller they wouldn't be as charming.