Waspinator

Height: 13cm to top of head, 15cm overall (wings down); 14cm (beast mode overall length)

Articulation: 24 total points - Double jointed neck; 3 points each arm: ball joint shoulder, upper-arm swivel, hinge elbow; 2 points each sub-arm: ball joint shoulder, hinge elbow; swivel jointed wings; double jointed wasp abdomen; 4 points each leg: ball joint hip, mid-thigh swivel, hinge knee, hinge ankle.

Colors: Molded dark green, lime green, clear purple; Painted black, lime green, gold (faction logo).

Accessories: N/A

Release Data: Released with Deluxe Wave 6 in the first quarter of 2009 at a suggested retail price of US$11.99.

Gallery: 18 images.

Author: ExVee


Driven crazy by years locked in an Autobot prison, Waspinator is determined to take revenge on the robot who put him there - Bumblebee. Now, after bizarre experiments conducted by Blackarachnia, he finally has the power to make his vengeance a reality. He has come to Earth hunting the Autobot speedster, and he will not stop until Bumblebee is a pile of smoking scrap.

I thought it was bad when Wasp was just thrown in the stockade for a few thousand stellar cycles for a crime he didn't commit. But then to be used by Blackarachnia as a guinea pig to cure her own organic contamination? Man, somebody has just got it in for this poor bot. The episode where Wasp becomes Waspinator was written by Beast Wars show runners Bob Forward and Larry Ditillio. Besides bringing their own unmistakable style to the episode in general, they wrote the ideal portrayal of this universe's new Waspinator. Regardless of any other complaint one might have about "Predacons Rising", the writing was fantastic.

Whether or not Animated comes back after the third season concludes, I really hope whatever comes next gives Bob and Larry some more opportunities to show their stuff in Transformers fiction.



Beast Mode


To start with, the beast mode is mistransformed as packaged. The rearmost legs and abdomen are closer to their robot mode position, and you need to swing the legs underneath the body. There's an extra henge and swingarm in the abdominal jointing specifically for this purpose, and it pulls together all the limbs under the thorax where they belong. After that, you just need to fiddle with the head a little and poke the antennae through the slots beside each eye. Once you get these bits fixed, you get a really nice looking wasp mode. Insectoid alt modes, while very common during Beast Wars, had a hit and miss track record. The original Waspinator bore little resemblance to any kind of real wasp, and it wasn't until 2000 that the beast mode would be revisited with a new mold, Buzzsaw, who proved how much the designers had improved at realizing a transforming wasp.

Though we're pretty far removed from the days of buggy (and some crustacean) beast forms being unable to hold up their own weight in beast mode, Waspinator does suffer to some degree of standing problems. The limbs are adequate to hold the toy's weight, especially the rear pair which have very stiff hinged joints. But the two forward pair of legs are designed to form the robot arms, and so have an awkward design where they split just below what will be the shoulder. The front pair of legs articulate at the robot shoulder joint, while the middle pair articulate at a restricted hinge just below the shoulder. This gives both pair of legs a very limited degree of movement, and makes it really difficult to even pretend that these don't branch out from the same point. It also limits effective posing, since the legs only have a swivel above the divergence point. If you go too far forward with the legs, you'll knock the head out of position, and if you go too far back, you run afoul of the rear legs. Both pairs of front legs do have hinged elbows, but these probably aren't intended for use in beast mode, as all you can really do with them is make the toy lie closer to the ground. These hinges are not very strong, either, and tend to sag in the lowered position; if you have the legs relatively straight most of the weight resting on them is going straight along the length of each leg, but with the legs bent the weight is pressing on the hinges and it helps force everything to sag. Besides, if you keep the legs more straight, you have slightly more room to play with in keeping them separated.

In a really nice bit of engineering, the abdomen articulates on a double hinge. Combined with the range of motion in the head and neck, you can get a fairly credible stinging pose, with the abdomen pulled under the body so the stinger points forward. It'd probably need to move farther forward to be very realistic, but huge points for getting it this far. Great attention to detail there. Just watch out when putting it all back for normal posing, since the rear legs sometimes want to go with the abdomen. Hey, did you know that besides defense from would-be attackers, wasps also use this trick to sting and capture spiders? Hmmm...

Waspinator seems to be a bit of an homage to Beast Machines as much as anything else, with pointless clear plastic bits present on all six limbs, virtually a trademark of the Beast Machines line. All the clear plastic - eyes, wings, and leg bits are the same purple color. The wings demonstrate that this color plastic is remarkably transparent, rather than simply translucent. You can get a sort of lightpiping effect on the front four legs, but it's almost certainly not intended since the light just shines through the peg end where the clear plastic is glued in place. The head sadly has absolutely no lightpiping value. Shame, really, a nice purple glow in those big bug eyes would have looked great.

Waspinator has a flapping wings action feature, controlled by a little lever just behind the base of the wings. A simple gear-driven set up, the wings only move a short distance, perhaps 30 degrees from their resting position. Being as close to the wings as it is, it can also be hard to manipulate, especially for large-handed folk like myself. The abdomen can be used as a decent handle here, though it may slip out of position when you first start buzzing the wings. The wings themselves have swivel joints, so you can move them anywhere within a 180 degree or so arc. Not that I've seen many wasps fly around with their wings pointing over their heads...

The head is a fairly simple affair, though very angled and pointy. Notably, there's sculpted detail to represent simple mouthparts here. The package art suggests this is intended to be painted grey, and it makes sense since you otherwise pretty much lose the zigzagging line in the field of dark green.


Transformation

It's all reasonably straightforward. In truth, any element not immediately obvious while in beast mode seems to kind of flop itself into place once you free up the things locked down in beast mode. The worst part is wrangling the separated robot arms back together due to a series of tabs and pegs that want to fit together in basically the opposite order as actually occurs.



Robot Mode


Unlike the beast mode, the robot head can get some good glow with its clear purple eyes. You have to get a light directly behind the head to make it work, but it's a really strong glow when you get it there. The antennae are the same as from beast mode. You need to be careful during transformation, as these are very soft plastic, and have to be placed and removed from the beast head. If you're not careful, you could end up tearing one or both off.

Waspinator does have a double jointed neck, but it's so restricted at both ends that you probably get less overall range of motion than with a good single joint, and it all seems geared to give the toy a somewhat hunched-over look. You get a typical swivel range at the ball joint under the head, but beyond that it's very limited. The character art shows a very flat and elongated head, though it's not really present with the toy. The mentioned limitations prevent the head leveling out to that degree, and the mandible/jaw end is blunted and wider than the art. Also lacks the multi-part opening mouth shown in the portrait that is another nod back to Beast Wars Waspinator.

The flapping wing gimmick is still available in robot mode, but if anything it seems more useless, since unless you have the wings sticking straight out behind you can barely tell they've moved at all. The packaging suggests posing the wings up, flanking the head. I kind of like them down. There's just clearance enough that they don't run into the wasp abdomen. Now if only there was a way to lock the little lever in place so the wings would be spread apart, it'd make a dandy cape. The torso has another trick, too. Waspinator has a tiny extra pair of arms just below his main arms. They're jointed pretty weall for being so tiny, with a ball jointed shoulder and a hinged elbow with at least a 180 degree range. I'm still trying to figure out exactly what I want to do with the little arms since they're a bit too short and limited in posing to manage a nefarious scheming thing, but I'm sure I'll figure something out.

The wasp abdomen sticks out the back. It hasn't got so much room to move now, since the legs have to be in really close in robot mode. It's about like Beast Wars Inferno where it's just enough range to have an option where it's going. Of course, there's no whirling dervish hidden within this one...

I'm reasonably impressed that the arms manage to have a full-ranged hinge elbow even with the way they have to transform. Unfortunately it kind of ends there. Beyond that one neat bit, the arms are kind of sub-par. No articulation past the elbow, and little to speak of before. In fact, about all that sets them apart from the sub-arms is a swivel immediately after the shoulder joint. The "hands" are two opposed pairs of claws, completely immobile. The plastic is fairly rigid, though, so Waspinator could conceivably hold something if it was the right size. I think Bumblebot's head would be a little too big, though.

As far as articulation, the legs are pretty typical. Along the theme here, they're designed as inhuman as is practical, with curves such that at least a slight back-cant sort of posture is required. If you want, you can exaggerate this to make Waspinator seem even more monstrous. The feet imitate the hands, with two sets of opposed toes on either foot. The front toes on both feet have me a little worried, though. While the plastic is a bit flexible, it's very thin in spots and it's not *that* bendy. I could see conditions where one would find a toe or two to just snap off. The rear toes are designed better with a solid structure up until they diverge into two short claw-toes. I get bad feelings just looking at those front toes...


(No Accessories)



Closing Remarks

When Autoboot Camp debuted in season 2, many fans were excited by the familiarly colored character of Wasp, who by the end had begun to speak in a manner similar to Beast Wars Waspinator's familiar patterns. The fans always did like Waspy. There was a general excitement when the Animated Waspinator toy first became known in computer listings, and especially when it was first seen. While the toy has its flaws, they mostly center around the robot arms and the corresponding limbs they form in beast mode. There are a couple spots of questionable material and design choices, but overall it's a solid toy. The beast mode is fantastic, and begins to make me wish for a beast-heavy series done in this style since the designers obviously have a knack for it.

After all these years, it's really great to see a nicely executed insect Transformer. The only thing that stops me rating this toy as Excellent is the hangups with the robot mode. But Waspinator is still Very Good, especially in the beast mode.

-ExVee