STRENGTH          RANK
8                    6
INTELLIGENCE   COURAGE
6                    8
SPEED        FIREPOWER
7                    6
ENDURANCE        SKILL
8                    9

Color Scheme:

Mostly blood red with some wonderful turquoise accents. I can't tell if the turquoise paint is just shiny, or glittery, or what, but it catches the light nicely. He also has areas with yellow-orange and black stripes and/or spots (on his back/sides and scorpion stinger). His color scheme is one of the things that attracted me to this toy.

Beast Mode:

One of his beast modes (Mutant Beast Wars toys do not have true robot modes. Read the "Back Story" below for an explanation) is a barracuda... as in the fish. I'm no biologist, but I like the looks of this mode. He really looks like he can do some damage in the water. I'd put him up against either of the Beast Wars Cybersharks any day. He's got a bit of an underbite, but that plays into his ferocity. He's got some very nice texturing on his sides and fins as well.

Alternate Beast Mode:

His other beast mode is a scorpion. Although less convincing in this mode, it's still pretty cool. The main problems are the legs. They're formed from his tail fin and a couple fin-like parts used as cover in barracuda mode. The result is a scorpion whose legs are fish fins. This isn't necessarily a problem, except that the fins are solid plastic (no joints) and the socket connections don't allow for proper positioning as scorpion legs. I can get past this, though, as the fish head is very effectively transformed into scorpion claws, and the rest of this mode looks pretty neat too.

Transformation:

Rated as intermediate, the most difficult part is probably getting his fins to work as scorpion legs. Essentially, you fold up the fish side panels, which separates the tail fin, then separate the head into claws, fold out the scorpion head and tail, and bring the tail fins forward and lock into place as legs. Sufficiently complex for a deluxe sized toy.

Gimmicks:

He has no weapons, which is a downer, but to be expected from the new toys. His main gimmicks (aside from the no robot mode thing, which is more of a non-gimmick) are his right claw, which has a panel revealing some "inner workings" and his stinger, which reveals the robot head that never gets used. Also of note is the molded-in Mutant BW logo on his right claw. Refer to the Head Shot for images of these gimmicks.

Pros/Cons:

IMHO, he just looks really cool in both beast modes. I'm still not real sure about the lack of robot modes for these guys, but the back story makes a LITTLE sense of it. Nice detailing adds to the sense of quality.

Notes:

Just wanted to point out that the mistakes in the Tech Spec, specifically the misspelling of his name, and reference to "mutators" instead of "mutants" is on the actual spec. Feel free to refer to the spec image. Also of note, this series of Transformers, as well as the Dinobots, do NOT have the "Fox Kids" logo anywhere on it. Yay! :)

Back Story:

From the back of the package: "The evil Megatron has developed an experimental anti-conversion virus with which he plans to win the Beast Wars! This toxin infects its host and prevents the ability to change into robot mode - eventually causing permanent shutdown. But something went wrong... when unleashed on several Fuzors, it caused a reconfiguration of their conversion abilities, trapping their robot modes inside two different beast modes. Now, bewildered by new and potent extrasensory powers plus the ability to change into two ferocious animals, these Transformers join together to form a renegade band of warriors. This is... Mutant Beast Wars!"