Beast Machines Battle Unicorn Review

Anyone remember this guy here?


For more pics, click on the image above

Robot Mode: Battle Unicorn appears like a Samurai warrior in heavy armour. He wears a helmet with pike on top, has thick upper arms and legs, and pointed boots on his feet. A very nice job as far as detailing goes, including the slightly melanchonic look on his face. His weapon also fits very nicely with that image, a big axe with the horse tail on the bottom, almost turning it into a pike. So look-wise there is absolutely no cause to complain and the detailing on both the body and the weapon also look quite good.

Battle Unicorn is also quite posable, though there is one tiny flaw here: The construction of his robot torso is thus that some poses, especially when it involves moving the legs, cause him to split open, as the connections holding the torso together aren't the most solid in the world. Also, there is a tiny hole right under his ribcage (or where a human's ribcage would be), allowing you to see right through him. So all in all a very nice robot, but with some problems regarding construction. Still, very nice.

Alternate Mode: There are very few unique alternate modes in the long history of the Transformers, both in the area of vehicles as well as beasts. Among the beast Transformers, though, the only other horse-Transformer I know of is the Japanese Mach Kick and Battle Unicorn takes it one step further as well. He's not only a horse, he's a unicorn (as you might have guessed from his name). The only unicorn in Transformer history. For that alone he gets some bonus points for originality.

The unicorn itself is pretty posable as well. All four legs move and it can lower the head in order to charge horn-first at enemies. You need to be a bit careful during posing, as the horn, the crest, and the tail are all connected (they become the pike/axe in robot mode) and under certain circumstances can cause the body to become contorted or pop open. If you transform it carefully, though, that shouldn't happen. So bottom line: A nicely-made, very unique beast mode with no obvious flaws. Nicely done.

Remarks: Beast Machines, like most other Transformers series, featured a lot of toys that never appeared in the TV series. Battle Unicorn is one of those. He's also the Transformer that I have a lot of trouble writing the name of, as I usually end up with Battle UniCRON instead of UniCORN. I guess there are more world-devourers around in our world than unicorns (don't tell Professor Princess!). Anyway, Battle Unicorn is certainly not a revolution as far as Transformers go, but he is definitely one of the better figures in the Beast Machines line, has a very unique alternate mode, and except for some stability problems when it comes to his torso, no flaws. So a solid recommendation for all Beast-fans.

Rating: B+

I actually became quite fond of BM figures lately. Some figures from that line are quite uinique in terms of appearance: hammerstrik, thrust, long horn, etc.

Beast Machines is wholey under-rated, mostly the toyline, though. A lot of great and interesting moulds in that line, and the contrast between the Maximal's style and the Vehicle style is great. Almost to the point where they don't even look like they're from the same line.

I started watching Beast Machines one day on my computer and my girlfriend looked over and asked "What's that?"

We ended up watching the whole series together (I'd introduced her to Beast Wars, she liked it too, so she knew the starting Maximal cast), and we were both kinda interested in the differences between the toys and the on-screen counterparts, and saw this guy's name in the TFU.info listing... she said "Oooh, Unicorn!" I said "Hey, he looks pretty cool!" Wonder if I can find one somewhere...

He's on clearance at BBTS, try your luck there. ;-)

Not a bad figure. I just bought one a couple of months ago myself.

Battle Unicorn rocks. I like his Universe repaint, Magna Stampede, 'cause he looks like a zebra. A Zebracorn.

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Have it. Love it.

I loved TFs as a young kid, and last year, I started collecting them, instead of buying them as toys. THis guy was one of the first ones I picked up. Very nice. I kept the box too ( as I do with all my new TFs). I had a lot of BW figures, as my childhood occured while that show was popular ( I honestly didn't know that Beast Wars figs were Transformers at that age). When Beast Machines came out, I wanted to get those toys too, but only got a few. Most that I have now were aquired opened, second hand. THis guy I oredered off of BBTS MIB though. Great purchase ( he's been on sale for about a year now), and a great figure!

I came in to make fun...
Turns out it really is a unicorn...
Really does look pretty cool...
I'm sorry...
That is all.