My Torca's tail and rib cage broke on me.. :'(

 

That gold plastic....

I count myself lucky that this is the first figure I've owned to display the symptoms of this debilitating and destructive disease.

Of course, that's probably just because I've lost all the old Beast Wars toys I had growing up. My old Transmetal megatron would surely have succumbed by now if I still had him.

 

Oh god, I was going to warn against trying to move the panel if it was creaking loudly, completely forgot though. Glad to hear it didn't snap. Haven't had issues with mine yet, but I'm growing more and more paranoid with more mentions of Torca.

The basics are addictive. Slowly working on building up my own collection. Thankfully I got the most expensive one, Rattrap, out of the way already. Terrorsaur would be the other pricey one, but not as bad as Rattrap. Razorbeast, if your going for basics is a must. He's one of the best basics. A prime example of how a figure can be simple in design yet so full of fun.

If you do decide to jump on Drill Bit, Transformerland has a few priced under $10 right now. You probably could try their request system to get some of the others like Powerpinch or Claw Jaw for under $10.

 

Ugh. UGH! I had a dream there was a new Beast Wars show. ARUGH!

Sometimes I hate waking up. :/

 

The 90s are making a come back lately, if it wasn't for the movies I bet we'd see more BW love. Well, you never know, but everything in media seems cyclical in general..

 

Yeah, Torca sorta fell off the table he was on and landed on that panel. It did break off, but has been superglued back into place.

Rattrap, Terrorsaur, and Airrazor are looking like the priciest figures I'll need, might snap as many of the remainder as possible up once my tax return comes in. The ebay seller I've been buying from has Powerpinch, Claw Jaw, and Drill Bit all for $10-12 so I'll probably just buy from him if they're still available. He also has Razorbeast, so those might be the next bunch I grab.

 

Sorry for the super long reply, guys.

I actually wanted to add my opinion on things here.
I'm going to try to base my opinions on canonical certainty. However like others have said, we ARE talking about Transformers, so I'll do what I can to clean up any discrepancies. According to TCC Issue #54, once the 2nd golden age was in full swing, and Galvatron & Scorponok were exiled, it left the Decepticons leader-less. And according to this issue (Menagerie Pt. 5) what was left of the Decepticon cause came together under the Predacon banner, under Razorclaw's command, however it was unproven according to Perceptor (who was writing the data entry) as to where they set up base of operations, and considering the Decepticons were the first to truly experience the scarcity of Energon and since they possessed Micromaster technology, one can only assume they were the first to dabble in downsizing to save energy. However at the same time FortMax was also taking to the same practice. And he apparently had a fair number of troops under his command who were willing to follow suit.

Now that we have that out of the way, let's get into alt-modes. The article gives the impression that the Decepticons were the first to embrace beast-like alt-modes and downsizing as a whole. Whereas the Autobots were split on the matter. Where some Autobots (Prowl, Ironhide, Silverbolt - anyone who's familiar with G1, try to ignore what you know, and look into Alternators/Binaltech fiction for more answers) decided to take the downsizing, and some wanted to stay the same (Hot Rod, Springer, Arcee, Sideswipe, Sunstreaker, Trailbreaker). While there is still a HUGE gap between this, and the beginning of Dawn Of Future's Past, it seems the Maximals decided to stay primarily in downsized vehicle-like forms, while the Predacons remained in a downsized mixture of beast and vehicle alt-modes; whereas certain characters - namely Soundwave's cassettes were fortunate in receiving an upgrade. Assuming their smaller cassette bodies were still burning too much energy even for their size.

Then the Beast Wars happened, and so did The Ascending and The Gathering, which led into Beast Machines. Now remember, Beast Machines was still in the same "year" like timespan of Beast Wars, so not a whole lot of room for "change." At this point, it's logical to turn towards the 3H Botcon fiction - in which some of it clearly disputes with the IDW series, although it's easily ignored if you think "time travel/time storm/time flow" - whatever Apelinq did.
So at the point of Pax Cybertronia, half of the Predacons adopted beast modes - although inorganic (think of them all as Transmetals; with a few such as Cryotek as a Transmetal 2), while the other half kept vehicle modes. And the Maximals all went with vehicle modes.

But let's go further. Because as of right now in the Beast Wars Universe, in Cybertron's Technorganic Golden Age, there's a pretty wide mixture of vehicle-formers, Transmetals, Transmetal 2s, Organics, and Technorganics. As a matter of fact Primal is back in a totally organic body, as is Rhinox. Although, again that fiction is still unfinished; waiting for a group of fans who have artistic talent, and a knack for good storytelling to come along and revive it!

So short answers to your question/topic

1.) During Pax Cybertronia, Maximals kept vehicle based modes; while Predacons kept vehicle modes AND adopted beast modes.

2). After the Technorganic reformatting of Cybertron, which is considered the current part of the timeline (as the continuity is still unfinished); all factions and sub factions have a variety of vehicle, organic, Transmetal, Transmetal 2, and Technorganic bodies/alt modes.

 

Other than Dinobot, Cheetor, Rhinox, Rattrap, and Season 1 Primal, have any other BW characters received the CHUG treatment?

 

While my analysis is nowhere near as extensive as above (nice work, BTW), I generally agree that most of Cybertron is still attached to vehicle alt forms. I base this mainly off of Beast Machines cannon:

1) Megatron thought the idea of organic beast modes was repugnant so long as it wasn't a necessity. While there is no evidence of this, it could have been indicative of wider attitudes among Cybertronians. Megatron's dragon mode was extremely powerful, so he would not have shunned it without having a very good reason for it.

On the other hand, this could also provide evidence for a growing trend towards animal forms since such anti-animal feelings would have to be based on something. There may be a small subset of Cybertronians sporting animal forms to better accommodate their smaller size that inspires distaste among the majority.

2) It is implied by the Oracle and background evidence that Cybertron remains wholly inorganic. None of the bots seen in the background, either in the "present" or in flashbacks are seen to be sporting animal modes. Further, it was a main plot point that Cybertron had to give up their dependence on inorganic idealism in order to move forward, hence the purpose of creating technorganicism by bringing back animal DNA. If there was a trend towards animal modes before BW, you would think that these steps would have been taken before.

With regards to you point about faction symbols, one could potentially argue that the symbols aren't 100% "official" in the TF universe. The Maximal symbol changed drastically between BW and BM for no stated reason, indicating that they are not set in stone. Perhaps the "classic" symbols adopted by the characters in BW were adopted solely by them to represent the organic nature of that specific conflict. Then the BM Maximals changed it to represent the technorganic purpose of their mission. It is just speculation obviously, but it is better than having no explanation.

 

Part of the United line in Japan. I'll post a pic in a few.

 

He was part of the 10th anniversary line along with a CHUG Megatron. It's kind of a bad mold anyway so you might be happier not knowing about it.

 

This is the one I was talking about.

Like NightViper said, it's a bad figure. I've only transformed him once.

 

Yeah, 10th Anniversary Primal doesn't even look like Optimus Primal. And he actually does resemble a monkey more than he does an ape. The "Cyber-Surfboard" accessory or whatever the hell that is looks lame too. The Megatron from that series looked kind of cool, but he looked too mechanical and not organic at all. HasTak should definitely redo both of them, preferably in voyager size, and hopefully very show-accurate.

 

Those figures were only supposed to be mere homages, not actual updates, though. They got brought into the BWX line merely to fill it out.

 

I think he is, but I might be wrong.

 

Really?

EDIT: Well I'll be...

I guess it was kind of designed for both. The Cybertron-stylings were a fallback of sorts.

 

Damn. I learned something new.

 

Suddenly, a gorilla lifting a t-rex isn't so absurd.

Tiny "T. Rex" Found -- 150-Pound Species Came First

 

Neo Maximals by Clement Soh, on Flickr

 

So excited, got this guy off ebay for $25 shipped. I wasn't positive he was metals, but I took the risk and I am so happy to say I no longer have to worry about Megatron crumbling to pieces whenever I transform him.