Duh me. I knew that, too, having two copies of ol' Gigz. See kids, this is what happens when you don't get enough sleep.

I neglected to mention the other guys because they were mostly comedic relief that was just too slappy for me, and besides, they were repaints of BW figs so it had already been done.

Real beasty were the likes of Big Convoy and TMII megs.  

 

Beast modes were, are, and always will be cooler than vehicles to me. IMO, unless it’s for disguise and disguise only, vehicle modes will always be a flawed concept. You’re an alien robot capable of contorting and transforming your body into anything you want, and you basically choose a plank on wheels. Yes, you can go fast, but only forwards and backwards. You can’t turn on a dime, you can’t strafe, your footprint is now as big as you are, you (usually) lack means of defense, and you have no face or limbs with which to communicate or interact with the world properly. As a concept for disguise on Earth it makes sense, as a latent ability of the race it’s utterly stupid.

As an animal, though, you still retain full control and motion of your body. You can still emote and interact with the world. You have all the benefits of a vehicle mode, such as flight, speed or durability depending on which animal you pick, except you’re far more maneuverable and can handle more terrain. You’ll have, bear minimum, some method of defending yourself, even if it’s just biting. You’re not actually a real animal, so like vehicle TFs you’re stronger and faster than the real deal, so you have no drawbacks being an animal may present. If anything being an animal affords you assets you don’t have or can’t have as a robot or vehicle, and if you’re a mechanical animal suddenly you have even more options.

I can’t look at a single vehicle TF and not think they’d be cooler as some kind of beast. I mean, I never display my TFs in vehicle mode, because a vehicle can’t do much but sit there and look like it’s idling, but animals naturally look, well, alive, and depending how good the toy is can be posed dynamically just as a robot can. I just think about that episode of G1 where the Autobots were trapped in vehicle mode from a Decepticon device, and were completely helpless save for Optimus just happening to have Roller as part of his truck mode, and in BW the premise had to completely change the events so the Maximals were forced into beast mode, catching them off guard and immediately being dispatched. In fact the Maximals only survived because they were animals, and Cheetor and Tigatron broke out without any special gadgets, just the simple ability to shift their weight on their feet, something a car can’t do. (And Cheetor was saved again when Tigatron grabbed his tail, something obviously not possible if they were cars or trucks)

It’s like, if you’re going to have two modes, why have an intentionally shitty one? Why not make the most of having two separate forms, instead of being half oversized paperweight?

 

A plank with omnidirectional wheels is a lot more aerodynamic than a beast will ever be.
It's sole purpose is to get from A to B.

 

What car on Earth has omnidirectional wheels? In fact, when has any TF outside of the games had omnidirectional capabilities in car/truck mode?

Also, no, not all vehicles are more aerodynamic than beasts. Just look at Optimus, a literal rolling square. Animals have spent millions of years evolving into creatures that can handle so many different environments and scenarios. A jet-powered robotic cheetah moves just as fast as a jet-powered car, only it can scale steep or rocky hills, leap over obstacles, and, like, climb a flight of stairs. Any car mode TF, assuming they can’t swerve to avoid, will either have to stop, crash, or transform when faced with an obstacle.

I always say just look at the games. In order to be even partway useful as a vehicle they either turn into battering rams (ouch) deploy weapons (that’s cheating!) or assume the hover-modes of the High Moon games which basically function no differently from robot mode. In fact, the one time you get to play as a beast it’s such an asset and no-brainer the game limits when you can transform since it’s basically robot mode but better in every way.

 

In beast mode, they have to jump up, but forwards. In vehicle mode, they just roll.
And in order to scale something, they just boost upwards.
Wheels › Limbs

 

So was the flying shark mentioned. In fact the three Basic Transmetal 2 Predacons I mentioned and Sky-Byte were always together.

I actually owned the original version of that mold from Beast Wars by the way. Not sure what I did with him... I haven't seen that figure in years... I never picked up Sky-Byte because I already had Cybershark though in hind sight Sky-Byte being far more popular and well known today than Cybershark is, I kinda wish I had picked up that repaint.

 

I really liked original tigershark cybershark (wave-II deluxe). I remember ordering TM cybershark off amazon - my first order from the site. Then my brother got skybite and i wasn't thrilled about the repaint but eventually he gave me all his TF's and it grew on me. Now skybite's got all the glory and cybershark is all but chum.

We need a good voyager-sized Cybershark with reticulated hind-section so he can flippy-flappy murder-roll his victims or jump up and gobble them whole from behind like Samuel L. Jackson got it in that one flick. That was my power-animal for a whole week. Shark week!

 

The original Cybershark was a hammer head... and that mold has also been retooled several times changing the shape of the head so it was also a sawnose at one point... and whatever the "HELL" Beast Wars II Starscream was. I don't think it was ever a tigershark though.

- = edit = -

Yup, double checked to see if there was another version of that mold I forgot about. It's just those three. The Hammerhead shark which was the original Cybershark. The Sawshark which was Sharp Edge. And the Cyberbeast retool which was used for Hellscream and Universe Overbite.

Unfortunately I never owned any version of this mold. I would love to have all three... Not both Hellscream and Overbite because they're exactly the same mold just straight repaints... but the other two are extensive retools so they don't even look like the same toy. And I love aquatic Transformers so it's a shame I've never seen any of them in person, only through photos on the internet.  

The TM2 Cybershark… and I guess also that Cyberbeast retool of the original mold are ambiguous never really given an official species classification beyond just "shark" so I guess you could call them Tigersharks if you want to. Just do to the robotic nature of the designs they don't really have any distinguishing features to say for sure if they are or not.

 

I see my memory is in dire need of retconning. But I do recall myself loving the hell out of the figure in my younger days. The aquatics always fascinated me. Clawjaw was such a fun little thing and Rampage was an absolute brute! I seriously considered getting TFC's Pirrhanacon but the price tag is a little over my limit these days.

 

I always expected volcanicus to be at least as strong as Predaking given their reputation for taking on devatastor un-combined. Sadly very little bio and back story currently exists for the character. I think the closest we got was a story featuring a dinobot combiner named extinction were dinobots combined in this horrific agonizing hellraiser like fashion and created a deranged monster that wiped out both the autobot and decepticon forces before eventually being killed Optimus Prime I think.