C-43 Metals Rattle AKA Transmetal Rattrap!

If you've had an opportunity to look at my collection pages you will notice one glaring omission from the Beast Era: Transmetal Rattrap. I do actually have the figure however after 15 years the vacuum-metalized paint on the figure had disintegrated. I actually had to put him in a ziplock bag a few years ago just to prevent little red flakes all over everything. A similar fate befell Beast Machines Ultra Jetstorm. So for quite a while I haven't been able to display Rattrap with his teammates. While at Botcon I happened upon this little gem: a Beast Wars Metals Rattle MISB for only $15! I could not pass that up so even though I hadn't planned on purchasing him at the show I was able to fill a large hole in my collection.

Beast Mode

Because this is the Japanese version of the figure, there are a few differences between this one and the American version. First and foremost is the color of the vacuum paint. You may or may not be able to tell through the pictures but it is more of a pink color than the show-accurate red. Also on the rear of the figure where Rattrap's name was tampographed is instead the word "Cybertron" (the Japanese equivalent for Autobot even though he is technically a Maximal). Other than those small differences the figures are the same. I didn't get my old figure out for comparison because I still don't want to deal with little red flakes everywhere.

Also of interest are his instructions because they also include the instructions for D-43 Terrorsaur. I believe this is due to the figures being sold in a two-pack and Takara just used the same instruction sheet for the individually packed figures instead of reprinting it. It also comes with a cool holographic card that switches between non-transmetal beast mode, transmetal beast mode and transmetal robot mode.

Vehicle mode (all Transmetals had this 'in-between' mode)

Robot Mode

The two Rattraps of Beast Wars

Rattrap's Evolution

It is funny his figure continued to get bigger as time progressed.

With the Wal-Mart Exclusive Blue Rattrap. Blue Rattrap is also known as Transmetal Packrat.

The beauty of the figures from the Beast Era was that they were more or less screen-accurate. In the show Rattrap's 'backpack' flipped around but other than that this figure was dead-on accurate. We are spoiled nowadays as we expect our figures to look like what we see on TV, but when Beast Wars was going on I can remember my excitement at actually having toys that looked 'right'. Back when G1 was on TV, we weren't so lucky.