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.

Rediscovering Beast Machines

Every few years I like to go back and re-watch some of the old Transformers series just to re-familiarize myself with the shows and maybe view them in a new perspective. Today I thought I might give Beast Machines another try. Since the original airings, I've only watched this series one other time probably due to my strong feelings against it from when it first came out.

 The culture shock of being introduced to this show from such a strong presentation like Beast Wars was unsettling to say the least. I understood what the writers were trying to do, but I didn't want to accept it at the time because I saw Beast Machines (as many of us did) as the natural conclusion of the Generation One universe. I actually much preferred the "Wreckers" storyline presented by 3H near the same time which helped ease the pain/transition. Ultimately though, this show represents the end of the 'original' Transformers, without any of this re-booting and universe hopping that currently dominates the mythos.

 Watching the first episode again today brought back all of those feelings of betrayal and hatred that I felt as an angry little teenager. But I was also able to look past that and see the show a little differently. I can certainly appreciate the aesthetic beauty of the show, which was much more stylized and a little cleaner than Beast Wars. As I continue to watch, I hope to gain a new understanding of this story and accept it in a better light than I did twelve years ago. But I still have a hard time wrapping my mind around "I am Transformed!". Maybe I can just tune it out...