Beast Wars Transformers Fuzors Basic Figures
Item No.: Asst. ??? No. ??? Manufacturer:Kenner Includes:n/a Action Feature:Spring-loaded wing-claw grab Retail:$4.99 Availability: 1998 Other: Never repainted, not sold in Japan, too weird to die
Now that Beast Wars toys are roughly 15 years old, we're celebrating with our first annual Beast Week! The first week of march is a great time for a look back, especially since that's roughly the time of year I got into Beast Wars toys after I started stumbling on Fuzors in the clearance bins of Tucson, AZ. These things were ugly as sin, but more importantly they were cheap-- basic figures were $2.97 or so, plus Toys "R" Us had an in-store coupon for $5 off any two Transformers toys. Needless to say, there were good deals to be had.
Back in the 1990s, most basic-sized Transformers toys were roughly the same height (and price) as a 3 3/4-inch Star Wars action figure, making them arguably better toys for the money-- assuming of course what you wanted was a hybrid bat/bull that turns into a robot, with heavy influences of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on both. The toothy mouth of the robot doesn't seem too out of line for Transformers, but Noctorro's green eyes and exaggerated snarl in beast mode are straight out of the TMNT toy line across the aisle. The creature he forms has the head of a bull, the legs of (presumably) a werewolf, and bat-like wings. It's a messy design and it's a wonder that Kenner's design team didn't "fuze" together more sensible combinations of animals, like a lion or a tiger. Kids love ligers, but brahma bats? Less so. The action feature of the toy in beast mode lets his arms clamp down on smaller toys underneath him, but given there aren't too many smaller toys in the line he can clamp down upon, it's really just something that gets in the way of playing with it.
Although the beast mode is a little cruddy, what with its legs hanging off in some sort of Island of Dr. Moreau meets Gerwalk, the robot mode is actually quite nice. With tons of ball joints and a total of 12 points of great articulation, the figure is capable of assuming a number of poses without falling over. The lightweight warrior was given stiff limbs in addition to things like a waist joint which we take for granted now, but back in the day you usually saw articulation that was necessary for transformation. These little guys started having extra joints just because which really upped the ante in terms of what little collector appeal a freaky toy like this might have.
The sculpting of the fur and leathery wings on the figure are quite nice, and the very deep dark purple is accented nicely with a brownish, bronze paint on pieces of his body. While neither mode looks especially robotic, it's a fun little toy that was worth getting for about sixty cents after taxes. Today, loose ones are under $5 and packaged samples should set you back about $5-- a bargain if you compare it to most modern toys of similar size. It's weird though, and it's worth noting that while Kenner used to repaint the bulk of its Transformers molds, none of the Fuzors basic-size toys got a redeco at US retail until nearly 10 years later. Noctorro never saw a repaint at all, nor was it ever marketed in Japan like most of the (non-basic Fuzors) toys from this era.
16bit.com is best not viewed in Apple's Safari browser, we don't know why. All material on this site copyright their respective copyright holders. All materials appear hear for informative and entertainment purposes. 16bit.com is not to be held responsible for anything, ever. Photos taken by the 16bit.com staff. Site design, graphics, writing, and whatnot credited on the credits page. Be cool-- don't steal. We know where you live and we'll break your friggin' legs.
RSS 
