Beachcomber Small, but robust Transformers Legacy Evolution Deluxe Item No.: Asst. F2990 No. F7196 Manufacturer: Hasbro Includes: Blaster and Paradise Parakeet Action Feature: Transforms from robot to car Retail: $24.99 Availability: June 2023 Other: It's worth it
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While a small deluxe, Beachcomber surprises by putting some of the budget back into the toy, with varying degrees of success. He's got a little parrot buddy molded out of a rubbery plastic, which is also used for the rubbery tires - a real rarity in these toys. The original toy's decals are now sculpted and painted to some extent. He has swivel wrists and tilting ankles - and I would argue he's possibly too much toy. I would like to see what the $20 version of this is, but for $25 I do feel it's arguably as good as this toy could get in 2023.

Despite not being incredibly better than the $10 2017 Power of the Primes Beachcomber [FOTD #1,872], he is taller, with more moving parts, a bird buddy, and those rubbery tires. Someone at Hasbro clearly looked at the budget and rose to the challenge of just what you could do with this smaller character at a $25 budget.

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Standing 4 1/2-inches tall, Beachcomber throws down the gauntlet to anyone at Takara-Tomy thinking of doing a Masterpiece Edition toy. If you can give us a parrot, a blaster, and rubber tires for $25, you'd have to make a really compelling case to pay $100 or more for a similar toy of the same character. The legs swing forward freely, allowing him to sit. His big boots keep him from falling over. The blaster fits easily in his swivel fists. The kibble collapses nicely into the robot mode, giving him a pleasing silhouette with minimal chunks hanging off. The figure's proportions and deco are more in line with the cartoon, meaning a less barrely chest and a perfectly nice head with the silver sunglasses are present.

One of the more clever things Hasbro did was to include 3mm pegs on the shoulders. His Paradise Parakeet buddy sits on the peg snugly, and it looks great if yours was painted well. Mine had missing paint at the moment I opened the package - I'm not crazy about that. At least it's hard to notice. If you're just going to have him on your shelf, it's a pretty nice package with no extraneous parts to keep track of.

Transformation is easy - I had no real problems here. You might want to be careful about folding the feet just right, but I think you're going to enjoy this one. I appreciate that it's easy - there are some flaps to cover robot caps, but aside from that everything tabs and swivels very sensibly. I like this one a lot.

The one thing the Power of the Primes Beachcomber has over this one is interactivity. And only just barely. The 2023 Legacy Evolution version has the engine blaster that can mount on the bars to be a cannon. It can also seat the bird in one of the 5mm sockets. That's great! But the Power of the Primes one was designed to have little pilot figures drive him - that's hard to beat. I really enjoyed that functionality, and it would be nice if it was somehow retained here. At least the vehicle itself is a massive improvement, thanks to the PVC tires better gripping surfaces to roll and I dig the sculpted headlights and very nice wheels. Everything about it looks marvelous.

I wanted to complain about this one being too small for the price, but it's good. And that's worth something. I would love to see more action toy features, but as a $25 figure for collectors I struggle to name ways to improve him other than painted lights in car mode or maybe some stickers. It meets and surpasses expectations, and I hope you can get one without a fight. It's worth it.

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