TRANSFORMERS TOYS AND MERCHANDISE SECTION

Robot Mode:
Alternate Mode:
Box Art:
Technical Specifications:
STR
INT
SPD
END
RNK
CRG
FPR
SKL

Auros' Review of Razorclaw

Generation: Universe
First cartoon appearance - N/A
Quote: "Resistance will not be tolerated - surrender or be destroyed."

In a universe where the heroic MAXIMAL, TIGERHAWK, succumbed to the Vok influence and destroyed that realities' MEGATRON, UNICRON chose to select his fourth, and final, general. Devoid of compassion, dictated by logic, and possessed by evil, this once noble character uses his Vok-enhanced abilities to pillage neighboring star systems for the glory of his dark master. Possesses elemental powers to summon earthquakes, electrical storms and tsunamis. Has Vok alien-enhanced intelligence and an incredible arsenal of weaponry at his disposal, including an ion diminisher that paralyzes enemies. His titanium-reinforced claws in beast mode can tear through multiple layers of an opponent's armor, exposing the circuitry underneath for RAZORCLAW to rip out. Totally fearless and ferocious in battle, RAZORCLAW is one enemy that you don't want to face alone. Has a particularly heated rivalry with OPTIMUS PRIMAL, his one time commander. OPTIMUS PRIMAL epitomizes many virtues that RAZORCLAW detests-compassion, nobility, fairness. Under times of great stress, RAZORCLAW's unique binary-Spark combination of the lost MAXIMALS, TIGATRON and AIRAZOR, is both a hindrance and weakness; confusing this powerhouse as the noble Maximal Sparks strive to re-exert their original personalities.

One of the initial, large figures offered in the Transformers Universe line was a repaint of one of the more popular figures from the end of the Beast Wars line. Since I missed out on the original Tigerhawk, I jumped at the chance to get what I thought to be a really cool repaint of the figure, but ended up somewhate disappointed. The paintjob is classic Decepticon colors, but I feel that there is so little variety that many details are lost and the figure ends up looking like a big mass of mostly black plastic. I also found that the figure just didn't live up to the hype surrounding it, in my opinion it didn't at least. There were several other problems I found with the toy that will be discussed below, but overall I felt kind of peeved that I spent $22 on a figure I didn't feel was worth that much.

Alternate Mode:
Some sort of funktastic tiger-hawk hybrid is Razorclaw's beast mode and the figure seems to incorporate some robotic elements in this mode since it has missile launchers attached to its wings. So you have this tiger/hawk/missile launcher thing as the alternate mode. Not bad really, but the lack of definition between the different parts due to the black paintjob (or really, lack of a paintjob) ends up making it look kind of cheap and like a jumbled mess. I also fail to see a whole lot of play value in this mode. The problem, as I see it, is that there just isn't a lot of articulation and sometimes parts will come loose in this mode. I also don't generally display the figure in this mode either because the robot mode is significantly cooler.

Robot Mode:
Oh yeah, this mode is cool. You just can't argue with Razorclaw (or the original Tigerhawk) in robot mode. The toy makes an awesome display piece in robot mode, but unfortunately, that's about all that can be done with it in robot mode. The arms have an extremely weird style of articulation and really disappointed me because this is a repaint of a Beast Wars figure, so I expected some awesome articulation and ball-joint sockets everwhere. The legs don't seem to be particularly well-articulated either, so there aren't even a whole lot of poses Razorclaw can be put in, but at least he looks imperious no matter how you have him set up. Ultimately, there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of play value in robot mode either; however, I do recall something a friend recently said about action figures in general. Articulation only really matters to collectors and others (usually adults) who appreciate toys for their construction, but kids don't care about articulation because they're just going to bash figures together anyway when they want to have them fight. Keeping that in mind, I'm less inclined now to say that it is totally devoid of play value.

Transformation: 9 - Razorclaw has a pretty tough transformation and required the instructions on the first transformation and was even rather difficult on subsequent transformations.
Durability: 7 - The figure itself is solid, but comes with FOUR missiles that seem to have hair-trigger firing mechanisms and constantly get lost.
Fun: 5 - Not a whole lot of fun in my opinion, but for a kid it's probably an ok figure and it's nice for displaying. I certainly don't play with it like some of my other figures.
Price: 4 - While it's not insanely expensive, I feel that the figure is more expensive that it was worth and should have sold for $5-$10 cheaper at the very least. This is, of course, probably the most subjective part of this review and what you find the price to be worth is always ultimately up to you and nobody else.
Summary: 6 - Nice display piece that I'd be happier with if I had been able to snag it for cheaper and hadn't fallen for all the hype surrounding it.