Name: Razor Claw
Series: Beast Wars
Allegiance: Mutant Beast
Function: Warrior
Alternate Mode: Transforms from Velociraptor to Wolverine; no robot mode
VELOCIRAPTOR MODE
Height: 9cm Length: 18.5cm Width: 5cm
A green raptor with black and orange paint spots on his back, Razor Claw has mint green front limbs and toes. His eyes are red with silver outlines while he has white teeth on both upper and lower jaws. There's a chrome silver Mutant Beast faction symbol on his left hip (which looks like a diagram of an atom). While I suspect these colours would be unlikely for a Velociraptor, noone knows what colour they were, so I'm giving Razor Claw the benefit of the doubt. They're not the nicest colours, but since the orange is used sparingly, they're not bad either.
This is a fairly skinny raptor, since it more or less unfolds into a series of panels and limbs for transformation. It's not a bad raptor mode though The skin is quite well moulded, sufficiently reptilian with fur limited to the underside, where various wolverine bits are stashed. The hooks inner toes are present, and the claws on all limbs are well sculpted. There's a depression in the middle of his back where the crown of the head sits in wolverine mode, but this is the only major flaw. I wont count the skinny form since while it's not perfect, Razor Claw still looks like a raptor.
The articulation is quite good for a beast that undergoes such a dramatic transformation. The hips are restricted ball joints, the knees bend and have rotators, while the inner claws can lift up or lie flat. The foreclaws are on ball joints while the lower jaw opens and shuts. There's a lid of sorts on the back of the neck, which lifts to reveal a vestigial robot head (which all four Mutant Beasts have somewhere). This face is a strange one, it's silver with a black moustache and orange eyes. Thankfully the lid is on a spring which automatically shuts - making sure this awful face stays hidden.
While it's not fantastic, this is a pretty good velociraptor mode considering what it has to transform into. There's less kibble than on Dinobot and while the colours are a little unusual, they're not awful by any means.
TRANSFORMATION TO WOLVERINE MODE
More or less fold everything over. Flip back the head, swing out the legs and the panels holding the forelimbs, pivot the rump back to reveal the wolverine head, tucking the forelimbs in the gap in the rump. Pivot the tailtip around, stowing the raptor tail and revealing the wolverine tail. Swing down the wolverine legs and you're done.
WOLVERINE MODE
Height: 7cm Length: 12cm Width: 6cm
I'd just like to state that there are no green wolverines. There are no green members of the Order Carnivora at all in fact (dogs, cats, bears etc). Considering that we don't know what colour raptors were, I don't see why this toy wasn't done in grey, brown or black. A green wolverine looks downright ridiculous, and this one has mint front claws and bright orange rear claws. The eyes are red white the teeth are white, and that Mutant Beast logo is on the front left leg. The only realism in this colour scheme comes in Razor Claw's teeth. This colour scheme is, in a word, crap.
The bodyshape here is pretty poor. The front legs are so long that they have to curve forward while the hindlegs are small, slender affairs since they have to hide inside a velociraptor. The body is just as unbalanced as the limbs, with the shoulders being wider than the rump, while the tail sticks out from under the rump, which looks really unnatural. The head is smaller than it should be - again because it's forced to hide inside the other mode.
The head itself is reasonably well sculpted, with a snout and ears. The sculpted fur on this mode is generally quite good, save for the reptilian skin on the front legs. The front claws are obviously not those of a wolverine, but I'm willing to accept this since at a deluxe level swapping out claws would be impossible.
There is some poseability here, although Razor Claw looks pretty stupid in any pose. The hips and shoulders are ball jointed, while the knees, elbows and wrists are hinged. The outer claws on his front limbs can swing out to the sides, the head can lift up a little and the lower jaw opens. The play here is as disappointing as the rest of the wolverine mode, really.
This is easily his worst mode and is probably the worst of the eight beast modes in the Mutant Beast line. In many ways this mode suffers from this toy trying a very ambitious concept. As much as I want to allow for that ambition, Hasbro ruined what was left by using green plastic and giving this thing orange claws.
VARIATIONS
None that I'm aware of.
OVERALL
While the velociraptor mode is quite good and the concept is interesting and ambitious, the choice of colours (the base green plastic especially) really hurt this toy. The wolverine mode is very disappointing to begin with, and the green plastic ruins any potential it might have had. The Mutant Beast concept is certainly an ambitious and interesting one, but this one fails. Unless you really dig raptors, you can safely skip Razor Claw - 3.5/10
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