Tasmania Kid (Legacy: United/Core Class)

Legacy continues being the Generations series I want with this new version of Tasmania Kid, a character I honestly thought would be lost to time. A kid appeal character from Beast Wars II, Tasmania Kid is Takara's version of Beast Wars Snarl. Not a repaint or remold, the same toy with a new name for the market. I don't believe Snarl was released by Takara, so he could easily be considered the same guy with a different name if you choose. Like all other recent Transformers figures, Tasmania Kid is a pretty great update of the original design. The original toy featured a spring loaded transformation, something all the initial Beast Wars basic class (precursor to Core Class) figures had. Of course this wasn't universally loved by all, so this newer toy skipping the gimmick is probably welcome for a lot of people.

I personally wasn't bothered by it, but can see how it would turn off some. Despite the lack of spring loaded transformation, Tasmania Kid transforms VERY faithfully to his original toy. It's pretty impressive. It's like they took the original toy and improved it. Tasmania Kid transforms into his Tasmanian Devil beast mode fairly easily and satisfactorily. It's just a pleasant experience. He retains his Tasmanian Gun arm cannon, which is the tail from his beast mode. Unlike the original toy, there isn't a firing missile. Something I'm not sad about, though it does look a lot smaller now. Not just because it physically is, but seems puny. Not a bad thing, it's just that this is such an accurate update that the difference in seems out of place. It's fine on it's own.

It's probably easy to see that I'm happy with this toy. I'm obviously a big Beast Wars fan and love all these recent updates. It's really cool and a lot of fun for me as a fan. Especially after all the years where Beast Wars was seemingly put away and all but ignored. The orignal toy was always a cool little figure. While I doubt a Snarl version will be coming... though if that's Takara's version it would be sort of awesome. I would love to see a Bound Rouge as that was always a cool recolor. Or hey, maybe a leopard version... that would blow my mind.