Beast Wars II Starscream & BB

Absolute fucking peak is the best way I can describe these guys. These molds were originally released in 1994 (over 30 years ago!) and I would still say they are some of the best Transformers Hasbro has ever put out.

But first, a bit of explanation in case someone comes across this page and has no idea what Beast Wars II is, who these guys are, etc.

Beast Wars II is a Japan-only Transformers line from 1998, which was created because seasons 2 and 3 of the Western Beast Wars cartoon were still not ready for dubbing into Japanese. As far as the toyline went, it relied heavily on redecoes and retools of Beast Wars toys that had only previously been released as Hasbro imports by Takara, Generation 2 toys that had gone unreleased by Takara during the short-lived Transformers G-2 line, some Generation One toys, some playsets that may have been planned for a Microman line, and some Transformers toys that had gone thus far completely unreleased by either Hasbro or Takara! The only 100% brand new 'created for this line' Transformers were Lio Convoy, Galvatron, and Moon.

And then there's these two, who actually don't really cleanly fit into any of the above categories of toy origins for BWII that I just said. What fun.

Explained as simply as possible: these molds were first released in 1994 during the Transformers: Generation 2 toyline as Dreadwing (the stealth bomber) and Smokescreen (the fighter jet), with both toys sold together in one set. In addition to being released in Hasbro's markets, Dreadwing and Smokescreen was also sold in Japan by Takara as part of the Transformers: G-2 line in 1995.

Also in 1995, Hasbro was going to release redecos of Dreadwing and Smokescreen as Megatron and Starscream but this release was only ever sold in test markets in Ohio and never saw a mass market release. Their decos, however were modified slightly and used for the Beast Wars II release I have here.

That's enough of an explanation, let's get into the toys themselves. They are - as I said - fucking peak. They just ooze fun, not just because of their hella fun gimmicks but their articulaton and poseability as well.

It's important to remember that these molds were first released in 1994 during the Generation 2 line and they were among the first Transformers Hasbro released that featured articulation beyond what they needed to include for the transformation and letting kids have them point their guns forward in robot mode.

And said articulation and poseability still holds up today. This ain't a case of 'This was really good articulation for the time but it's definitely of its time', it's 'This was amazing articulation for the time and it still holds up well over 30 years later'.

Starscream and BB both feature swivel joints at the neck, dual swivels at the shoulders, bicep swivels, elbow hinges, ball joint hips, and knee hinges. Shit, because of transformation, BB also has forwards butterfly joints, too!

Literally the only points of articulation that these guys are missing that are considered 'standard' in a modern Generations collector-aimed figure are wrist swivels (but even modern figures sometimes exclude those because of transformation), a waist swivel (again, also sometimes excluded because of how a toy transforms), thigh swivels, and ankle pivots. So if you exclude the two POA that are sometimes excluded by even modern figures, these two toys that - again - had their original versions released over 30 years ago are just missing two points of articulation compared to a modern Generations toy.

Absolutely unreal.

And then the gimmicks too, the goddamn gimmicks. Starscream is the more plain of the two since his gimmicks just boil down to 'He has a pair of missile launchers that you can attach to the sides of the jet mode or wield as guns in robot mode' (I don't have the missles in them because mine have hair trigger launchers).

But then BB. Fuckin' BB. He's got a grand total of twelve missiles. Six attach to the underside of his wings and then you can press the buttons above them to drop them as bombs. And the other six missiles go into his goddamn gatling gun and you turn the knob on the back to fire them off one at a time.

And he also combines with Starscream (by inserting Starscream into his rear - helpfully labelled with preapplied stickers reading 'For Starscrem [sic]') resulting in a more complete-looking stealth bomber (it is impressive how the shared deco makes the complete stealth bomber mode look cohesive) and then when you remove Starscream, it automatically flips BB's wings up. Which not only is the first step involved in transforming him into his robot mode, but also the first step in transforming him into his tank mode.

Because of course they'd stick a triple changing gimmick into this set. Although being real, it's not a great tank mode. It is pretty much just 'the stealth bomber mode but with the wings flipped up, the wing tips folded in, the tank treads folded out, and the gatling gun repositioned on top'. But it's still cool.

God these guys are so cool and like no joke, I think these are an essential pick up for any Transformers fan. Any version of these molds: the original G2 Dreadwing and Smokescreen, the BWII Starscream and BB (also released by the Korean company Sonokong as part of their Beast-War line, actually my figures are the Korean release, and later rereleased as Stealth Saber in their Car-Bot line), the Robots in Disguise 2001 Dreadwind and Smokejumper, or the Robot Masters Gigant Bomb and Gigant Sniper (which were sold separately instead of together).

My God this really has become my longest 'thoughts on the figure' thing, huh? Well it fits considering how much I fuckin' love them.