Review – Battle Beasts Ferocious Tiger
After my quick review of the Battle Beasts War Weasel last week (review here) I thought it might be fun if the other original Battle Beasts toy in my collection made it onto battlegrip.com Rather than repeat myself and talk about the toy’s sculpt, paint, and articulation — which is all pretty much of the same level of quality as War Weasel I figured I would instead touch on the most memorable part of the original line . . . “Wood Beats Water!”
A Game
This awesome Battle Beasts commercial teaches you all about how the Battle Beasts “game” works. The toy’s rubsigns — those black stickers on their chests that reveal a symbol when rubbed (though mine no longer seem to work) — reveal one of three symbols: Fire, Wood, or Water.
So the game is basically a RPS engine, with Fire beating Wood, Wood beating Water, and Water beating Fire. And yes, the Transformers Bot Shots toys now in stores (see my Barricade review) does this same thing with just a little more complexity added in. The Battle Beasts game isn’t hugely complicated, but it’s the most memorable part of the line (in my opinion) and it’s cool that Takara’s new Beast Saga line includes a game (see the dice and board here). Back to its roots!
Inspirational!
Yes, between Bot Shots, pulling out these old Battle Beasts figures, and reading one too many articles on RPS lately I find myself inspired to craft a simple game that uses its own RPS-style mechanic. Maybe that’s what I’ll wrap up on the 15 hour flight to Hong Kong next week.
Closing Thoughts
Battle Beasts strikes me as one of those toy lines that you’re either excited about or just have no real interest in. I rarely encounter anyone who only has a handful of the old toys (I know, I’m unusual) since it looks like owning a lot of them is where the real fun starts to happen. Ferocious Tiger isn’t quite as neat as War Weasel — I love War Weasel’s gas mask — but he’s fun and holding him will always make me remember that classic toy commercial. “Water puts out fire!”
Philip Reed is now thinking maybe he’ll get lucky and find a few Battle Beasts at Botcon. Maybe.
