Beast
Machines Beast Riders & Deployers
In the early summer of 2000, Hasbro released
the Beast Riders, and a few months later, the Deployers as well. These
toys were both sublines of the Beast Machines Transformers toyline. Both
were fresh new ideas, but neither of them caught on that well, and thusly,
only 2 Beast Riders and 3 Deployers were made.
The Beast Riders were "transforming" vehicles
that sold for about $7.99 in the U.S., but because of their simiplistic
construction, were actually between the sizes of Deluxes and Megas. Both
Beast Riders had a similar design structurally, and the only difference
between the two were the detailing and shape of certain parts. The transformations
were a joke, however, and involved little more than rotating claws and
revealing a few extra weapons. Beast Riders were made for other Transformers
to ride into battle, as a sort of "accessory".
The Deployers, on the other hand, all had
completely different designs. They were mechanical animals that transformed
into weapons, and sold for about $4.99 in the U.S., because they were smaller
than even basic toys. Unfortunately, although they were pretty small, they
were too large to fit in all but the largest of Transformer's hands, and
even then, they didn't fit that well. Still, mobile weapons platforms were
pretty neat, and Deployers sold a bit better than their Beast Riders brethren.
In early 2001, repaints of all of the Deployers
and Beast Riders came out. Originally, these were all supposed to be a
second wave of the Beast Riders and Deployers, but for some reason, Hasbro
neglected giving these repaints new names or packaging. All reviews below
cover both the original versions and the repaints.
Che
