SPITTOR

Japanese Name: Diver
Allegiance: Predacons
Toyline: Beast Wars
Subline: Basic Beasts
Year: 1997

More poisonous than a Cybertronian razor snake, Spittor can immobilize an enemy in less than seven seconds. Highly sensitive microchips existing just millimeters beneath his "skin" instantly release venom on contact with aggressors. When on the attack, his powerful legs allow him to leap in front of enemies over 100 yards away. After catching them off guard, he releases his head-butting poison tongue to knock them out cold. Talk about tough, this guy doesn't feed on flies, he feeds on Maximals.


Robot Mode: Spittor is one of relatively few Transformers I can think of who look much worse in robot mode than in their alternate mode. That's not to say the robot mode is bad, far from it. It's pretty posable, the detailing is good, it's just a bit misshapen (the long arms) and otherwise offers little to entertain. Spittor is sadly lacking a weapon, but does feature one gimmick: He can extend his neck, popping his head up to nearly twice his normal height. It's really a feature for the beast mode, but for some reason it's funny as hell in robot mode, too. Bottom line, a decent robot, but nothing special.

Beast Mode: The beast mode is where Spittor really shines. He's a poisoneous frog and the designers really did themselves proud with the colours and detailing on Kermit's homicidal brother. The yellow stripes on his blue skin look great and the detailing with the numerous bumbs and warts is exceptional. The frog is also very posable, good for all kinds of leaping poses. The lever on his back makes his tongue pop out. Okay, it's hard to miss that it's his robot head at the end of the tongue, but it's still a fun gimmick. All in all one of the better beast modes of the entire Beast Wars line.

Remarks: Another no-show character from early on in the series, Spittor featured briefly in IDW's Beast Wars comic series as one of Magmatron's lieutenants. He was later upgraded into a Transmetal 2, which was then re-released for Robots in Disguise as the Predacon Slapper. This original version is far superior to the Transmetal one, though. So if you're a fan of beast-mode Transformers, this one is for you, though more for the beast than the robot mode.

Rating: B-