JAPANESE BEAST WARS
ARMOR vs. SNAPPER
VOLCANO PLAYSET REVIEW (VS-X1)
I don't know a whole lot about this playset other than that it's very
hard to find. I got lucky and found it in a lot along with the
Niagra base (w/ Diver) Beast Wars II playset on Yahoo! Japan
Auctions. Mine came in pretty good condition, but I didn't know
it was missing a few of the "volcanic" rocks or did I know the box was
a little rougher than I had thought it would be. Anyhow, enjoy
the following review and pictures!
Packaging:
The box features the same beautiful layout as previous packaging.
Right in the middle in the front of the box is CGI character models of
Armor and Snapper. Neither of these characters were ever featured
in the CGI television show so this art is especially nice. There
is a large window showing the contents of the box, but thanks to the
inner plastic tray the window is nice and sturdy. Each end side
flap of the box is dedicated to either character, showing a close up of
their beast forms as well as an action shot from the playset. The
back of the box has a versus action shot of the playset between several
different Cybertron & Destron toys.
Toys:
I'll start off with the volcano portion of the set first since in my
opionion this is the main draw. The volcano has a foot print of
about 7 inches and stands 5 inches tall. It is obviously not to
scale with most of the Beast Wars toys, but basic sized figures mesh
with the set OK. The front of the volcano has the appearance of
being solid rock, only a hint of metal existing on the back side.
The path for the "volcanic" rocks is obvious as the smooth channels zig
zag down from the crest of the volcano. On the right side there
are two peg holes for the prison walls. The prison itself isn't
very big, only measuring 3.5" x 4". There are two latches to open
and close the gate with, but the way the plastic prison walls are
constructed they fold in on themselves every time you try to unlatch
them. At least you can fit one basic figure in the prison...other
than that it isn't very functional. The back side of the volcano
has a large metal portion with what appears to be a door in the
center. A blue cannon stand snaps onto the base of this metal
piece. The cannon itself can hold up to two "volcanic" rocks and
it appears the cannon was designed to shoot the rocks out, but my
specimen doesn't. The trigger on the top rear of the cannon looks
as if it would snap down, causing a component inside to launch the
rocks. Because the cannon is seperate from the base, it can fully
rotate on it's own. Now we get to the good part...well, it's not
that good, but at least the volcano has a working gimmick and just
isn't a ordinary diorama piece. Once you insert one "C" battery
in the compartment on the bottom of the volcano and switch it to the on
position, you hear a very noise (and annoying) motor inside go to
work. Place the "volcanic" rocks into the bottom channel and it
will feed them inside the volcano one by one. It then propels the
rocks up the inner shaft and out the top of the volcano to roll back
down to the bottom and repeat the process. It took several
attempts at times for the rocks to actually obtain the height they
needed to escape the volcano's mouth. Other times it would propel
the rocks up so high that they would simply land outside of the volcano
itself! Most of the time however it operated just fine. It
seemed to operate best with 2-3 rocks going at the same time.
There is also a plastic playmat included, but mine had been folded up
in the box so long it was very hard to get the mat to lay flat as the
plastic is a rather heavy so the creases are deep. It's nothing
special, just a worn looking flatland type ground with a little bit of
water surrounded by rocks in one corner and some scattered vegetation.
Closing Comments:
From what I can tell, both Armor (Armordillo) & Snapper are the
same as their U.S. counterparts, so I didn't bother to snap pictures or
review either of those here. I'll leave them to their own
individual reviews. So there you have it, a brief photographic
review of the rare Japanese Beast Wars VS-X1 volcano playset.
Overall it's a great piece and has some good play appeal, but because
of it's rarity I would only recommend it to completionists.
Ephesians 4:2 "Be
completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in
love."
