K-9 (Maximal) - 1997

 

The second year of Beast Wars releases inevitably saw some recolours and retools from the first, it makes financial sense to wring every last use out of the molds you have for the toys, and it diversifies the line somewhat, giving you more characters to play with. Not that the show would be able to take advantage of this of course, and unless mandated by Hasbro, they tended to stick with the same characters. Which is a shame, because it means we never got to see Wolfang, and his retooled line cousin, K-9.

K-9, far from being the Doctor's tin dog here, is styled as a guard officer, very good at his job, perhaps even *too* good - he will often suspect his own comrades of impropriety as well as the Predacons, and keep his attention shifting between them both - but if he trusts you, that trust is unwavering, and you have an ally for life. Formatted to look like a German Shepherd dog, this certainly seems to be the best for for his personality type, and apart from a little bit of Obvious Hand Syndrome, he pulls off the look brilliantly, looking like a very good boy indeed. His tail also turns into a missile launcher, which, because it's Kenner, does have a bit of a Batman grappling hook vibe to it, but we'll find that more and more as we go along.

The package art is really nice too - none of the spikiness and downright weirdness that you got with the Predacons (although like I say, you ain't seen nothing yet) - K-9 is presented as a driven and heroic type, jumping into battle to defeat the evil of his foes, his teeth gritted and his jaw lanterned - it also includes the shield that usually sits on his back in robot mode, and becomes the back of his German Shepherd mode. Oh partsforming, I do love your cheating ways. Expect more of that in the future, for sure.

K-9 then is a very good example of a second year Beast Wars figure - more of the same from the first year, but with a bit more swagger, because now they know that the kids are getting into it. After this year, they really start to play with the concept, and go into some very strange places indeed...