>>11231989"Robot" modes. Technically, as Noble, you're supposed to detach the wings and set them aside for a show-accurate appearance, but I'm not a fan of partsforming. He pulls off a pretty good werewolf mode otherwise, and I love the way his color scheme shifts from red to blue; I just wish they put more effort into hiding his dragon head, which just kinda hangs off his back. In this mode, his second gimmick can be used - sliding his unique Spark Crystal (which is a blend of both the Vehicon and Maximal symbols) up unlocks a mechanism in his right arm, and moving the flap on his back makes it spin around; his clear chest reveals all the gears involved in the mechanism, which is cool but odd, because again - he's supposed to be entirely organic. His wolf jaw can open, and he seems to be missing an insert in his head that was supposed to have his eyeballs, though according to Google this is a thing on ALL copies of him. Whatever the case, his eye sockets are completely empty, which is a bit creepy.
Night Viper turns into a really lanky snake man. His transformation is surprisingly simple (again, he's just a Basic), but clever - the bulk of it involves the sides of his snake hood hiding his robot hands, while his legs are threaded through his pelvis and lock in place; you can leave his legs in their snake mode to turn him into a Naga, if you want, which is neat. He has a flip-out blade in his right arm cover and his Spark Crystal is hidden in his left, though early concept art shows he was supposed to have another weapon on that side as well.
For all of its weirdness, Beast Machines had some genuinely cool designs (and a few creepy ones), and these two are pretty great even by modern standards. I'm thrilled to finally have Savage Noble, and Night Viper turned out to be surprisingly fun for a guy I didn't even know existed until recently. Haven't quite decided which side I'm putting by dragon-dog on, though, considering he was both an enemy and ally on the show.
