Non-articulated beast modes don't bother me at all so long as they're in a relatively neutral pose, unlike say TM2 Cybershark/Gelshark (Sky Byte).
Things to consider:
+ It's easier to incorporate articulation into beast modes that are 'cybernetic' (e.g. Transmetals, Transmetal 2s, technorganics) or fused (i.e. Fuzors) - because you can have various kinds of joints without messing up the organic aesthetic of the beast mode. Remember that all alt modes (vehicular, beast or otherwise) are essentially 'shells' or 'disguises' for the robot. It's difficult to have a fully articulated full organic (within reason) beast mode because the animal is basically housing a robot inside. For example Mach Kick has a full organic looking horse mode that has fairly decent articulation - he can't be posed into a full gallop but you can pose him into a canter. The synthetic fibre tail does also add an extra degree of realism, but other than that he's fairly static. The head can look up and down but cannot turn side to side. Even with the cybernetic and fused beast modes, almost none of them are highly articulated compared to the robot modes... the most poseable beast mode would probably be on Air Attack Optimus Primal - but again, it's not a realistic looking gorilla mode. The examples you guys are citing of beast modes with lesser articulation are from full organic moded TFs whereas the ones with better articulation tend to come from cybernetic or fused moded TFs.
+ Many (but not all) of the examples of beast modes with lesser articulation typically come from early Beast Wars toys. The concept of true beast modes was new and revolutionary at the beginning of Beast Wars, and evidently HasTak got better and making them (in some cases) as the series progressed. It's more disappointing when you see engineering go backwards - like say Transmetal 2 and Beast Machines Cheetor... these toys pale in comparison to the original and Transmetal Cheetor. Even Nightslash Cheetor isn't that great... he's just good compared to Mega and Supreme Cheetor, as if that's hard.
Drift, Drift and Drift.Originally Posted by SharkyMcShark
Underrated? That line was hugely popular and quite successful! RiD toys were _flying_ off shelves here long before the cartoon aired. And a lot of people were already importing Car Robot stuff before Hasbro even decided to do RiD.
Also... this thread is discussing articulation in _alt_ mode. How much alt mode articulation do you think RiD had? Certainly not much more or less than most Armada toys.
When it comes to vehicle mode articulation, we didn't really get much of that until Binaltech/Alternators and Masterpiece -- but of course, these toys are bigger and more expensive than most other Transformers.
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