Dave's Toy Rant:

     BeetleBorgs Force Mega Spectra Blue Stinger BeetleBorg (gasp...)

CAPSULE

     A very solid base toy with good articulation and detailed sculpt, if not
the best LOOKING sculpt.  Snap-on accessories have a good deal of play value,
but the price point is a little high.  Recommended if you ignore the price.
$7.96 at Wal-Mart (I saw it on a peg labeled "Beetleborgs: $5.96," but
apparently that was for a different assortment, and I got distracted and
didn't notice the extra two bucks until I got home, gah).

RANT

     The basic theme of this whole assortment seems to be that the Beetle
Fighter characters wear armor bits which can be assembled so that it looks
like they're wearing vehicles on their shoulders.  Each has a shield/gun
which fits over the figure's face to enhance the vehicle impression.  The
Blue Stinger has a jet motif, the Red and Green have tank-like modes, the
Gold is another jet, and the silver and purple are helicopters.  I think
these would all make extremely cool $6 toys, but Bandai decided to keep them
at the $8 price point, where they're not as competitive.

     The base figure has many points of articulation, but isn't up to the
level of Bandai's Mystic Knights figures.  Swivel neck, hinge knees and
elbows, ball hips, swivel upper arms and lower thighs, and a sort of
semi-universal joint on the shoulders (swivel plus an in-out hinge which is
very restricted in movement).  The hands have pegs on them which fit into a
hole on the hand weapon, which is nice from a stability viewpoint, but does
mean the figure can't hold any other items.  On the other hand (no pun
intended), the armor pieces on the forearms have mounts for the hand weapon,
the shield or anything else you wanna stick on, as the peg size is the same
for most of the accessories.  This gives a good amount of mix-and-match, so
you can come up with your own arrangements.

     The armor pieces are all made of soft, rubbery plastic and rely on
friction to stay together instead of snapping into place.  They're less
colorful than shown on the package, but this seems to be the way of the world
when it comes to Bandai.  Unfortunately, the armor bits can't be assembled
into a jet on their own, which is something of a shame.  The figure has a
sword holster on the hip as a built-in feature, but the leg armor gets in the
way of holstering the sword.

     The figure as a whole is pretty cool, if top-heavy when armored up.  The
unposeable ankles don't help much here, and the foot holes have got to be the
biggest I've ever seen in an action figure, 3/16" in diameter (1/2 cm).
That's bigger than the pegs for the armor pieces, even, and I certainly know
of no figure stand in that size.  Well, except for Lego (which fits fairly
snugly, actually).

     Dave Van Domelen, notes there's slightly more peg holes than pegs, so
you could add extra weapons from another Beetleborg to really weapon-up the
figure....