BeastBox: BB-48 Desert Assault Squad is Something That Exists

Do I have to explain BeastBox again? Righty, mechanical beasts that compress into boxes? Very collectable? 15+ age bracket? No? Oh, click here then. OK, let’s have a quick chat about a BeastBox I got recently.

 

 

Something which may be a surprise to any international reader is that the people of the UK have an inordinate fondness for Meercats. It's basically a meme, as these adorable creatures aren't native to my wet and foggy home. This is probably down to the "Meercats United" documentary by Sir David Attenborough, and more recently the "Compare the Meerkat" advertising campaign. Please don't ask me to explain that last one, it now includes Wombats. So, with my continuing fixation on BeastBox toys, the Desert Assault Squad was on my radar. Cute and characterful animals are very much something BeastBox does well. And one day, it was on sale.

 

When talking about this set, comparisons to those penguins from my first BeastBox article are unavoidable. The Desert Assault Squad is similarly a team of four mech-animals, differentiated mainly by decals and a single accessory. Like the penguins, they feature magnets to assist with box mode, but unlike the penguins, there's a fair bit in the way of posability and actual transformation. This means that these mecha meerkats have far more going on, but they aren't as foolproof. 

 

Let's talk the individual squad members a bit. Each is a predominantly brown and sand coloured robo-animal, with a gunmetal chestplate and forearm guns. While cute, these aren't necessarily cutesy, almost serious minded. There's little exaggeration here, but each stands on its hind legs in that way people find so charming. These are a quartet of small creatures standing on guard, watching out for trouble, and then shooting it. Posability is an interesting discussion as a result. Each has a very small footprint, so you'll likely be using the tail as a third leg, but it possible to do without it. Articulation generally is mainly a matter if balljoints and swivels, more humanoid than most of my BeastBox, although obviously not as extensive as Black Getter. It's a total of 13 points, with nothing in the waist, but you have enough for a salute. Which is adorable. Transformation into box mode meanwhile is more involved than it looks. The head stows the main body, but the shoulders shift around too, and torso splits in half. It's not strictly speaking difficult, but I will admit to overlooking a mistake, and not realising at first because the magnets held it all together. The resulting box is largely symmetrical, if not totally concealing the nature of its components. I do like the top, which makes use of the breastplates to smooth everything out, and each block has a little letter decal referring to one of the cardinal directions. So you can arrange them like a compass.

All in all? It's a fun little set, with lots of character. It is possibly a bit too finicky for my tastes, but not enough to spoil the experience. Definitely adorable. Definitely something that exists.