I will probably run out of vintage Transformers to talk about one of these days. But that day will not be today.

So, in addition to the twelve standard Pretenders we ended up getting in 1988, we also got an assortment of Pretender Beasts. They were different from the normal Pretenders in a few different ways. The fact that the outer Pretender shells were quadrupedal animals is the biggest and most obvious difference. The design philosophy for the inner robots was also different—there's no way robot limbs would have fit into the limbs of the Pretender shells, so no attempt was made. This freed the designers, in a way. Moreover, the inner robots transformed into the mechanical equivalents of the organically-styled Pretender shells, which was kind of a cool idea.

Carnivac only appeared in one issue of Marvel Comics in the U.S., issue #51, in which he and Snarler harassed Fortress Maximus for a while. Carnivac went on to become a far more significant character in the UK comic book, during which he defected from the Decepticons, befriended Springer, and ended up joining the Autobot-populated Earthforce team.

Carnivac doesn't have those spindly, obviously-an-early-Pretender proportions in robot mode. He's about 3.5" tall at the head, though the assembly above his head (actually the snout for his wolf mode) brings his total height to closer to 4.5" altogether. He's a nifty shade of purple, with some teal parts that are mostly tucked away, and light brown for his lower legs and chest. His face is painted pink. He carries a brown anti-thermal cannon. (Weirdly, both Carnivac and Snarler, who were gang-molded together, were given bright yellow parts in Marvel Comics. It's possible to interpret the brown plastic color as a metallic gold, especially in poorly-lit photography, but he's not made of gold plastic at all. It's brown.)

The robot mode has knees that bend in tandem, and his arms swivel, but that's about it for useful articulation. His head can rotate, and the instructions specifically call for you to do so, but a) it's not necessary to do, and b) it's really hard to reach into the wolf's mouth to actually manipulate the robot head, so it's easier to just leave it alone. He's also got tremendous beast-mode legs hanging off his robot legs, Terrorcon-style.

His transformation is like a simplified version of G1 Slag, with the robot legs folding at the knees to form the back of the wolf, the robot arms forming the front wolf legs, and the robot chest, which is the wolf's lower jaw, closing to hide the robot head.

His wolf mode is about 4.5" in length, including the tail, and he's an even mix of purple and brown, with teal-colored front wolf paws and a tail. He's got a visor for eyes, like Hun-Gurrr, which is painted white. All four wolf legs can swivel, and the front wolf legs can bend at the elbow as required for the transformation. The gun can mount to his back. I really like his styling—the number of dedicated animal-mode parts makes him look really good, and convincing as a beast in a way that some other Transformers don't, like Weirdwolf or Pounce, whose robot legs are having to serve double-duty as animal legs.

Carnivac's outer Pretender shell, meanwhile, is this massive light grey wolf, baring his fangs menacingly. The wolf has sculpted details to suggest strap-on black armor and a permanently-mounted purple-painted gun on his back. He has two removable spiked shoulder pads, the same teal color as his removable tail. He's about eight inches long from nose to tail. The anti-thermal cannon can plug into the side of the existing purple gun on the Pretender shell's back.

The anti-thermal cannon is kind of interesting because it has peg holes on the sides of the gun, despite there being no accessories that can plug into it. You could take, say, the gun from Snarler and plug it into the side, if you wanted. I wonder if Carnivac and Snarler were deliberately designed with some degree of interchangeability, which was never played up in the instructions? You can swap the shoulder pads from both toys around, which further reinforces this idea.

To stuff Carnivac into his outer shell, you have to tuck the front wolf legs under his robotic body to make him compact enough to fit inside. The Pretender shell splits into a left and right half, not a front and back half as with the humanoid Pretenders. There's a surprising amount of extra room inside the shell—the big horkin' gun mounted to his back could have been eliminated from his design, and the robot would still have fit inside easily. Unlike the Autobot Pretender Beasts, the 'Cons don't have helmets to wear. (It's probably just as well, since I have a heck of a time getting those helmets to fit nowadays.)

Of the two Decepticon Pretender Beasts, I think I like Carnivac better. His robot colors and styling are more aesthetically pleasing to my eyes, and I think his Pretender shell is just objectively more cool-looking. He really does look savage, baring his fangs all angry-like.

When I priced this guy back in 2020, he was selling for between $80-$130, but those were fire sale prices during a pandemic, and may not have been typical. I think the market has recovered significantly during that time. Right now, you can find the inner robot for around $20 (and I might end up replacing mine, which is missing all the stickers), but what's really pricy are the accessories. The wolf tail, the gun, and either of the easily-lost shoulder pads tend to go for clsoe to $50 apiece, so that can add up quick. The only complete Carnivac I see on eBay right now is $200, which is less than what you'd pay if you tried to piece one together bit by bit.

Zob (and now Detolf shelves are $109 a pop, so clearly I need to invest in more of them before they bump prices yet again)