Mutant (BW)

The Mutants are an unaligned subgroup from the Mutant Beast Wars portion of the Beast Era.

Unleash the beasts!

The Mutants (also commonly referred to as Mutant Beasts) are a powerful group of beast warriors who've lost their robot modes, but are able to transform between two beast modes. Led by Icebird, the Mutants seek to create a purely organic existence. The Mutants don't belong to either faction, and will attack Predacons on sight, but they largely tolerate the Maximals as a necessary component of their goals.

The primary members are:

• Icebird, Commander
• Poison Bite, special ops
• Razor Claw, warrior
• Soundwave, warrior

Other members include Noble^[1] and Leatherhide^[2]

Fiction

Packaging blurb

In one of his many schemes to win the Beast Wars, Megatron developed an anti-conversion virus, intended to prevent the infected host converting into robot mode, resulting in eventual shutdown. The Mutants were previously Fuzors, and the virus reacted in an unanticipated way with their physiognomy; it caused their conversion abilities to change, trapping their robot modes between two different beast modes. The virus also bestowed "potent extrasensory powers" upon the former Fuzors, with each member having several unique abilities, such as invisibility, teleportation, or telekinesis. Unsurprisingly, the foursome managed to escape Megatron's clutches and then went renegade, starting the "Mutant Beast Wars"!

3H comics

Love a Mutant? Can anybody love a Mutant? Oh well.

The Mutants, on Megatron-dominated Cybertron, reported along with the Dinobots and the Wreckers to the Oracle and were given a mission to fulfill: to save the planet's future. Departure It was all a set-up, however, by Cryotek and the Quintessons. The Mutants' instructions led instead to their apparent deaths by Sharkticons, although Poison Bite was later seen concealed in Cryotek's headquarters—evidence that the reports of their deaths may have been greatly exaggerated. Betrayal

Poison Bite and Icebird later appeared on New Quintessa, attacking the Quintessons while their main forces were invading Cybertron. During their attack, Icebird temporarily became a vessel for Primus, "thanking" Judge Heirodyus for the Quintesson's unwitting role in the Great Transformation while converting New Quintessa into a new colony world for the Transformers. Wreckers: Finale Part II

2006 IDW Beast Wars continuity

The remaining stasis pods from the Axalon were activated by Razorbeast. The majority of the newly born Transformers were either Maximal or Predacon. The Gathering #1 But a few were born Mutants. They fiercely defended their swamp against intruding Predacons, making it clear that no Transformer was welcome in their peaceful home. The Gathering #3

Wings Universe

On their way to find the immortal spark of the infamous Decepticon Starscream, the Star Seekers passed near the territory of the Mutants, who now controlled former Quintesson space. The pirates were terrified of the Mutants, having heard that they were savage, and Captain Cannonball made a point to steer as clear of Mutant space as possible. Tornado - Decepticon Saboteur, 2014/10/02

Ask Vector Prime

In some realities, "Noble Savage" is a Mutant. In other realities, every combatant in the Beast Wars were mutants. Truly, the multiverse is a realm of infinite possibilities. Ask Vector Prime, 2015/06/01

2005 IDW continuity

Robots based on Poison Bite, Endless Forever Icebird, and Soundwave were among the many Maximal acolytes of Shockwave in his guise as "Onyx Prime." Endless Forever Ceremony

Toys

Mutant Beast Wars

Icebird, the leader of the group, transformed from the norm by the nuclear goop.

• Icebird (Deluxe Mutant, 2000)
• Poison Bite (Deluxe Mutant, 2000)
• Razor Claw (Deluxe Mutant, 2000)
• Soundwave (Deluxe Mutant, 2000)

• Known designers: Takio Ejima and Yuichiro Hira (TakaraTomy), Tim Bradley and Masakatsu Saito (concept art)

The four toys in this sub-group were originally designed for the ill-fated Animorphs toyline, and upon its failure were slightly retooled to remove the "human" bits (Andalite bits in Razor Claw's case) and brought over to fill out the final "add-on" year of the Beast Wars toyline. The toys shipped in Beast Wars cases alongside redecoed Transmetal Deluxes, with packages using the "Transmetals 2" cardback styling, but with pre-Transmetal smooth bubbles and a unique Transformers: Mutant Beast Wars branding.

Each toy converts from one organic beast mode to another, with a robot head hidden somewhere within its body, to indicate that their personae were still essentially sentient rather than bestial. Also, three of the four toys have flip-up panels underneath their Mutant insignia (which was applied over the spot where the Animorphs "Edged A" symbol was) that reveal inner mechanics; again Razor Claw is the odd bot out, likely due to the purely-organic Andalite origin of the toy design.

Notes

• Despite being marketed and sold under the Beast Wars banner, there is a lot of fictional bleedover with the then-concurrent Beast Machines series in the packaging text. The "anti-conversion virus" mentioned on the cardback's story blurb is a major element in the Beast Machines story setup, but it could reasonably be argued that this was a trial run. (After all, it sure didn't work out too well for Megatron.) The individual character bios mentioning the ideological conflict between "pure organic" and "mechanical" can also be chalked up to coincidence; after all, Razor Claw's bio says the Predacons are the Mutants' enemies, a faction not involved in Beast Machines (well, aside from one obvious Pred). However, Poison Bite's bio directly mentions the Oracle, which was unknown (or at least lost to time) before the events of Beast Machines. Oops.
• The above blurring of which chunk of the Beast story the Mutants were part of was handled differently by the various licensees. 3H's BotCon materials placed them on Beast Machines Cybertron as part of that conflict, while the IDW comics defaulted to their packaging label, ignored any conflicting backstory, and made them a part of the Beast Wars on Earth instead.
• Whether by design or coincidence, the beast-to-beast Beast Changer toy was released in the main Beast Machines toyline at nearly the same time as the Mutants.

References

1. ↑ Identified as such by Ask Vector Prime
2. ↑ Depicted in artwork as having the Mutant insignia