Wandering Star

It's been years since we reviewed any Beast Box toys, but the line is apparently still going. The premise remains unchanged: Transformers-style toys that change between a plain mechanical cube and various types of animal. The last one we looked at was BB-01, and today's is BB-63, to give you an idea of how expansive the line has become. Well, technically it's "BB-63C," because they're still all about the colorful repaints, but you get the idea. This is a 1⅝" cube, just waiting to break apart and turn into a creature. This version is named Wandering Star, and they're painted dark blue with some purple highlights, silver symbols, and translucent blue accents. The other colors are the pink BB-63A Heatmiser, and the orange BB-63B Blowback. All three are otherwise identical, so it's really just a question of which colorscheme you like best (or which is cheapest, if you don't have a favorite). Wandering Star is an axolotl, an amphibian that was invented in the mid-2010s. Okay, not really, but that's certainly when they started to become mainstream things. Like, you never saw axolotls in kids' books or anything before then, they didn't get turned into stuffed animals, Pokemon players at the turn of the millennium had no idea what Whooper was supposed to be... at most, axolotls were a cute curiosity at a science museum, nothing more. But that cuteness first made them mildly popular on Tumblr, then there was an axolotl character on Bojack Horseman Season 4, and in 2021 Minecraft started riding the coattails, too. It's not often someone comes up with a new animal, but the introduction of the axolotl definitely was one. Changing from beast to box is much more complicated than our last experience with this format! A solid 23 steps to get them switched. The figure is packaged in salamander mode, the opposite of Dio - it's probably more marketable that way. You will need to do make a few adjustments when you first open the figure, like folding out the gills or extending the waist. Wandering Star has fun articulation, moving at the tail, waist, head, hips and shoulders, and feet. The gills on the sides of their head are poseable, too. That may not sound like a lot, but many of those points have a combination of joints, like a ball and a hinge together, that would really up the number if we listed them all individually. The feet do pop off their balljoints more easily than the hinge they're on wants to move, so be aware that you might lose them if you're not careful. The head can swing side-to-side and turn, but not lift or lower. The length of the legs means it'll always be standing with its butt up in the air, unless you have a slight stand and can get a cute swimming pose. It'd be cute if the mouth could open, but since the head is entirely molded from translucent plastic, that might not have worked. On the plus side, the big clear spot on top of the head does mean the eyes are basically light-piped, so that's fun. The set includes a card with some stats on it, presumably if you want to know its attack, defense, and speed for when you make it fight agsinst others. There's also a collapsible clear plastic box the cube can store inside, and then 52Toys sells additional clear plastic boxes that box can fit inside itself. Looking at the catalog included with this figure, there are a lot of really neat Beast Box-related toys available, like combiners or a set based on Aliens. It's great to see this line doing so well. -- 07/22/25 What animals do you want to see pressed into a cube? Tell us on our message board, the Loafing Lounge.