Mutants In The News — "...GROW INTO AN AR-MEEEEE!!!" Edition

Comics Alliance reveals the long-awaited (by me, anyway) return of the Battle Beasts franchise, in comic and toy form!

Diamond Select has been dropping hints since 2009 about new Battle Beasts products, but I'd all but forgotten about them.

I still have the complete American toyline in storage:  all the figures, all the vehicles, and all the proper accessories.  Even the mail-away poster.  (I'm missing about 3/4s of the Japan-only figures, and I gave up trying to track those down back in the late '90s.  They're expensive.)

I was pretty obsessive about these little rubbery guys, because I can't look at them and NOT think Gamma World.  (And, looking back, I was 14 at the time...so what the hell was going through my head?)

Sigh.  I guess I'm no better now, as 25 years later, it looks like I'll need to make some room....

"M" is for "Maulrat"

Maulrat

No. Enc.:  3d6 (3d12)
Alignment:  Neutral
Movement:  150' (50')
  —Burrow:  15' (5')
Armor Class:  4
Hit Dice:  1d4 hp
Attacks:  3 (2 claws, 1 bite)
Damage:  1d3 / 1d3 / 1d6
Save:  L1
Morale:  10
Hoard Class:  VI, VIII
XP:  9

Maulrats are hideous, 1' tall, bipedal vermin with bony carapaces, segmented tails, and multiple never-blinking eyes (which prevent Surprise). Their frenzied hopping gaits would almost be comical if their pincers and fangs didn't guarantee mutilation and evisceration.  The creatures can eventually gnaw/tunnel through any known substance.

Labwraths often breed maulrats to both patrol their lairs and serve as living "disposals" for their failed experiments.

There are rumors of unique Pure Human and Mutant Human children (usually societal outcasts...vengeful societal outcasts) that can somehow command maulrats to do their bidding....

Mutations:  Extra Parts (Eyes), Increased Sense (Smell), Natural Armor (Extreme)