Polar Claw

Polar Claw is a Maximal from the Beast Wars portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.

He'll steal your purse and your pic-a-nic basket.

Ferocity and frenzy are what Polar Claw possesses in abundance. Many a foe have sampled his righteous ire. But when it comes to his comrades and subordinates, his sense of fair play is legendary. He believes in a disciplined, principled army of peacekeepers and strives to make sure the Maximal military remains as such. Polar Claw is very protective of the peace granted by the Pax Cybertronia, and has no qualms about handling any upstart Predacons with extreme prejudice.

He is partnered with a robotic bat drone called "Batscout", which aids in tracking and surveillance operations.

Fiction

3H comics

Hey, do I go up and touch your face?

During the final battle with Shokaract, several realities converged into a single, apocalyptic timestorm. Beast Warriors from alternate realities emerged, including Cybershark, B'Boom, Drill Bit, Transquito, Air Hammer, Polar Claw and unidentified others, though all of them were summarily defeated. Terminus

IDW Beast Wars comics

“	Just... lemme at him! (K-9 gives him a weird look) Um. In the interests of longterm peace, of course!	”
—Polar Claw, during the battle against Rartorata, The Ascending #3

He hasn't gotten along well with the other Transformers since the Oscars.

Polar Claw was a drill sergeant at the Maximal Military Academy. Beast Wars Sourcebook 3

Polar Claw was one of the protoform stasis pods jettisoned from the Maximal survey vessel Axalon when it was forced to crash-land on prehistoric Earth. The Predacon general Magmatron led a small group (that included the Maximal agent Razorbeast) back in time to place these protoforms into chronal phase and reprogram them into Predacons, and lead this army against the Maximals in the present. However, Razorbeast placed a viral code in Magmatron's Predacon shell program, allowing a number of the protoforms to retain their Maximal identity. It was Spittor who was unfortunate enough to witness Polar Claw's activation. The giant polar bear summarily squashed Spittor. The Gathering #1

Polar Claw worked his way toward Razorbeast's summoning signal, The Gathering #2 and eventually arrived in time with reinforcements to help fight off an army of Predacons commanded by the revanant Ravage. In the subsequent battle, Polar Claw stomped on Terragator. The Gathering #4

Sometime later, when Ravage's Predacons hit the Maximals again, Polar Claw was among the ground forces defending their base. The Ascending #1 He struggled against Powerpinch and Drill Bit until the arrival of the Pack, Lio Convoy's secret special forces unit. Unfortunately, the Unicron agent Rartorata followed injecting Razorbeast with Angolmois, forcing the Maximals and Predacons to band together to fight their mutual foe and prevent Unicron's return to Cybertron. The Ascending #2 Polar Claw chafed at having to watch the battle from the ground, thirsting for his turn at the enemy. After Rartorata was temporarily brought down, he reported the situation to Lio Convoy, considering the fact that Transquito had to inject his full reserve of nacro-virus to bring down the Blendtron be poetic justice considering what Rartorata did to Razorbeast. However, the Unicron servant's allies Drancron and Elephorca followed, forcing those Maximals and Predacons in fighting condition (of which Polar Claw was among) to escape to The Pack's transwarp cruiser while Razorbeast and those left behind held them off. The Ascending #3

During the battle on Cybertron against Shokaract, Unicron's acolytes attacked the Maximals, hitting Polar Claw and Drill Nuts. It is unknown if they were among the survivors after Shokaract was defeated. The Ascending #4

Toys

Beast Wars

He's always taken pride in his aim, ever since his days on Cybertron.

• Polar Claw (Mega, 1996)
  • Japanese ID number: C-2

Part of the very first Beast Wars Mega assortment, Polar Claw transforms into an agnostic killing machine. Rearing him up on his hind legs in beast mode exposes a pair of nasty-looking fangs. His left beast mode foreleg has a spring-loaded attack claw, while his right launches from the shoulder stub and transforms into his partner Batscout. His robot head has a face on both sides; a normal robot-mode one, and a "mutant" face.

This mold was also used to make Grizzly-1/Barbearian and Survive.

• More information on Polar Claw at TFU.info

"North Pole Showdown"? Good luck, Scorp.

• North Pole Showdown: Whiteclaw VS Scorpos (Vs set, 1996)
  • Japanese ID number: VS-2

In Japan, Polar Claw was available both as an individual and in a two-pack with Scorponok. Both toys are identical to their individual releases. It is unknown if the set ever came with the redecoed "show-like" version of Scorponok.

Amusingly, both toys are packaged in beast mode with their smaller partners deployed, making it look like the fight isn't going so well for Polar Claw.

Merchandise

• Beast Wars Transformers Mutating Card Game (1997)

Polar Claw was one of the 24 beast warriors to receive a battle card representation for the Beast Wars card game.

• Polar Claw (1997)

A Beast Wars PVC figurine set was released in Japan, including an action-posed Polar Claw.

Notes

Collect all the nonexistent toys!

• The Barbearian toy was actually the "prototype" deco for Polar Claw. The first solicitations for the Beast Wars Megas featured the bear mold brown and yellow (as well as a differently-colored Scorponok). The back of the first Beast Wars catalogue from the Optimus Primal/Megatron two-pack called him "Grizzly-1", while solicitations sent to magazines used "Barbearian". The reasons for the changeover to a polar bear are unknown.

• He has an almost Liefeldian crotch bulge.

• Simon Furman has a noted love of polar bears, which is probably why Polar Claw got the most panel time (by far) out of all of the dimension-displaced Beast Warriors in "Terminus".

Foreign names

• Japanese: White Claw (ホワイトクロー Howaito Kurō)
• French: Griffe Polaire (Canada, "Polar Claw")
• Italian: Polar
• Spanish: Garra Polar