Motley beast or bad boy once (8)
I believe the answer is:
assorted
'motley' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'beast or bad boy once' is the wordplay.
'beast' becomes 'ass' (I've seen this before).
'bad boy once' becomes 'ted' (reference to 1950s subculture Teddy Boys).
'ass'+'or'+'ted'='ASSORTED'
(Other definitions for assorted that I've seen before include "Of different kinds put together, say sweets" , "Manifold" , "Of different kinds put together, like sweets" , "Miscellaneous, sundry" , "Classified" .)