BEAST
WARS: TOY REVIEW
Name: TIGATRON
Allegiance: Cybertron
Function: Polar Reconnaissance
Beast Mode: White Tiger
Average Price: 1500 JPY
BEAST MODE
Height: 7 cm
Tigatron is basically just a repaint of the Cheetas
toy. Hence, mouldwise, both toys are identical. The
only difference is in colour. Tigatron is primarily white and covered with
black stripes. The beast eyes are turqoise with black pupils. The fangs
are painted silver.
TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE
Remove the tail and gut gun. Holding onto the rump, flip
the tail up and the entire section becomes a gun. Straighten out the hind
legs, flip out robot feet and rotate lower legs 180 degrees. Rotate waist
180 degrees. Lower forelegs. Tilt the head forward a bit to unlock the
back panels. Lower the mid-panel down to form the robot groin. Flip out
robot arms. Bring beast head back. Rotate beast head 180 degrees. You can
flip the robot head forward 90 degrees to form the "mutant" head, but it
looks really stupid.
ROBOT MODE
Height: 12.5cm
Points of Articulation: 16
The robot is still primarily white with black stripes.
The head is very nicely sculpted and is white with turqoise accents. The
face is turqoise and the eyes are red. The shoulders are turqoise and the
forearms and hands are silver. The groin flap is also turqoise with some
interesting patterns moulded onto it. The laps have a series of vents sculpted
on. The shins are turqoise and the sculpting is quite mechalike. The feet
are a bit small for a Transformer, but it serves its purpose well, is nicely
sculpted and is coloured silver. The "arse gun" is white with black stripes
(except for the barrel). The "gut gun" is completely white. The gut gun
also holds and squirts water. My only complaint about this mode is the
fact that the legs are unable to swing forward very far. This means that
Cheetas is unable to execute a forward kick or even sit down!
OVERALL
A pretty good toy. Recommended for collectors.
VARIATIONS
Tigatron was never released here. My Tigatron is the Japanese
version (and hence the above review was based on that). The American version
is primarily beige and covered with black stripes. The face is silver and
the robot eyes are black. The forearms and feet are turqoise instead of
silver and the shins are silver instead of turqoise. The Japanese version's
colour scheme is based on Tigatron's colour scheme in the TV series.
Above: My Japanese Tigatron toy (left) and Darren
Cilenti's American Tigatron (right). The Japanese one looks more like
the TV show.
Interestingly enough, the prototype Tigatron (which was
never released) was painted mainly orange with black stripes.
Left:
The prototype of Tigatron was never released. (Photo courtesy of Benson
Yee)
The actual mould of this toy was derived from Cheetas
(Cheetor) and later reused for Shadow
Panther, although these don't really count as variants, since they
represent different characters.
BEAST TRIVIA
-= UNDER CONSTRUCTION =-
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