The Energon Pub

[AllNewSuperRobot]

Indeed. Whenever I see an expensive Minor listing, he immediately comes to mind

[ZeroWolf]

I always liked himself, he's not perfect but he's fun. Perfect desk fodder. I often wonder what they would have done with him if he'd been moved up a price point. My only negative to him is the halves of his beast mask look a bit cumbersome in bot mode.

[AllNewSuperRobot]

It actually got me thinking about which BW figures I actively dislike. It has already been noted various times I don't like the designs for TM 2 Megatron or Optimal Optimus. Nor the use of rubber/softer plastics with TM 2 Megs and Dinobot. But as a TF figure in my hands that I actually don't like at all, I'd say TM 2 Cheetor AKA the Werewolf.



Where to start?

His hands were bad. His last form didn't even have real hands and they at least held his weapon properly.

The transformation is lazy. Twist his waist and forearms, put his legs on their haunches. Open his chest, flip heads and your done. Pfft.
"Oh kids, you know that chromed guard on his forearm? Well it does nothing, ruins the articulation of that arm & wrist and is guaranteed to lose it's chrome the instant you even think of touching it..

His altmode is WTF!? He went from Cheetah, to Cyber-Cat to Rocket powered Sabre tooth Tiger/Werewolf/Manbearpig???

In concept, design and execution he is just awful. The worst Cheetor this side of Beast Machines.

[ZeroWolf]

He is the weakest of the Transmetals II and interesting enough one that I never bothered with when it came through the shops doors (during my time there). Though that specimen was in really bad shape. Having no accessories, no chrome at all and being very loose. He didn't make a good impression. I like TMII Dinobot though, just wish that the design team hadn't bothered with the tubes and had instead sculpted them into the limbs so they didn't mess with articulation. Also some proper fists...and maybe a not so much bothersome tail/weapon.

[AllNewSuperRobot]

Those tubes really hurt the design of Dinobot. He would have really benefited from actual hands too. Even if that consisted of additional articulation on the Raptor toes, giving him massive "Claw" hands.

Ironically enough I ended up with two of those Cheetors (randomly had two Ramulus also, but he is awesome). One I bought myself and one I received as a gift a few weeks later. Considering how strong the two Transmetal lines are, they dropped the ball heavily with him. One of the principle characters of the entire show.

[ZeroWolf]

It's baffling the choices they made with him, especially compared to the others, Sonar is so much better and their in the price point below him!

[AllNewSuperRobot]

Absolutely. For the price point, he is perhaps the worst figure in the entire Transmetal line. Put him next to Jawbreaker, PrOwl or Ramulus, there is no comparison to be had.

[ZeroWolf]

Absolutely. For the price point, he is perhaps the worst figure in the entire Transmetal line. Put him next to Jawbreaker, PrOwl or Ramulus, there is no comparison to be had.

Absolutely, I think it shows as well as those three are always in demand.

[AllNewSuperRobot]

Definitely. The secondary market price of Cheetor to the others makes that very clear. I really wanted PrOwl and Jawbreaker, back in the day. They were nowhere to be seen at the time. These days, whenever a Jawbreaker does pop up, I am really tempted.

[ZeroWolf]

PrOwl is the one that tempts me, but he's scarce when I look (which admittedly isn't at the moment as I've got other concerns with money)

[AllNewSuperRobot]

PrOwl is the one that tempts me, but he's scarce when I look (which admittedly isn't at the moment as I've got other concerns with money)

Which one, White or Black?

[ZeroWolf]

I didn't even realise there was a black version!

[AllNewSuperRobot]

I didn't even realise there was a black version!

Indeed.

This link should give you an idea of prices too: eBay

[ZeroWolf]

Ah see some of those prices are quite reasonable, till I realised I was paying twice as much in some cases in shipping

[AllNewSuperRobot]

Ah see some of those prices are quite reasonable, till I realised I was paying twice as much in some cases in shipping

Too true. 10-15 years ago, UK TF fans fared better with the secondary market. These days, most of the local sellers are gone (or delusional scalpers) and EVERYTHING is in the US, or Australia, for some reason.

[ZeroWolf]

Wouldn't suprise me if the local supply of 2nd hand tfs was sucked dry from international buyers, wanting a better deal then their local markets.

[D-Maximal_Primal]

Jawbreaker and Ramulus are my favorite Transmetal II designs so far, I really enjoy them! Jawbreaker in particular has a fantastic beast mode, I love it.

I have the TMII Cheetor as Ravage, and it's OK, but definitely weaker than most.

I'm thinking I might later this year attempt to hunt down and complete at least one of the Transmetal categories. I'm not concerned for which character, just that I have the mold.

Also found my Big convoy finally at the end of last week, so he and the new Matrix Buster one will have pictures coming here soon!

[ZeroWolf]

If you have the space D-Max, I'd say get all the transmetals I'm torn between the two forms though I do feel that Transmetals 1 have less duds in them compared to TM2. Though in concern for Megatron TM2, I'm more inclined to get Beast Machines Meg

[AllNewSuperRobot]

I'm inclined to 'Head Canon' that TM 1 Megatron was his second and last form in the Beast Wars

[ZeroWolf]

I'm inclined to 'Head Canon' that TM 1 Megatron was his second and last form in the Beast Wars

You know, they probably should have just made his TM2 form an even scarier, Nightmarish T-Rex rather then a dragon. I mean don't get me wrong, a tf to dragon sounds cool but the execution leaves much to be desired. Its almost like the designers left his design till last cause they all assumed it would be easy, then realised too late they needed longer and just submitted whatever they came up with in five minutes.

[AllNewSuperRobot]

I'm inclined to 'Head Canon' that TM 1 Megatron was his second and last form in the Beast Wars

You know, they probably should have just made his TM2 form an even scarier, Nightmarish T-Rex rather then a dragon. I mean don't get me wrong, a tf to dragon sounds cool but the execution leaves much to be desired. Its almost like the designers left his design till last cause they all assumed it would be easy, then realised too late they needed longer and just submitted whatever they came up with in five minutes.

As we've discussed before, I still think they should have used the design motif of Dinobot II for TM 2 Megatron instead. He simply emerges out of the magma as a massive skeletal T-Rex. Paying homage to his Season one form, yet redesigned for the TM 2 aesthetic.

[ZeroWolf]

You know, they could have made the argument that dinobot 2 was in fact a prototype for the process that he'd then use on himself so you could still have DB2 but then build on that design to make TM2 megs, just without the cables like we said yesterday

[AllNewSuperRobot]

Indeed. Instead we got cables and floppy rubber necks...

[Skritz]

As much as I love the Dragon Megatron design, I agree a Transmetal 2 skeletal T-Rex would be a design that's the stuff of nightmare. However it is worth noting that, despite his toy being labelled and designed as a Transmetal 2 in the show itself he isn'tone. Yeah his toy bio says so too but within the show itself, the only Transmetal 2 were created from the Transmetal Driver (Dinobot II, Cheetor and Blackarachnia) or from Vok techno-magic (Tigerhawk).

That said the mental image of Megatron using the driver on himself (possibly with G1 Meg's spark) and then getting thrown into a volcano and emerging a giant, skeletal monstrous T-Rex with an almost demonic robot mode sounds like an image that would have been burned into my head as a kid. I also imagine this hypothetical design could have looked great with hints of G1 Megatron, with grey bone parts and dark red chromed techno-fleshy parts with hints of BW Megatron's purple.

It would have looked utterly nightmarish.

[AllNewSuperRobot]

Much in the same way that TM 2 Cybershark wasn't really one either. In terms of aesthetic, sure. Yet, realistically, he was the last Mega Class TM 1 Triple Changer.

Exactly as you say Skritz. How I saw the Skeletal T-Rex form would have been with a complimentary colour palette of white/grey, in homage to G1 Megatron, with some Purple Chrome highlights to represent his descendant.