Tigatron just arrived from Amazon Japan. He had shipped Friday so this is pretty lightning quick for a toy arriving from literally the other end of the world.
We have had
many in hand images, so you know he looks great.
We had
a conversion video so you know he's complex.
But two questions remain: Is he a good toy and, more importantly, is he worth it?
That's what we will explore now in this review, that's all that's left to discuss and it's what matters most.
I will start by addressing something, though his design has callbacks to Cheetor's (since their original toys were the exact same), this is a completely different toy. Then only aspect of the transformation that is similar is that the front legs end up in the back and can connect together in a cross pattern. That is it. Every single other element is completely different offering fans a new transforming experience.
And I'll tell you, this is a better toy than Cheetor. With Cheetor, you had a very sleek build so there was some extra kibble in the rear area. But with Tigatron, the designers really went out of their way to highlight the musculature of tigers, which are the largest felines out there.
That larger mass permits the leg kibble and feet to integrate within the beast mode. It becomes my favourite part of the transformation. While a lot of it is panel-y (or shellformer-y to some), that foot transformation is just one of those wow moments that use simplicity and precision to fully convert an elements while using the some of the same parts. You can see it below.
The Tiger mode does suffer from a lot of panels though, so posing him or inserting the gut gun will have some panels detach while to try to reconnect others. I don't know why they didn't have the thigh panels fasten properly. They end up leaving gaps and it's not like they are shaped this way to fasten more properly in robot mode.
The eyes are articulated and can be green or orange since the spheres that make the eyes are green on one side and orange on the other and they can turn on a 360 axis for you to alter colours. It's too bad that the exposed part of the gut gun is not the part with the tiger stripes, making the beast patter on the gun fake kibble. It is the only fake bit though, since, unlike Cheetor, the Tiger head is used in both modes.
So, back to conversion, while there is a lot of undoing panels and flipping and folding, I found this far more enjoyable than Cheetor or other recent MPs. There are tiny pegs and latches that do require some finesse, and folding certain pieces of Tiger skin was really stressful due to how tight they were, but nothing broke on me. And best of all, I did something rather risky, I didn't use the instructions. While I recommend you follow instructions, the fact that I was able to get from one mode to the next without them meant that it wasn't obtuse. My favourite part was the legs since that is a completely different transformation to any Beast Wars MP to date. Another part I liked was at the very end where it seemed I had finished but the hips still seemed to be facing backwards, since that robot detail was on the back. What usually happens is you reorient the entire hip but the swivel didn't allow for that kind of movement. As it turns out, that specific robot mode detail can rotate around the hip to face any direction you want.
Most joints are super tight, except for the knees. And that is my biggest gripe about the robot mode, his knees suck. They kind of remind me of Siege Megatron's ankle tilt where you felt you were undoing something rather than bending. I have a neo dodging bullets pose below that shows how he looks like with bent knees. Not great. Another aspect that could have been easily dealt with is the arm kibble does not tab into his arms. I guess it makes it slightly easier if you want to pose his hands but that could just as easily be achieved if you had a small peg you could unpeg.
He is back heavy but his heels are extra tight so I have had no problem keeping him up. And speaking of the backside, the muscular frame of the tiger alt mode is really highlighted there. He has these massive calves (probably from holding up so much upper body mass), it's pretty cool that the strength of the animal mode is conveyed in the robot mode. As for the head, while he comes with 4 extra faces, I really did not care to change them. Aside from my memory of him being really frightened once or twice, the face I most associate with Tigatron is a stoic one with his mouth closed. He was always more of the silent type. The light piping is excellent.
So, let's get down to brass tacks with the following questions:
a)Is this a good figure?
b)Do I see where all my money went?
c)Do I regret spending this much on a toy?
Answers:
a)Yes
b)Yes
c)No
Mine cost $160 USD (before shipping and duty fees). That's almost double Optimus Primal. While I can see exactly where all my money went, part of me will always think that these figures are more than they should be. But that's just the name of the MP game at this point. I prefer this toy to almost all other Beast Wars MPs and I feel as satisfied with him as I do with Dinobot or Megatron, both of which were far more costly.
I will tell you this though, he is definitely the type of figure that is way more fun to convert from alt mode to robot than from robot to alt mode. I'm going to bring him back to beast mode now, wish me luck!
