Transformers Beast Wars (Reissues): Cheetor

Ah, Beast Wars...the segment of the Transformers brand that literally saved the brand from fading out of existence, at least at retail. Being released after the failed attempt of the Generation 2, the Transformers got a face lift and injected new blood into the brand. Gone were vehicles, replaced with dinosaurs and other animals. The line was a hit, especially with younger kids and created a whole new era of fans. However how would the "Geewuners" like myself react to the line? Would they embrace it? Hate it? Or just be indifferent? Stick around as I walk down memory lane with the latest line of reissues from Hasbro, celebrating 20 years of Beast Wars.

The tread of what is old is new again is played out again in the Transformers brand with the latest relaunch of the Beast Wars brand. Exclusive to Walmart stores in the US, the first wave featured 4 toys:  the "Ultra" class Optimus Primal and Megatron, "Deluxe" Cheetor and "Basic" Rattrap.

The line seems to have been met with mix reactions and ho-hum sales. The first wave seemed to warm the shelves pretty good in my neck of the woods with all of them eventually hitting clearance, some deeper discounted than others. I myself scored this Cheetor for $6 back during some of the Christmas 2021 sales. I wasn't going to bother picking up any of these (outside of Rattrap) because I owned the originals and while I love Beast Wars, some of these early toys just didn't do it for me. For $6 though I couldn't resist and thought at least Cheetor here would make a good addition to the Maximal shelf I was working on putting together in my display after moving last summer.

Hasbro chose to mimic some of the early Beast Wars packaging w/ the rocky type shaped blister bubble. Kenner would later phase this blister out and go with a smooth bubble. The card back reuses the red reptilian scales with the large classic green eye behind the toy itself. Even the classic Beast Wars logo remains at the top of the blister card. 

 
(Left: reissue - Right: original)

Flip the blister card over and this is where we have some obvious changes to the original. Like with most modern Hasbro toys, multiple languages have been shoehorned onto the packaging. So much so that we've lost his original Bio...which is a real shame because as a kid this is how I determined how their character would be when pulling out my toys and playing on the floor of my bedroom or in the living room. The category stats have also been reduced from 8 categories to just 4, however the individual rankings of these categories remain the same.

I never was a huge fan of the character of Cheetor or his original Deluxe class toy. I think his youthfulness and exuberance just got on my nerves while watching the show...I much more prefer Rattrap and his quips and cynical nature/comments. It's amazing though on how twenty years can change one's perspective as coming back to this toy after all those years I'm finding that it's not nearly as bad I as remember. The Kingdom toy is a beautiful rendition of the character, however the original still has something to offer.

Hasbro did a good job capturing the deco of the original toy. While I don't have an original any longer to compare it to, this figure is just as I remember in terms of paint applications. The figure seems solid with good strong plastic. Outside of a copyright mark on the mold, I'd be hard pressed that many would be able to tell the difference between this reissue and the original.

The original Beast Wars Cheetor was known for having a few variants - namely the color of his eyes. The original came with green eyes, as does the reissue, but blue and even red eye variants exist as well.

Transformation from beast mode to robot mode remains unchanged. Remove both the tail gun and the "gut" gun from underneath, rotate the waist 180 degrees and fold out the legs, fold down the front legs underneath the body, pull up and separate the arms from the behind the head and flip them forward 90 degrees, pull down the beast head to reveal the robot head. Finally pose your figure as such and insert your weapon(s) of choice into his fists.

I never cared for the proportions of the robot mode. The beast head is too big and just hangs off the front of the robot. Looking at him straight on it's not as bad, but looking at the figure from an angle and it looks a little awkward.

I have always loved Cheetor's head sculpt however. I wish however they were able to incorporate some light piping into those eyes as I think that would have been fantastic, but the included "mutant head" makes that impossible as it sits just behind the robot head. I always thought the whole idea behind this "mutant head" gimmick was silly, but in the spirit of capturing the original toy in all it's glory, this feature was carried over to the reissue.

Cheetor is an important character in the Maximal's ranks and his original toy is still pretty solid. Is it a dead ringer for how he appeared in the original Mainframe animated show? Of course not, but that doesn't make it a bad toy. The biggest knock I can give this figure is the original MSRP of $25. Compare that against trying to pick up a loose, vintage piece on the secondary market and it's not that bad. At the of this post, most Walmart stores have probably already ran their clearance as his shelf space was replaced with the retool of this mold, Tigatron. I'm still debating if I need Tigatron in my collection as currently my Maximal shelf is pretty tight, but I'm glad I eventually picked up Cheetor (and that I was able to resist paying full price!) as a BW display just isn't complete without this young cat.

Transformers Cyberverse: Cheetor & Sea Fury

Hasbro's Transformers Cyberverse series of toys moves into a new phase, subtitled Power of the Spark. With this new series of toys comes Spark Armor and a new sizes: Battle Class and Elite Class. I was quick to dismiss these new toys and their gimmicks, but I when I saw them on store shelves I was intrigued enough to at least give one a try. I chose Cheetor as he was a Target exclusive.

Cheetor is part of the new Elite Class size and comes packaged in a big window box. This allows you to clearly get a good look at the toys. Strange to see Cheetor again, but it's a welcomed sight in my book.

One side of the box has generic Cyberverse artwork of Optimus, Grimlock and Bumblee, while the other side features new artwork of Cheetor himself.

Cheetor was pretty light once I was able to free him from his plastic and cardboard prison. Hasbro continues to leave many of the limbs on the toy hollow. It's a nice sculpt however, especially the face of Cheetor. He's got a very slim and sleek look to him, something his original Beast Wars toy couldn't do. He has a few paint applications in robot mode. He retains his animated green eyes and blue face. There are a few black spots on the figure, but not as many as their should be in my opinion.

Articulation is limited, but surprisingly better than I would have anticipated. He features ball joints so if you put too much pressure on a limb it'll safely pop off. You can rotate his arm at the shoulder a full 360 degrees. His elbows have a swivel joint allowing about 180 degrees of motion, but some of this is because of the transformation. Hinge joint at the elbow. No waist swivel, but the legs can fully rotate forwards and backwards and he can even pull off a full split. There is a little bit of swivel to the legs, just enough to rotate the legs outwards a little. Hinge joint at the knee. No ankle rockers, but thankfully he does have large heels that fold down to help stabilize the figure.

If you were wondering, Cheetor without his Spark Armor is close to a Warrior Class (deluxe). My only real gripe of Cheetor's robot mode is his tail. It's just there. It doesn't fold up, in fact if you do fold it up it stops at a 90 degree angle. If you leave it down it shows too much through his legs. Small gripe, but valid none the less.

Cheetor's Spark Armor is called Sea Fury. I have no idea if these armor suits are controlled by the Transformer partner or what. I doubt they'd be sentient robots themselves. Either way Sea Fury is more impressive than I figured he'd be. The battleship is just over 6 inches in total length so it's not a small toy. Unfortunately none of the guns on the ship move. There is an anchor piece that flips out, but that's about the play value of the ship itself. I do want to point out that on the front hull of the ship is a red Maximal faction emblem. Cheetor himself sports an Autobot faction emblem. Interesting...

Transformation from robot to cheetah is pretty straight forward with 11 steps. I couldn't help be reminded of an old Playskool GoBot, Preditron, while I was transforming Cheetor. A few more steps of course, but I guess it was how the robot head flips into the chest and the beast head rotates up and into position. I do like how the legs collapse to form the rear legs. They look very powerful. Other than the robot fists showing on the side of his front legs, this is a pretty nice (stylized) beast mode.

What does a cheetah and a battleship have in common? Nothing...but there is "more than meets the eye" here.

Sea Fury basically fits on the bag of cheetor like a large backpack using two pegs. As you flip the ship/armor down over Cheetor's head, the ends of the ship fold down into position. This I wasn't expecting! The armor more or less gives Cheetor an armored helmet and two large gauntlet like arms. The Spark Armor does hinder the articulation of Cheetor's arms, but he can still move them a bit.

I dig his new battle armor helmet.

Once Cheetor is all armored up he's pretty menacing looking. I thought that when combined with Sea Fury he would be top heavy, but those large flip out heels he has really helps to stabilize the figure. 

I would think younger Transformer fans will really like this toy and some of the other Spark Armor releases. I know this figure isn't necessary aimed at my demographic, but I found this to be a fun figure. He'll most likely become my new deskbot for awhile. I don't know if I'll chase down the Bumblebee figure as it's too similar for my tastes. Cheetor here is an odd choice on many levels, but it's fun having a new Cheetor toy regardless.

Transformers Henkei!: Cheetor C-12

Transformers Henkei! is Takara Tomy's version of Hasbro's Classics/Universe line of Transformers.  In typical Takara fashion most of the figures received premium paint applications and some of them had chromed pieces.  I went a little crazy and imported near the entire line.

Hasbro released new deluxe molds of the Beast Wars characters Cheetor and Dinobot under the Universe banner.  Takara Tomy opted to include these characters in the Henkei! line, albeit at the end of the line.  Neither of the toys sold well for Hasbro.  While Dinobot can be fairly expensive on the secondary market these days, Cheetor is a little more affordable - no matter which version you go after.  Up until the recent Generations voyager Rhinox toy was released, I really had no where to display Cheetor.  So once I acquired Rhinox I wanted to snap some shots of him w/ Cheetor...and Dinobot if I can ever find a decent priced specimen.  Initially I didn't care either way for Cheetor, but after messing around with him for this review I have to say I have a new found appreciation for this new mold.

You'll have to excuse me skipping over the packaging.  His blister card packaging is packed away and I just didn't have the time to go digging it out.  One of the things I hated most about the original Beast Wars Cheetor mold was the fact that the beast mode was fat!  Cheetahs are some of the fastest land animals and as a result are pretty lean animals.  Takara remedied this with a new Cheetor mold.  I know a lot of people just don't like this toy, but if you give it a chance it has a lot of good things going for it.

In beast mode the toy features several points of articulation.  It's no secret I'm not the best when it comes to posing my TFs, but here you can see how Cheetor can get low to the ground as if he's ready to pounce on a Decepticon or go running across the landscape at break neck speeds.  Shoulder, hip, knee and toe articulation give you free range of motion to pose him however you'd like.

Cheetor does have a large chest in beast mode as you can see from the above picture and especially from a side view.  That aside I personally think the beast mode looks a lot like an actual cheetah.

Cheetor does feature one "action" element.  On the back of his neck is a button that sits flush with the body.  When depressed his mouth opens and his eyes change from green to red.

If you don't know, the red eyes are a homage of sorts to the original Beast Wars mold.  Both Hasbro and Takara originally released Cheetor with red eyes, but as a running change later made the eyes green.  Perhaps this was done to better match his CGI counterpart on the television show.

While I don't normally care for action features, this is a subtle touch and one that doesn't necessary detract from the toy overall.

Cheetor carries his slender and sleek look over to robot form.  If I'm being completely honest with myself there are several aspects of robot mode that I don't care for.  While the over robot looks pretty good, it's hard to get past his his robot arms carry beast mode leg kibble and his large paw feet.

And oh, did I mention his honkin' huge "backpack"?  Thankfully his feet are large enough to help balance the robot where he can stand un-assisted.

Takara opted to chrome Cheetor's head where as Hasbro went with a flat colored plastic.  The gold chrome does stand out, but surprisingly it doesn't look gaudy in person like I thought it would.  I like how the feline traits carry over to this robotic face as well.

Located on each side of Cheetor's legs are these unsightful "pouches", however they do serve a purpose.  Each pouch opens up to reveal a shuriken like throwing star.

Pull out one "blade" and the others fold out simultaneously.

I prefer Cheetor's beast mode over his robot mode any day, but he still blends well with the new Generations Rhinox no matter how you pose him.  I can't wait to complete this pair w/ the new Generations Rattrap coming soon.  Just as I opted for Takara Tomy's versions of Cheetor and Rhinox, I too will probably go for the "premium" deco Takara Tomy's version of Rattrap will most likely sport.

This updated Cheetor toy is far from flawless, I get that.  What I don't understand is the extreme hate from a lot of the fandom over this mold.  In my opinion the most show accurate Cheetor toy to date is still the first Beast Wars Transmetal.  I didn't care for this Transmetal 2 look or Beast Machines.  I've heard some think that Cheetor might not receive a new mold in the near future, but I'm OK with that.  I can overlook the weaknesses of this mold and focus in on the excellent, well articulated beast mode.  Thankfully whichever version of this mold you may go after neither are terribly expensive on the secondary market.