Get this figure and more at Lunar Toy Store.
Hey! My name is Jobby,
and today we're talking about
Beast WaaAAAAAAGH-
Beast Wars was a 90's spinoff of Transformers,
where instead of turning into vehicles, they all turned into different animals.
And back in the 90's, this was my favorite thing ever.
But I gotta be honest.
Cheetor,
also known as- (snicker)
Cheetus-
was never my favorite character.
He was basically the Beast Wars equivalent of Bumblebee,
the young, reckless, bright yellow kid character,
and that kind of character type never appealed to me.
So when I heard that Cheetor was gonna be the next Masterpiece Beast Wars figure after Optimus Primal,
I was a little disappointed.
I would've much rather had a Masterpiece Dinobot-
well, would you look at that?
But after having this figure right in front of my face...
Holy mother of Primus fuck.
But before we jump in, I do have to point out that out of the box,
this guy comes out as a cheetah.
But because I filmed the transformation sequence from robot to cheetah,
by then it was too late to change it...
We're here now.
Putitinmyass.
The painting and the sculpting on this figure is AAUGH-
A+
Takara-Tomy sweeps me off my feet again, producing an uncannily show-accurate figure!
Just like the Optimus Primal figure before it, this figure is a spitting image of how he appears in the TV show,
right down to the low-res textures and these golden circles having straight edges,
'cuz I'm assuming it was easier to render.
The shiny, metallic gold and shiny, metallic blue complement each other so perfectly.
And it makes this figure one of the most vibrant and show-stopping pieces in my collection.
So much so that it even caught the attention of my dad.
He walked into the room and said to me,
"Son...
"get the fuck out of my house."
And he also said something about how the figure looked cool?
I dunno, I couldn't tell through my tears.
But the fact that almost 80% of the figure is painted,
comes at the terrible cost,
of easy paint chipping.
Which, unfortunately, has been a real issue with modern Masterpiece figures.
I would suggest that less parts be painted, but I don't really know how that would work engineering-wise?
That's why I don't work for Takara and I'm playing with toys on camera.
It's gonna pay off one day, DAD!
So the paint may be delicate, but the figure feels extremely
solid.
Maybe a little too tight in some spots.
But better to be too tight than
The face sculpt is great!
But for a youthful kid character, why does he look... kinda creepy?
The beautiful light piping doesn't help in that regard.
But maybe his alternate faces are a little less creepy.
(fear incarnate) Nope.
But the creepiness is no fault of the figure,
this is completely show-accurate.
Uncanny valley aside,
this smirking face is enjoyably in-character.
And the shocked face is, well...
shocked. It's great.
Alternate faces are one of the best things to Transformers,
because hey!
Transformers have personalities, too,
MICHAEL BAY.
But what if God WAS real?
He's also got a few more accessories, but of course, these come into play later.
First of all, you get a nice, thick card,
and you get a gun.
Before you get him to hold his guns, you have to move these arm guards out of the way.
That plugs into his hand with these tabs, and that is a solid connection.
I don't know the official name of this weapon, but I always called it the
because those are, quite literally, the cheetah's guts.
uMmM,
aCtUaLlY...!
(laughing) This meme is stupid.
And you get a rifle.
Which I always liked to call, the
because, quite literally...
Yeah, this is the cheetah's butt.
There's a little handle here that slides into his hand,
but it's not the most solid connection.
So you got the guts,
and you got the butt...
Poo-poo.
(true humor)
And if Cheetor's not using the weapons,
he can always store them on his back.
Completely unnecessary feature, but highly appreciated.
Now, a great thing about this figure's
is that the forward movement on the arms,
allows him to hold his guns with two hands.
And this extreme upward movement,
allows him to do a sniping pose.
Technically his head is on a ball joint, but there's no head pivot to speak of.
Tight rotation at the arms,
hinge joint here,
arm moves out,
swivelhere
double bend at the elbow,
up and down at the wrist,
wristswivel
hinge joint at the fingers,
(pleasured) waist swivel,
hinge at his cheetus,
rotation at the leg,
can rotate back that far,
beautiful spread,
(swivel here)
double bend at the knee,
feet can move down,
a beautiful pivot,
and a toe bend.
Now, aside from the paint chipping, I noticed another consistent issue with Masterpiece figures.
(desperate) Can we please... have an ankle swivel??
PLEASE?!
But besides that, the posability's pretty good.
There's even a little hole that you could plug a stand into.
And in this case, I'm using a bandaitamashiiact5nationsstand
So the box of this figure was surprisingly quite small.
But the figure inside...
was bigger than I expected.
HERE'S
Madokagodzillaprime,
Deluxe-class Generations Rattrap,
Voyager-class Rhinox,
and the Masterpiece Optimus Primal.
These Masterpiece Beast Wars figures are bad for my health,
because they keep bringing me back to my childhood.
I'm tryin' to grow up, dammit!
So the robot mode is excellent.
And the cheetah mode, is just as good.
Almost.
(royalty-free jazz)
And here we have the
The engineering on this thing is brilliant.
The fact that you can get a fairly thick robot mode,
and stretch him out into a slender cheetah...
It just makes me wonder...
What the fuck were they even doing?!
The proportions on this guy, the silhouette,
it nails the feel of the character from the show.
But as I implied earlier...
it's not perfect.
But unlike Optimus Primal, where all the kibble was on the back,
the kibble on this figure is pretty consistent throughout the whole mode.
At first, it was a little upsetting,
but you really gotta be grateful that the figure's engineered to even THIS degree.
I really don't see what else they could've done.
And I just gotta accept that any future Masterpiece Beast Wars figures,
are gonna have the same issue with their beast modes.
Let's just hope it's not to that extent.
However, I do have to give major props to the integration of the weapons.
It's pretty much seamless except for the seams.
And I have to get it out of the way...
(laughing) that had to be intentional, right?
With all the kibble on this mode,
at least they did something funny with it.
(BLULULULUL) at least they did something funny with it.
But what I can safely say is perfect on this mode, is the head.
First of all, genius idea for the robot cheetah head to be a fake,
and second of all, my God, is this full of character.
I just wish the paint didn't chIP SO EASILY-
For as many times as I've transformed this figure,
I would've expected his plastic whiskers to be messed up.
But thankfully, no.
I'm glad they're here.
And to get even more personality,
you get a snarling face,
and a shocked face.
As much as I love all these head sculpts, I feel he's sorely missing a smiling face.
And if the eyes seem weirdly pronounced,
that's becaAAAA-
His eyes are interchangeable.
I'm really hoping they include this feature with future Beast Wars figures, because Goddamn, it's cool.
His eyes aren't the only things that could move around.
The neck can extend,
which allows it to move up and down,
and some side to side.
Rotation at the shoulder blades,
rotation at the shoulder proper,
leg moves out,
very tight bicep swivel,
bend at the elbow,
up and down at the paw,
a paw pivot,
this mid joint is... too loose,
hinge joint, (x1)
hinge joint, (x2)
and his back legs have the same posability as the robot legs,
plus a hinge joint here,
up and down at the paw,
and sadly no pivot.
Why include a pivot at the front if you're not gonna put it on the back, motherFUCKER--?!
But a minor issue that I have is that he's always spilling his guts,
which is not too much a problem as long as you don't look at his belly,
but it IS a problem when you're trying to get him on a stand.
Let's just say this was a nightmare off-camera.
The amount of posability on this mode comes as a shock,
because most beast modes tend to be glorified bricks.
Now, I don't have another Cheetor figure to compare this with,
but it almost feels like the cheetah mode is bigger than the robot mode.
Madoka-Godzilla-Prime,
Rattrap,
Rhinox,
Optimus Primal.
Well, bend me over and call me Cheetus!
This figure's amazing!
(double kissu)
Ahh! Ahh!
Having this guy alongside Optimus Primal is a Beast Wars fan dream come true,
and the figure itself is top notch.
I just wish Takara-Tomy would get its act together when it comes to paint chipping,
'cuz I wanna play with this thing forever.
And if you wanna play with your own Cheetor forever,
why don't you get him at the
LUNAR TOY STORE??
They've got a great Transformers selection,
and Cheetor specifically is a really good price.
I'm really glad to have Lunar Toy Store back at my side,
and I hope you are, too.
Go check 'em out.
But as quickly as they come back...
they go away.
Spoilers: worth it.
("Kemono Friends" theme)
(explosion)