Susp's Review: UNIVERSE CHEETOR
Cheetor is part of a long line of young, eager, and brave 'bots with yellow colour schemes. Happily, he was shown to grow and mature quite a bit over the course of Beast Wars and Beast Machines.
Beast Mode: Cheetor measures 18 cm(7.1") long from nose to tail tip. He's entirely schoolbus yellow with black spots, airbrushed white paws, and bright green eyes. A few metallic blue robot parts are also visible here and there.
Cheetor has hinge joints at the shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips, knees, second knees, ankles, and tail. Out of all the Cheetor toys, he boasts the strongest resemblance to a real cheetah. It has a relatively small head, long, slender limbs, a large chest, and a narrow waist. A helluva contrast to the very first Cheetor figure!
Pressing a small tab on Cheetor's back causes his mouth to open, revealing four long, white canines. Even more impressively, his eyes go from green to scarlet, a clever little nod to the variations of the original Cheetor toy!
Transformation: Fold up Cheetor's front limbs and straighten his hind ones. Flip down the panels on his flanks, then swing his rear section forward until it clicks into place. Fold down the panels again. Open the panel on top of Cheetor's shoulders, unfold his robot arms, close up the panel again, and snap the arms into the torso. Finally, flip up the robot head.
Robot Mode: Cheetor stands about 15 cm(6") tall. He's still mostly yellow, but with metallic blue for his neck, shoulders, forearms, waist, thigh pads, and kneepads. His head is yellow with a scarlet forehead crest, green eyes, and a very catlike metallic blue face. He also has a scarlet Maximal symbol on his abdomen.
To say that Cheetor looks ungainly would be an understatement. His arms are loaded down with cheetah kibble, although I suppose you could unfold the limbs and pretend they're some kind of funky melee weapons. Far worse is the huge mass of cheetah chest hanging off his back like a hideous tumour. You can offer him a footstool, but never an armchair. Oh, and his feet, which are formed from the cheetah shins and paws, look weird. They do a good job of keeping him stable though.
Cheetor does have his good points. His head turns about 90 degrees in either direction, his shoulders and hips are ball-jointed, his upper arms rotate, his elbows, shins, ankles, and feet are hinged, and his knees are universal-jointed. His pointed kneepads can also hinge down for an extra dose of excruciating pain when he nails you in the guts. His tail detaches to become a whip or baton. Cheetor also comes with two triple-bladed shurikens that fold up just like Animated Prowl's. The shurikens store inside his cheetah haunches when not in use.
Overall, Susp Sez: Cheetor is a mixed bag. The cheetah mode looks superb and the opening mouth/eye-changing gimmick is fun (especially at NYE parties!), but the robot mode really suffers, to the point where you must never display it from the side. Articulation is alright though, and the unfolding shurikens are neat. 7/10
"Okay, so how 'bout we just punt your butt a couple of hundred yards downfield!"
Beast Mode: Cheetor measures 18 cm(7.1") long from nose to tail tip. He's entirely schoolbus yellow with black spots, airbrushed white paws, and bright green eyes. A few metallic blue robot parts are also visible here and there.
Cheetor has hinge joints at the shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips, knees, second knees, ankles, and tail. Out of all the Cheetor toys, he boasts the strongest resemblance to a real cheetah. It has a relatively small head, long, slender limbs, a large chest, and a narrow waist. A helluva contrast to the very first Cheetor figure!
Pressing a small tab on Cheetor's back causes his mouth to open, revealing four long, white canines. Even more impressively, his eyes go from green to scarlet, a clever little nod to the variations of the original Cheetor toy!
Transformation: Fold up Cheetor's front limbs and straighten his hind ones. Flip down the panels on his flanks, then swing his rear section forward until it clicks into place. Fold down the panels again. Open the panel on top of Cheetor's shoulders, unfold his robot arms, close up the panel again, and snap the arms into the torso. Finally, flip up the robot head.
Robot Mode: Cheetor stands about 15 cm(6") tall. He's still mostly yellow, but with metallic blue for his neck, shoulders, forearms, waist, thigh pads, and kneepads. His head is yellow with a scarlet forehead crest, green eyes, and a very catlike metallic blue face. He also has a scarlet Maximal symbol on his abdomen.
To say that Cheetor looks ungainly would be an understatement. His arms are loaded down with cheetah kibble, although I suppose you could unfold the limbs and pretend they're some kind of funky melee weapons. Far worse is the huge mass of cheetah chest hanging off his back like a hideous tumour. You can offer him a footstool, but never an armchair. Oh, and his feet, which are formed from the cheetah shins and paws, look weird. They do a good job of keeping him stable though.
Cheetor does have his good points. His head turns about 90 degrees in either direction, his shoulders and hips are ball-jointed, his upper arms rotate, his elbows, shins, ankles, and feet are hinged, and his knees are universal-jointed. His pointed kneepads can also hinge down for an extra dose of excruciating pain when he nails you in the guts. His tail detaches to become a whip or baton. Cheetor also comes with two triple-bladed shurikens that fold up just like Animated Prowl's. The shurikens store inside his cheetah haunches when not in use.
Overall, Susp Sez: Cheetor is a mixed bag. The cheetah mode looks superb and the opening mouth/eye-changing gimmick is fun (especially at NYE parties!), but the robot mode really suffers, to the point where you must never display it from the side. Articulation is alright though, and the unfolding shurikens are neat. 7/10
"Okay, so how 'bout we just punt your butt a couple of hundred yards downfield!"