As part of the relaunch of the Beast Wars Transformers series on the Fox Kids! network, several first series Beast Wars Transformers toys have been reissued. Each of these toys is a recolored version of the original toys, so as not to detract from the "collector's value" of the original toys, and these toys have been packaged on Transmetal cards (pictured right) with the original character art. The characters reissued were chosen based upon demand by fans who have consistantly e-mailed and called Hasbro since the first series of toys went out of production.
Among the first in this series of reissues is Cheetor. This cool cat is back, and boy will this make some fans happy! Cheetor was one of the harder to find toys in the original run of Beast Wars Transformers, partially because of his popularity, and has already been re-released twice before this reissue (one with green eyes, the other with red eyes, but the same overall color scheme).
Beast Mode:
In beast mode, Cheetor is a cheetah. His primary color is still yellow, but it a slightly darker, more metallic shade than the original. His cheetah spots are metallic maroon, and this version of Cheetor has green beast mode eyes. The back of his cheetah legs are metallic blue, but a duller color than the original release.
As a cheetah, Cheetor is quite bulky. Some of this is due to the necesity of having to stuff a lot of robot parts in the structure of the beast form. The detail level in this form is nice, but gives away the robotic nature of this beast. The blue "armor" on the back of his hind legs is one big indicator. Also, Cheetor's gun is very visible on his underbelly. Although the overall design is good, these details do detract from the toy.
Transformation to Robot Mode:
Begin the transformation to robot mode by detaching the rear tail/rump section of the beast mode, as well as the gun/belly on the underside of the beast mode. Flip the tail up and back to form the tail gun. Now straighten out his hind beast mode legs, and flip out the robot feet from under the paws. Rotate the lower leg portions around and then rotate the waist piece 180 degrees. Next, swing down the front beast mode legs, and then fold down the lower back of the cheetah to form Cheetor's robot waist piece. Fold out the robot arms, and rotate and fold down the beast mode head. Finally, place one weapon in each hand. Cheetor is now in robot mode!
Robot Mode:
In robot mode, Cheetor is a cool looking figure. Proportion wise, this is one of the nicer robot forms of its time. Also, being armed with two guns helps Cheetor look like one fierce fighter! His colors are still the same as his beast form, but a lot more blue is evident now. His lower arms, shoulders, waist and parts of his weapons are all blue. In robot mode, Cheetor has forteen points of articulation, including elbow, knee and head.
Cheetor's "gut gun", the one with the entrails detailed in it, can be filled with water which he can squirt out (oddly appropriate). His other gun is a backup of sorts, and was shown only in a few of the episodes in the first season of Beast Wars Transformers. The detailing on Cheetor is interesting. He very much resembles a robotic cheetah wearing armor. This is most evident on the robot legs where the blue pieces and three sharp points on each leg look like parts of a fighting suit, but blend right into his organic cheetah leg.
Overall, Cheetor is a cool toy and worth getting. The beast mode does suffer from some problems, but the robot mode makes up for this. B+
