If the news this morning that BM is dead in the UK is true then it's a great shame because the toys they're turning out now are fantastic.
I saw the prototypes for this waaaay back last year when those dodgy photos were looking around and thought it looked good then. Now I've got in my hands that impression is confirmed - very nice. The detailing is more mechanical than on many BM Maximals and very reminiscent of the Transmetal toys - James and I were discussing the Megas earlier on in the week and I'd got my Primal and Megs TM out to look at them - NSC doesn't look out of place next to TM Primal. The colour is not your standard Cheetor yellow (a bit like the TM version *again* in that respect which was mostly grey) it's a very dark blue, with orange (fur patterns) and metalic green highlights (wrists, ankles and robot jaw), lots of transparent orange - claws, chest and 2 sets of lightpipe eyes and a few additional grey bits (swords mainly).
It comes (as I said, spent a while trying to find this out) in Robot mode but crouched in the package. (Why can't I find a ruler when I need one ?) The robot is the most stable cheetor of the BM range - Hasbro win massive brownie points for this - and can be posed/transformed/extended to a number of heights - there's an entire section of leg that retracts below the knee in Beast mode that if kept hidden will produce a reasonably well proportioned robot that's about the same height as TM Op - and that's good cos all the BM C's have looked completely out of proportion even at their shortest (I've even managed to get a NSC position that looks too short !) With a little bending of limbs and extending of legs you can still get a very tall Cheetor (about an inch taller than the pint glass on my desk)
The robot has the sword's in the shoulders that flip into the hands at the press of a button, and the spark in his back swings the arms - neither of these gimmicks can be tested through the packaging - no try me stuff here. The arms are a little difficult to leave in one position at the shoulders but it can be done. The elbows are screw joint so that the fore and upper arms are always in line for the sword dropping gimmick.
(Following my earlier comments about Cheetor's arms - the arm's can be posed properly but you need to push each arm against the direction it would move in the gimmick - one arm slashes down and the other up, so to pose the down arm - the one that's on your left (his right) raise it, where necessary rotating through nearly 360 degrees. And vice versa for the other arm. I also failed to mention that Cheetors head is on a ball and socket joint so the head can be posed looking upwards. Still loving these toys)
Transform - open the chest and the back, swap the heads and place on all 4s. Not the hardest TF in the world and it's rated basic. A note to say the heel spurs retreat into the rear feet and the hands have the same thumb mechanism as TM2 Cheetor
The Cheetah mode is very reminiscent of the TM toy again - very mechanical. Again a little trouble posing the forearms due to the gimmick but that can be overcome.
Best BM Cheetor by a mile, and when the inevitable yellow repaint happens I'll be getting one sent over - they can repaint this as many times as they like.
(Cheetor's now purched on the 2 Mega boxes piled by the PC that I'm waiting to send to the US)
Cheetor is another toy who's been done a lot, and he's had his various mouldings reused:
Original - 3 eye colour variations
Tigertron repaint
Shadow Panther repaint
Fox Kids Repaint
Transmetal
Japanese Ravage Remold
Botcon Tigertron Ravage
Fox Kids Transmetal
Armada Cheetor
TM2
Tripredicus Agent
Beast Machines Mega unstable
Beast Machines Supreme waste of plastic
Beast Machines Battle for the Spark Night Slash Cheetor
That's a fair few. Long term readers - or those who have clicked on the link - will know of my near evangelical liking for the original Night Slash Cheetor - does the toy stand the test of time and the whims of the Universe repainters ?
The toy itself never ceases in my mind to be anything but fabulous - a sleek robotic looking animal that wouldn't have looked out of place with some of the G1 interpretations and yet still looks like the animal, It's stable, which scores mega points over both of the other BM versions, it doesn't look proportionately deformed but you can still achieve a more deformed BM Cheetor look by extending the legs, and he had 2 major gimmicks that both work - the swords ejecting from the shoulders and the slashing action with the arms. Since my original review (well shortly afterwards) I discovered that the arms could both be posed OK, it just needed each arm to be pushed in the right direction and a small movement in the wrong direction would mean turning the arm all the way round. During Armada when beasts were brought in I was very strongly in favour of this mold being reused, with the triggers on the shoulders being converted to minicon posts, an extra point being added to his back, possibly to power the slashing gimmick and the obligatory proper colours repaint. We've had to wait till now for that .....
.... and the result is close but possibly a near miss. The bulk of the body that was previously done in black is now done in a dull mustard yellow - which has previously appeared on other Universe toys notably the Tank drone. However I feel it's a bit dull for Cheetor and should have been a brighter yellow. The mustard surfaces are covered in some metallic dark blue circuitry/battle damage in a completely different pattern to his previous spots. His forearms, head, back of feet, thruster pack and inner chest - previously black I think, I really aught to have kept my NSC to hand to check - are now another Universe favourite, burgundy. This works much better than the red on the FK versions but isn't 100% Cheetor either. The clear plastic chest, hands, feet and light pipe eyes are now in clear red - possibly giving the impression of blood stained claws fresh from the kill. The extending leg pieces and tail are both a brown colour, and the swords are similar but with a lovely silver flake in the mix. Claws and feet have gold highlights, and there's a silver face plate. All in all it looks a little dirty for Cheetor I'm afraid, but is getting close to a proper colour scheme. Perhaps Day Slash Cheetor would be a better name for him this time ;-)
In case you're remotely interested I'd have a yellowy/orange body, with black forelimbs and head, silver swords if possible and probably yellow clear plastic....
But I'm glad to see this mold back, and am generally pleased with what they've done. As a favourite mold and a very clearly defined character I'm more exacting about what I'd expect of a colour scheme.
But what of NSC I hear you ask ? Cheetor's yellow, he's black and you liked him ! NSC worked cos it was a radical reinterpretation of the character, the black almost gave the impression of some sort of stealth armour/colour scheme that you could envisage the character using. I remind you of repaint rule 1: If in doubt, Paint it black, stealth colour schemes are cool.