Phil's
Beast Wars Transmetal 2 Cheetor &
Tripredicus Agent
Review
Transmetal 2 is the 4th type of BW toys released in the west after BW, Fuzors (2 different beasts merged together) Transmetal (robot beasts and more organic robots - turning the concept on it's head). The idea here is the organic and the metal parts are mixed in both modes. Cheetor is the result of a very sudden encounter with the Transmetal 2 device that Megatron had that /mixed both of his modes together. So you end up with a toy that's covered in shredded yellow beast fur with chunks of purple robotic parts showing through. Very effective. Less so is the shape of the toy - it's all hunched up and fat round the body, not lean and straight like the TM version. It almost looks more bear like than Cheetah ! There's also some chrome purple plating on one forearm, his back and his hip. He's got a missile launcher on his back that can be raised and fired. The chrome plate on his hip folds up to reveal a green Autobot spark crystal underneath. The tail turns at it's base, the rear hips are ball jointed and there's 3 further bending joints on the rear legs. There's a waist joint - more for use in robot mode, Both shoulder & elbow are ball jointed on the arms/front leg - although the elbow join is very odd effectively fixing the angle of the lower arm and just allowing it to rotate. One wrist rotates which the other bends. Both have a moveable claw underneath which will fold up to become a thumb in robot mode. In addition the arm with the bending wrist has a fold up chromed panel. Why ?
TF: Fold the arms up above the robot's head. Turn the waist round 180 degrees. Remove tail and missile launcher. Open up the chest panel and fold it back via a joint mid way in the chest. When the chest panels are pointing down you should be able to push the robot head out a bit at the back and fold the beast head in. Once the beast head is sitting inside the lower robot chest you can fold the robot head up as far as it will go and turn it round. Fold down a little so the slots in the neck are level with the corresponding bits of plastic sticking out the inside of the robot chest. Fold the chest back in locking the head in place. Fold the shoulders up & forward so they lock round the chest. Spin each elbow round 180 degrees, turn the rotating wrist so the side of the hand is pointing up and fold both claws out to form thumbs. Put the missile launcher in one hand and the tail in the other - as a whip - but to be honest I usually end up keeping in in the tail socket
Resulting robot is still a tiny bit hunch backed but is much better proportioned than the beast. No real variation in what you can see - the robot chest is more of the same as what was visible in beast mode. Face is Cheetor - yellow fur round purple metal with red eyes and crest. The head turns, otherwise articulation is as per beast mode.
The aesthetic design of the toy doesn't appeal to some people - I rather like it. It was one of the first toys I received in trade long before the UK release so I have a little bit of a soft spot for it.
TM2 Cheetor appeared in Japan as Beast Wars Metal toy C-48. I'm unable to tell if VS-48 (Cheetor & Dinobot) exists.
Original review from early in 2001: "My set of black Cheetor repaints/molds is complete. As is well known by now Tripredicus Agent is in fact Ravage rebuilt after his encounter with Rattrap at the end of Agenda Pt3. The toy suits this description well - it's as if the black (mainly fur) pieces are the remains of the original, the grey robotic pieces areas of damages and the gold chrome bits new stuff bolted on to finish off this mutated Frankenstein's monster of a warrior. I liked the original TM2 Cheetor - this one's better in many ways, the colour scheme works, the backstory works - something that I think a lot of people didn't quite grasp with the original was that it's story worked too - here's the alien Cheetor hideously mutated by the TM2 Driver. - and just gave the toy a good slagging. But I like em both. And woooo - did the TA smell when I got him out the box - the only thing that better that I've smelt recently was a friends POTJ Plo Koon "Tripredicus Agent was an exclusive for Wal-Mart in 2001.
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