Tigerhawk. (and lets face it this is what you really want me to talk about) Whoa this is one nice piece of kit. Mainly white colour scheme - which is inherited from Tigatron, with metallic blue chrome on the wings some leg panels & a helmet shaped like a Hawk's head that can fold out to cover the tiger head. He's got olive green used on the missiles & some other smaller pieces and translucent green on the wings and forming the empty cockpit sphere under the beast. The cockpit here can't rotate from side to side but is weighted so it will always remain upright.
The beast mode is a Tiger, with Hawk's legs as rear legs and the obvious wings mounted on the back. The wings can be adjusted to give a passable Tiger mode - with wings folded down and along the sides - but you can also get a hawk mode - with the front tiger legs swung up his sides and the Hawk mask pulled down - this is quite a nice touch cos the first BW toys had 2 "heads" for the robots whereas one of the last has 2 for the beast ! The wings fold up at the joint where they meet the body and down at a joint about half way along just before they turn chromed blue. There's some raised feathers between the two joints. which can be stowed away when the wings are up. Fold the wings so they're vertical above the hawk and they can be released by a lever in the back. This also engages the missile launchers on the lower halves of the wings which swing forward catching the trigger on the way and launching the 2 missiles as well as releasing the feathers on the mid point of the wing. The metallic halves of the wings are held back by a trigger on each wing - press that and they swing forward. There's another trigger that launches the feather missiles which form the first & largest feather on each wing. Early photos of the toy - including those on the packaging - show him with two feather launchers on each wing for the first and second feather but quite late in the day the second missile was replaced by a rubber attached feather. Over time this second feather has distorted very badly on my toy, both bending in the same direction due to the long term effects of gravity on them in storage. Rear (hawk) legs move back & forth at the hip, bend twice in middle and end in a claw which is spring loaded and closes when the middle is pushed. The front legs move up & down as well as out to the side a bit at the shoulder, rotate bellow the shoulder and bend at the knee & ankle. Mouth can be pulled down to reveal a tongue that can be moved up or down. The wings have a couple of tiny wheels on the back of each of them - this is the only remainder of some aborted vehicle mode, possibly a tank.
Transformation - Drop the wings down. Recover the missiles. Pull the arms that form the spine and the underside of the beast (including the cockpit) away. Pull the forelegs out to the sides and out of their peg sockets. Pull the tail and rear body section down (hawk legs are attached to this). Fold the forelegs down and lock the tops of them together to form the robot legs & waist. Rotate the central column holding the arms and with the spark in it round 90 degrees so the Spark faces forward. Fold out the jointed strut that attaches the tiger head to the central column. Pull the robot head out the rear section. Fold the hawk legs into and round the hips so the claws are at the front of the robot chest. Lock the rear section/robot chest in front of the column - a nice touch here has the maximal symbol on the chest directly in front of where the spark is on the central column and fold the shoulders down so they lock into the hawk hips on the side of the chest. The tail feathers now fold down onto the waist locking the legs together. Fold the tiger's feet up into the back of the lower leg revealing the robot feet and heel spurs. Fold the blue chrome on the back of the upper leg down to cover the lower leg. Simple when you get the hang of it. Or so I thought at the time I got it - getting old now !
Robot is soooo cool it's untrue. His left arm (what was the spine and the head) can hold the 2 missile launchers. The right arm has a double barrelled cannon built into it - nice touch since Tigatron and Airazor both have missile launchers in their right arm in the cartoon. Hawk claw gimmick still works in this mode even though they're now mounted on the chest. His head is the Tigatron head restyled slightly - feather type details and a clear green visor over the eyes (this is in fact the same piece of plastic as the crest on the head which is then painted over) Wings can be positioned how you want, but I've got them straight across his back - rather than folded - with the tips pointing upwards. The ankles and knees bend, there's a swivel bellow the hip, and the hips swing to the side and move back & forth (all as per the beast forelegs) The head turns. Both shoulders move back & forth as well as to the side - though the beast head arm is limited by the head) and have a ball joint at the elbow.
At the time I wrote "I reckon this is the best BW toy I've seen since the original gorilla Optimus Primal - certainly that's the only toy that gets near it gimmick wise. Get one as soon as possible !" and I still hold by the assessment - I hadn't seen Dragon Megatron then but I still like Tigerhawk better. It's a fantastic toy, full of character and play value.