Transmetal II Cheetor

Hasn't officially hit the shelves yet, but my brother managed to snatch the three deluxes from a collector shop at normal price!!! But I've heard that they have been found at one place. Only the '2' version was spotted.
Beast Mode

This new version of Cheetor is mainly yellow and dark grey-purple, with vac-metallized purple. Very dynamic looking, with the arms and legs molded with a permanent bend, which kinda hurts the robot mode. His arched back gives a very fiercesome look to him. He has 16 points of articulation, most focused on his legs, which have 4 joints per leg. One thing: the tail is NOT bendable. It is molded so that it curls inwards. While this looks cool, it does get in the way sometimes. Consolation is that it can be removed.

Robotic bits are all over this cat, which are molded to look as if the fur ripped off, revealing the insides. Like all TMII's, Cheetor is very asymmetric, with each side looking different from each other. It's so asymmetric that both claws are differently placed. The right paw can be turned left and right, while the left can only move up and down. While this works for the beast mode, it totally does NOT work for the robot. More on this later. It's worth a note that the designers paid attention to small details, like his eyes, which have one robotic, and the other normal.

The vac-metallized parts are all on the left side of the toy, and the gun, which is mounted onto the back with a hinge. Lifting the gun and a 'shield' panel on his arm gives Cheetor his 'attack mode'. The shield doesn't really help, because to lift the shield, you have to lower the wrist, making him look really weird.

The Spark crystal is on his left side, on his thigh, under a vac- met cover, which snaps open when you bend his knee. Opening it reveals the green Maximal Spark. As the plastic it's placed on is yellow, and allows some light through, the Spark 'glows' when against light, a very nice touch.

Transformation
A rather simplistic transformation for a deluxe, but then again, what's Blackarachnia's? The formation of the body is interesting and unique, but because the arms are bent, they get in the way of things. Note that you can swivel the part which holds the arm to the body up, securing the chest, and making him look significantly better.

Robot Mode
About 13cm at the head, add another 2cm for the tail when straight above his head. A rather nice and interesting design, although he's more or less bending because of his knees, which are premanently bent. Then again, so are his arms. Can be put in some really cool poses, but none which needs the straightening of limbs. In fact, just having him stand there looks like a pose already. His tail can be removed, and placed between his fingers, albeit a little loosely. Oh, right, the hands. They have moveable thumbs, much like OpOp's, but are hinged at the top instead of the middle of his palms. The 'shield' can be opened too, but doesn't really add much to it's appearance.

As I was saying above, the hands are not the same. This makes Cheetor less natural looking, as his right wrist cannot be swiveled around, so that he can hold something. The left hand makes a better choice to hold his gun. The thumbs are molded in a way that the spikes on the gun can fit securely in his hands. Well, not too securely. The gun has a projectile, which shoots about a metre or two.

I almost forgot to mention the head. The head is on another piece of plastic, with grooves in them, where the chest is supposed to secure to. However, the tabs on the chest are molded in a way that they cannot slide into the slot! One tab on mine is longer than the other, causing the head tilt a bit to one side. Not to smart a design, yes?

Although this toy has many areas of improvement, especially the arms, it is not totally condemned. Worth a buy, since it's Cheetor.

Rating: B+

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