Much as I object to the use of Kingdom - the third and final chapter of
the much-vaunted War for Cybertron Trilogy - as a perfunctory
'celebration' of Beast Wars in lieu of a dedicated toyline, I have to
confess that I've been at least somewhat impressed by a number of the
Beast Wars figures who appeared in the line.
Cheetor, however, was not one of them... poorly proportioned and with a
rather sad axe/whip formed from his beast mode tail as his
only weapon, he didn't seem that much better than the awful mess
of a Universe toy from 2008. Given that the original
BW Tigatron
was a simple repaint of
Cheetor, I wasn't holding out much hope for a Kingdom Tigatron to be much
better. When it was announced that he would not only be a unique mold,
but a Voyager class figure rather than just another Deluxe, my hopes started
creeping back up again. When photos were eventually released, he looked -
not to put too fine a point on it - almost like a completely different
figure. Sure, the engineering was similar, but the additional size
clearly allowed for refinements of the engineering, resulting in a
figure that was objectively far better looking in both modes.
Of course, this being a Hasbro release, it wasn't without its fair
share of controversy... because he ended up - somehow - being
voted Figure of the Year in Hasbro's 2021 Hall of Fame,
despite not being (widely) available until late January of this year.
While that may have been a promotional coup, generating significant 'buzz' for
the figure, many fans resented the inclusion of something only a select
few had handled at the time of the awards, having acquired it by
questionable means.
Mine arrived mid-January, and I've given myself plenty of time to
familiarise myself with it... So let's take a look at Tigatron to see whether
or not he truly deserved the award, and if he's as significant an
improvement on the Beast Wars original as some of his
Kingdom contemporaries.
