Beast Wars Tigerhawk

Robot Mode: Tigerhawk is a bulky, powerful-looking Ultra-class figure that comes mostly in white, but with quite a few blue and green highlights. The white paint swallows up a few of the details, which this figure has aplenty, but overall it still looks pretty great and nicely conveys the powerful image. Articulation is good, only a bit hampered by the bulkiness and the fact that Tigerhawk’s shoulders are not pegged in that tightly, making them come loose when you pull on his arms with even moderate force. It’s not a big problem, mind you, but a more secure connection would have been appreciated here.

Tigerhawk comes heavily armed. Apart from sculpted weapon barrels on one arm, he carries two missile launchers on his wings that can be removed and be held in either hand or both in one. Additionally he can launch feather missiles from his wings, though just upward in this mode. Speaking of the wings, he can spread them and fold them, allowing all sorts of cool visuals.

So bottom line for the robot mode: pretty good. A few more painted details would have been nice, especially on the face, and some better shoulder connections. Otherwise, though? I like it. Thumbs up.

Alternate Mode: Tigerhawk transforms into a fuzor beast mode that is a cross between – you guessed it – a tiger and a hawk. The tiger supplies the head and front legs, the hawk the rear legs and wings. The tiger head comes with an opening mouth (including a tongue) and a hawk-shaped helmet, too, which can be slid up. The wings can move up and fold, with the feathers pointing back or snapping forward, which also causes the missile launchers to snap out. Tigerhawk can fire his missile launchers and feather missiles simultaneously in this mode. All four legs are articulated, too. Bottom line: a pretty strange-looking beast mode, but pretty cool, too. No complaints.

Remarks: Tigerhawk appeared in the third-to-last episode of Beast Wars, created from the bodies of the captured Maximals Airazor and Tigatron. Originally possessed by two of the alien Vok, the creatures were expelled from the body and replaced by the merged spark of the two Maximals, who then joined Optimus Primal’s crew for the final battle of the Beast Wars, only to perish in battle against the Decepticon cruiser Nemesis. Airazor and Tigatron returned afterwards as individuals (in the pages of the 3H comics), thus making Tigerhawk’s existence a very brief one. An alternate universe version of him would have you know that his name is Razorclaw.

The toy itself is a bit of an acquired taste, yes, but once you’ve got it in hand, it’s pretty cool. There are some parts of it that seem to be there just for the hell of it, such as the big green bubble thing on the beast mode’s chest, but again: a cool toy overall. Personally I like the Razorclaw version a bit better, simply because the darker paintjob brings out the details a bit more, but either way, it’s definitely among Beast Wars’ weirder and cooler designs.

Rating: B