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Series: Universe 2.0
Allegiance: Maximal
Categories: Deluxe
Year: 2009
Cheetor has always been fast. Other robots move at speeds that seem agonizingly slow to him, as if they were trapped in tar. Unfortunately, a lot of the time he moves a lot faster than he thinks, and finds himself in situations that, in retrospect, could have been avoided. Still, his speed has gotten him out of a lot more jams than it's gotten him into, and when speed isn't enough he can always break out his blades.
Review by Soundscream:
Robot Mode: Universe Cheetor to me is, next to Galvatron, the most disappointing figure of the line. His paint job is nice enough, as is his posability and his detailing, but the flaws of this figure are pretty hefty. Chief among those flaws is the huge rucksack on his back, which contains most of his beast mode. Thanks to his big feet Cheetor’s stability is not particularly impaired by this, but looking at the figure sideways isn’t exactly a pretty picture.
Another point for criticism: His arms. These are imbedded in the cup-like upper thighs of the beast mode legs, which doesn’t just look strange, but also restricts their posability. The lower halves of the beast legs are just folded away in Beast Wars style, which gives the arms a very muscular, bullish look. I don’t particularly like Cheetor’s head, either, it doesn’t resemble the TV character all that much. Especially his expression is rather atypical here, as he looks more like a tough brawler-type rather than the hyperactive, attention-starved Maximal.
As befits his rather brutal expression Cheetor carries something resembling a beating stick as a weapon, really just the tail of his beast mode. Not sure how much such a weapon is worth when in combat against heavily-armed Predacons, but the boys at Hasbro will know, I’m certain. I don’t remember Cheetor having such a weapon in the TV series. He also has two additional weapons, throwing stars, which are stored in his upper thighs. These are mere disks at first, but a gear mechanism extends three blades from them. A nice idea and nicely designed, but not really something extraordinary.
Finally Cheetor has another nice gimmick, which works in both robot and beast mode. There is a lever on Cheetor’s back, which causes the cheetah’s head on his chest to open its mouth and show its teeth. The eyes also change color from green to red, which is probably a homage to the original Cheetor figure, which was available with three different eye colors (red, green, and blue).
All in all a disappointing robot mode, which suffers from design flaws and does too little with its few good ideas.
Alternate Mode: The beast mode is a lot better than the robot mode and looks strong, muscular and elegant. Maybe a bit too muscular, because his shoulders are set very high. His posability is decent; the head can’t turn, but the legs can accomplish quite a few dynamic poses.
The good impression is somewhat disturbed by multiple panels, which can be seen clearly in beast mode as well, especially near the cheetah’s underbelly. The tail can move up and down a bit, but that’s it. As I mentioned above his gimmick works in beast mode, too, and enables him to open his mouth and change his eye color.
Conclusion: I expected more from the first representative of the Beast Wars in the Universe line-up and I really looked hard for reasons to like him. But all in all Cheetor is only interesting for Universe completists and Beast Wars fanatics.
Rating: D+
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