Rise of the Beasts Cheetor (Battle Master)

Prelude: Cheetor has been a semi-regular user of swords since his appearance in Beast Machines, but it would not be until Rise of the Beasts that everyone’s favorite little cat bot would actually transform INTO a sword (or something like that). So here he is, the Beast Machine, the Beast Battle Master, Cheetor! Let’s say go!

Beast Mode: The Beast Battle Masters do not have robot modes, so we’ll be starting with the little cat’s beast mode. He is a cheetah, of course, though visibly a robotic one. The general shape actually does remind me of Beast Machines Cheetor, including the paint job and spots. Weirdly, though, his torso and front feet are grey instead of yellow, not sure why. Doesn’t really have anything to do with his weapon mode, either.

The little cheetah looks good and is reasonably well-articulated for a four-legged figure this size (actually better than Beast Wars Cheetor was in beast mode). All four legs have ball-joints for shoulders and the front feet are ball-jointed, too. No knees to be found on any of the four legs, sadly, but you can still put him in some walking poses. Cheetor’s tail is actually the tip of his sword. So bottom line: a nice little cheetah. I’d have liked knees and don’t get the grey torso, but neither really hurts him, either.

Weapon Mode: A very simple transformation takes us to weapon mode. Cheetor folds in his legs and folds out the sword blade, which causes his head to partially disappear into the torso. A 5mm handle flips out from the cheetah’s neck and we’re done.

I’m not sure what to call this bladed weapon here, to be honest. It’s not really a sword, more like an arm blade, because you hold it at a ninety degree angle to the actual blade. If you know the comic character Blood Rayne, she uses blades like that. Thanks to the 5mm handle, Cheetor can be wielded by most Transformers figures ever made.

Personally, I think he looks best when wielded upside down (see picture no. 8) or plugged into a forearm (presuming there is a 5mm peg hole to be found there), but that’s subjective, of course. Bottom line for the weapon mode: perhaps a bit clunky for a bladed weapon, but overall I like this thing a lot and it looks really good on Studio Series Cheetor, for example.

Remarks: Cheetor did appear in the Rise of the Beasts movie as one of the Maximals, though he never transformed into a weapon on screen. Doesn’t mean he couldn’t, just that he didn’t. We do assume Airazor had a robot mode, too, even though she never showed it on screen, right? Anyway, Cheetor didn’t really do much in the movie apart from trashing some Terrorcons, but at least he had some spoken lines (unlike Rhinox).

As for this toy, I just love the Beast Battle Masters. Still not sure why, but I do. I’m not sure where to put Cheetor in comparison with his compatriots, but he is a fun little weapon bot, so fully recommended to everyone who can appreciate the absurdity of a tiny robotic animal becoming a weapon for a larger robot.

Rating: B