Masterpiece MP 34 Beast Wars Cheetor In Hand Images

Thursday, February 23rd, 2017 9:20PM CST

Category: Toy News
Posted by: william-james88 Views: 34,410

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Fellow Seibertronian Sabrblade has pointed us to a twitter page loaded with in hand images of the newly released Masterpiece MP 34 Cheetor. Here they are below, giving us the best look at this figure yet. You can see how well articulates it is and all the accessories he comes with and the different display options they provide, like all those cheetah expressions.

We also get a sense of scale with him next to the generations Rattrap and Rhinox molds.

Enjoy!

Credit(s): zeamtiger on twitter

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Re: Masterpiece MP 34 Beast Wars Cheetor In Hand Images (1862501)
Posted by SureShot18 on February 23rd, 2017 @ 9:25pm CST

Looks like the fake cheeta head is right behind the gut gun in cheeta mode. You can see the ears towards the front of that section. Also it seems the real cheeta is sucked into the robot torso, as was expected. The fact that these pieces are on opposite sides of the beast mode but are right next to each other in robot mode means this is going to be a very interesting transformation.
Also Cheetor should be here Wednesday! I couldn't help it, I chose the faster shipping.

Re: Masterpiece MP 34 Beast Wars Cheetor In Hand Images (1862508)
Posted by Kurona on February 23rd, 2017 @ 9:36pm CST

While shots with Rattrap and Rhinox are appreciated, I'm extremely surprised there's no photos of Cheetor with MP Primal. Surely that would have been the most obvious one?

In any case, holy heck he looks great. I don't even like Cheetor as much as the rest of the Maximals but he looks absolutely delicious here.

Re: Masterpiece MP 34 Beast Wars Cheetor In Hand Images (1862513)
Posted by Sabrblade on February 23rd, 2017 @ 10:12pm CST

Check out his Beast Mode eye articulation:

Re: Masterpiece MP 34 Beast Wars Cheetor In Hand Images (1862529)
Posted by lowman_x on February 23rd, 2017 @ 11:22pm CST

A beauty of a figure bar a minor quibble: not digging the half-tone patterning/style of his cheetah spots. It's really throwing me.

Also, the placement of Rattrap's gun in beast mode is unfortunate when he stands on his back legs... LOL

Re: Masterpiece MP 34 Beast Wars Cheetor In Hand Images (1862533)
Posted by Sabrblade on February 23rd, 2017 @ 11:41pm CST

lowman_x wrote:A beauty of a figure bar a minor quibble: not digging the half-tone patterning/style of his cheetah spots. It's really throwing me.

There's a very specific reason for those spots looking the way they do.

They replicate the UVW map stretching that Mainframe used to create the cheetah spots on Cheetor's CG model.

That's right. Takara actually recreated 1996 television budget-level CGI techniques in physical 2017 plastic form. It is so OCD-absurd that I can't help but admire how far they went to achieve such meticulously-faithful perfection, warts and all, in plastic form.

Re: Masterpiece MP 34 Beast Wars Cheetor In Hand Images (1862535)
Posted by lowman_x on February 24th, 2017 @ 12:18am CST

Sabrblade wrote:
lowman_x wrote:A beauty of a figure bar a minor quibble: not digging the half-tone patterning/style of his cheetah spots. It's really throwing me.
There's a very specific reason for those spots looking the way they do.

They replicate the UVW map stretching that Mainframe used to create the cheetah spots on Cheetor's CG model.

That's right. Takara actually recreated 1996 television budget-level CGI techniques in physical 2017 plastic form. It is so OCD-absurd that I can't help but admire how far they went to achieve such meticulously-faithful perfection, warts and all, in plastic form.

Yeah, I'd figured that they were going for 1990s texture mapped realism, but IRL it's making me dislike the figure despite all of the really good aspects about it (of which there are plenty).

Re: Masterpiece MP 34 Beast Wars Cheetor In Hand Images (1862536)
Posted by Jelze Bunnycat on February 24th, 2017 @ 12:19am CST

Sabrblade wrote:
lowman_x wrote:A beauty of a figure bar a minor quibble: not digging the half-tone patterning/style of his cheetah spots. It's really throwing me.
There's a very specific reason for those spots looking the way they do.

They replicate the UVW map stretching that Mainframe used to create the cheetah spots on Cheetor's CG model.

That's right. Takara actually recreated 1996 television budget-level CGI techniques in physical 2017 plastic form. It is so OCD-absurd that I can't help but admire how far they went to achieve such meticulously-faithful perfection, warts and all, in plastic form.

Well "spotted", my friend.

Re: Masterpiece MP 34 Beast Wars Cheetor In Hand Images (1862537)
Posted by Kurona on February 24th, 2017 @ 12:49am CST

If MP-38 is any indication, they might end up releasing a toy-accurate version somewhere down the line - not to mention the likelihood of Shadow Panther and Tigatron redecoes. There's hope for the mold yet if you don't like how it looks here

Re: Masterpiece MP 34 Beast Wars Cheetor In Hand Images (1862538)
Posted by Sabrblade on February 24th, 2017 @ 1:00am CST

Kurona wrote:If MP-38 is any indication, they might end up releasing a toy-accurate version somewhere down the line - not to mention the likelihood of Shadow Panther and Tigatron redecoes. There's hope for the mold yet if you don't like how it looks here

Shadow Panther I could see, but Tigatron would need his own bigger but similarly-engineered mold.

Re: Masterpiece MP 34 Beast Wars Cheetor In Hand Images (1862540)
Posted by Kurona on February 24th, 2017 @ 1:13am CST

Sabrblade wrote:
Kurona wrote:If MP-38 is any indication, they might end up releasing a toy-accurate version somewhere down the line - not to mention the likelihood of Shadow Panther and Tigatron redecoes. There's hope for the mold yet if you don't like how it looks here
Shadow Panther I could see, but Tigatron would need his own bigger but similarly-engineered mold.

Certainly, but I've been wondering whether or not they would actually do that. How much money they'd be able to make off a Tigatron mold, and if they'd actually go for that extra effort or just throw their arms up, say 'fuck it' and just use Cheetor.
Of course, that's not confirmed, but I think it wouldn't be wise to say it's out of the realm of possibility. He should get his own mold, and maybe he will, but I won't be terribly surprised if they do just decide to not go to that extra effort.

Re: Masterpiece MP 34 Beast Wars Cheetor In Hand Images (1862557)
Posted by Insurgent on February 24th, 2017 @ 3:36am CST

I'll be in my bunk. Lol.

I seriously can't wait for this guy. So much beast wars love. I'm happy.and I'm super happy they've gone for the toon style fur patterns instead of realistic fur pattern. The characters wouldn't look right otherwise.

Re: Masterpiece MP 34 Beast Wars Cheetor In Hand Images (1862558)
Posted by Ravage XK on February 24th, 2017 @ 3:41am CST

I have never been much of a fan of animal alt modes beyond the Dinobots but I did enjoy the Beast Wars show. I cannot wait to get this to go with Primal. I'll be getting it for my birthday, I just hope it gets here in time.

Re: Masterpiece MP 34 Beast Wars Cheetor In Hand Images (1862648)
Posted by Overcracker on February 24th, 2017 @ 11:11am CST

Finally!.

Cheetor has arrived at anime export, and just had him shipped.

Re: Masterpiece MP 34 Beast Wars Cheetor In Hand Images (1862657)
Posted by Va'al on February 24th, 2017 @ 11:53am CST

We seen a fair number of in-hand images for MP-34 Cheetor, the latest Beast Wars Masterpiece Transformer, from Takara Tomy, earlier today (check them out again here) - but another toy blogger also brings us a fairly important comparison: how does Cheetor / Cheetus look next to MP-32 Optimus Primal / Beast Convoy? Check out the images below and find out!

Re: Masterpiece MP 34 Beast Wars Cheetor In Hand Images (1862658)
Posted by Ravage XK on February 24th, 2017 @ 11:55am CST

Looks awesome is how he looks.

Never would have thought that I would be looking forward to this as much as I am.

Re: Masterpiece MP 34 Beast Wars Cheetor In Hand Images (1862797)
Posted by DedicatedGhostArt on February 24th, 2017 @ 10:43pm CST

Doesn't the Tigatron here look amazing?

[Source]

I really like Cheetor here, but if a Tigatron is announced, I'd probably go for him instead. Him and Airazor would be BEAST! (pun intended)

Re: Masterpiece MP 34 Beast Wars Cheetor In Hand Images (1862799)
Posted by Sabrblade on February 24th, 2017 @ 10:47pm CST

SillySpringer wrote:Doesn't the Tigatron here look amazing?

More like Cheetor cosplaying Tigatron. The limbs are too lanky and scrawny and the beast head's shaped all wrong. Tigatron's buffer that Cheetor. :CROW:

Re: Masterpiece MP 34 Beast Wars Cheetor In Hand Images (1862802)
Posted by DedicatedGhostArt on February 24th, 2017 @ 10:52pm CST

Sabrblade wrote:
SillySpringer wrote:Doesn't the Tigatron here look amazing?
More like Cheetor cosplaying Tigatron. The limbs are too lanky and scrawny and the beast head's shaped all wrong. Tigatron's buffer that Cheetor.

Same construction in robot mode in Beast Wars pretty much. It's the bigger head that puts the scale off.

Looks good to me. Just needs retooling on the beast parts and robot head.

Re: Masterpiece MP 34 Beast Wars Cheetor In Hand Images (1862805)
Posted by Sabrblade on February 24th, 2017 @ 10:57pm CST

SillySpringer wrote:
Sabrblade wrote:
SillySpringer wrote:Doesn't the Tigatron here look amazing?
More like Cheetor cosplaying Tigatron. The limbs are too lanky and scrawny and the beast head's shaped all wrong. Tigatron's buffer that Cheetor.

Same construction in robot mode in Beast Wars pretty much. It's the bigger head that puts the scale off.

pic

Looks good to me. Just needs retooling on the beast parts and robot head.

That's just the Japanese toy's box art, not the cartoon model.

The original toys were straight redecos of each other, but Mainframe modified Tigatron's CG model to better distinguish him from Cheetor.

Compare:

Sabrblade wrote:Yeah, Tigatron's cartoon model was bigger than Cheetor's, and his beast mode was shaped differently.

Tigatron's beast mode has more overall mass to it. A larger head, thicker legs, a more rounded back and belly; about the only thing his and Cheetor's MPs could share is transformation engineering. The rest of Tigatron would need to be a larger mold.

Re: Masterpiece MP 34 Beast Wars Cheetor In Hand Images (1862830)
Posted by Insurgent on February 25th, 2017 @ 2:43am CST

I wouldn't mind if tigatron is a remould, but he does need a thicker beast mode propertiins and new heads in both modes. I know he's meant to be taller than cheetor but he would be close enough for me.

Re: Masterpiece MP 34 Beast Wars Cheetor In Hand Images (1862832)
Posted by Kurona on February 25th, 2017 @ 2:46am CST

I feel it is an extremely likely possibility. They'd do as much retooling as they could, but at the end of the day I simply find making a retool far more likely than an entirely new mold no matter how inaccurate to the actual sizes that may be. Takara may be miracle workers, but they're still a company.

Re: Masterpiece MP 34 Beast Wars Cheetor In Hand Images (1862833)
Posted by Carnivius_Prime on February 25th, 2017 @ 2:50am CST

There's no tidier method of hiding away those cheetah legs, huh?

Re: Masterpiece MP 34 Beast Wars Cheetor In Hand Images (1862836)
Posted by Insurgent on February 25th, 2017 @ 2:59am CST

Carnivius_Prime wrote:There's no tidier method of hiding away those cheetah legs, huh?

You mean on his back? That's screen accurate, down to the way they cross over each other.

Re: Masterpiece MP 34 Beast Wars Cheetor In Hand Images (1862837)
Posted by Carnivius_Prime on February 25th, 2017 @ 3:02am CST

Insurgent wrote:
Carnivius_Prime wrote:There's no tidier method of hiding away those cheetah legs, huh?

You mean on his back? That's screen accurate, down to the way they cross over each other.

Yeah and I didn't like it then either (though to be honest I didn't care for Beast Wars in general.. stories were alright but the CGI was really hard for me to get past). Screen accuracy is not always a good thing. Suppose if you're a big fan of Cheetor this toy is great.

Re: Masterpiece MP 34 Beast Wars Cheetor In Hand Images (1862838)
Posted by Kurona on February 25th, 2017 @ 3:05am CST

Carnivius_Prime wrote:
Insurgent wrote:
Carnivius_Prime wrote:There's no tidier method of hiding away those cheetah legs, huh?

You mean on his back? That's screen accurate, down to the way they cross over each other.

Yeah and I didn't like it then either (though to be honest I didn't care for Beast Wars in general.. stories were alright but the CGI was really hard for me to get past). Screen accuracy is not always a good thing. Suppose if you're a big fan of Cheetor this toy is great.

Well, it is Masterpiece - screen accuracy is the name of the game. If you want a cool update you have to rely on Generations eventually coming up with something.

Re: Masterpiece MP 34 Beast Wars Cheetor In Hand Images (1862839)
Posted by Insurgent on February 25th, 2017 @ 3:07am CST

Screen accuracy is a big deal for the masterpiece line. If it was something like generations, I'd agree with you.

As for the cgi... Yeah i can understand how it looks dated. But for the second ever show to ever be made from cgi, when it was in it's infancy, it was groundbreaking at the time.

Re: Masterpiece MP 34 Beast Wars Cheetor In Hand Images (1862844)
Posted by Carnivius_Prime on February 25th, 2017 @ 3:54am CST

Insurgent wrote:Screen accuracy is a big deal for the masterpiece line. If it was something like generations, I'd agree with you.

As for the cgi... Yeah i can understand how it looks dated. But for the second ever show to ever be made from cgi, when it was in it's infancy, it was groundbreaking at the time.

I know it was early CGI but even then it just looked horrendous to me and really off-putting. Amazes me that even now you get CGI cartoons that just lack a sense of 'life' to them in their environments (I tried watching Beware the Batman and Gotham felt so empty and hollow... not a city at all but just cheap looking backdrops). Even now I still far prefer 2D animation over 3D. I'd take the classic era Disney over Pixar anyday.

Re: Masterpiece MP 34 Beast Wars Cheetor In Hand Images (1862904)
Posted by Ironhidensh on February 25th, 2017 @ 1:31pm CST

If plastic tires on their masterpiece cars don't bother Takara, then and undersized Tigatron won't bother them either.

Re: Masterpiece MP 34 Beast Wars Cheetor In Hand Images (1862905)
Posted by DedicatedGhostArt on February 25th, 2017 @ 1:40pm CST

Sabrblade wrote:
SillySpringer wrote:
Sabrblade wrote:
SillySpringer wrote:Doesn't the Tigatron here look amazing?
More like Cheetor cosplaying Tigatron. The limbs are too lanky and scrawny and the beast head's shaped all wrong. Tigatron's buffer that Cheetor.

Same construction in robot mode in Beast Wars pretty much. It's the bigger head that puts the scale off.

pic

Looks good to me. Just needs retooling on the beast parts and robot head.
That's just the Japanese toy's box art, not the cartoon model.

The original toys were straight redecos of each other, but Mainframe modified Tigatron's CG model to better distinguish him from Cheetor.

Compare:

Sabrblade wrote:Yeah, Tigatron's cartoon model was bigger than Cheetor's, and his beast mode was shaped differently.

Tigatron's beast mode has more overall mass to it. A larger head, thicker legs, a more rounded back and belly; about the only thing his and Cheetor's MPs could share is transformation engineering. The rest of Tigatron would need to be a larger mold.

I get the beast mode, and I already knew that. Robot mode looks pretty dang close to me though, and if anything he looks less bulky because of the larger head.

Like I said, I think they have the capability to change the beast mode parts pretty well and still keep a similar robot mode look. I like to give Takara a good creative chance.

Also I'd prefer Tigatron to not be too big actually because I would want him to fit relatively well with some CHUG figures. His size is hard enough to fit now. I also wouldn't really care to get Tigatron either unless there's an Airazor toy that's decently scaled enough to fit with him.

Re: Masterpiece MP 34 Beast Wars Cheetor In Hand Images (1862910)
Posted by wilcosu35 on February 25th, 2017 @ 2:22pm CST

Ironhidensh wrote:If plastic tires on their masterpiece cars don't bother Takara, then and undersized Tigatron won't bother them either.

I wouldn't bet too heavily on that. Plastic tires instead of rubber isn't of the same significance as having figures in correct scale with eachother, and that is one of the strongpoints of the modern Masterpiece line. Tigatron was a lot taller than Cheetor in the cartoon, and i don't see Takara ignoring that size difference, not when they place emphasis on correct scale. I think that if we do get a Tigatron, he will be the same kind of transformation, except larger in size.

Re: Masterpiece MP 34 Beast Wars Cheetor In Hand Images (1862911)
Posted by DedicatedGhostArt on February 25th, 2017 @ 2:24pm CST

wilcosu35 wrote:
Ironhidensh wrote:If plastic tires on their masterpiece cars don't bother Takara, then and undersized Tigatron won't bother them either.

I wouldn't bet too heavily on that. Plastic tires instead of rubber isn't of the same significance as having figures in correct scale with eachother, and that is one of the strongpoints of the modern Masterpiece line. Tigatron was a lot taller than Cheetor in the cartoon, and i don't see Takara ignoring that size difference, not when they place emphasis on correct scale. I think that if we do get a Tigatron, he will be the same kind of transformation, except larger in size.

Either that or they make the legs longer or something. Idunno.

Re: Masterpiece MP 34 Beast Wars Cheetor In Hand Images (1862912)
Posted by Ironhidensh on February 25th, 2017 @ 2:26pm CST

I'll believe it when I see it.

Re: Masterpiece MP 34 Beast Wars Cheetor In Hand Images (1862913)
Posted by DedicatedGhostArt on February 25th, 2017 @ 2:31pm CST

Ironhidensh wrote:I'll believe it when I see it.

Me too. I just don't see them using the same design of the robot mode but upscaling it slightly where they'd need to use completely different parts on the whole thing and waste all that recolor potential. I personally don't remember Tigatron being much larger than Cheetor in the cartoon if at all, and making a whole new thing just to make him slightly taller just seems like a waste to me IMHO.

...and making the legs slightly longer would only make him taller. He would look even thinner than Cheetor then, and that's not accurate visually at all.

Edit: They also could work around it by releasing a toy-accurate Cheetor and then a toy-accurate Tigatron with new beast parts and just call them an homage to the toy redos, and just skip the cartoon version.

Re: Masterpiece MP 34 Beast Wars Cheetor In Hand Images (1862915)
Posted by wilcosu35 on February 25th, 2017 @ 2:41pm CST

I direct your attention to page 3 of this thread, Sabrblade's second post on the page shows some significant size difference between Tigatron and Cheetor, the latter roughly coming up to the former's chest

transformers-masterpiece-beast-wars-cheetor-discussion-t106911s50.php

Re: Masterpiece MP 34 Beast Wars Cheetor In Hand Images (1862916)
Posted by william-james88 on February 25th, 2017 @ 2:56pm CST

Ironhidensh wrote:I'll believe it when I see it.

Me too. While I dont think it will be a straight up redeco, I do feel this will be an inferno/grappel scenario. Where the robot mode is very similar but the alt mode has lots of different parts to change the type of vehicle it is. Tigertron will most likely be a reshell, at leas thats what I believe.

Re: Masterpiece MP 34 Beast Wars Cheetor In Hand Images (1862921)
Posted by DedicatedGhostArt on February 25th, 2017 @ 3:04pm CST

wilcosu35 wrote:I direct your attention to page 3 of this thread, Sabrblade's second post on the page shows some significant size difference between Tigatron and Cheetor, the latter roughly coming up to the former's chest

transformers-masterpiece-beast-wars-cheetor-discussion-t106911s50.php

Actually, now that I look at that image, you see Tigatron's upper body doesn't look much larger. Just his head and legs looks much bigger.

Edit: And like I said before, the legs would be easy to do new parts for because they are also the legs in alt mode, and would need to be changed anyway. So, yay! It's easier than I thought!

Re: Masterpiece MP 34 Beast Wars Cheetor In Hand Images (1862925)
Posted by Ironhidensh on February 25th, 2017 @ 3:31pm CST

wilcosu35 wrote:I direct your attention to page 3 of this thread, Sabrblade's second post on the page shows some significant size difference between Tigatron and Cheetor, the latter roughly coming up to the former's chest

transformers-masterpiece-beast-wars-cheetor-discussion-t106911s50.php

I also direct your attention to the toys, which I have sitting in front of me right now (I dug them out of Tupperware to make sure), that were straight up repaints of each other. I stress, repaints. Every single part is identical. Not one single deviation, other than paint.

Re: Masterpiece MP 34 Beast Wars Cheetor In Hand Images (1862948)
Posted by Jelze Bunnycat on February 25th, 2017 @ 6:35pm CST

Ironhidensh wrote:
wilcosu35 wrote:I direct your attention to page 3 of this thread, Sabrblade's second post on the page shows some significant size difference between Tigatron and Cheetor, the latter roughly coming up to the former's chest

transformers-masterpiece-beast-wars-cheetor-discussion-t106911s50.php

I also direct your attention to the toys, which I have sitting in front of me right now (I dug them out of Tupperware to make sure), that were straight up repaints of each other. I stress, repaints. Every single part is identical. Not one single deviation, other than paint.

The point is that the media depictions, mostly the cartoons, are taken as the primary base for Masterpiece, not the original toys. Case in point: Lambor with Alert and the Datsun/Fairlady Z trio. The original toys were retools, and only with the outer car shells. The cartoons however gave more differences in robot mode, which were translated into the Masterpiece toys we have now. Toy features do get nods, as Ironhide as shown.

How will that affect a possible Tigatron? Parts will be switched out to make the cheetah into a tiger as per usual. Normally that would do it, but his mean size in the cartoon poses a bit of a problem, but I suspect TakaraTomy has taken that into account: by making the parts switched out slightly larger in places (hardly noticeable even), the sum of the differences could make up the difference in height, tho the result may not be perfect.

Re: Masterpiece MP 34 Beast Wars Cheetor In Hand Images (1862949)
Posted by DedicatedGhostArt on February 25th, 2017 @ 6:46pm CST

Like I said above, everything on Cheetor's and Tigatron's upper bodies look almost the same size. It's the length of Tigatron's legs that really makes him look much bigger. This means it's quite possible that all they'll have to do is make longer and bulkier lower legs for Tigatron.

Re: Masterpiece MP 34 Beast Wars Cheetor In Hand Images (1862950)
Posted by Ironhidensh on February 25th, 2017 @ 6:57pm CST

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:
Ironhidensh wrote:
wilcosu35 wrote:I direct your attention to page 3 of this thread, Sabrblade's second post on the page shows some significant size difference between Tigatron and Cheetor, the latter roughly coming up to the former's chest

transformers-masterpiece-beast-wars-cheetor-discussion-t106911s50.php

I also direct your attention to the toys, which I have sitting in front of me right now (I dug them out of Tupperware to make sure), that were straight up repaints of each other. I stress, repaints. Every single part is identical. Not one single deviation, other than paint.

The point is that the media depictions, mostly the cartoons, are taken as the primary base for Masterpiece, not the original toys. Case in point: Lambor with Alert and the Datsun/Fairlady Z trio. The original toys were retools, and only with the outer car shells. The cartoons however gave more differences in robot mode, which were translated into the Masterpiece toys we have now. Toy features do get nods, as Ironhide as shown.

How will that affect a possible Tigatron? Parts will be switched out to make the cheetah into a tiger as per usual. Normally that would do it, but his mean size in the cartoon poses a bit of a problem, but I suspect TakaraTomy has taken that into account: by making the parts switched out slightly larger in places (hardly noticeable even), the sum of the differences could make up the difference in height, tho the result may not be perfect.

I think you have too much faith. I have no doubt some parts will change to look more like a tiger, but mark my words, the sizes will be the exact same.

Re: Masterpiece MP 34 Beast Wars Cheetor In Hand Images (1862952)
Posted by Jelze Bunnycat on February 25th, 2017 @ 7:03pm CST

Ironhidensh wrote:
JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:
Ironhidensh wrote:
wilcosu35 wrote:I direct your attention to page 3 of this thread, Sabrblade's second post on the page shows some significant size difference between Tigatron and Cheetor, the latter roughly coming up to the former's chest

transformers-masterpiece-beast-wars-cheetor-discussion-t106911s50.php

I also direct your attention to the toys, which I have sitting in front of me right now (I dug them out of Tupperware to make sure), that were straight up repaints of each other. I stress, repaints. Every single part is identical. Not one single deviation, other than paint.

The point is that the media depictions, mostly the cartoons, are taken as the primary base for Masterpiece, not the original toys. Case in point: Lambor with Alert and the Datsun/Fairlady Z trio. The original toys were retools, and only with the outer car shells. The cartoons however gave more differences in robot mode, which were translated into the Masterpiece toys we have now. Toy features do get nods, as Ironhide as shown.

How will that affect a possible Tigatron? Parts will be switched out to make the cheetah into a tiger as per usual. Normally that would do it, but his mean size in the cartoon poses a bit of a problem, but I suspect TakaraTomy has taken that into account: by making the parts switched out slightly larger in places (hardly noticeable even), the sum of the differences could make up the difference in height, tho the result may not be perfect.

I think you have too much faith. I have no doubt some parts will change to look more like a tiger, but mark my words, the sizes will be the exact same.

Don't underestimate the power of the Schwartz!

And we're not saying it will happen, instead we're saying it may happen.

Re: Masterpiece MP 34 Beast Wars Cheetor In Hand Images (1862955)
Posted by DedicatedGhostArt on February 25th, 2017 @ 7:22pm CST

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:
Ironhidensh wrote:
JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:
Ironhidensh wrote:
wilcosu35 wrote:I direct your attention to page 3 of this thread, Sabrblade's second post on the page shows some significant size difference between Tigatron and Cheetor, the latter roughly coming up to the former's chest

transformers-masterpiece-beast-wars-cheetor-discussion-t106911s50.php

I also direct your attention to the toys, which I have sitting in front of me right now (I dug them out of Tupperware to make sure), that were straight up repaints of each other. I stress, repaints. Every single part is identical. Not one single deviation, other than paint.

The point is that the media depictions, mostly the cartoons, are taken as the primary base for Masterpiece, not the original toys. Case in point: Lambor with Alert and the Datsun/Fairlady Z trio. The original toys were retools, and only with the outer car shells. The cartoons however gave more differences in robot mode, which were translated into the Masterpiece toys we have now. Toy features do get nods, as Ironhide as shown.

How will that affect a possible Tigatron? Parts will be switched out to make the cheetah into a tiger as per usual. Normally that would do it, but his mean size in the cartoon poses a bit of a problem, but I suspect TakaraTomy has taken that into account: by making the parts switched out slightly larger in places (hardly noticeable even), the sum of the differences could make up the difference in height, tho the result may not be perfect.

I think you have too much faith. I have no doubt some parts will change to look more like a tiger, but mark my words, the sizes will be the exact same.

Don't underestimate the power of the Schwartz!

And we're not saying it will happen, instead we're saying it may happen.

And also, I think it's wrong to say it will NOT happen, because you are playing roulette with a company that's known for their innovation and modifying of figures we never imagined them even ATTEMPTING to modify. (Case in point: Takara's Legends Super Ginrai. Remember that toy? They HEAVILY modified the Hasbro version's legs to make him taller, AND added the ability to combine with another little thing called Godbomber. It would've been EASY to just recolor him in a more accurate deco, but NOPE. They went all the way.) Takara Tomy is known for being quality and accuracy over quantity and simplicity of alternate character reformatting. ESPECIALLY in the Masterpiece line. So if they make a Tigatron, and they make it cartoon accurate, I'm betting they'll put in a little extra effort into it and AT LEAST make the legs longer in robot mode.

Also another point: If I recall correctly, the original Tigatron toy design was determined BEFORE his appearance in the cartoon. That means the animators took the toy design and modified him to be larger. So that means it wasn't the toy designers being lazy, but the animators being too creative with the design.

Re: Masterpiece MP 34 Beast Wars Cheetor In Hand Images (1862957)
Posted by Jelze Bunnycat on February 25th, 2017 @ 7:29pm CST

Yeah, about that... Tigatron was a replacement character, really: his original role was first cast for Wolfang. But since it's cheaper to adapt an existing model over making a new one from scratch, and a tiger-themed redeco was planned (just in orange instead of white), Tigatron happened.

Re: Masterpiece MP 34 Beast Wars Cheetor In Hand Images (1862966)
Posted by Ironhidensh on February 25th, 2017 @ 8:10pm CST

Well, like I said earlier, I hope you guys are right, but I'm not holding my breath. In other news. ...

International shipping is fun. My Cheetor left Japan at 9:44pm today (tonight, 36 minutes from now local time), arrived in Alaska at 10:33 this morning, was released from customs at 12:44pm, and left Alaska at 4:16pm.... 5 hours and 38 minutes before it even left Japan! I wish my kids were older so I could make them think I knew a time lord. :lol:

Re: Masterpiece MP 34 Beast Wars Cheetor In Hand Images (1862987)
Posted by Sabrblade on February 25th, 2017 @ 9:31pm CST

Insurgent wrote:As for the cgi... Yeah i can understand how it looks dated. But for the second ever show to ever be made from cgi, when it was in it's infancy, it was groundbreaking at the time.

Indeed. Modern audiences are spoiled by the CGI of today.

Carnivius_Prime wrote:I know it was early CGI but even then it just looked horrendous to me and really off-putting. Amazes me that even now you get CGI cartoons that just lack a sense of 'life' to them in their environments (I tried watching Beware the Batman and Gotham felt so empty and hollow... not a city at all but just cheap looking backdrops). Even now I still far prefer 2D animation over 3D. I'd take the classic era Disney over Pixar anyday.

2D over 3D preferences I understand, but the notion about "lifeless environments" kinda misses the point of having Beast Wars (and Beast Machines, for that matter) set within the circumstantial setting it was placed in. An undeveloped, prehistoric planet almost completely devoid of human life is supposed to feel empty and lifeless. Whereas, making the same argument for something like TF: Prime would feel more justified since that show did go out of its way to put the Autobot/Decepticon mission scenes in pretty much only the most remote, uninhabited sections of the planet, deliberately avoiding populated areas as much as possible... except for when it needed to place the action within populated towns and cities that more often than not looked almost completely abandoned (even New York City!). I think there were only two episodes in the entire series where we actually saw a crowd of civilians in Jasper. But I digress. Beast Wars's world, however, was supposed to be empty. Even Beast Wars Second was set on a humanless world and it was in 2D.

Re: Masterpiece MP 34 Beast Wars Cheetor In Hand Images (1863071)
Posted by Va'al on February 26th, 2017 @ 8:38am CST

One of the things we have yet to see with Takara Tomy Masterpiece Transformers MP-34 Cheetor / Cheetus is the Hasbro Asia added accessory to the pack. No longer the collector coin, as we know, we now have diecast minifigures of other Transformers characters in the MP line - and Cheetor includes the big bot himself, Optimus Primal! Check it out below, via Autobase Aichi.