Tigatron
(BotCon 2016 Attendee-Only Exclusive)
(NOTE: Because this is a repaint, this is not a full-blown review. This mainly covers any changes made to the mold and the color scheme, and merely compares it to Combiner Wars Breakdown. For a review on the mold itself, read the review of Combiner Wars Breakdown here.)
BotCon
2001 Tigatron was a redeco of the Japanese remold "X-9" Ravage, so
FunPub took that homage a step farther with BotCon 2016 Tigatron, making
him a redeco of CW Ravage that came with
the main boxset. The problem is, this doesn't really work. I already think
the mold didn't fit Ravage, but the Combiner Wars version homaging Ravage's
Alternator version at least made some sense. For Tigatron, this is one
further step removed. With the BotCon 2001 exclusive, it worked because
the alt mode was still a tiger. For BotCon 2006 Tigatron,
it worked even though the alt mode was a vehicle because the robot mode
was very identifably Tigatron from the TV show. This version of Tigatron
ends up with both a vehicle mode AND a robot mode that looks very little
like Tigatron-mold wise. However, that said, when it comes to colors the
BotCon people did a super job. His main plastic color is a rather snowy
shade of off-white, with his main paint color being a pale icy blue, which
is used on the wheel hubs, sword blade, upper arms and legs, feet, his
Maximal symbols, and a few other minor details. Along with the blue used
for the car windows and a couple of other places (but sadly no paint on
the taillights), these are all EXCELLENT colors that together really help
emphasize Tigatron's arctic nature. For a dark color, there's also a decent
amount of black-- not just on the wheels, but on the sword, lower chest,
and waist. On the mold's hand/foot/gun accessory, much of it is painted
a nice silver, with a little bit of light milky gray on the back end where
paint couldn't be used. (Yes, the light milky gray is that blah shade,
but it's not used much.) There's also some light milky gray used for the
combiner peg, but it doesn't really contribute to the color scheme in any
real way, thankfully.
Tigatron has the same
headsculpt used for Ravage, which unfortunately means it looks TERRIBLE
and way too two-dimensional from a side view. The black eyes are an odd
choice, but the icy blue detailing on the teeth, forehead lines, and ears
looks pretty nice. Other than the headsculpt, no mold changes have been
made compared to CW Breakdown.
BotCon 2016 Tigatron
has a pretty darned nice "arctic" color scheme, but pretty much everything
about the mold itself fits the character terribly, from the vehicle mode
to the robot mode head based off a BotCon 2001 redeco that actually had
a beast mode. (Why would he have a tiger head if he's never been to Earth
or, presumably, had an animal alt mode?) As far as the concept goes, this
is my least favorite BotCon 2016 exclusive, and a real stretch to recommend
even for Tigatron fans.
Review by Beastbot