Unit
2 [Tigatron] (Botcon 2006 Primus Preregistrant-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 Clocker. For a review on the mold itself, read the review of Clocker here.)
Pre-Beast Wars Tigatron,
called "Unit 2" for story purposes, is a repaint of the Clocker mold with
the same remolded head that the pre-Beast Wars form of Cheetor
has. The color scheme is spot-on Tigatron, with the white just the right
"polar-esque" shade and the tinted gray transparent plastic being a nice
"Tigatron-y" color even though that specific transparent shade was never
on the original Tigatron toy, for obvious reasons.
What's by far the most attractive color on the whole thing though, is that
Tigatron's greenish teal is now a shiny metallic (but not chrome!) color--
it looks fabulous, and makes the figure a lot more eye-catching than it
otherwise would have been. As with pre-BW Cheetor, Tigatron has elements
of his future cat mode visible in both modes-- in vehicle mode, he has
stripes on the seats, with the top two stripes on each seat cleverly angled
to look like they're seat belt straps. In robot mode, he also has stripes
on the chest as well, and along with the other paint detailing on the chest
and waist, he has the same ingenious "cat-head-chest" nod that Cheetor
does. Like on Cheetor, however, I think using elements of the beast mode
on the vehicle seats was enough-- using it in robot mode is a bit TOO much
of coincidence with his later beast form for me to swallow. The same goes
for the "whiskers" painted on Tigatron's otherwise nicely sculpted face.
Also like on Cheetor, I'm not a big fan of the huge Maximal symbol on the
front of his vehicle mode-- the small one on his left robot leg is enough.
In addition to being
a Botcon 2005 exclusive, Tigatron was only available ("free") if you bought
the expensive preregistrant Primus package AND picked the set up in person
at the convention-- so this toy is no doubt going to be worth quite a lot
of money. Also, like most of the other toys at this year's Botcon, the
Cyber Key used in the Cybertron version has instead been replaced with
a solid gray Planet X Key bearing a Maximal symbol and a painted bit of
Golden Disk detailing over the main part of the Cyber Key, hence the new
name "Golden Disk Key".
"Unit 2" is an awesome
repaint of an already great mold, with many very creative touches, such
as the "cat-head-chest" in robot mode and the stripes angled to look like
seat belt straps in vehicle mode. I think it's the best out of the four
paint jobs this toy has gotten, but obviously it's going to cost you a
pretty penny, so it's only recommended for VERY big Tigatron fans or Transformers
completists.
Review by Beastbot