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Thread: Toy Review - MP-34 Cheetus/Cheetor

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  1. #1
    Join Date
    5th Apr 2008
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    Default Toy Review - MP-34 Cheetus/Cheetor

    CHEETUS (a.k.a. Cheetor)
    Series – Masterpiece
    Size/class - N/A
    New/remould/redeco - New
    Wave - N/A
    Released here – No. Released in Japan in February 25 2017
    Approximate Retail Price - ¥7,560 (AU$88)
    Approximate Size - 16cm
    Allegiance - Maximal
    Alt-mode – Cheetah
    Main Features/Gimmicks – Expressive beast poseability, opening beast mouth, integrated weaponry.
    Main Colours – Yellow, Black
    Main Accessories – 2 additional robot & 2 additional cheetah faces/heads, gut gun & tail gun.




    The 2nd Beast Wars MP arrives a month later than originally intended, but i think everyone will agree, is much longer overdue!

    Cheetah Mode
    Just like Beast Convoy, Cheetor's show accurate beast paint looks fantastic. The spots appear mostly random in size and shape (though i can see an almost mirrored section on his left/right thighs, it is varied slightly), giving a very realistic look. The print has a halftone pattern on the edges of the dots, which from normal viewing distance gives a good impression of real fur. Up close it's only slightly noticeable so i wouldn't say it detracts at all.

    The only other Cheetor i have to hand is the Transmetals version. The MP is about a head longer, although the head itself is smaller. Most of the additional length comes from the body and more realistically proportioned neck. Poseability is improved in all areas! His hind legs rotate at the knee now and like Primal, the back end can lower, but his sitting pose is a little weak. The front legs rotate at the top which also helps cover some robot parts, and also splay outwards, rotate at the elbow (knee?) and even the paws rotate as well as tilt, so he can flat-floot the ground with ease! The waist has a folding joint that can be used to arch the back further. It could hold a little tighter (it tends to move during handling) but when posed, it's fine. The tail is connected with 2 pins and looks good, but unfortunately there's no rotation, so it's always pointing backwards.

    The headsculpts are all on point! You get 3 all up, all of which can open their mouth revealing moulded & painted teeth (varying degrees of ferocity!) and even his tongue. The green eyes have a beautiful metallic fleck, sharp black pupils with a speck of white reflection to really evoke the show look. The whiskers aren't really poseable, just short plastic wires. They don't look perfect, but I can't imagine how they could be done much better, since they have to be so thin. The head can rotate and actually extends at the neck to allow great freedom of movement up and down, with a bit of side to side as well. Just be careful extending the neck (and swapping the heads), since it's tighter than the connection of the back panels that connect to his neck - you'll want to hold the neck to avoid the back panels coming out.

    All in all, about as good a Beast mode as you could hope for! He looks natural in most poses, and while there's a touch of bot-foot kibble and hollowness on his hind legs, robot parts are for the most part hidden very well! Oh, there is a hole on the underside to facilitate transformation. It's right at the bottom so from most viewing angles, remains unseen. An Animated Grimlock esque tragedy it is not!

    Transformation
    So we start with his legs, which do a few rotates and flipping in and out at the calves, to very nicely conceal the beast paws. His shins are tastefully filled in with the smallest of pieces, showing some fine attention to detail. His tail gun detaches out the top and his gut gun... out from his gut! Note that if you mess with the beast waist articulation a bit too much, the gut gun can sometimes become dislodged. His groin piece flips over to reveal Cheetor's been hiding his freak nature - a second head has been in his lower back this whole time!

    His front legs rotate to the beast belly and clip into place, where the underside of their tops form the robot's shoulder pads. The legs themselves can clip together for a bit of extra stability in the kibble department. In a very Beast Wars way, his arms are next, folding out from the inside of the beast. The Beast head rotates up almost like it's going to do an Optimus Primal (revealing yet another head!) - only to stop, rotate on another axis and flip back down. The whole thing accordions into the cavity while a neck piece helps to hold everything together.

    Not a super involved transformation but does everything it needs to and holds together solidly with no clearance issues. There's a few tight joints but no risk of breakage. A slight concern are the whiskers, which kind of get jammed up inside. Given time they may end up affected, but they seem pretty resilient.

    Robot Mode
    Wow! If you thought the spots were the main event, prepare to be blown away by gorgeous metallic indigo and bronzy gold paint. The headsculpt(s) especially seal the deal - this is Cheetor, straight off the show. He's got the maximal symbol on the crest of his helmet, fantastic light piping for the eyes - which even extends to his open mouth faceplates (albeit slightly diminished by the neck). But the best detail has to be the spots under his eyes, they're so tiny! Or maybe just the general sculpt, which really captures the robotic feline look perfectly. His teeth are miniscule but still they've been painted silver. The Faceplates also sit nested into the helmet, so you really can't tell where they join, and it holds securely. The only fault here is, he can't really look down. I guess he's mostly gonna be looking up to big bot anyway - he'll have no problems there.

    The arms are fantastic. Double jointed at the elbows, rotation and outwards movement at the shoulders - but the pièce de résistance are the pegs attaching them to the body. They tilt in and out, and swivel front to back so you can bring his arms forward over his chest, and back some, as if he was stretching. The hands are typical MP style with 4 fingers moving as one, but can now bend at the wrist, and the sculpt is entirely new to match Cheetor of course! His gut gun pegs in tightly, though the tail gun is a little too bulky and sits off to one side so it's not quite as stable in the hand.

    Legs carry over the poseability of beast mode, and gain some sideways tilts on the feet, a bit of toe action - and you can also half transform them while still looking pretty decent, to get some more forward tilt at the ankle. He's got heelspurs, but he's also got those front legs on his back, so while balance is good for the most part, you'll still need to take that into account when posing him.

    Both guns transform themselves in a few steps and look great. The tail wraps around to clip into the handle which is a great touch to improve the look of the gun. Both guns can also store on his back, though you'll be adding a bit more back-heavyness in the process when you store the tail gun.

    From the pictures we saw earlier, i was a little worried his groin piece was overhanging his gut and would look weird. It actually looks fine though, from both front and side. We all knew there'd be some kibble here - they don't do much to transform the legs out of the way - but from the front, they're fairly unobtrusive. Cheetor's silhouette remains quite slender, so the only real downside is the attention you have to give to balancing his poses.

    Overall
    Buy! He displays perfectly with Optimus Primal and he's great fun to fiddle around with in both modes. They're really knocking these out of the park!
    Last edited by kurdt_the_goat; 26th February 2017 at 12:02 AM.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    27th Dec 2007
    Location
    Sydney NSW
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    37,637

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by kurdt_the_goat View Post
    Approximate Retail Price - ¥7,560 (AU$88)
    The official RRP is ¥7000 (AU$81).

  3. #3
    Join Date
    5th Apr 2008
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    Toyooka
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    Default

    Actually it's 7560 like i said, because of Japan's 8% tax.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    19th Dec 2008
    Location
    HK
    Posts
    3,250

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    I got mine for just over ¥6000 from Edion.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    11th Mar 2009
    Location
    Melbourne
    Posts
    897

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    Looks to be another top release from the MP team. Can't wait to get him in hand.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    12th Jun 2011
    Location
    Gladstone
    Posts
    6,449

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    Got him today. I'm happy I finally have a season 1 Cheetor that's better than the Telemocha release, but still not a huge fan of the original character or design. I should note I removed the beast head from the toy for display in robot mode to avoid permanently bending the whiskers.

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