Review: #804
Name: Tigerhawk
Brand: Transformers
Allegiance: Maximal
Line: Generations - Legacy: United
Year of Release: 2024
Size Class: Leader (Wave 1)
Mold Status: new
BEAST MODE:
Based upon his appearance in the Beast Wars show, Tigerhawk transforms into a combination of a tiger and eagle (for obvious reasons).
He features gigantic wings and the beast mode impressively hides pretty much all of the robot parts.
The head is more of a tiger, and the mouth can open and close. That's the only movement you'll get though as it cannot move up / down or left / right.
The element that dominates the figure is of course the wings, and they are huge. The wings can move up and down, and can open and close. It's not as flexible as you would like though.
Cannons can be flipped forward on each wing for some additional firepower.
If you looked at the figure from the side, you can see how "front-heavy" it is. It looks huge and substantial with the front tiger half, but the rear eagle half feels anorexic in comparison.
There are plenty of nice sculpted elements to the figure, and the green plastic used is transparent. Tigerhawk does feel worthy of the Leader size class.
While the actual design is probably hit or miss depending on your tastes, the figure does a great job of translating the show model into a physical figure.
TRANSFORMATION:
For a beast Transformer, Tigerhawk is more than just stand the beast mode up and rearrange the limbs. While the front pair of legs do form the robot legs, you effectively unfold the whole torso and then rotate the robot arms out. It's a neat design of the transformation scheme, although on the whole, it relies a bit too heavily on panels.
ROBOT MODE:
Tigerhawk's robot mode is also an acquired taste. It can be ugly or beautiful depending on your preferences. It's accurate to the show though, which is what mostly matters.
He carries a huge chunk of kibble, those absurdly large wings, on his back. Luckily, they do not make him back heavy.
The head sculpt has an organic design to it, furthermore, it also feels alien (fitting given the nature of the character was in Beast Wars).
He is taller than a Voyager in robot mode, but also much bulkier and heftier too.
He carries a plethora of weapons, the first is a double barrelled blaster than pegs onto the outside of his forearms.
The next are his feather blades which are blended perfectly with the rest of his ring, and a pair of blasters that just detach from behind his wing.
With the feathers, instead of being springloaded missile launchers like the original toy, they're now just swords for him to hold in either hand.
While with the blasters, he can hold both of them in his hands.
You can also let the blasters stay where they were stored in the wing and flip them up, this configuration is officially in the instructions, although it looks stupid.
Articulation is good, he has joints for his head, shoulders, elbows, waist, hips, knees and a little bit for his ankles (up / down with no side to side motion).
He has huge heelspurs which keeps him stable.
Despite the plethora of joints though, it can be restricted by his kibble. The eagle legs on his shoulders also do not peg in, they just sit there.
This is an impressive looking robot and will no doubt stand out on your shelf.
OVERALL:
Tigerhawk is an excellent update to the original figure, and one that you don't really expect to have been made. It's great that focus has been put onto characters other than the core of the main cast. The figure itself doesn't break what's not broken, and improves massively in the aesthetics department over the original figure. He also properly feels like he is worth the Leader class price point.
-----------------------------------------------------------
(As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases)
