[REVIEW] Dave's TMII Rant: Tigerhawk (try 2)
Dave Van Domelen
Saturday, so here's a second try.
Dave's Transmetal II Rant:
Tigerhawk
Well, I got lucky in several respects. One, that traffic was light
enough early on Game Day afternoon here (home opener for Ohio State, gah)
that I was able to zip across town to the Wal-Mart where I'd been told last
night a Tigerhawk remained. Two, that it was still there, hidden on the top
shelf behind three Megadracs. Three, I was able to get it down without
killing myself or destroying the shelf unit. }->
CAPSULE
Tigerhawk: A lot of thought went into this design, and it takes a while
to find all the flaps and tabs and hatches and levers and so forth. Good
beast mode, if a little "open" in design (i.e. you can see into it).
Reasonably complicated transformation, but doable without instructions. Okay
tank mode (yes, tank mode, see below). Strongly recommended. $19.96 at
Wal-Mart.
RANT
MAXIMAL: Tigerhawk
Function: Vok Emissary
Beast Mode: Tiger/Hawk
Quote: "Violence will not be tolerated - surrender or be destroyed." [This,
folks, is called irony.]
A puzzling new cybernetic entity, Tigerhawk is the result of an advanced
alien species'[s] apprehension of the former Tigatron and Airazor.
Mysteriously combined and reconfigured, Tigerhawk was sent back as a prophet
of peace to end the long war between Maximal and Predacon. Possesses
elemental powers [enabling him] to summon earthquakes, electrical storms and
tsunamis. Has Vok alien-enhanced intelligence and an incredible arsenal of
weaponry including an ion diminisher that paralyzes enemies. Totally
fearless, noble and ferocious in battle, he is an inspiration to his fellow
Maximals.
STR 8.2 INT 10 SPD 8.1 END 7.3 RNK 7 COUR 8.4 FRP 9.7 SKL 8.8
Avg 8.44
Another case of thesaurus abuse, "apprehension" really should just be
"capture" in this case. Anyway, it looks like they've decided on a slightly
gentler role for the toy-continuity Tigerhawk, bringing peace in a way that
doesn't involve killing everyone. Although the quote might go against that
idea.
Stuck into the box with LOTS of twist ties. Like Megadrac's box,
there's an explosion near the margin of the front panel, with Tigerhawk
positioned as if shooting and causing that explosion. The toy is
mistransformed in the photos on the box, mainly having to do with his rear
beast legs. This mistransformation is also reflected in the techspec
artwork.
Beast Mode: Hard to exactly say his dimensions, since there's several
ways you can have him in Beast Mode. Going by the box and putting the wings
folded down, he's 8" (20cm) long, 7" (17cm) wide and 5" (13cm) tall at the
shoulder. Mainly very light grey and blue with yellow-green and transparent
yellow-green accents and black detailing. The purple chrome of the prototype
has been replaced by blue chrome, probably because someone pointed out that
purple is a Pred color. I think I like the blue and green better than the
purple and gold anyway. His forelegs are big tiger legs, while his rear legs
are hawklike, with spring-triggered snapping talons. Unfortunately, the
force required to trigger this action is more than enough to make the leg
bend out of the way, so you have to push the lower leg against whatever you
want Tigerhawk to grab.
He's a mass of springs and panels and stuff. One lever will let you
automatically drop his wings down from a raised position to the level
position. A number of other tabs and stuff in the wings will make the wing
guns auto-deploy and auto-fire in the same action, while a couple of "flaps"
of feather pop up. The only way to keep the missile launchers undeployed
while the wings are down is to fold the wingtips down as well, there's a
little tab on them that holds the missile launchers in place. Additionally,
there's other buttons to cause the wingtips to zip forward, but thankfully
this does not auto-fire the "spoon missiles" on the wingtips, you fire those
manually. There's a chrome mask which can either stow behind the tiger head
(forcing it to remain pointed down) or rest on the head, giving it a more
hawklike appearance.
There's wheels on the tops of his wings, which don't seem to go with any
of the modes (the official "attack" mode is kinda lame). However....
Tank Mode: Assuming the wheels were intended for something, and also
looking at the positions of things like the blister cockpit (like Megadrac's,
but easier to see into) and the hand cannons, I decided there must have been
a tank mode which was later suppressed for some reason. Here's how you get
it.
Start in beast mode, with the wing horizontal and the wingtips folded
down to keep the missiles from firing. Now remove all four missiles, since
you stand a good chance of launching them anyway while transforming. Turn
Tigerhawk on his back. Fold the rear legs down so that they touch the
tailfeathers. Now bring the chrome parts of the forelegs down against the
paws and fold the legs towards the rear so that the claws basically point
down towards the tailfeathers (this part is necessary for balance). The
tailfeathers are the front of the vehicle.
You now have a "tank" with four forward-facing launchers, plus the twin
wrist cannons of the robot mode facing front. The tail and the "flaps" form
antipersonnel shredders, and the clear green bit that's below the cockpit in
robot mode is now the front of the cockpit. The tank is a blocky 7" (17cm)
long, 6" (15cm) wide and 5" (13cm) high.
If you want a little more firepower, you can remove the missile
launchers and put the pegs into the holes on the chromed hips of the rear
beast legs, letting the tribarrels that remain behind flip forward. Anyone
trying to sneak up from behind gets a blast from the wing cannons as they
rapid-deploy to the rear. }->
Transformation: It takes a bit of effort to get all the bits moving at
the right times, and there's LOTS of origami-ish panels and flaps moving
around. The chest moves up in a way reminiscent of Prowl's. It helps to
position the rear claws on the chest properly (as in the instructions, NOT as
on the box) before sliding the chest up, because the shoulders of the robot
mode can get in the way. Also, during transformation is the only time to see
the spark crystal, which is molded into a column of clear green plastic that
forms the "spine" of the robot mode. The hips fold together in about the
same way as Bantor's, but there's a front flap like Windrazor's to help keep
things together...and it actually does the job, unlike on Windrazor. The
huge beast forepaws fold back and are covered by chrome bits, giving a more
robotic "boot" effect to the feet. The wings can be positioned various ways,
but I suggest flat against the back with the tips folded forward. This helps
with balance, since the heel spurs on Tigerhawk's feet aren't very bit.
Robot Mode: 7.5" (19cm) tall and nearly as wide thanks to broad
shoulders and the wings. For what it's worth, maximum stable wingspan is 11"
(27cm), although you can get them a bit wider if you hold the wingtips
halfway between stored and forward positions. And the fact there is no
halfway point is a bit annoying, since it means he can't fire the missiles
forward in robot mode. Still, this is a minor point. The flaps on his wings
look like jetpack vents in robot mode. He has a gold chrome Maximal symbol
on his chest to make up for the fact his spark is totally hidden.
His left fist has a hexagonal hole in it, which is just the right shape
for him to hold his feather missiles stably as weapons. The right hand is
more clawlike and doesn't hold anything, although it has twin blasters molded
over it. The rear beast talons can be set open in robot mode, giving him an
advantage in close grappling as they snap shut on his opponent's head. Also,
his main missile launchers can be removed and both held in his left hand,
giving both hands a double weapon of some sort.
His shin has the piston positioning gimmick used on the original ape
Optimus Primal as well as kinda on Magnaboss. The hips have a midway swivel
like the ones found on Mystic Knights toys, giving very nice leg poseability.
The calf-cover chrome parts are nice, the right one has fur detailing, but
the left one has a very Gundam feel to it.
His shoulders are both pretty bulky...one has his beast head, the other
has his cockpit unit. The forearms are ball-jointed in the same way as
Megadrac's right forearm, so he can't bend his elbow "normally." The arms
are overall a little small compared to the rest of the body, but not the puny
things some reviews have made them out to be. He's actually pretty close to
reasonable human proportions.
Finally, he has a clear green plastic visor over his eyes, which seem to
glow eerily due to the neon orange paint used. He has the typical BW snarl
with exposed teeth, but since his face and teeth are the same color, you
really have to look to see this. One side of his helmet has fur pattern, the
other a sort of mechanical feather pattern, well-reflecting his dual
heritage.
Overall: Not perfect, but pretty slaggin' good. I'd have liked a little
better arm poseability and a midway position on the wingtips, but it's
already pretty crammed with gimmicks and gewgaws. The designer or design
team for this toy deserves a pat on the back, plus a graduate degree of some
sort. }->
Dave Van Domelen, listening to former students of his shine on the
gridiron....