Since I’ve already mentioned the missing ab crunch, I’ll go ahead and lament a bit more about it. Tygra has all the same articulation as Lion-O, but for some reason Bandai skipped out on his ab-crunch. The ball-jointed waist still retains some of the movement, but Lion-O’s figure benefits greatly from that extra joint and I’m in favor of it being included for all future Classics figures. Here’s the full complement: a ball-jointed upper neck joint and a hinged lower neck, ball-jointed shoulders, swivel biceps, hinged elbows, swivel/ball/swivel wrists, a ball-jointed waist, ball-jointed hips, swivels at the thighs and calves, double hinged knees, and rocker ankles. It sounds like a lot and it is. Tygra’s capable of getting into some great poses.
Tygra includes a couple accessories, including an extra hand (he shares Lion-O’s same three, non-Claw hands) and two versions of his classic accessory, the bolo-whip. I’m not going to beat around the bush here, the bolo-whip looks flat out wrong in its retracted form (also, it strangely pops into two pieces). The extended version of the bolo-whip is pretty cool though – it’s ironically not as flexible as regular Lion-O’s Sword of Omens, but it’s a decent size thanks to being split up into two pieces in the package. Despite the articulation, I had some trouble getting good whipping poses out of him. It could just be me though, maybe I need to bone up my posing skills for whip-wielding characters.
Overall, like Lion-O, Tygra ended up being a pretty fun figure. Yeah, there’s a few flaws like the missing ab-crunch and the wrongly-colored insert-molded joints (seriously, Bandai, fix that), but the clean sculpt, great articulation, and sturdy construction make up for any points lost. I still haven’t learned much about Thundercats (though I have enjoyed Tygra in what little bits I’ve seen to prepare for these reviews), but I’m getting a kick out of the toy line so far. I’ve got a regular Lion-O now and he’s taken over the SDCC accessories so he can Tygra can hang out together on my shelf. I haven’t heard when/if anything is coming next in Thundercats Classics, but I’m excited for it already.
Fat? With those abs? The guy’s ripped! Tho his head does seem a little small, which probably doesn’t help…
And poor, dirty SDCC Lion-O. He looks so sad…
I like this new 8″figures of ThunderCats. Cool pics as always. Can’t wait for them to release more of them!
I Like these. 8 foot tall cat people? Sounds Logical to me! I think that when i get these guys I shall put them with my tiny MOTUC collection. I need to start getting some of of those Heroic Warriors and Skeletor Baddies….
SDCC Lion-O looks so…dejected. Love what you can do with simple posing. 🙂
Yeah, Tygra’s weapon has long been a subject of disquiet, and that’s all need be said.
Clear Tygra needs to happen. With any luck Bandai America won’t go all Matty and keel da lein after two figures. Panthro will need a new sculpt, Cheetara will need a new sculpt. Not a whole lot of re-use possible with either, unless the line goes long.
And there must be a huge, awesome, insane Mumm-Ra the Ever Living. Oh yes there must.
with any luck, Bandai America won’t keel da lein as they do with *most* lines in this same fashion.
I have to confess they seem to have done well with Ben 10 but yeah, I remember the debacle with the The Tick toys. And the AMAZING screw-ups with the ill-planned poorly executed ‘Gundam Invasion’ of 2001.
How’s the neck joint (where the neck sits inside the torso, not where the head plugs onto the neck) on your retail Lion-O? Mine is frustratingly loose–if I pose him leaning too far forward his head suddenly drops forward like he’s being berated by Snarf for acting like an idiot; if I lean him too far back his gaze shoots upward like he just saw a butterfly he finds more interesting than anything else in the world.
Tygra in the store looked extremely off to me and cheap when i first saw him. about a month later when i saw lion-o on the shelves the difference between the two was HUGE, and i got a lion-o figure, i love him, and when i get some extra cash i’ll probably pick up tygra. I read somewhere that bandais plan for the 8″ figures is 2 figures a quarter, and in early 2012 the next two figures will be released. Don;t know how much validity there was to that tho, I am sure we’ll hear some info from powercon/thundercon, maybe
I hear the same thing, jacktastic. The display Bandai had the entire original team toys and made me think they were hinting that the rest were coming. I also read that we will see 2 per quarter so I hope Panthro and Cheetara (no V crotch PLEASE!!) are next!
no Mumm-Ra?
The joint I miss on Tygra isn’t so much the ab crunch, which probably works better with Lion-O’s costume design, but the way Lion-O’s waist rocks from side to side. It’s a great joint that I don’t remember seeing done quite this way in any other line.
I definitely got used to the look of the plastic paint after posing them for a while.
The biggest problem on all Tygras seems to be the placement of the tampo stamped eyes. On the pegs you’ve got to look hard to find one whose left eye in particular isn’t trying to creep off of his face.
I’ve seen at least a half a dozen Tygras and each one has had some sort of paint blemish. They’re passable, I guess, but to an anal retentive me its enough to notice. The one I bought has a blemish on his shirt but I just have to live with it.
I love his whip though, its a great accessory… he apparently suffers from polyorchidism…
Great review and captioned pics as always. Tygra looks awesome. I hope and pray to the Toy Gods that the line endures long enough for the arrival of Lynx-O, Pumyra, and Ben-Gali!
you know, those odd colored inserts kind of make me laugh. remember when some folks were complaining about the inserts for scarabus? these are, to my eye at least, about 300% more visible than the inserted joints on scarabus. we certainly paid more for scarabus, but i can’t help but think that looking at these, i know where the extra expenditure went.
I think we should all recognize the hilariously hug instruction sheet that rivals the size of those packed with most transformers.
I want thundercats toys,I live in Mexico….:(
I would’ve liked a Ssslithe and perhaps some Berserkers in 4″ scale, too. But Bandai America won’t let any company ship their Tundercats toys outside the USA, apparently. I call racism on Bandai America!
i really don’t understand that attitude… why limit your profits? mexico has action figures too, are they afraid that t-cats would get in the way of max steel? i really fail to believe that it’s a safety issue or something, so once the toys are on this land mass, why not distribute to the big 3 countries?
I agree of course.
Problem is, licensing is a very complicated mess. It could be the owners of the Thundercats license (may or may not be Warner Bros, I *think* it is) has only licensed Bandai America for the North American toy rights and they hope that if the show goes worldwide other companies will put in bids, a ‘major’ like Mattel or Hasbro. Or Bandai Japan will step up and pay more money for more regions. Bandai has a U.K. branch that has had some better success in the past.
But vendors actually barring specific product from ‘grey market’ sales outside the U.S.? I’ve never heard that before, only Japanese companies and Amazon in the U.K. and Japan have done that in my own experience.
(seriously. I was pining for some Action Man anniversary stuff without the insane markup that was going on here and Amazon U.K….never mind. It was wishful thinking anyway 🙂 )
So, I don’t know. I didn’t think Bandai America had anywhere near enough juice to intimidate retailers into not selling outside the U.S.
I know, it’s ridiculous, isn’t it? Alienate people who want to give you money for your products. And also, once the e-tailers take delivery of a shipment, how can Bandai America legally stop them from selling to anyone who can pay?
See if I ever buy anything from any division of Bandai ever again. Gits.
can you do a review on the new thundercats 6′ inch line? the lion-o and panthro figures are really good!