The battleship should've been black and the combo head styled after a gorilla.

 

I've recently gotten a few Transformers, and to entertain myself for longer, and to fully appreciate them more, I've relegated myself to opening one figure a day. Today was Spark Armor Cheetors turn.

I'll be honest, I kind of missed Cheetor at retail, I had a big coupon and spent it on the Rainmakers instead of Cheetor and after that, never saw it again. I happened to catch one cheap on Amazon, so I ordered it.

I'm quite pleased with the Cheetor. Unlike the cartoon, there's a maturity in the sculpt, or at least I see it. What Cyberverse figures I have is rather eclectic, usually those who don't have figures or I don't have figures for (Whirl and Sky-Byte for example) and some of the BAF figures. I wasn't expecting him to pretty much be modern deluxe sized. His robot mode is clearly where it's at and it's a good robot mode.

The Sea Fury is one of those odd things that I like, I like Spaceship Transformers, and this thing gives me some Space Battleship Yamato vibes, so I'm fine with it just being a ship on it's own and not clunky armor, just as I did with Spark Armor Shockwaves satellite.

Overall, it's a pretty good purchase IMHO, though I can imagine at full retail it wouldn't be.

 

Prelude: Hey, you remember that popular Beast Wars character Cheetor? The young whippersnapper who transformed into a cheetah? You know what could make a robot that transforms into a cheetah even better? A battleship! No, listen: a battleship that is roughly the same size as the cheetah and can be worn as amor! Great, right? That’s the stuff! Here he comes now: Cyberverse Spark Armor Cheetor & his wearable battleship, the Sea Fury! Let’s say go!

Robot Mode: Cyberverse is a line for kids, not necessarily for adult collectors, which is why a lot of Cyberverse figures aren’t all that well articulated. Cheetor, on the other hand, has absolutely no problems in that regard. This robot, who is easily recognizable as the character of Beast Wars fame, can move with the best of them. Knees, elbows, turning head, the works. Size-wise he is somewhere between a tall Scout-class figure and a small Deluxe and manages to look far more streamlined that just about any other Cheetor figure I know. The cheetah head on his chest is fully integrated into the torso while still being visible. Very nicely done.

Just two drawbacks I can think of regarding this excellent robot mode: one, it doesn’t come with a weapon (unless you count the Sea Fury, see below). And two, the tail from his beast mode can neither detach nor fully flip up to lie flush against his back. Both are minor things, though. Some people might also complain about the open forearms, but I’m not bothered. So bottom line, a very decent Cheetor robot mode. Thumbs up!

Alternate Mode: Cheetor still transforms into a cheetah, of course. It’s a fully robotic looking cheetah and while the rear legs look a bit big when compared to the rest of the body, it still works surprisingly well, considering we are starting from a robot with zero kibble. Sure, it cannot really disguise the fact that it’s a robot on all fours, but still: surprisingly good considering it’s a gimmick-laden Cyberverse figure. Just don’t look at the cheetah’s underbelly, because it’s entirely open and you can see the back of the robot mode head. Still, a very nice cheetah mode. Not the best ever, but good. Thumbs up!

Accessories: The Sea Fury, Cheetor’s battleship accessory, is reused from Spark Armor Bumblebee (because a small car wearing a battleship is on equal terms with a cheetah wearing one, I guess), just with a blue underside instead of a red one. The battleship looks pretty good overall, though the big plates in the middle don’t smoothly integrate into the rest of the ship. Still, a pretty good-looking ship.

The ship becomes a suit of armor for Cheetor to wear. The plates folding down from the middle form the chest armor and reveal a new head, while the front and back of the ship become the arms. Cheetor retains his normal robot mode arms, too, so you can either have a four-armed robot or try to fold his smaller arms back to hide them a bit, your choice. The arms are articulated at the elbows and have a bicep swivel. Theoretically they also allow shoulder movement, but moving it there triggers the transformation and folds up the chest plate.

There is a fold-out anchor as a weapon on the right arm, multiple sculpted guns all over the ship, and 5mm ports to attach additional weapons. Side note: while Cheetor has an Autobot symbol, the Sea Fury has a Maximal symbol on its bow. So bottom line: it’s an interesting gimmick, yes, but after one or two uses it kind of loses its appeal and it doesn’t really make sense for this character. I banished it to my parts bin after finishing the pictures.

Remarks: I’m still stuck in early season two of Cyberverse, so while I know that Cheetor appears in the series, I’ve yet to see an episode with him. I am a big fan of Cheetor from Beast Wars and Beast Machines, though, so this figure intrigued me. So final verdict: I really like the robot, a far better version of Cheetor than quite a few others I could name (looking at you, Universe 2.0 version). The battleship accessory is kind of fun, but really superfluous. The Spark Armor figures were on the more expensive side, sadly, so leaving the battleship aside gives you a smallish Deluxe figure at a pretty high price, but apart from that: a very nice Cheetor figure. If you can get him at reduced price, he’s fully worth it. Recommended to Cheetor fans and fans of weird gimmicks, too.

Rating: B-

Source: Transformers-Universe.com