Image dump from the TTMall listing: 【タカラトミーモール限定】トランスフォーマー マスターピース MP-34S シャドーパンサー（ビーストウォーズ） Oh yeah, original mutant head:
Oh buddy. I know that face. That’s the face you make when you’ve got the too-much-hot-sauce-in-your-burritos-squirts.
Someone needs to photoshop in MP Inferno's water squirt/spooge accessory or MP Ironhide's flame accessory!
Aw damn it!!! When I first saw this I thought “looks cool, but I don’t need to spend money on it”. The more photos I see the more I want one.
I'm thinking it might be a figure I swing back and pick up later on. He wouldn't be displayed with the likes of Cheetor, Primal and Dinobot as he wasn't in the show, but if figures like Grimlock, Lazorbeak and Buzz Saw turn out well, I might have to put together a nice non-show shelf.
Nightprowler wouldn't have made a better choice. He doesn't even exist. At first I thought from your post that the point you were making was that CGI model used to represent Shadow Panther was a recoloured Tigatron model... but no, it's not. Tigatron's model had a completely different head on his chest and the MP Cheetor looks much closer to the one used on Black Panther's stock art... so I disagree with you on that one too.
In fact, TT could really run with the idea of G1 Mini-Cassettes reformatted into Beast Wars characters, just like Ravage in the TV show. Shadow Panther is, for all intents and purposes, Ravage. Terrorsaur gives us Lazorbeak and Waspinator gives us Buzz Saw, and while they're not reminiscent of the bodies of their potential G1 inspirations, the name use keeps the familiarity moving forward. Airazor could be used for Squawktalk and any other G1 Laserbeak mold-mates. Primal for Beastbox. Rhinox would get a coat of red paint to be Ramhorn. Megatron could be used for Overkill. Suddenly you have this really cool set of characters that appeal to both G1 and BW fans.
Never had any interest in the original release of this mold... but this looks pretty lush. I still really dislike the fact that you need to take off a huge chunk of the Cheetah\'s ass to transform it, but those colors are so sick that it may be enough to convince me to get it when it comes out.
I dunno about referring to Shadow Panther as Ravage... it's not as cut-and-dry as a name change. The character was released as a Japan-only redeco of Cheetor's toy as the completely seperate character Shadow Panther. This toy was released unchanged and still as Black Panther by the Hasbro Collector's Club and then rereleased later under the name "Tripredacus Agent", which was a name that was bring used by the TM2 Ravage tpy due to trademark issues... but still with Shadow Panther's unique bio. I mean, the connection is undeniably THERE, but he was always intended to be his own character. It's kind of like the media that refers to Mutants Soundwave and G1 Soundwave as the same guy. Or *dry heave* that the Tripredacus Council consisted of a renamed Shockwave, Soundwave and somether guy (that was probably from G1).
Is it really? It looks pretty close to me. You've got two big cats. They're very similar shapes. The sizes are a bit different. The details are different (but that's primarily just paint). My point is, not only do I (and likely others) not see it as different enough, but TakaraTomy themselves likely don't see it as different enough. They could slightly remould it and make a decent-looking Tigatron anyway.
I have two black cats at home, so I really couldn't pass this up, even if I don't care much for the character. I ordered this with AE, where he costs 10,800 JPY (no discounts due to being TTM exclusive). Hmmm... Looks like Robot Kingdom is a lot cheaper though, keeping his original price of 8,000 JPY. Oh well, AE is my goto store, and with AE I'm pretty much guaranteed no extra customs costs, which I have had with RK, so for me it should even out. I'll ship him out with Dinobot, to save some extra costs.
You're right, @TCJJ. Just a slight remold is all he'll need: In all seriousness, you couldn't be more wrong.
Since when did cheetor have a different-coloured twin? God the creators of the show were so lazy! Completely using the same animation model for an entirely different character just with different colours.
