Bot Reviews: Transformers: RED Series Cheetor

You know, I really wanted to like RED Series when it was announced. The idea of a line of nicely poseable, animation accurate action figures of a whole group of Transformers felt like it was right up my alley, especially when that concept was realized as a series that saw general mass release, instead of something rare and high end, like Revoltech’s Transformers stuff. But it just kept doing things I didn’t like. While I can’t blame the marketing realities that led to the line’s character choices, it meant that it decided to “play the hits,” instead of, say, prioritize non-transforming characters that hadn’t, or couldn’t get a mainline release.

Even then, I’d thought I might get their G1 Megatron, and pair him with my Generations figures, since it was the closest thing I could get to a traditional gunforming Megatron, only to discover that the Hasbro 6-inch scale was a bit too small to scale with the mainline Voyagers he’d need to accompany him. And then I actually saw some of the figures in person on store shelves, and wasn’t really impressed with what they looked like in the real world. Something about the softer plastic they were made of clashed with the boxy, sharp angles most Transformers were designed with, many of the sculpts looked bloated and “puffy,” and I nearly constantly saw figures with paint apps that were misapplied, sloppy, or scratched. So yeah, I wanted to love it, but it kept letting me down.

But, now, luckily, I’ve gotten a chance to experience a sample of the line, as part of a Big Box of Stuff I received last month. And my one-off look at RED series will be: Cheetor, the Kid Appeal Character of the Beast Wars, and someone who, either in character or in tooling, has put in a lot of appearances in these writeups lately.

So, I’ll cast all preconceptions about the line out of my head, and see what Transformers look like when stuffed into the Hasbro 6-incher paradigm. I mean, I liked the two Marvel Legends Spider-Mans (Amazing Fantasy and Animated Series) that I got well enough.

The Sculpt

Standing pretty firmly at 6 inches, Cheetor’s right there with my Spiders-Men in terms of size. And in Cheetor’s case, that sort of works, because the Beast Wars cast were generally mostly human-sized, instead of literal giant robots.

The sculpting itself is mostly a clear and solid attempt at 90’s animation-accuracy, in a way the Kingdom one by necessity of transformation couldn’t be.

And it mostly works. Tons of tiny details on his arms and legs match the show’s CGI model pretty precisely, and cat-mode kibble like the beast head on his chest, the arms on his back, and the bits on his arms, all deform and neatly tuck away in a way that a mainline transforming figure wouldn’t be able to do very well. You can instantly see why RED Series could be a good idea.

The head is the big problem, though. No beating around the bush, they whiffed it pretty hard. The helmet is right, but his face is strange. His odd, squinty eyes and sideways mouth look nothing like his facial features on the show, and don’t even scan as character-appropriate, or like the kid he’s supposed to be. He looks like an older character.

The Transformers Wiki blames a slavish adherence to Ken Christiansen control art used for the Kingdom TV show and toy, but both of those productions managed better faces. I’m just like, between the Kingdom figure, and the older Masterpiece, there were CAD models for better headsculpts out there that they could have swiped. If I’m harping on this one element a lot, it’s because it really, really drags the whole package down.

The Colors

Another set of odd choices manifest here. So, Cheetor’s got a lot of color on him. He’s yellow and blue, with black spots, and it’s mostly laid out how the original show’s character model is. But for some reason, he’s also covered in a lot of dull bronze. I think it was an attempt to imitate the shiny deco of the metallic yellow parts on his CGI model? Either way, it kind of doesn’t work, and winds up making him look miscolored, as well as mis-sculpted. That’s a shame, because there’s a ton of deco work on him otherwise, including extras like actual pupils in the cheetah head’s eyes.

On a more positive note, the absolutely abysmal quality control on the paint that I see on so many of the RED figures on store shelves isn’t present here, nearly all of his deco actually turned out well. The one part that didn’t is that he’s got a glob of bronze paint on his blue pelvic plate.

I’ll be honest: I’d have left this on the shelf for that, so maybe the problem is me.

Build Quality and Stability

After all that negative stuff, this turned out to actually be a bright spot, in that he’s a lot more solidly-built than I was expecting. I can’t speak for other figures in the line, but he’s not gummy and soft, like they appear to be.

Granted, he’s made from Marvel Legends Plastic, not Transformers Plastic, which, as I discussed in my Spider Man reviews, is definitely a bit softer to the touch than what you see on Transformers, but not horribly so, and not to the level I feared. I wonder how other RED series figures feel, now. On top of that, all of his joints are nice and tight. I do wish he had heel spurs of some kind on his feet, but he manages to stay standing well enough without them.

Articulation

This is a big selling feature of the line, and sure enough, it’s really good, actually.

He’s not quite as insanely bendable as the new Spider-Man body, but he’s getting there, and includes all the extra stuff like wrist swivels, rocking ankles, an ab crunch, and even double-knees.

I think the only things the Spider-Men have that he doesn’t are general range, and double elbows. That, and the fact that Cheetor’s forward ab crunch is a bit blocked by the beast head on his chest.

Accessories and Features

Like every Hasbro 6-incher ever, Cheetor’s got a few sets of swappable hands, and they work pretty well. They pop on and off easily, stay on well, and don’t feel too fragile, or too stiff. They’ve got this down to a science. For Cheetor’s part, he’s got a set of weapon-holding hands, a set of fists, and a set of splayed hands in claw-like shapes, which are the most amusing choice, and work for Sentai-like battle poses.

I’m actually missing a fist, but hey, the figure was loose and free.

I’m also missing his one freestanding accessory, a purple Energon crystal, straight out of the show, unfortunately.

In terms of what I do have, Cheetor’s got his signature weapon, the Quasar Cannon, and it’s slathered in deco. But, like the body, they opted to make some of that deco the strange dull bronze coloration, and didn’t include the strange pink intestine pattern on the gun. Still, he can hold it just fine. And wouldn’t you know it, you can sort of give it to Kingdom Cheetor, who was notably missing it. I say “sort of,” because the bent-back handle on it is really designed for the RED figure’s fists, and it’s a bit of a tricky fit on the Kingdom figure.

Speaking of his weapon, he comes with two purple blast effects, which are, surprisingly, not from the War for Cybertron lineage.

On one hand, I appreciate how they’re at the direct halfway point between the extremely gummy Siege effects, and the way-too-solid flames from Legacy Transmetal 2 Megatron, it’s a good zone to be in.

On the other hand, it’s incredibly strange that they’re not 5-millimeter compatible, like nearly every blast effect since Siege, meaning Cheetor here is the only guy that can use them (maybe other REDs can, I don’t know).

Finally, there’s the oddest feature on him, something other REDs do as well: He’s got removable parts. Specifically, his cheetah head, and his back legs can both be popped off of the pegs they’re on (they’re bespoke pegs, so any funky accessory-swapping is right out).

Removing the legs exposes more painted-on cheetah hide, and removing the head upfront reveals some tech detail, as well as unblocking the ab crunch.

It’s kind of a nothing feature, but it doesn’t make anything worse, I suppose.

Overall

On one hand, it’s a pleasant surprise to find that my concerns about RED figures feeling soft and cheap were unfounded. RED Cheetor is way more solid, and way more flexible than I was expecting. He’s got that good modern Marvel Legends construction and articulation, not that bad older 2017 stuff (the last time I Marvel Legen’d). Plus, he’s got a good set of accessories, despite the baffling choice to make them incompatible with mainline Transformers.

But, ultimately, they whiffed the headsculpt and colors. And considering the mission statement of the line is animation accuracy free from the constraints of transformation engineering, that’s a bit unforgivable. Plus, I keep thinking the same thing I’ve thought about RED for a long time: Where does this go? It’s out of scale with my mainline Generations Transformers, and while it does happen to scale with my Marvel 6-inchers, I also keep thinking, why not just buy a standard transforming Transformer of him? Pretty much the only thing he’s got that Kingdom Cheetor doesn’t is his proper weapon.

At least other parts of the RED Series have hit a few notes the mainline hasn’t, with previous and upcoming releases of Transformers Prime Knockout, Arcee, Optimus and Megatron, with the former pair actually being show-accurate, unlike their Legacy figures, and the latter pair not being tackled by Legacy at all.

But the idea of developing, say, a micro-collection of those four just sort of underlines a problem with the whole line: Those four aren’t even in scale with each other, thanks to the decision to make everyone 6-inch, which only makes sense in every other one of these Hasbro lines, since they’re generally depicting human characters and not robots of greatly variable scale. So, where does this leave me? Cheetor’s well-built, but a bust when it comes to doing what he’s supposed to do (look like the TV show design), and because of that, not really worth grabbing as a result. As for the rest of the line, if they’re as well-built as this guy is, and you see a singular character you might want in this particular scale and style, it might be worth picking up, if you can find one with good QC, and that’s about as much of a recommendation as I can give.

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