Living on the edge, not afraid to die

A few weeks ago I spoke about how excited I was for the new Kingdom version of Shadow Panther. Fortunately the Mrs found him a little bit back and I now happily have one. If you don't know who Shadow Panther is, let me educate you a little on him. His bio reads-Outer appearance looks like a Cybertron but in fact he is a Predacon soldier. Shadow Panther specializes in performing surprise attacks from the darkness. He doesn't stop his hunts until he has preyed upon countless Maximals. Depending on release, he may or may not be Ravage. That's because he was originally a Japanese exclusive character, however Hasbro chose to import him when they ran a collectors web store (pre-Hasbro Pule). Initially sold as Shadow Panther, however at some point they renamed the toy Tripredacus Agent.

If you couldn't tell, it's a repaint of Cheetor. However not a direct repaint as Shadow Panther has a different head. The first bath of Beast Wars toys had the mutant head gimmick. This would usually give the figure another head that could be swapped out to represent a battle mask or helmet. When it came to repaints, these mutant heads would usually serve as the new characters head. Shadow Panther normally used the standard Cheetor head, but for this release he has the mutant head. Considering there's another Cheetor likely on the shelf nearby, that's a pretty good idea. Not going to lie either, it's a good choice. Makes him look more savage. With that sickle/whip weapon and the black colors, Shadow Panther looks like the anime shadow warrior the bio makes him out to be. 

The black on yellow with silver colors look as good as ever to me. Silver on black is a classic look and the yellow is so strikingly different that it contrasts nicely. Not to mention, makes me think of a Henshin Cyborg. There's a pretty big Transformers iceberg, and it's probably a coincidence, but the similarity is hard to ignore. As you've guessed by now, I'm happy with this toy. You might be too. The base mold is already a good one and it's a character I have a fondness for. I'm pretty happy that Hasbro went with Shadow Panther for Kingdom. With the Netflix version of Cheetor also available, I would have assumed they'd pass over another use of the mold on the shelf at the same time. Sometimes it's good to be wrong.

Shadow Panther, Best In The World

I'm looking forward to finding Kingdom Shadow Panther at my local stores. I've always liked the guy, it's a simple Cheetor repaint that just works. Part of my admiration for him comes from the way I got the original one. BotCon 2002 I was roaming the dealers room looking for some good deals. The dealers room was a lot more fun back then, more weird stuff, more of a community atmosphere. It really was a different world back then. You may not have known everyone, but you always felt you were part of something. I was looking around and a dealer had the Beast Wars Metals Jaguar X-9 (Beast Wars Ravage) figure for a really good price. I'm blanking a little now on the number, but it was a steal. I realized I only had about $20 bucks on me and needed to use the ATM machine. 

These days almost every dealer has one of those card readers for mobile devices or a way to process your card. Not so much back then, it was a cash only business. This usually meant the ATM's in the convention centers were always out of cash and you'd have to find an nearby one at a moments notice. Which is what happened and I found myself running to the adjacent parking lot machine. By the time I came back, all the X-9's the dealer had were gone and noticeably other dealers now had a X-9 for sale. Also noticeably marked up. While I was there in front of the dealer who originally was selling X-9 for a non-predatory price, I saw he had Shadow Panther really cheap. In box, unopened, super cheap. I had been wanting one and knew a sign from the universe when I see one. 

Ultra Gear

I'm pretty partial to Cheetor. He's one of my favorites in the world of Transformers. So it's probably to no surprise that when the images of the new Cyberverse Deluxe toy of him popped this past weekend, I was pretty ecstatic. With Cyberverse toys I'm content with all the other toy offerings and hardly mess with the nicer deluxe figures. I have a few, but it's the weird way I enjoy Cyberverse in particular. 

There's no shortage of Cheetor toys lately, there's plenty. However, this one in particular really talks to me. Maybe because, like the prior Cyberverse Cheetor toy, it's something new. Sure it still looks like Cheetor, but the more angular nature of the design really works for me. He's more mechanical, fitting in with G1 style animals and I've always liked that blocky look on animal bots. 

Not that I mind the more organic look of Beast Wars, I've always liked it in fact. Just this particular Cheetor, man, he does it for me. If it were the older days of the fandom, I could and would expect multiple repaints of him. Though for no particular reason that I can think of right now, the toy I want made from this most is Jaguar from the McDonald's toys. I can just see that every time I look at these pics. It's just an insane siren song that these JPEGs have been singing. He's wonderful

Do The New Week

Holy crap it's Monday and the beginning of a new week here on Zone Base! I've got some fun content planed for you all this week... did that kid not notice her hand was cold? As usual, thanks for reading Zone Base and please don't forget to share with your friends.

Henshin Cyborg Jaguar

Now this is neat. Seeing the direct lineage of Henshin Cybord to Diaclone and Microman, I have to wonder exactly how much of a ancestor to Ravage this toy is. It's really cool looking regardless and I appreciate the interaction between it and the other toys in the commercial. I think my favorite part though, is the kids at the end.