I know we’ve got a number of threads discussing the new TCats, but I thought this might be an interesting idea. Many of us have picked apart the new designs, and that seems to give the impression that we really don’t like 'em. At least, I worry that that is what people think my opinion is. Overall, I’m not unhappy with the redesigns. But I would certainly want to do some tweaks, so here’s your chance to express your ideas. Be realistic… imagine that WB actually came to you and said: “What would you like to see changed?” Obviously they aren’t going to totally scrap the old design, but they might tweak a character a bit if it makes sense. Remeber, these are tweaks, no whole sale changes. Give a brief description of the changes for each cat. Here’s mine:
Lion-o: Slightly less spiky hair, more flowing, little bit “redder” of color.
Tygra: Thinner, more numerous stripes. A little less youth if possible.
All - get the elf ears out of here. It makes them look like they came from Rivendell.
Panthro - Skullet/sideburns need to be cut, and he needs to look about 15 years younger.
Lion-O - Age!!, Get rid of the FF VII Cloud hair, more westernized face.
Cheetara - More hair/face/body spots. Something about the black trim
running down her legs doesn’t look right at all. Also her weapon
looks the blandest out of all of them, like a broom stick instead
of her staff. It could have used an updating.
Tygra - NOTHING!! He received the best update of anyone by far, heck I’m
even getting used to the gun in the image. I guess you could take
that away, but nothing about his suit, appearance, or bolo whip
needs to change at all!!
Panthro looks a lot like Jet Black from “Cowboy Bebop” with those sideburns… it doesn’t help either that Jet Black was also the tallest of the main characters of Cowboy Bebop, just like what happens here with Panthro. The influence there is too evident.
So, I’d get rid of the sideburns… to favor a more unique style. Maybe a tatoo on his face, instead of those sideburns and scarred eye? Something that makes him more distinctly unique.
Tygra is fine, but the main problem with him was always his personality, not so much his look. He was always the weakest member, always falling adict to some substance and being so easily manipullable. A very weak-willed character, he mostly needs to be upgraded in that regard.
No complaints about Lion-O. I love the new design!
Cheetara is too thin, needs more spots, and her new costume is simply disastrous design wise. Those black things that extrend through the front of her legs… what are those supposed to be? The don’t work for me. And that cleavage… if it’s supposed to look sexy, they failed. It looks cheap and ordinary. I don’t “hate” the new design, but it could have been A LOT better.
Get rid of Lion-O’s Dragonball Z hairdo and the blue eyes…yeesh! Cheetara needs a haircut and visit from Tim Gun from Project Runway. And I agree, she is too thin. I think I was most disappointed in her re-design. I was hoping the animators would at least give her regular facial markings you normally see on a Cheetah.
Tygra got the best deal of the re-design. Wish Panthro looked less like Hellboy, but I can live with that.
The only thing I’ll say about Snarf is, possibly getting rid of the puff on his tail. But, really that doesn’t even bother me that much. Just thought I’d throw that in there as a maybe.
Hmmmm every1 seems to think Tygra got the best deal outta the bunch (or lesser of many evils), but I think his outfit is the LEAST true to the orignal! His new armour makes him look like a soldier (especially with a stupid gun and grenades!!) I mean C’mon guys, TCats dont use guns!! well not handheld ones anyway!
Get him back in with more of the original outfit, with cool singular elbow pad, and singular shoulder pad. Don’t mind changing the 80’s style leotard bodysuit thing, just not G.I Joe please!!
P.S Chetarah looks way to immature (assuming we’ll see the thunderkittens), along with Lion-O (although I appreciate the storyline involving him ‘coming of age’) and Panthro too old!
As one of the hardest line “stay true to the original” people on this board, I’m even surprised at myself for how much I’m supporting the new Tygra digs.
I’m still not supporting the gun per say (just from the shot, we don’t know what function it has, and we don’t know Tygra’s role in this new incarnation, or much of the setting for that matter), but if there were 1000 choices for Tygra’s artistic direction, and 1 was an improvement, 1 was the exact same, and 998 were all worse, I’d say they hit the jackpot and nailed the improvement. I just always found Tygra’s costume to be the most bland of everyone’s. I’m not speaking for Tygra himself, just his costume. And by bland, I mean in the same vein as saying a certain kind of Cheesecake from the Cheesecake factory tastes “ok”. If you had to pick one of the 4 to take the most artistic liberties with, I think they chose the right one with Tygra and I have to give the designers credit with, in my opinion, actually making him appear more exciting.
Not everyone will agree, but I think that’s the point of view that most of the people who are excited by his design are coming from.
I’d have been happy if they would have stuck true to his original look, but honestly, they could have done a LOT worse with him, and I think stepping back and looking at him from an unbiased point of view, they hit a home run.
Loving the fact the trailer shows Tygra in a costume more true to his original…though with the toyline already out with the (IMO) crappy green combat suit, I fear when the storyline progresses and they go to third earth they’ll put that ‘armour’ on him
I like Tygra’s Thunderian outfit (the one in the clip), but I’m not a fan of the green suit at all. The one shown in the clip IS more faithful to the original, both in color and design, with the cross sections over his chest.
I liked his outfit in the old cartoons, and don’t think it was bland; it was
colorful and different from the others, which was nice. I liked his elbow pads and his single left shoulder sleeve. Also his boots were the best (I think only Wilykat got ones like his… oh, and Tygra-wanna be Bengali lol).
I think they covered him the most because he was the hardest to draw with all the stripes, so covering his body as much as they could was the solution they found back at the time.
I have no problems with his personality either; he wasn’t weak, and I don’t get why people hold that image of him. As a matter of fact, I think that he, along with Cheetara, got the most defined personalities. Think of it, Cheetara was the courageous, speak-out her mind type of person, Tygra was the “shy” (I prefer the term “introverted”) guy. If someon had a lame personality, it was Panthro IMO… just the tough guy with a bad sense of humor, I used to think of him as a bully when he was a cub.
Tygra was also a favorite of mine, not liking his makeover so much. I don’t mind that he looks younger on the new version, but he certainly looks less masculine and more androgynous, at least in the face.
I have to agree with whoever said something about Cheetara being a sprinter. She is, she should be compact and wiry, not bouncing all over unless she’s got new cubs at home.
The kittens? Tails? Seriously? I always pictured them as being bobcat/lynx types, neither of which have tails. Add in the ears and now I’ll be wondering if I accidentally turned on an episode of “The Littles” instead.
Panthro’s new look? gag The eyepatch, fine. But he needs to lose the “I finally gave up on the comb-over look” hair and the steroids.
Lion-O - I wouldn’t change a thing. I think he looks great.
Tygra - A little more orange around the sides of his face, it’s a little too white, especially for an orange tiger.
Cheetara - I would tame her hair or give her a pixie cut. I would have her top be longer, preferably covering her belly.
Panthro - I would get rid of the male pattern baldness and just go all bald like the original Panthro.
Thunderkittens - I would take the purple out of their hair, I would also make them a little older, they seem younger than the original thunderkittens and I think more adolescent would be better than children. I’d also put more clothes on Wilykit, doesn’t quite seem appropriate for a child to be dressed that way. I’d also put more definition in their faces, they seem washed out.
I think more definition in Tygra would be good. I like that Panthro would be a bit older (if he is, hard to tell with cartoon images). It would be nice to have a broader age range with the characters. In the original, I got the impression that Panthro and Tygra were quite a bit older than Lion-O and Cheetara.
Really The only thing I don’t like with the new designs is Panthro’s hair, and Panthro wearing red instead of Blue (tho I accept that last one since they explained it.) And that the kittens have tails.
I like the rest. Lion-O looks awesome, And I’m hoping that Tygra will only be in that green suit during battle (as I really like his new civilian clothes), but it really doesn’t look that bad on him.
