Tygra's 4" reviews.

Collecting Mezco and Bandai Toys
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Tygra’s 4" reviews. (Pictures added!)

I received my shipment from Amazon today and thought I’d share my thoughts on the line to help anyone still on the fence about whether or not they’ll pick up the 4" versions. I got everyone except Cheetara, but I’ll pick her up later. I will share my overall thoughts on the line as well as individual figure reviews. Sorry, but I’m not going to post pictures. I figure you’ve seen them before so it’d be a waste of time.

Overall - The figures are small and some lack poseability, but overall the figures are a blast. Unfortunately the paint apps are horrible, with the exception of the villain figures everyone has at least one mistake. I don’t know why Grune and Mumm-Ra were immune to this, but only the Thundercats themselves suffer from the painting mistakes. The soft rubber weapons are all in various degrees of bending, but hopefully I can find a way to fix them. A bent Sword of Omens is just depressing. The feet on these toys feel really lazy. It’s like they put in the minimal amount of effort needed to have what is considered a foot which results in the feet just being thin strips of plastic with a little molding on top. I wouldn’t mind, but it does occasionally present a problem when trying to get certain poses, especially with bulky figures like Grune.

Lion-O - A fitting figure for the lord of the Thundercats. My only problem with it is they just didn’t paint the back of his lower leg. Less than a minute with a silver sharpie fixed this, though. The claw shield does limit poseability, but it isn’t that big of a deal. 5/5.

Tygra - I have no problems with this figure except for his whip. I really would have preferred something that was poseable instead of the soft rubber. It kills me to do it, but Tygra will be on display without a whip. Luckily Classics Tygra is on the other side of my desk representin’ :wink: 5/5.

Panthro - Panthro is great, his size really makes him look intimidating next to the other cats. He seems to have been built with the Thundertank in mind, because his legs seem to be unable to lift separately. It’s possible that they can, but I’m afraid of breaking him. 4/5.

The Wily Kittens - I really wish they would have found something better to do with these two. The complete lack of poseability doesn’t really work for me. They do have boards to compensate for their size, but without being able to bend their knees they just don’t look like they are riding them. 2/5.

Mumm-Ra (Mummy) - I really like this figure. The lack of poseability that made me dislike the Wily Kittens is present here as well, but for some reason it doesn’t bother me. Mumm-Ra looks creepy and the soft rubber cloak looks great on him. 3/5.

Mumm-Ra the Everliving - Mumm-Ra looks really intimidating. The Thunder Lynx feature with his wings opening only seems to work correctly half the time. It’d be nice if the piece of plastic connected to his back that is supposed to be the rest of his wings were actually molded as such. As it stands he just has a giant piece of plastic on his back. 3/5.

Grune - I love him. His Thunder Lynx feature works perfectly, the mace extends every time. He comes with plenty of weapons and looks just as intimidating as his old friend Panthro. Unfortunately my arrow has quite a few bends in it. 4/5.

Snarf - Snarf is a cool looking little figure, but unfortunately he isn’t in scale with the 4" line and his pose doesn’t really lend itself to play or good display. 2/5.

Thundertank - The Thundertank is a really cool toy. The Thunder Lynx feature to open the trunk for storage was a neat idea. Unfortunately the area isn’t big enough to store the Kittens’ boards, but weapon storage is possible. I’m honestly surprised the tank doesn’t have some kind of projectile weapon. It really seems like an oversight. Aside from some potential QA issues that I’ve seen some people report, the tank is awesome. 4/5.

I’ll update this as I get more from the line, assuming people actually care to read this. :stuck_out_tongue:

Update: Here are a few pictures I took after setting up the group on my desk.

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6202/6078089572_9c7b937356_z.jpg

Here is the team posed on the Thundertank. It was a challenge to get anything decent out of the Wily Kittens pose-wise.

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6077/6077552557_90bc3c5c3e_z.jpg

Uh oh! Megatron is attacking, good thing Snarf is capable of the “hands up!” pose.

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6194/6078091924_5dbfc98a28_z.jpg

Not getting shot in the face is the right of all sentient beings, even Snarf.

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Thundertank

Thanks for taking the time to write these reviews. I too have the Thundertank, and I am not as happy with it.

I cannot get the “snap on” parts to remain in place with any regularity. The claws all parts that attach to the main body do not attach securely. Do you have the same problem?

Part of my problem is that this item is actually being played with. I am buying all of the 4" toys for my daughter, and she is playing with them the same way I played with my Star Wars toys 30+ years ago. Those toys held up to HOURS of play, and it seems that when my daughter lifts the top of the tank to put in/take out Snarf it comes off. If she lifts the tank off of the ground to move to another location, the attachable wheels fall off. There are several places to snap into, but even when they are snapped, they fit loosely.

I don’t really understand why they weren’t made to attache more securely. Once the top is on, there should be no reason to take it on and off, lifting it would be fine to take out/put in figures. The same can be said with the claws and the wheels that they attach to. There is no reason to take these off. There are additional sets of wheels that are supposed to be shot off, and they would need to be able to be released easily, and that functionality works fine. My problem is with all of the parts that connect directly to the main body of the tank.

So, if this toy is really going to be played with, I don’t think that it holds up well. If it is simply going to be put on a shelf and admired, it looks pretty cool.

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My Thundertank doesn’t have the problem with the hatch popping off, but it does have the arm issue. If you were to apply some clear nail polish to the posts that plug into the tank it might fit better. I haven’t tried this since my tank is only for display, but it’s worth a shot.

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Tygra, what’s your problem with the paint apps? I haven’t noticed anything flagrant, but I haven’t looked too closely, I guess.

Posability doesn’t bother me that much, as these are meant for kids to play with. Let the 6" line satisfy collectors and their displays. I think the 4" toys do a great job of balancing poseability with playability.

I love the Mumm-Ra figure. I haven’t had any problems with his ThunderLynx feature.

I agree with you on the Snarf figure. He was obviously designed solely to interact with the ThunderTank’s ThunderLynx feature, rather than look like Snarf. Would have preferred a four-legged, non-ThunderLynx version.

I agree with marcandmag on the ThunderTank. The connection points are way too loose for good play value. Not sure what went wrong there.

I have Cheetara, and it is the worst of the lot, in my opinion. I think the problem is the figure is just too skinny. While the Thunderkittens had tails to balance them, Cheetara is a pain to stand up. The leg articulation is ridiculous. Why does it need two thigh rotation points? The staff is almost as soft as Tygra’s whip. I guess it is too skinny, too.

I guess they would have had to sacrifice scale with the other 4" figures to fix its issues. It probably won’t make as much difference to a kid playing with it. I don’t know.

Overall, though, I like the 4" line. It’s got a few misses here and there, but most of the figures are great.

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(re: Cheetara figure)

Toy designers do stuff like that to female character figures a lot, like they don’t want to disrupt the shapeliness of the figure’s… figure, as it were.

This would make more sense on the collector’s line, where the possible target demographic might actually care about female character toys that look as hot as on TV, but I would assume the 4" line is targeted to boys still in single-digit ages who haven’t completely moved beyond the “girls are icky” stage, so it’s not quite as logical.

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Like I said every one of the Thundercats has at least one problem. Most of them are minor bits of paint in the wrong area or places that weren’t painted entirely.

I added some pictures to the thread, if anyone wants to see a specific figure just let me know.

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I seem to recall nearly all of them have incorrectly painted feet. I’m not a collector, but I’d love to get a little Snarf figurine independent of any big tanks or racers.