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Note - I’ll be referring to the 80s series Cheetara as the “RB (Rankin Bass)” Cheetara and the new series Cheetara as the "WB (Warner Bros) Cheetara "
I won’t be referring to picture orientation (top vs. middle or bottom) but it should be obvious which one I’m referring to.
[SIZE=“3”]Garments[/SIZE]
Cheetara, much like Tygra in the RB show wore a two-tone colored body suit. The torso portion, shaped much like a 1 piece ladies swim suit, is a reddish orange color and completely covers her chest and abdomen, but has a low cut v-neck top. The base of the v meets her emblem in the center of her chest. The body suit has a left sleeve, yellowish orange in color, which fully covers her arm, while there is no right sleeve and thus her right arm is bare. She does however wear two silver bracelets on her right wrist. There is a decorative forearm length band she wears on her left forearm that also has an additional function: it can store her staff in its retracted form while Cheetara is not using it. The staff can be stored parallel to the arm along the outside edge of the band. The band is also two-toned, but the color palette is reddish orange trim along the outside where the staff is stored and edge, and a rust color in the inner section. The suit does cover both of Cheetara’s legs completely and the leg section is the same color as the left sleeve. Cheetara wears boots in the RB series that are the same reddish orange as her torso with a yellow trim across the top. The WB Cheetara also appears to be wearing a type of dark brown or black glove that doesn’t cover her inner hand or fingers at all. Instead it reaches from about the middle of her forearm to down just beyond her wrist. This piece also has a significantly raised wrist band of the same color with a tiny gold stripe in the center. She wears these on both forearms
The WB Cheetara opts for garments with more exposure all around. The full body suit has been replaced by mid-drift top and shorts. In the new show Cheetara’s top now exposes her chest, is lower cut, and is rounded instead of the v neck. The color pattern isn’t clear at this moment as one depiction shows it as a close hue of the original reddish orange while the picture officially released by WB shows it as a brown color. The top is sleeveless and the cutoff is a jagged pattern. The WB Cheetara’s emblem is slightly lower than on her RB counterpart, instead being placed at the bottom of her top, just below her chest. Instead of the legs of a body suit the WB Cheetara appears to have shorts, but they are very odd in appearance. There is a wide, prominent black line that runs down the front of the shorts, beyond them down her leg, which connects with what appear to be black footies that are very similar to her forearm “gloves” described above. The black stripe for some reason reminds me of the suit from the Tron movies, and her garment’s overall appearance feels like that was a source of inspiration for it. This IMO is the biggest miss on Cheetara as it feels extremely out of place. Anyways, her footies also have the exact same raised ring section right at the top of the ankle that her forearm “gloves” do. While the footies aren’t visible in either of the WB cartoon shots we’ve seen, the action figure does appear to show that the footies expose her toes and the very front of her foot similar to how Panthro’s expose the front of his foot. Unknown if there is a cutout section in the heel exposing that on her. There appears to possibly be a pouch on WB Cheetara’s lower back at the top of her shorts (perhaps attached by a belt??) but details of what it is are unknown.
[SIZE=“3”]Weaponry[/SIZE]
Cheetara had the simplest weapon in appearance in the RB series, but possibly also the most versatile, as she used it in some unique ways (ex: extending beyond normal combat proportions for pole vaulting in some episodes). It was gold in color and as mentioned before could retract to fit in her arm band on her left forearm. Nothing is known about the WB Cheetara’s staff other than it too is plain in appearance and received no design update other than the color now appears to be a brown instead of gold.
[SIZE=“3”]Cheetara[/SIZE]
The WB Cheetara bears a striking resemblance to her RB counterpart. Both have very similar facial markings around the eye area. The RB Cheetara’s have a bit of a winged look to them as the curve around the inner eye, along the bridge of the nose without ever touching the nose, and come down to a point at her outer lower cheek. They also extend upwards and outwards at an angle back around to her temple. The WB Cheetara’s pattern is similar except that it rounds around the lower eye instead of extending down the cheek. Also it is unclear of the exact color of the WB Cheetara’s markings as one picture has them at a light pink or salmon color while the other has them as very red. The eyes appear brown and shaped similarly on both versions. One distinction is that the RB appears to have a purple eye shadow on her upper lid, whereas we do not see any eye shadow on the WB Cheetara. WB Cheetara’s hair appears to be a slightly more muted yellow than the vibrant yellow mane of her RB counterpart. The WB Cheetara’s hair also appears to be less uniform in length as the front section is very short, but her hair is much longer in the back. Her hair also appears flatter and to not have as much volume as the WB counterpart. While the RB Cheetara had a small nose to begin with, it appears that the WB Cheetara’s nose is slightly smaller, although there’s not enough difference here that you can’t say that they are similar in this area.
About the spots, that seems to be a point where people feel the WB Cheetara is lacking. The RB Cheetara was known for the many black spots in her golden hair, along the back of her neck, on her outer hips and thighs (as seen in Exodus) and on the back and side of her shoulder. The WB Cheetara does have some spots in her hair, but they are more of a charcoal color than a black and they appear to be quite a bit fewer in number. The only places they are visible on the WB Cheetara in either shot is on her outer shoulder (3 on each) and a couple in one image on the back left side of the top of her hair. Unknown if any are down the back side of the longer back section of her hair. Both appear to have a slightly lighter color to their chest, neck, and abdomens. The distinction is prominently shown in the exposed midsection of the WB Cheetara, while we do get a peek at the same pattern on the RB Cheetara, again in Exodus. Figure wise both are sleek, but the WB Cheetara appears to be noticeably skinnier than the fuller figured and curvier RB Cheetara. This could just be the shots and angles we’ve been exposed to for the WB Cheetara, but it is worth pointing out. The only other noticeable difference is, as pointed out on WB Panthro and WB Tygra, Cheetara also has the elf ears. I don’t know if it is her sleek figure, hair style, or a combination of the two with the ears, but the WB Cheetara looks as if she could have come from Rivendell just as easily as Thundera.
[SIZE=“3”]Final Thoughts[/SIZE]
While the description above may sound like the WB Cheetara is significantly different than her RB counterpart, a short visual inspection IMO will show that she bears the most resemblance of anyone we’ve seen so far with the exception of Snarf. Many of her features, unlike Tygra and Panthro who received significant design overhauls, have been carried over. I could see the WB Cheetara being the younger version of the RB Cheetara, or her younger sister because of the resemblance. WB struck a nice balance (with some exceptions, like the odd Tron like black stripes down her legs) between a faithful rendering, and updated imagery. Cheetara should please the most of her fans out of any of the core 4 characters we’ve seen.
