Legacy United Tigerhawk

Prelude: A mighty warrior came down from the sky, a rainbow upon his head, and his feet as pillars of fire… and he died the very next episode. Tigerhawk, the Vok-created fusion of Tigatron and Airazor, debuted in the third-to-last episode of Beast Wars with a big impact, but didn’t really stay long. Long enough, though, to be included in the Legacy United series, 25 years after his initial debut. So let’s say go!

Robot Mode: Legacy Tigerhawk is, of course, a new version of Beast Wars Tigerhawk, an Ultra-Class figure that came out back in 1999. This new Leader-Class figure here is a good match visually, though with somewhat more screen-accurate colors than the original (more purple than blue). He also looks a bit more streamlined than the massive Beast Wars figure did, not quite as bulky. Still a very close match with his wings, the tiger head on one shoulder, the green bubble thing on the other, and the bird claws on his shoulders, nicely done. So no complaints in terms of visuals, he looks like he should and pretty cool.

Visuals aside, Tigerhawk ticks almost all of the gimmick boxes of the original figure, too. He’s got the arm gun (detachable this time, not sculpted), the (non-firing) missile launchers in the wings that can double as handguns, and the (non-launching) feather swords that can detach from his wings, too. Of course he lacks all of the spring-mounted capabilities of the original, seeing as Hasbro seems to have developed a severe allergy to springs (or maybe they are simply scared that the current generation of children might be even more prone to shooting their own eyes out with plastic missiles than ours was). The wings themselves can be positioned up, sideways, or down, can flap (somewhat) and also lack that (spring-powered) mechanism that would flip out the missile launchers on the old toy (in this case a definite positive, as that was somewhat bothersome).

Nothing to complain about in terms of articulation, Tigerhawk adheres to the current high standard, including ankle tilt, twisting wrists, and ball-jointed neck. The only slight complaint I do have about the robot mode are those bird claws on his shoulders, which could be tabbed in more solidly. That’s really just a minor thing. Oh, and one other thing: lots and lots of hollow spaces in those two missile launchers. I am not usually a fan of filler sets and such, but in this case I might well be tempted. Apart from that, though: no further complaints. A very nice robot mode that nicely portrays the (short-lived) character from Beast Wars. Now on to the beast mode.

Alternate Mode: Technically speaking Tigerhawk is a Fuzor, transforming into a hybrid of two different animals. Naturally, given the two Maximals he was forged from, those are a tiger and a falcon. The tiger provides the head and upper body, the falcon provides the wings and lower body. The resulting hybrid beast looks pretty cool, though I have found that it looks better in hand than in pictures. It’s hard to get a good camera angle on this thing for some reason, so you will have to trust my word here.

Here, too, the resemblance to the original Tigerhawk figure is strong, though there are some changes, too. Beast Wars Tigerhawk came with a falcon-like helmet for his tiger head, which did look cool, but was notably absent from the TV character. So Legacy Tigerhawk foregoes that helmet, which… yeah, I am kind of indifferent about, truth be told. Also, the falcon legs are somewhat slimmer than the originals, making the hybrid beast look somewhat front-heavy. I guess this was a compromise between them looking too massive as shoulder pads and too small as beast legs. So in terms of proportions the original figure looks a tiny bit better, but it’s not a big thing.

Tigerhawk retains full articulation in all four legs in this mode and the wings are, of course, just as moveable here as in robot mode, too. The tiger head can open its mouth and nod a bit, but that’s the extent of its mobility. And… yeah, that’s pretty much it, really. You can position the wings and the attached missile launchers into a sort-of attack mode, if that is your thing, and there was something of an unofficial third mode to the original figure, which this one here can somewhat assume, too, but I never really liked it much, to be honest. So bottom line: a nice-looking beast mode, but like I said: better looking in hand than in the pictures.

Remarks: Early in season 2 of Beast Wars, Maximals Tigatron and Airazor were kidnapped by the alien Vok. It wasn’t until the end of season 3 that they were seen again, their bodies now fused by the Vok into a more powerful whole called Tigerhawk. While Tigerhawk was initially just a vessel for the Vok, the combined spark of Tigatron and Airazor took over the body and aided the Maximals in their fight against the Nemesis in the series finale. Tigerhawk did not survive that battle, but the sparks of Airazor and Tigerhawk endured and returned in the 3H Production Primeval Dawn comic book series.

It took a quarter century for Tigerhawk to get his second toy (or third if you count his Takara incarnation Tigerfalcon), which – given that he appeared for all of two episodes before being killed – isn’t really that surprising. Still, Beast Wars nostalgia is still going strong and while Hasbro seems reluctant to tackle any Transmetals apart from TM2 Megatron and Optimal Optimus, they did finally get around to Tigerhawk (who was technically a Transmetal 2, though he was never called that in the series and is really more of a Fuzor). And in Leader-Class, too, which I honestly had not expected. But know that we do expect the Razorclaw repaint now, Hasbro!

Bottom line for this figure: nice. Not an all-time classic and the character isn’t really in line for Evergreen status, either, but it’s a good figure, nicely portraying the old Beast Wars character with no major flaws. If beast modes aren’t your thing, this figure will probably not convince you otherwise, but definitely recommended to Beast Wars fans.

Rating: B

Picture Gallery: