Back in September 2021, this toy (officially number three in the Golden Disk Collection) went up for pre-order with an expected ship date of March 2022. I guess he was ready a bit early, since mine was delivered to my doorstep today (along with a new litterbox scoop and a bunch of action figure stands, because a lot of my Final Fantasy IV projects are aerial creatures that need to be flying/floating on my display shelf).

Mutant Tigatron ships in a SIOC outer pack with "TRA GEN WFC K GOLDEN VOY TIGATRON" stamped on it, with a windowless box inside the shipping case. The inner tray is entirely cardboard with the toy secured using rattan ties. Zero plastic, with the exception of the tape holding the rattan ties in place and the tape used to seal the box. I think this is what we're going to be seeing for the forseeable future.

So, the color scheme for this toy is based on the original Kenner concept for the character, who was showcased at Toy Fair 1996 in an orange deco. It's arguably just about the only existing alternate color scheme for Tigatron, so it makes sense as a way to sell this design in a new deco. The fiction created for the character, as showcased on the Amazon web site (but not anywhere on the toy's packaging proper), describes him as hailing from an alternate timeline in which the quantum surge killed all the Maximals and Predacons on prehistoric Earth, leaving a twisted, mutated Tigatron as the lone survivor. This deco reminds me of Jake from the Animorphs toy line.

This toy gets an alternate head design for robot mode, specifically one sculpted to resemble the mutant head that the original Cheetor/Tigatron toy was equipped with. (The robot face flipped down to reveal the mutant mask, and the horns on the top of Tigatron's head formed the front fangs for the mutant head.) Back in the day, when I first heard that Tigatron was going to be in the Beast Wars cartoon, I assumed he would use the mutant head to distinguish him visually from Cheetor (the same way they mixed things up when they used both Tarantulas and Blackarachnia). So, in some ways this is the version I always expected to see in the series.

Weirdly, the deco for the tiger stripes is similar, but not identical. Everything seems the same as Tigatron except for the stripes on the tiger tail, which are a different shape than the ones on Tigatron. It's possible they were just using a different or damaged paint mask. He comes with the same gut gun and tail weapon as the regular Tigatron toy.

As a tiger, he's mostly orange with a cream color painted around the chest, mouth, cheeks, and eyes. His teeth got painted this time, too. He definitely looks more like what most people think of when you mention tigers. (Disney's copyright on the original Winnie the Pooh books will finally lapse this year, so Hasbro probably could have gotten away with calling him "Tiggertron" without fear of repercussion.)

The only real problem I have with this toy is that it can't exist in a collection of other Beast Wars toys. Obviously, it's more fun to create some fiction than to just go, "Hey, here's a weird-colored Tigatron, now go buy it" (even though that's kind of what they ended up doing with DK-2 Guard). At the same time, though, by definition, this character can't exist at the same time as Non-Mutant Tigatron, or any of the other Beast Wars characters for that matter. It almost would have been better if they'd taken the Diaclone approach—creating an all-new character who could theoretically have existed alongside the legacy characters. For example, Road Rage isn't just some weird, alternate universe version of Tracks; she's her own unique character who can exist at the same time as the others.

Amazon still has this toy available for $31.49, for anybody who wants one but never got around to pre-ordering it. Of the four sets comprising the Golden Disk Collection, Terrosaur appears to be the only one that's sold out (Amazon doesn't even list him right now), so you can definitely get a sense of which characters fans consider vital and which ones they don't.

Zob (their tops are made out of rubber; their bottoms are made out of springs)

Zobovor <zmfts@aol.com> wrote:

> Weirdly, the deco for the tiger stripes is similar, but not identical.
> Everything seems the same as Tigatron except for the stripes on the tiger
> tail, which are a different shape than the ones on Tigatron. It's
> possible they were just using a different or damaged paint mask. He
> comes with the same gut gun and tail weapon as the regular Tigatron toy.
>
> As a tiger, he's mostly orange with a cream color painted around the
> chest, mouth, cheeks, and eyes. His teeth got painted this time, too.
> He definitely looks more like what most people think of when you mention
> tigers. (Disney's copyright on the original Winnie the Pooh books will
> finally lapse this year, so Hasbro probably could have gotten away with
> calling him "Tiggertron" without fear of repercussion.)
>
> The only real problem I have with this toy is that it can't exist in a
> collection of other Beast Wars toys. Obviously, it's more fun to create
> some fiction than to just go, "Hey, here's a weird-colored Tigatron, now
> go buy it" (even though that's kind of what they ended up doing with DK-2
> Guard). At the same time, though, by definition, this character can't
> exist at the same time as Non-Mutant Tigatron, or any of the other Beast
> Wars characters for that matter. It almost would have been better if
> they'd taken the Diaclone approach—creating an all-new character who
> could theoretically have existed alongside the legacy characters. For
> example, Road Rage isn't just some weird, alternate universe version of
> Tracks; she's her own unique character who can exist at the same time as the others.

Universes can collide. There’s no reason this Mutant Tiggertron cannot meet
up with Tigatron through sci-if shenanigans.

In fact, there’s no reason to assume the box is strictly accurate. Mutant
Tiggertron could have made up a fancy backstory after coming out of a
stasis pod unobserved, naming himself Tigatron, and then meeting the
Maximals and discovering to his embarrassment that there already is a
Tigatron and desperately wanting to feel special.

If they give themselves utterly uninspired names, there is going to be some
collisions…

I kind of liked the Universe 1.0 complete lack of bios, and the Unicron
Trilogy always having a few toys with no cartoon appearance and no
significant bio. It meant that you could easily insert a few of your own
characters into the story.

> Amazon still has this toy available for $31.49, for anybody who wants one
> but never got around to pre-ordering it. Of the four sets comprising the
> Golden Disk Collection, Terrosaur appears to be the only one that's sold
> out (Amazon doesn't even list him right now), so you can definitely get a
> sense of which characters fans consider vital and which ones they don't.

Plain Tigatron was still only sold by scalpers last I checked. It’s
possible I will end up with only the Mutant.

>
> Zob (their tops are made out of rubber; their bottoms are made out of springs)
>

On Thursday, January 27, 2022 at 4:02:59 AM UTC-7, Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats wrote:

> Universes can collide. There’s no reason this Mutant Tiggertron cannot meet
> up with Tigatron through sci-fi shenanigans.

I suppose that's true. The official story is just depressing. "Hey, kids! All your favorite Maximals and Predacons are dead now! Collect them all! Or, better yet, don't bother now, 'coz they're dead!"

> I kind of liked the Universe 1.0 complete lack of bios, and the Unicron
> Trilogy always having a few toys with no cartoon appearance and no
> significant bio. It meant that you could easily insert a few of your own
> characters into the story.

Universe was such a random mish-mash of toys. The color schemes were awful.. I think that was the ugliest phase of Transformers toys we ever got. Every one of them just this disgusting mix of red and green and earwax.

> Plain Tigatron was still only sold by scalpers last I checked. It’s
> possible I will end up with only the Mutant.

He's all over the place now. Hasbro Pulse has him ready to ship right now. BBTS has him for pre-order with a January ship date; Entertainment Earth has a February ship date. Even eBay seems to have him for fairly reasonable prices. Lots of choices.

Zob (pretty sure he's hit market saturation at this point)