Dave's Beast Wars Metals Rant:

     Jaguar (Ravage) X-9

     While Hasbro didn't release an official Ravage toy here in the U.S.,
Takara decided to make Jaguar one of their exclusives for the Metals line.  I
got mine as part of a trade, but several online stores carry (or have sold
out of) Jaguar.

CAPSULE

     Very nice robot mode, with some extra gimmicks that the original mold
(TM I Cheetor) lacks and more human-like proportions.  Beast mode suffers
from undercarriage garbage in a bad way.  Still, Recommended.  Price varies,
but at this late date expect to pay a fair amount.

RANT

     Packaging: Jaguar is boxed in robot mode, in a cardboard box with
plastic bubble inside.  There's a motion card (the kind which shows different
pictures at different angles) at the front, and on the back is his techspecs.
The motion card shows three progressive views of Jaguar firing at an unseen
enemy and either destroying some debris with his tail or dodging a shot, it's
not really clear.  They've gone back to Destron (from Destoron), and he has
both the Predacon symbol and the original Decepticon symbol on his box.
     Rather than using drawings, the transformation instructions use
photographs of the actual toy.  While this is nice on one level, the fact
that much of this toy is black makes photos less instructive than a line
drawing would be.  Also packaged in with the instructions is a sticker
sheet.  There's two sets of shoulder insignia for the toy, both a pair of
purple Pred symbols and a pair of classic G1 symbols.  Plus, there's two
stickers to put different views in his chest panel (more on this later).

DESTRON: Jaguar
STR 5  INT 8  SPD 5  END 6  RNK 8  COUR 4  FRP 8  SKL 10

     Robot Mode: It's packaged in this, so I'll start here.  Basically, this
is a Transmetal Cheetor with some modifications.  The head, chest and arms
are different, everything else is exactly the same as on Cheetor except for
the colors.  However, because most of Cheetor's organic stuff was on the
head, chest and arms, only a little bit of the mold looks out of place for
the totally-robotic Jaguar.  The new head is basically the beast head folded
down, but it makes the figure stand taller.  Jaguar is 5.5" (13.5cm) tall,
compared to Cheetor's 5" (12cm).  Unfortunately, this larger head makes the
limbs look a little small in proportion, especially the legs.  Since the head
even adds apparent size to the torso, he looks long in body and short in
leg.  While I normally keep Cheetor's front beast legs folded down ("elbows"
pointing down), it helps Jaguar's look a bit to have the elbows pointed up
instead.  
     Cheetor's furry chestplate has been replaced by a robotic one that opens
up like a cabinet.  Behind the panels is a monitor screen showing circuitry
and a Predacon symbol.  There's two stickers included, so you can replace
this with a Decepticon symbol, or with a picture of Megatron's face from the
Golden Disk.  While the hinges holding the shoulder joints are identical to
Cheetor's, the panels keep them from folding all the way forward.
     Because Jaguar's beast head is also his robot head, there's no need to
put cat heads on his robot arms.  Instead he has regular robotic arms with
hinge elbows and a swivel above *and* below each hinge.  A spring-loaded
mechanism in his wrist can pop a gun base forward into each hand, although
the mechanism feels a little fragile.  Gun barrels that can clip onto his
thighs fill out the guns, so he has rapid-draw two-gun action.
     One bit of useless kibble Jaguar has is his tail.  Because his hands are
taken up by the gun gimmick, he can't really hold his tail as a weapon.  I've
gotten him to kinda hold it by the bladed end, but it's a loose fit.

     Transformation: A fairly clever hinging system lets his new head and
chest combine to form the head and neck of his beast mode.  The robot arms
just sort of hang under his belly, though.  Otherwise, his transformation is
the same as Cheetor's.

     Beast Mode: A little bit shorter than Cheetor in this mode, since his
head is slimmer and slightly smaller.  Just as tall at the shoulder,
obviously.  A nice, sleek black cat...with arms stuck to his belly.
Essentially identical to Cheetor otherwise, including the lack of stability
in the neck because there's no pegs holding it together.  However, his head
can move up and down because of the joint needed for transformation, and the
jaw can open and close.  The gun barrels rest on his hips in a sort of
imitation of the original Jaguar/Ravage's missile pods, but look kinda
anemic.  He retains the flight boosters, but the instructions do not show
them deployed.  

     Overall: The original Cheetor mold was a very good toy, and while some
of the modifications used to make it into Jaguar had negative aspects (mainly
the arms), overall it's still a pretty good toy.

     Dave Van Domelen, now done with toy reviews for at least a couple of
days....