You see, kids, when a mommy Airazor and a daddy Tigatron love each other very much, they end up becoming a new kind of Fuzor known as Tigerhawk. A last-minute character that was initially not going to get a toy then he got one after the show ended, where he died facing off against the Nemesis despite being hyped up as a badass addition to the Beast Wars. Oh and I believe he didn't get mourned the same way Dinobot and even Depth Charge were! That being said, is a new take on an 11th-hour character still worth getting? Let's find out on my review of Legacy United Tigerhawk!
Here we have Tigerhawk in his beast mode. This thing is the epitome of Transmetal II engineering, Fuzor engineering, and Vok interference gone right. This is a tiger with ginormous paws, hind legs of a hawk, wings that start feathery at the tips and get mechanical as they reach the body's cannons. We have pistons, asymmetrical detailing, and translucent green circles to represent how out-there the TMIIs were. As far as articulation is concerned, the head can look down but not up (and no, IDK why the visor is missing when slot is there, even if the show never had it), the jaq opens, the forelegs can move front and back as well as in ans our, they also rotate above the elbows and bend somewhat. The hind legs are ball jointed, and they bend at two points. I have to criticize how loose said ball joints are out of the box, and it doesn't help that the figure is heavy. The wings can hinge at two points and swing forwards where the circular parts lie. The cannons can swing out so you can have the attack mode Tigerhawk usually has in the cartoon.
For a comparison with the two bots that make up Tigerhawk, here are Kingdom's Airazor and Tigatron. It is said that a lot of the sculpted details from both toys are carried over for this guy, which is logical and wise to do given Legacy is a sequel to the War for Cybertron trilogy. And hey, a Deluxe and a Voyager make a Leader, so this is pretty smart on Hasbro's part.
And for a comparison with another Transmetal II, here we have Legacy Megatron, depicted as a Leader Class as well. While Tigerhawk has the bulk of a Leader, Megatron has the height of one instead. So much so the background is not properly visible so yeah lol.
Transforming Tigerhawk is not particularly easy, which I appreciate as Leader Class figures utilizing a good number of steps makes them more worth the money you paid for a toy like this. That being said, the torso is the most difficult aspect of this toy, what with the clearance issues you might run into while working with the asymmetrical arm transformation. That and one of the panels that goes in the back of the robot mode can be annoying to work with if you forget how to align it. The wings having huge indents for how you position them can be annoying, too. As for the robot mode, it's very faithful to the animated series, and while I wish there'd be metallic paint on this guy to represent the Transmetal II's use of chrome, I am much happier with how this guy turned out thanks to the dark purple compared to the colors used on Megatron, where he could use a bit of a "sheen". Tigerhawk also has numerous spots with asymmetrical detailing, which is greatly appreciated given how easy it could be to have different shoulders and call it a day. The size of those hind legs makes sense when they have to be in decent proportions with the robot mode. As for the wings, they are as huge as before, albeit without spring-loaded gimmicks. I do wish the figure had no hollow crevices on the wings, especially on a Leader Class figure. Everything else is thankfully filled in.
His head sculpt is done marvelously, between the metallic paint to help the sculpt pop and the gnarly expression. Not to mention the visor as the cherry on top. Beast Wars designs had some real personality to them, huh? Tigerhawk's articulation consists of a ball jointed head, shoulder rotation, outward arm movement that requires moving the panels out, bicep swivels, elbow bends, a waist swivel, and knee movement as well as ankle pivots exclusively for the robot mode. The feathers can be used as melee weapons now, but I have to ask why he doesn't have wrist articulation? Sometimes I question how Hasbro utilizes the budgets they spread out for certain Leader Class figures. Starting with Siege if we ignore past Generations lines as well as Studio Series, almost every figure in the line has had wrist articulation
Alternatively, the cannons could be removed if you want to have him dual-wielding them if the arm-mounted blaster isn't enough. I really wish they weren't hollowed out since it'd at least be easier to justify the price he's going for. I could imagine a Hasbro higher up getting a raise from doing this before the layoff because, to quote the late Glenn Webb, it's like every fraction of a cent matters!
For a size comparison with his "parents", he obviously towers over both characters in robot mode, which is to be expected given the size classes and the way the character scales in the series. I also have to commend Hasbro for using the show-accurate colors for the character, with, once again, a shade of purple that can be somewhat comparable to the chrome used for the Transmetal II line.
And here he is with 2022's Megatron, who you can tell has the spikes on the wings assembled properly this time around. Now the heights are comparable this time since they're both bipedal. So overall, Tigerhawk is cool, but the way he's got some parts hollowed out, the missing hawk visor, and the missing wrist swivels make me question Hasbro's budget decisions. I get that 2023 wasn't all that hot even if we exited the pandemic, but while the criticisms towards this figure don't automatically make it trash, it is a case where they may be a little too carried away with how fans have been positive with past lines and they could take something away from a figure while hoping no one would notice. The designers did a decent job with what they could do, and no wrists is better than no biceps, but come on now.
Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐ and a half out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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