Nightstrike's Reviews: Kingdom Shadowpanther!

A bit of a retro review, given how far away the War For Cybertron trilogy seems with all the new things out just this year alone. Regrettably, I may need to resort to aftermarket for the rest of the Beast Wars characters, but this was one I had snagged the moment I had seen it.

(Image c/o TFWiki)

Abstract

Let's get the specifics out of the way first! Shadowpanther (or Shadow Panther as marketing lists the character) is a redeco of Wave 1's Cheetor, and by extension the Netflix deco. Cast mostly in black plastic, Shadowpanther somehow still feels incredibly premium, despite paint applications being largely limited to silver sections on the robot mode and those bold red eyes. Reflecting the original's color makeup, Shadowpanther has a few spots of yellow which pop against the otherwise shadowy Ravage-inspired appearance, and a Predacon insignia is plainly emblazoned on the right arm.

As Shadowpanther effectively has almost no established fiction, and is surprisingly obscure for a redeco of a token yellow kid-friendly 'bot, I'll be referring to the character in the feminine, but you can apply whatever headcanons you have regardless.

Perhaps the most notable difference between her and her moldmate is the usage of the alternate head, which is meant to represent the original figure's "mutant mask" gimmick.

Robot Mode

The figure at first may seem awkward to handle due to the beast shell, but thanks to what might be clever foresight, most of the parts can be shifted for quite a dynamic range of motion. The only bit of this design that's truly strange in my opinion is the mold's tail-whip/scythe, which angle's up against the arm, making it hard to find a 'battle-ready' pose that works.

Beast Mode

Here's where this thing truly shines! One of the sacrifices a lot of Kingdom figures made was regarding beast-mode articulation, largely due to transformation. It was mostly minor sections here and there, but the biggest example would be Dinobot, who lacks hips, though this can be seen as a positive as his beast legs are a little loose. In the case of Shadowpanther here, the compromises barely impact the figure, as felines tend to have very unorthodox movement.

Overall

Honestly? I quite liked this figure. It's fun to mess around with, it's not overcomplicated, and the deco is pretty much the beginning and end. I might eventually try for the Cheetor version next, but as it stands, Shadowpanther is a fine addition to any Predacon unit!

Final: 5/5