TYGRA [CLASSIC]

A blast into time brings us back to a vintage character. His name is Tygra from the prominent ThunderCats cartoon series. This is the latest version & very different from the vintage toy.

If you look closer, Tygra now has many more points of articulation allowing for great poseability.

 

Here are some examples. Lion-O's sword doesn't come with this figure just so you know. He does come with an extra right hand for you to hold his whip. This set also comes with two whips, one fully extended & another one in dormant mode. 

Those days in the cartoon, Tygra would spin the whip around himself to be invisible & hide from the enemies.

It's a pity they only manufactured Tygra & Lion-O in vintage style, while the rest of the latest ThunderCats figures are the newer version ones.

MUMM-RA

Here's Mumm-Ra looking skinny & scrawny. He doesn't look intimidating in any way at all. With only five points of articulation don't expect much from this figure.

In the cartoon, Mumm-Ra is the main nemesis of the ThunderCats.

Upon further inspection, this toy is starting to look more interesting. Mumm-Ra comes with a removable cloak, his own claw shield & the Sword of Plun-Darr.

In the new cartoon series, Mumm-Ra is hunting for a couple of magical stones around the galaxy known as the Four Power Stones. These stones are stored on the claw shield and gives Mumm-Ra intense power to defeat any adversary he faces.

Similar to Lion-O's claw shield, the Sword of Plun-Darr can be kept in the shield. Take a closer look & you'll see that the sword has a small grove. I wonder what it attaches onto because both of Mumm-Ra's hands certainly do not have any grove.

Mumm-Ra with the claw shield.

Wielding both the claw shield & the Sword of Plun-Darr. He's starting to look a little more intimidating.

Here's Mumm-Ra with his red cloak. The material is made of soft plastic & can be flexed around. However, the shape of the cloak is still intact & doesn't change.

With the claw shield.

Overall, a slight twist to the original story & we no longer see Mumm-Ra's pet puppy Ma-Mutt.

Lastly, a comparison between the normal & fully transformed Mumm-Ra the ever living!

LION-O [CLASSIC]

This is going to be a long & fun review of the new ThunderCats Classic series showcasing the leader of the ThunderCats, Lion-O. As a kid, I'm sure many of us wanted a ThunderCats toy. I could only remember having two items; Lion-O & Panthro.

The new Lion-O mold follows the old paint scheme from the 1980's figure. Even the hair is done in a very identical way with the wing blowing it to the right. If you ever owned a piece of the vintage figure, you'll know that many improvements have been made. One prominent thing that I realized was that it no longer has any electronic accessories built into it.

Those days there was an accessory ring with a single AAA battery that you could use, to make contact with at the back of the figure to make Lion-O's eyes light up.

To those of you who grew up in the 1980's, ThunderCats was one of those retro cartoons amongst many others that you would watch on a Saturday morning.

In terms of articulation, this figure has improved tremendously as compared to its vintage counterpart. There are at least 23 points of articulation in this figure.

Let's take a look at the accessories that come with it. You'll get two versions of the Sword of Omens (long & inactive dagger), the claw shield & an extra hand. Unlike the vintage Lion-O, this claw comes in metallic gold, as compared to red previously.

There are a couple of cool things now that you can do with the accessories. If you noticed earlier, this new improved figure comes with a short belt dangling from the left waist. This is for you to clip on the claw shield.

Also, the inactive dagger can be placed inside the claw. It's a tight fit, hence I won't leave it in there for long periods of display.

You can swap the left hand with the claw shield.

Several poses wielding only the dagger.

Here's Lion-O, with both the dagger & claw chield.

The infamous quote: Thunder, Thunder, ThunderCats, HOOOOOO!

Full view of Lion-O & the Sword of Omens.

Several other poses.

The only flaw that I have to say about this figure is the plastic quality of the long Sword of Omens. It's not that solid & if you pose the blade in a certain way for too long, it would start to bend & stretch in a couple of days time.

One point to really highlight here is the amount of flexibility & display poses that this figure can do.

Just for laughs, this blade actually belongs to the 14 inch Mega scale action figure by Mezco. I bought the blade at a flea market, to be used as a letter opener. The plastic material for this blade is very solid as compared to the original sword.

TYGRA

Today let's take a look at Lion-O's brother. Here we can see that Tygra is all suited up in light armor.

Tygra comes with a hand blaster & his trusty whip. The gun can be kept on the side of his removable grey belt, while the whip is made out of soft plastic that bends around freely. Those days, in the 80's Tygra's whip has a couple of balls at the end of it while this new whip looks more like a reptile tongue.

Here's a closer look at Tygra's blaster. The figure is actually quite stable, which makes posing an ease.

Remember those days that Tygra would spin the whip around himself to be invisible from the sight of enemies? I wonder if he still does it in the new cartoon series.

LION-O 4"

Take a look at the new Lion-O from the cartoon series ThunderCats (TC). This series dates back to the '80s & they're making a comeback. When I first saw images of the toy line online, it made me all excited hoping for the toys to enter the market. One thing confusing about the toy line is that the assortments come in a few different sizes. There is the Classic 8", normal 6" and smaller 4" assortment. The Lion-O you're looking at is from the 4" assortment. The reason I'm collecting the 4" assortments is because I want my entourage to compliment the Thundertank.

In the meantime while waiting for the toys to be on the shelves, I started watching the first season of TC to reminisce my childhood years. The storyline this time was slightly different from the '80s and the graphics have improved a lot. Having finished watching the first season, the toy line has yet to appear on the market. Thus I started hunting for them on eBay.

There were a couple of folks selling the toys but they didn't come cheap. I was fortunate enough to get hold of a few other characters from a flee market seller, of which I will be reviewing in future posts.

Finally a Lion-O that's not in a wrestling outfit. This Lion-O is actually from the Wave 2 assortment. The Lion-O from Wave 1 comes with an ordinary claw shield whereas this Lion-O comes equipped with a Thunderclaw. Besides that, it also comes with an interchangeable ordinary left arm, and the full length Sword of Omens.

Both the swords are made of low quality plastic. When the long sword is left to pose in a slanting position over a period of time, it would probably start to bend.

Here, you can see Lion-O with the Thunderclaw that makes his arm look like Captain Commando. This time around, his claw is gold in color as compared to the crimson colored claw from the vintage series.

After being equipped with the huge claw, this figure is still quite articulate. Heavily armed, even the enemies would think twice before launching an attack at the Cats.

As reference, here's Lion-O next to his arch nemesis, Mumm-Ra.