Tigatron


 * Tigatron is a Maximal from the Beast Wars portion of the Generation 1 continuity family. He was previously designated Unit 2.



Damage to his stasis pod upon crashing to Earth caused Tigatron to emerge far more tiger than robot. A loner who is more connected to the Earth than any other Beast Warrior, he enjoys the planet's natural beauty and is often concerned about the damage that the Transformers' battle is doing to it. Scout, infiltrator, and sometimes programming guru, Tigatron has filled a variety of roles for the Maximals.

"Who's the first to sample my bite?"

- Tigatron


 * European-market name: Tigretron
 * Polish name: Tygrytron
 * Chinese name (Taiwan): Lǎo-hǔ (老虎, "Tiger") / Bái Hǔ (白虎, "White Tiger")

Timelines: Dawn of Future's Past


Tigatron was once known as Unit 2, part of the Maximal Command Security Force which protected the fragile peace that existed on Cybertron in the centuries following the Pax Cybertronia. One of the Security Force's elite troops, Unit 2 was often put in charge of guarding important Maximal artifacts, a job that often required his amazing prowess at tracking. Despite his strong command of this environment, Unit 2 wondered if his destiny and place was elsewhere.

When the Golden Disk was stolen by a band of rogue Predacons, Unit 2 responded along with Unit 1, Nitrostreak. After Nitrostreak was incapacitated, Unit 2 attempted to follow the Darksyde by commandeering the Chromia 10, pursuing, along with its pilot. During the ensuing firefight, their ship was badly damaged. Optimus Primal had their Sparks remotely uploaded to blank protoforms in the Axalon's cargohold, which saved their lives, but severely damaged their core mainframes.

Beast Wars

 * Voice Actor: Blu Mankuma (English), Kōichi Tōchika (Japanese), Armando Tiraboschi (Brazil)

Tigatron was born in the far frozen north, at first heavily damaged in his memory circuts and unable to remember friend from foe. In his beast mode, he patiently watched the Predacon and Maximal forces duke it out. When Megatron threatened the white tigers, and the Maximals conceded the fight, Tigatron knew his alliance.

His alliance established, Tigatron became a background player - feeling more at home as a tiger than a robot, he was allowed to remain in the wilds as a scout. He sent weekly updates to the Axalon through communication towers and lending assistance to the Maximals when called upon (which, for a background scout agent, was quite often). He was rarely seen inside the Maximal base, regarding artificial environments as "strange", and preferred to act solo believing he hunted better alone - this sometimes meant he would need rescuing.

He and Cheetor held a strong sibling friendship. While Cheetor was youthful and eager, Tigatron was confident and wise. Cheetor called him "Big Cat" frequently.

He was the first to discover the Vok's Flying Island, and believed this area with its powerful death ray and many horrible death-traps to be a land of peace. He felt at home here and tried to protect it from the Predacons, and was enraged and horrified when the Beast Wars led to the island's destruction - by his own hand, after Blackarachnia warped it into a weapon.

Being more at home with his beast mode than his robot mode, his help was invaluable when the Maximals were left stuck in beast mode and overpowered by animal instincts. He helped them learn to work with these instincts instead of struggling for dominance.

Tigatron had an organic tiger friend named Snowstalker, who may or may not have been the basis for his altmode. Some fans have speculated that the pair were more than friends, as the dumb stubbies say. Sadly, Snowstalker became one of the war's casualties, putting Tigatron in a funk for a short while, until he realized that doing nothing only meant more innocents would die.

Not much later, Tigatron was the first to detect a pulsing alien energy source. When Megatron initiated a somewhat suspicious truce shortly afterwards, Optimus Primal ordered a covert infiltration of the Predacon base. Rattrap and Airazor made enough of a distraction to allow Tigatron inside the Predacon base.

Inside, he hacked his way into the ship's computer systems and found out what had Megatron so worried - The Vok were coming back, and they weren't happy. Tigatron and the rest of the Maximals barely survived the subsequent attack of the alien Planet Buster.

Tigatron and Airazor formed a very powerful relationship during this time. They both felt a strong connection to the prehistoric Earth, and they frequently spent their time outside of the Maximal base in their beast forms instead. After the destruction of the Planet Buster sent dozens of stasis pods crashing to Earth, the pair set off on a voyage to find what had become of their Maximal comrades within the pods. Unfortunately, before they could discover any still-functional pods, they were abducted by a bizarre alien plant.

The two were not seen again until much later, when their inert bodies were revealed to be the captives of the Vok, floating somewhere in a deep space nebula. The Vok removed their Sparks from their bodies, which were then fused into the awesomely powerful Vok emissary Tigerhawk. When the Vok influence was removed from Tigerhawk, the Sparks of Tigatron and Airazor likewise fused and entered the empty shell.

''Primeval Dawn


Tigatron and Airazor's sparks were sent back to Earth by the Vok sometime after Tigerhawk's destruction. Tigatron's spark took possesion of Ravage's former body at the bottom of a lake. Joining Transmetal Airazor and a newly-created Primal Prime, Tigatron battled Tarantulas and Ravage, who had also managed to escape death.

The Wreckers
Tigatron, Primal Prime, and others arrived on Cybertron during Megatron's anti-biological reign. Various teams met with the Oracle, which assigned them various tasks. When Optimus Primal objected, saying that with all these soldiers, Megatron could be defeated easily, the Oracle swept him away and cleansed his memory of the recent events. Tigatron vehemently objected to this treatment of his former commander. A set of coordinates was infused into Primal Prime's head by the Oracle. When arriving at an Autobot shuttle, which was to ferry the Wreckers to those coordinates, Tigatron felt that something was amiss. It was then that the Vehicon generals Spy Streak, Scavenger, Quake and Blastcharge attacked. Tigatron used his Nature's Fury attack, utterly destroying Quake. During the ride in the Autobot shuttle, Tigatron meditated, recovering from the battle. Upon arrived at their destination, he once again sensed that danger awaited the Wreckers...

Beast Wars Metals manga


Tigatron acted as a samurai warrior and his body reflected that. At one point, he was forced to do battle with the spark-less body of his beloved Airazor. Not wishing to harm her, he willingly let the evil Airazor take the opportunity to decapitate him.

Just as evil Airazor began to strike, the spark of the real Airazor entered his body. In cyberspace, the two embraced each other and vowed never to be apart again. Their sparks then merged, resulting in the all-powerful Tigerhawk.

Beast Wars

 * Tigatron (Deluxe, 1996/1997)
 * Japanese ID number: C-8
 * Accessories: Tail-gun, water-shooting gun


 * Hasbro's original Tigatron is a redeco of the original Cheetor toy in cream, silver, and green, transforming into a fairly generic big cat in shape. His robot-mode parts color layout is notably different from Cheetor's. In robot mode, he is armed with a rifle made out of his hindquarters and tail, along with a second "gut gun" formed out of his stomach. As with most early Beast Wars toys, he features a "mutant head" that replaces his face.


 * Later, Takara released him in a more show-accurate bright white color with the copied-from-Cheetor color layouts. This version also has slight mold tweak to keep the beast head pointed forward.


 * This mold was also used to make Shadow Panther/Tripredacus Agent. It was slated to be used for Universe Nightprowler, but that toy set was canceled.


 * Tigatron Vs Blackwidow (Vs set, 1997)
 * Japanese ID number: VS-8
 * Accessories: Tail-gun, water-shooting gun


 * In Japan, Tigatron was available both individually and in a two-pack with the Predacon Blackarachnia. Both toys are identical to their individual Japanses releases.


 * Tigatron (Deluxe, 2001)
 * Accessories: Tail-whip, left & right pistol barrels


 * A BotCon 2001 exclusive, Transmetal Tigatron is a redeco of Beast Wars Metals Ravage, which is itself a retool of transmetal Cheetor. He transforms into a mechanical cat with flip-out thruster-wings. His robot-mode arms have spring-loaded flip-out blaster grips, which also have barrel extensions that can be clipped to his legs in beast mode. His tail separates to become a whip weapon, but he doesn't hold it very well. His chest panels open up to reveal a decal; he also came with an extra decal sheet to display other options within his chest, plus Maximal and Wreckers faction symbol decals for extra customization.


 * The original version of this mold was slightly retooled to make Armada Cheetor. It was also used as the model for the non-toy character Cataclysm.

Timelines

 * Unit 2 (Tigatron) (Scout, 2006)
 * Accessories: Engine-blaster, left & right side-pipes, Maximal Golden Disk Key


 * A retooling of the Cybertron Clocker toy using "Axalon Cheetor"'s new headsculpt, "Unit 2" transforms into an open-topped Cybertronic sports car. Due to painted whiskers on his robot mode face that resemble a human mustache, Unit 2 is one of the few Transformers who feature facial hair.  His rear engine assembly reveals a pair of spring-loaded flip-out guns when a Cyber Planet Key/Golden Disc Key is placed in it. This assembly becomes a hand-held blaster in robot mode. His side-pipes can also be removed and used as hand-weapons.


 * The original version of this mold was also used to make Cybertron Swerve, movie-verse Clocker, and was the basis for many non-toy members of the Maximal Command Security Force.

Beast Wars Telemocha Series

 * Tigatron (Deluxe, 2007)
 * Japanese ID number: TM-11
 * Accessories: Tail-gun, water-shooting gun


 * The original Tigatron toy was given an extensive redeco using a ridiculous number of paint applications for his Beast Wars Telemocha Series release. He retains all of the gimmicks of the original version as well.

Trivia





 * The original concept art for Tigatron, shown in the "Beast Wars Reborn Golden Disc", shows that he was orginally intended to be a retooling of the mold, rather than a simple redeco, changing his beast-mode head and a lot of his robot-mode parts (yet not the face), as well as giving him some kind of horrible tumor gun. Obviously, this didn't happen.


 * The Tigatron shown at Toy Fair in 1996 was cast in orange plastic instead of cream-colored, giving him a more "traditional" tiger look. The change to a white tiger has so far been unexplained.


 * Tigatron's beast mode may well have been female. His template animal was female, and while wild felines have size differences between males and females Tigatron and Snowstalker were shown as being the same size; indeed, they were for all intents and purposes identical, such that Waspinator thought Snowstalker was Tigatron. (Though to be fair, Waspinator is not the brightest crayon in the box.)


 * Tigatron also has the emasculating title of being beaten by Waspinator. Yes, Waspinator.


 * In the Japanese dub of Beast Wars, for the sake of humor, Tigatron was played as a "samurai" ronin. Additionally, since Airazor was made male in the Japanese dub, "he" was presented as Tigatron's ward whom he looked to as a "brother" (hence the close bond)... but this did not prevent the "wacky" dubbing from broadly hinting at homosexuality between the two, especially after the events of "Other Visits".


 * An unused idea by Larry DiTillio was that the Vok ceased trying to destroy Earth because contact with Tigatron (after his abduction) made them question the morality of the tactic.


 * Tigatron's role in the Beast Wars cartoon was originally intended for Wolfang.