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.


 * European-market name: Tigretron

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.

(This story is a retcon, as Tigatron was originally treated as a newborn protoform in the Beast Wars animated series. Instead, here he is revealed to have been a Maximal who existed previously on Cybertron but ended up on the Axalon in a stasis pod, damaged to the point of not remembering any of his past.)

Beast Wars

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

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, sending updates to the Axalon through communication towers and lending assistance to the Maximals when called upon. He was rarely seen inside the Maximal base, regarding artificial environments as "strange".

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.

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 Darksyde.

Inside, he hacked his way into the ship's computer systems and found out what got 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.

(Note: The Primeval Dawn story was never finished, so how Tigatron came to join the Wreckers (see below) is unknown.)

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


(Note: although it picks up after the first season, the Beast Wars Metals manga is not in-continuity with the television series.) Tigatron acted as a samurai warrior and his body reflected that. At one point, he is 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 embrace each other and vow never to be apart again. Their sparks then merge, resulting in the all-powerful Tigerhawk.

Beast Wars

 * Tigatron (Deluxe, 1996/1997)
 * Japanese ID number: C-8, VS-8


 * This mold is a redeco of the original Cheetor 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.


 * Later, Takara released him in a more show-accurate bright white fur with the copied-from-Cheetor color layouts. This version also has slight mold tweak to keep the beast head pointed forward. He was available both individually and in a two-pack with the Predacon Blackarachnia.


 * Tigatron (Transmetal Botcon 2001 exclusive)
 * This mold is a redeco of Beast Wars Metals Ravage, which is 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.

Timelines

 * Unit 2 (Tigatron) (2006)


 * A retooling of the Cybertron Clocker toy using Cheetor's new headsculpt, "Unit 2" transforms into an open-topped Cybertronic sports car. 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. He came with a bio card and a pale-gray Golden Disc Key with a Maximal sigil on it.


 * This mold was also used to make Swerve.

Beast Wars 10th Anniversary

 * Tigatron
 * Japanese ID number: TM-11

Trivia

 * An unproduced version of Tigatron shown at Toy Fair in 1996 was cast in orange plastic instead of cream-colored.


 * 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.
 * 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, instead of their relationship being romantic, Airazor was presented as Tigatron's ward whom he looked to as a "brother" (hence the close bond).


 * His role in the Beast Wars cartoon was originally intended for Wolfang.