Cheetor (BW)

This article is about the Beast Wars Maximal. For the Unicron Trilogy Autobot, see Cheetor (Armada).

Cheetor is a Maximal in the Beast Era portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.

There he is, your little guy.

Cheetor is full of youthful overconfidence. He's also the fastest Maximal on four legs, though, so he gets into way too much trouble. Thankfully, Optimus Primal keeps a steady eye on him. In return, Cheetor has grown to idolize Primal, whom he calls "Big Bot." Optimus Primal knows the young and inexperienced Cheetor needs a good role model, so he doesn't mind too much. And, hey, he's a good kid. Just... keep him away from Dinobot, okay? Impressionable minds, and all.

Speaking of bad influences, Cheetor had a brief crush on the Predacon turncoat Blackarachnia, adding some real tension between him and Silverbolt. He seems over her now.

Japanese name: Cheetas

Spanish name: Chitor

Italian name: Ghepard

French name: Vélocitor

Indonesian name: Sidor (probably a pronunciation mistake)

Fiction

Animated continuity

Beast Wars

Voice actor: Ian Corlett (English), Wataru Takagi (Japanese), Tata Guarnieri (Brazil)

What? Is it my breath?

After the Axalon crash-landed on the mysterious planet, the most youthful crew member of the disabled ship chose a cheetah as his new beast form. Impressed with his own appearance, the young 'bot renamed himself Cheetor.

Far too frequently, Cheetor looked up to Optimus Primal enough to rush out in an all-too eager attempt to prove himself. He seemed to botch as many missions as he carried out successfully; he broke an experimental communicator, rushed into combat, got himself captured by Tarantulas, and set up remote survey posts in the middle of a lightning storm on a bed of unstable energon crystals.

It seems Cheetor also trusted Dinobot more than the rest of his crew. When Optimus Primal was feared dead Chain of Command a vote was held to decide whether Rattrap or Dinobot would lead the Maximals. Naturally, both parties voted for themselves, but as Rhinox read out the votes, he was only surprised by Dinobot's second vote. This would lead us to believe that he did NOT vote for Dinobot, and that it must have been Cheetor.

When the quantum surge from the explosion of the Planet Buster engulfed the planet, Cheetor's exostructure was mutated into a shiny new Transmetal body. Along with a tougher metal hide and built-in weaponry, his beast mode gained the ability to fly via two powerful thrusters in his body. Unfortunately, his first attempt at flying led him on a one-way trip into a bulkhead. As Rattrap later remarked after a disastrous rescue attempt, a few flying lessons wouldn't hurt. Aftermath

Ultra gear!

While supporting Depth Charge's attack on Megatron's perverse cloning experiments, Cheetor came in contact with the direct energy beam of the transmetal driver, causing a massive explosion that made his fellow Maximals believe he was dead. However, he was seriously damaged and wandered around for megacycles afterwards, not knowing where he was, before he finally stumbled back to base.

Refusing treatment in the CR chamber, he was prone to hallucinations, panic attacks, paranoia, and delirium. He escaped the base and would rest for hours at a time, only to awaken and find himself somewhere foreign, his gears exhausted. Feral Scream Part 1

Rawr.

In reality, his Transmetal body was in conflict with the alien "Transmetal 2" power infused into it by the transmetal driver. While unconscious, he would undergo a mutation into a feral beast that acted with savagery and aggression. With Optimus Primal's help, he finally gained control of the power and rejoined the rest of the Maximals, who were surprised at the rapid changes to him. Feral Scream Part 2

This 'new' Cheetor regularly lost his temper, particularly with Rattrap. Still, he was considerably less reckless, and all of his decisions seemed to have a casual air of confidence and a youthful belief in invincibility. At heart, he was still Optimus's little guy.

"Oh, joy," Rattrap remarked. "Cyber-puberty."

Dreams out of Joint? He sees Rattrap's rescue attempt before it happens.

Cheetor's surreal dream sequences sometimes contained hints of future events.

Beast Wars Metals manga

Off to go train with Piccolo or something, I'm sure.

(Note: although it picks up after the first season, the Beast Wars Metals manga is not in-continuity with the television series.)

Cheetor retained his youthful, inexperienced personality through-out the Japanese interpretation of Beast Wars. For the Beast Wars Metals manga his character design was retooled for a more visually-blunt interpretation of his personality.

IDW Beast Wars comics

Cheetor appeared outside the Ark (in his Transmetal form) alongside Optimus Primal and Rhinox during Beast Wars: The Gathering.

Beast Machines

Voice actor: Ian Corlett (English), Wataru Takagi (Japanese), Hercules Fernando (Brazil)

At the start of Beast Machines, Cheetor was stripped of his transmetal 2 power and was thrust into a dark and unfriendly world. As a result he relapsed slightly into the dependent bot that he was at the start of the first series, idolizing Optimus Primal and blindly following orders. However, as he slowly got a handle on his new situation the maturity Cheetor had gained during the beast wars seemed to come full circle. He acted calmer, frequently took over leadership in place of Optimus Primal, and overall acted more 'adult'. (The role of 'kid' was taken over by Nightscream.)

After Optimus Primal and Megatron fell into the organic core, starting the Cybertron-wide reformatting, the Oracle spoke to Cheetor's mind, possibly suggesting that Optimus Primal passed his communication abilities to Cheetor as he died.

Toys

Beast Wars

Cheetor's control art. Yes, that IS Cheetor, not Shadow Panther. Yes, it's not a cheetah.

• Cheetor (Deluxe, 1996)

Japanese ID number: C-3

Cheetor transforms into an organic big cat-like creature somewhat resembling a cheetah. As such, he is yellow and covered in spots. In robot mode, he is armed with a rifle made out of his hind quarters and his 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 replaced his face.

The Takara version has a slight mold tweak to keep the beast head pointed forward that has been retained on all versions thereafter, excepting Hasbro's issue of Tigatron.

This mold was repainted into Shadow Panther and Tigatron.

• Cheetor (Transmetal) (Deluxe, 1998)

Japanese ID number: C-42

Transmetal Cheetor is the first mostly robotic Cheetor toy. As with most Transmetal 1 toys, his beast mode is entirely robotic, but his robot mode has organic elements in its design. In beast mode, two rocket boosters can be flipped out of the sides of the cat torso to create a 'flight mode'. In robot mode, his removable tail becomes a spiked whip, but he has no ranged weaponry.

This mold was retooled into Jaguar X-9, and slightly retooled to make Armada Cheetor.

• Cheetor (Transmetal 2) (Deluxe, 1998)

Japanese ID number: C-49

Transmetal 2 Cheetor is the first major departure from the usual Cheetor styling, but maintains the standard 'stand-up-cat' style transformation where the robot mode is essentially the beast mode standing on its hind legs. TM2 Cheetor transforms into a saber-toothed tiger-type big cat, with a large rocket engine grafted into his back. In robot mode, this rocket engine becomes a spring-loaded missile launcher.

As with all Transmetal 2 toys, he features a spark crystal, a small clear-coloured ball with a vacuum-metalized faction logo inside. Cheetor's spark is placed on his left hind leg.

This mold was later redecoed into Tripredacus Agent. (Notice the pattern yet?)

• Cheetor (Fox Kids) (Deluxe, 1999)

In 1999, a Fox Kids repaint of the original Cheetor toy was released. Aside from changing the black spots on his fur to a strange maroon color, at first glance FK Cheetor seemed identical to his original counterpart. However, a closer look shows that both the blue and the gold robot parts were all replaced with a metallic blue trim.

• Cheetor (Fox Kids Transmetal) (Deluxe, 1999)

Beast Machines

• Cheetor (Mega, 2000)

Japanese ID number: BR-02

• Cheetor (Supreme, 2000)

Really huge. Bigger than many real housecats. In robot mode, one of the seven tallest Transformers toys ever. It was also a major shelfwarmer and nearly ended the Supreme price point, pushing the Supreme Optimus Primal back into the Robots in Disguise line.

• Cheetor (McDonald's Happy Meal, 2000)

• Night Slash Cheetor (Deluxe, 2001)

Japanese ID number: BR-16

Universe

• Night Slash Cheetor (Deluxe, 2005)

Beast Wars 10th Anniversary

• Cheetor (10th Anniversary) (Deluxe, 2006)

Not completely show-accurate

In 2006, Hasbro redecoed the original Cheetor toy for their Beast Wars 10th Anniversary reissue line. He was cast in a different shade of yellow, and unlike most of the other BWX toys, he was further off-model than his earlier toy (the newer toy lacks the gold paint on its forearms and feet, all of which is present on the show model). His right beast mode shoulder was tampographed with a Maximal sigil. He came packed with Build-a-Figure Transmutate's torso, and a DVD disc containing the episode "Equal Measures."

• Cheetas

Japanese ID number: TM-03

In 2007, Takara did the same thing, except much more show accurate. The Quasar Cannon, however, remains a big question mark in terms of show-accuracy. Noone's perfect.

Timelines

• Cheetor (Multi-pack, 2006)

Titanium

• Cheetor (2007)

Titanium Cheetor is based heavily on the design of Cheetor seen in the Beast Machines cartoon, albeit with differences. His twin scimitars can peg onto his hips for storage, and are made of softer rubbery plastic. His die-cast metal is limited to his shoulders, torso, and thighs.

Care must be taken when transforming Cheetor into Beast mode. His robot head must be pushed back into his beast mode's neck until it clicks first. Failure to do so will cause his robot mode head to get stuck inside the chest after the cheetah mode's neck is pushed into it.

Trivia

• The first Cheetor toy experienced a delayed initial release, coming several weeks after the first wave. This is likely due to a change made to his "tail gun", which on the toy is much different from the version glimpsed in catalogues, commercials, and toy packaging cross-sells. The prototype gun is held via a handle on the topside of the tail rather than underneath the haunches and has a small blue gunbarrell that flips out. The reason why this change was made or whether it was the actual cause of the delay is currently unknown.

• It's interesting to note that Cheetor fired the first shots of the Beast Wars. First he shot at Waspinator, unprovoked, and again at Megatron while Optimus was attempting to negotiate. What a little rascal.

• Aside from Tigatron, Cheetor is the only character in Beast Wars who is definitely in the correct scale to the lifeform he has adopted as a beast-mode. As a result, Cheetor has the odd distinction of being the yardstick by which other BW characters' scale inconsistencies can measured.

• Mainframe's original plan for Transmetal Cheetor was to have his face mature over the course of the season, from a big-eared, wide-eyed, rounded face into one close to the toy. Also, he would have had a "Hero's Heart" which glowed after completing brave or heroic feats, somewhat akin to the classic anime character "Astro Boy". Due to time and financial restrictions, none of these concepts panned out. Thankfully.

I wonder what Beast Machines Cheetor thinks of this artwork?

• Comics Bom Bom advertisements for Duel Fight Transformers Beast Wars: Beast Warriors' Strongest Decisive Battle feature Cheetor with a completely different (and much happier) head than the version which appeared in the game's instruction manuel. Both are sickeningly cute, though.

External links

• Cheetor at TFU.info

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