Last month Funko (partially) shipped their second wave of Savage World ThunderCats, but Cheetara was delayed so I only reviewed the two Mutants from the wave. But now Cheetara has arrived, so it’s time to dig out Tygra and see how the other half of this assortment (and final wave of the series) turned out!

If you’re still unfamiliar with Savage World, this line took a number of existing franchises, coupled them with the vintage He-Man style and produced action figures with varying results. But with the handling of the ThunderCats license in such disarray (from Ban Dai to Matty to Super7) over the years, this line was still the closest we’re likely to come to a somewhat complete line of the main heroes and villains. That is unless Super7 can get us Cheetara and a bunch of Evil Mutants. And to be perfectly honest, I think this particular property is very well suited to this kind of treatment. Granted the original LJN figures weren’t stylized like this, but I dig having them in a format where they can interact with my old He-Mans. The first wave included Lion-O, Panthro, Slithe and Mumm-Ra. The figures come sealed on very collector-unfriendly bubbles and cards, and the cards actually feature character art specific to each figure. Let’s start with Tygra!

Ah, very nice! One of the things that impresses me the most about this line was Funko’s willingness to invest in original sculpting for each figure. There’s some re-use to be sure, and a lot of re-sculpting, but Tygra here represents how easily Funko could have gotten away with just repainting a blank buck, but chose not to. The ThunderCat emblem is sculpted into the chest, as is the sash that runs over his left shoulder. Other points of new sculpting include the border on his left sleeve, the elbow pads, and the boots. As a whole, the paintwork has been quite good on this line and that’s mostly still the case with Tygra here. The lines are reasonably sharp for a figure in this price range, and there’s little to no slop. Indeed, the only thing I can really complain about is a little spot of blue paint on his left foot. And yes, each of the figures have a very obvious and unsightly code printed on their back.

The portraits continue to be excellent, and I’d dare say Tygra’s is among the best. This head sculpt leans into the style of the old cartoon with the flared hair reminiscent of cat ears, whereas the old LJN figure had more of a rounded coif. The sculpted facial features are sharp and the paint here really shines. From the razor sharp printed eyes to the black stripes in his hair, there’s nothing to complain about here. The orange the used for his skin and fur really pops nicely too.

Articulation continues to be standard stuff. The shoulders and neck have swivel cuts, the legs are ball jointed at the hips, and the waist has a swivel but no snap-back action like the old He-Man figures. You get one bagged accessory, and that’s Tygra’s trademark bolo whip. It’s cast in soft plastic and features a painted grip and painted red balls at the end of each of the three strands. My one complaint with these figures is that the grips have been very tight and it can be a chore to get the accessories into their hands, but once it’s in it stays put. Next up… Cheetara!

As the first female figure in this assortment, Cheetara uses a slighter female buck similar to what we’ve seen in other Savage World sub-lines. I think it looks great and works well with the guys. The sculpting here is all new, including the top of her one-piece, the ThunderCat emblem on her chest, the bangles on her right wrist and her left arm bracer, and finally her buccaneer style boots. And as with Tygra, the paintwork here is excellent. Little touches include the silver on her bangles and the spots on her right shoulder. I also like the contrast between the glossy finish on her one-piece and chest emblem against the matte used for the rest of the figure.

The portrait  is solid, although the facial features look a wee bit softer than what we got on the rest. She also has more of a blank expression than her teammates. To make up for it, her hair sculpt is absolutely fantastic and the black spots against the yellow really sings.

The articulation here is identical to Tygra’s although Cheetara’s hair renders the neck swivel almost useless. She comes with one accessory and that’s her staff, which has a woodgrain finish to it and is painted over in yellow. She can grip it just fine, but her hands are sculpted with a bit of a turn, which is not ideal for posing with it.

Ans so, I’m happy to say that Tygra and Cheetara turned out great and they round out the team quite nicely! Of course, it was impossible to end this review without bad news as Funko has no new releases listed for 2020 and these appear to be the last we’ll see of Funko’s Savage World. And while the overall reception of this line has been decidedly mixed, I would have loved to see this line continue for at least one more wave. Maybe Jaga, Grune, Pumira, and Vulture Man? Yeah, that would have been a solid end to it, and sure a Cat’s Lair in the same style as the DC Primal Age playset would have been fantastic.  But that’s not to say it’s the last time we’ll see Savage World here on FFZ. While I doubt I’ll be going through all the DC Primal Age releases, I’ll likely dig up the Street Fighter figures at one point when I need some quick-and-easy material for content.

Despite the ThunderCats main license passing from BanDai to Mattel and now to Super7, Funko’s weird He-man styled Savage World series continues to be our best bet for collecting a line of heroic kitties and evil mutant action figures. The first wave consisted of Lion-O, Mumm-Ra, Ssslithe, and Panthro who shipping about a month or so later for no discernible reason. Well, the same thing is happening again with the second wave consisting Tygra, Monkian, Jackalman, and Cheetara now shipping about a month later. Again, I’m not sure what the deal is with the logistics here, but because I don’t yet have a complete second wave, I thought I’d just go ahead and open the two Mutants and then check out Tygra later when Cheetara finally shows up.

The packaging is the same as the first wave with the cards featuring some individual character art on the front and the familiar Collect-Them-All layout on the back. The figures themselves are sealed into their bubbles, so this is definitely not a collector friendly line. And maybe that’s for the best, because in my experience it’s really tough to find these cards that aren’t bend or creased in some way. Mine aren’t too bad, but I’m still going to tear them open. If you look back at my review of the first Wave, you’ll see that I was extremely happy with those figures, and I’m pleased to say that trend continues with this pair. The Savage World style doesn’t work for everything, but I think it fits the ThunderCats in general quite well, and that goes double for these Mutants. Let’s start with Monkian!

Monkian has a clean, animated look about him and despite the stylized proportions, he’s still the spitting image of the character as he appeared in the cartoon, more so than the old LJN figure. Details in the sculpt include the brown straps on his legs and arms, as well as a couple of spikes jutting out from the leg wraps. His mutant monkey unmentionables are covered up by a sculpted brown skirt and simple black belt. There are also tufts of plastic fur on his shoulders and a bit down his back. But c’mon, Funko. Did you really need to print letters and numbers across his back?

The head sculpts in this line have been excellent and that’s still the case with Monkian. Again, it’s clearly a cartoon portrait, complete with his white plastic “beard” and skull-cap style helmet. The coloring here is great as well, with clean paint lines all around. They used two different shades of metallic paint for the helmet, and his deep set eyes are perfectly printed.

Monkian comes with a single weapon, and that’s his spiked flail, which is a lovely little accessory. The handle has brown sculpted wrappings, and the silver ball is placed on a bendy black tether. It can be held in either of his hands.

I’ve got all the same praise for Jackalman, and he shows off how adept Funko is in re-sculpting parts for this line. For example, the feet are identical, and the legs would be too, but Jackalman has ankle cuffs instead of the straps. The right arm is the same right down to the tufted hair on the shoulder, but Jackalman has a wrist cuff instead of the wraps. Likewise, the chest is the same, but with the three-point chest harness added. Jackalman’s left arm features a prominent piece of armor with silver studs running around the edge and a leopard-print bracer sculpted onto his forearm. He also has a plastic furry diaper very much like what we see on the He-Man figures. As with Monkian, all the correct nods to the original LJN figure are here, but this one is clearly based more on the cartoon look.

The head sculpt is wonderfully detailed, although I will concede I don’t like it quite as much as Monkian’s. I don’t dislike it, but I’m just not in love with it.

Jackalman comes with one weapon, and it is indeed his battleaxe. It’s a great looking piece, but it fits rather loosely in his hand.

I think I even surprised myself with how excited I was that we got a second wave of this line. No, the He-Man style isn’t necessarily optimal for these figures, but I still think it works well and this is a case of something being better than nothing. It’s been a long struggle just to get a collection of three Evil Mutants to stand beside Mumm-Ra and I think these figurs look great together. While Super7 is still pressing on with the Classics line that they won back from Mattel, I still think Savage World is our best bet for an extensive line, and I’m anxiously awaiting word of a possible Wave 3. And at about $13 a pop, these aren’t exactly breaking my bank account. I’ll be back to wrap up the rest of this wave as soon as Cheetara shows up!

The ThunderCats have had a hard time catching a break. They got an amazing series reboot back in 2011, but it didn’t last. Ban Dai tried to re-launch figures based on the classic cartoon not once, but twice, each time only producing two figures. The license fell to Mattel and they only managed to get a handful of figures out before dropping the line. We all hoped Super7 would have picked it up along with the Masters of the Universe license, but that didn’t happen. Up until now, the only way to get a (sort of) complete team was Mezco’s excellent Mega-Scale figures. And now… it’s Funko’s turn!

Savage World is Funko’s attempt to take popular licenses and merge them with the vintage He-Man action figure aesthetic. These haven’t been nearly as prolific as their Pop! Vinyls, but they’ve managed to do Mortal Kombat, 80’s Slashers, and even DC Comic Heroes as DC Primal Age. Of all of these so far, ThunderCats seems like the most likely candidate, and I was super excited to get these in hand when they were announced. But then the curse struck again. My pre-order filled for three of the four figures, with Panthro remaining in limbo. Weeks went by, I couldn’t find him anywhere, and it seemed like my pre-order was never going to fill. Eventually, I got tired of waiting and picked him up off of Ebay in order to get a complete set.

The first wave consists of Lion-O, Panthro, Mumm-Ra, and Slithe, which feels like a pretty solid assortment. These figures come on simple bubble-and-card packaging, which is in no way collector friendly, with their accessories bagged behind the figure. If you’re looking to keep a set MOC, you might want to be careful ordering these, because it’s not uncommon for them to show up with one or both of the legs detached. Sure, they do pop back on easy enough, but nobody wants to display a figure with its’ limbs rattling around in the bubble. The back of the card has a “Collect-Them-All” layout, which also shows Wave Two consisting of Tygra, Cheetara, Jackalman and Monkian. As much as I’d love to see this line go the distance, I’m just begging the powers that be to get us that second wave. These are pretty simple figures, so I’m going to just tackle the whole wave today…

Lion-O is the one figure in this wave where the squat styling feels a little off to me. At first, I couldn’t figure out why, but I’ve decided it’s because his hair makes his head look big and thereby makes his body look extra squat. It didn’t take long for that to wear off and now I’m fine with it, because everything else about this figure is just spot-on wonderful. I’m especially happy with the way the coloring here came out. Sure, some of that white edging could have been sharper, but I’ve got to get in pretty close before it bothers me. Articulation on all of these figures is identical, which includes swivels in the neck, waist, and shoulders, and ball joints in the hips.

Lion-O comes with his two iconic accessories: The Claw Shield and The Sword of Omens. The Claw is a nice softer sculpt to make it actually look like fur and has the three grappels painted red on the knuckles. The Sword is a solid recreation of the iconic sword. It’s cast in gray plastic and has the Eye of Thundera painted on both sides near the crossguard. All in all, I’m really pleased with this MOTU-styled Lord of the Thundercats and he looks great posed with his accessories.

Panthro looked a lot more naturally to me right out of the gate, because he doesn’t have the whole big hair thing going on and I think this is a great representation of the character, stylized or not. The spikes on his shoulder straps are sharp and solid, and the sculpt even includes his ninja-style footwear and the cords where they are tied on. The only problem I have with this figure is that the Eye of Thundera is printed a bit off-center on his belt. Otherwise, the paint is pretty sharp and the coloring looks great.

Panthro comes with his nun-chuks, which are painted blue and red with a silver painted flexible “chain” connecting them, and have the adorable little cat claws sculpted into the ends of them. He can hold them in either hand and if you cheat, you can even get him to hold them in both hands at once… sort of. Let’s move on to the baddies!

Slithe is the one figure here where the stylized look doesn’t even come into play, and by that I mean this just looks like regular old Slithe to me. They did a great job with the sculpt, from the ragged skirt to the fishy lips and popped eye, he looks great. The coloring here is really evocative of the animation as well and some nice flourishes include the bright silver paint on his wrist bracer and the green spots on his tail. My one little gripe about Slithe is that the way his legs are sculpted can make it tough for him to stand. I feel like they should have sculpted them to be a little wider apart, but after enough fiddling, I was able to get him stable and he hasn’t taken a shelf dive yet.

Slithe comes with one accessory and that’s his long handled axe. I actually had to go back and look at some pictures to remember what the LJN figure came with, and I suppose this is a pretty decent match for the original accessory.

And that brings us to Mumm-RA, The Ever Living! When it comes to sculpt and coloring, Mumm-Ra is easily the most impressive figure in the assortment. He’s also another one that I think works in this scale and style perfectly. Funko really went to town on all the extra bits, like the skirt, cape, torn bandages, and grieves. He also features my favorite head sculpt of the bunch, even though they’re all good, this one just delivers that extra bit of awesome. He’s also beautifully colored with lots of red and gold, and even blue on the twin snakes of his headdress.

Mumm-Ra comes with one accessory and that’s his double-bladed sword. This thing is a nasty piece of cutlery with jagged edges on each blade and a central golden grip sculpted to look like snakes twisted together. I never really associate this weapon with the character a lot, but it’s still pretty cool.

And that’s Wave One of Savage World ThunderCats in the bag! I probably wouldn’t be gushing about these figures as much if Ban Dai or Mattel had managed to make their lines work. But if this is the format that succeeds in getting us a properly fleshed out ThunderCats line, then I’m all for it. The sculpting here is fantastic, the colors are great, and even the accessories are on point. And who knows? Maybe if these sell well, Funko will get us a Cat’s Lair playset in the same style as the Primal Age Batcave! Either way, all I can say is bring on Wave Two!