If you aren’t up to date on the tortured history of classic ThunderCats figures, Mattel only managed to get us half of the core team, Lion-O and Panthro (plus the ThunderKittens), before abandoning the line. Super7 took it over, and did some reissues with extra accessories, before gearing up to finish the team. Cheetara is shipping soon, but today we’re adding the noble Tygra to the ThunderCat Possee!

The packaging is as awesome as always, with a black sleeve over the window box. The sleeve has a red foil ThunderCats logo, while the box inside gives you a great look at the figure and thee extras inside. You also get some character art on the back of the box, along with a brief bio. I don’t usually save my figure packages, but so far I’ve been keeping these, so you know they’re something special!

If I was pressed to name my favorite of the original ThunderCats, it very well might be Tygra. He seems a little bit more complex than the others, with his shining virtue being that of integrity. He’s an architect, wise council, and fierce fighter, but he also has a pretty down to earth sense of humor. And if I read the subtext of the cartoon correctly, I’m pretty sure he was the one banging Cheetara. But, I also just really dig his character design. His outfit is comprised of various shades of teal and blue, with gold studs on the front of his stirrup boots. His black and orange tiger-stripes are absolutely gorgeous, and they really make this figure pop. I also dig the single shoulder piece, with the gold trim. Naturally, Tygra sports a bold ThunderCat emblem in the middle of his chest. The only thing I don’t like here is the wash they put on his lower front and back. I don’t think it works as intended, and just makes him look dirty, soiling what is an otherwise bright and snappy deco.

Tygra comes with two head sculpts, one standard, and one with his battle face on. I prefer the standard, but the alternative certainly works well for some action poses. Either way, they both really capture the character likeness beautifully. I particularly like the little bemused smirk on the primary head. It’s such a tiny touch, but it’s just perfect. Once again, the orange and black here really pops, and when you combine it with the white ear tuft, and the flesh tone of his face, it makes for a superb color palate. The paint for the eyes, eyebrows, and stripes is all sharp and crisp, but the white for his ears could have been a bit sharper.

As usual, the articulation here is serviceable, but I would certainly not consider these figures super-articulated. All the necessary points are there, but the range of motion in some of those points, particularly the knees and elbows, just isn’t. They are absolutely fun to play around with, but with an agile character like Tygra, I felt myself wanting a little more.

Tygra comes with no less than three versions of his bolo whip, as well as three sets of hands. You get some graspy hands, and two pairs of accessory holding hands, with the hinges orientated both side to side and forward and back. I know some people are really into the option of having the accessory hands with both hinge options. Sometimes I dig it, especially with Lion-O, but here it feels a bit redundant, and I think I would have rather had a pair of fists. Anyway, the first version of his whip is in its collapsed form, which is just the handle and three bolos at the end. This was a must-have accessory for me, so naturally I’m glad they included it.

The second is an actual string version of the whip, with the bolo piece being plastic. I appreciate what they were going for here, but I’m not sure I’ll get a lot of use out of it. The transition from string to plastic tip is rather jarring, and I couldn’t find much to do with it as far as posing goes. Although, I will concede that It’s a lot of fun to lasso Mutants with.

And lastly, we get the full-on plastic bolo whip, which is sculpted in a sort of serpentine pattern, so it can coil around Tygra, which is how he makes himself invisible in the cartoon. And yeah, that’s probably how I’ll display him most of the time. It’s cast in a soft and flexible plastic that returns to its intended form. This piece looks absolutely fantastic, and it works well both for the invisibility trick, or for just wielding it as a conventional whip. I had lots of fun playing around with it.

No offense to Pumyra and Linx-O, but damn, it feels wonderful to have another main ThunderCat join the team. And despite a few nitpicks, Tygra turned out absolutely great! Giving up three versions of the whip was certainly generous, and they absolutely nailed the likeness in his portrait! And for the record, I did buy Super7’s versions of Pymyra and Lion-O, and I will eventually get around to comparing them to the Mattel versions, which I already reviewed. But I definitely want to get through the rest of the new characters released so far. Next time I visit with this line, I’ll turn my attention back to the Evil Mutants!