Sometimes I am amazed at the amount of patience I possess. As I child I had absolutely no patience whatsoever and it took many years for me to train myself to not want everything
right now. However sometimes that little kid comes back out when I see other people purchasing really cool things. Fortunately that was not the case with X-9 Ravage here. I originally missed getting him when he was available at retail back in 1999 and then of course his price skyrocketed due to the unique mold, foreign exclusivity and popularity of the character in the Beast Wars show. But I knew that if I waited long enough, eventually one would come up at a reasonable price.
Well it only took thirteen years (!) but I finally found a seller with one for under $100 (I have seen him go for as much as $180 on eBay). Even better, this sample arrived to me MISB, which I was not expecting but was very happy about. I have the re-deco of this mold, Transmetal Tigatron from Botcon 2001 so there weren't any surprises as far as the mold goes, but I was stunned at the appearance of this figure in person; I'm not sure pictures can really do it justice. The black glossy plastic is just very pretty, for lack of a better word.
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| Black figures almost universally look good. |
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| Once you go black... |
But I would be remiss without comparing him to his prior incarnations, especially since Hasbro and Takara can't pass up a good opportunity to repaint something black.
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| Shadow Panther, X-9 Jaguar and Tripredacus Agent |
Fortunately since the Cheetor character had three different molds this allowed for three different Ravages. The first was originally called Shadow Panther and I believe was retroactively called Tripredacus Agent (Ravage was an agent of the Predacon Tripredacus Council) and then of course the actual Tripredacus Agent which was a repaint of Transmetal 2 Cheetor and only available in Wal-Mart. Out of these three figures X-9 Jaguar is the only one which actually features any remolded parts and thus is the most valuable.
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| The original Transmetal Cheetor mold and X-9 Jaguar |
Another cool feature of this figure is that his chest opens up to reveal his spark chamber. You can replace this sticker with a number of others included with the figure one of which is a bad-ass Decepticon symbol. I remember freaking out seeing the episodes with Ravage the first time on TV, hearing the transforming sound again, and seeing Megatron and the Decepticon symbol again after so long. Today we take it for granted, but back then it was truly something special.
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| Open Spark Chamber |
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| Classic Decepticon symbol on a grid. *Love* |
Last but not least I feel that it is important to see Ravage's roots, in essence where he came from and how he changed over the course of 300 years or so.
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| He done growed up guud! |
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| It is just too bad they couldn't have made X-9 transform into a cassette like he did in the show. Ah physics, you are an unforgiving temptress sometimes. |
See Also:
With This Comes a Complete loose Beast Wars Collection
COOOOOOOOL! Nice work buddy! Way to wait it out! I have no patience at all. None. So it's impressive that you held out like that. I loves me some Ravage, that's for sure!
ReplyDeleteThanks! I knew it was only a matter of time.
DeleteMy idea of patience is waiting a few weeks. I don't think I could have waited thirteen years to pull the trigger on a purchase! Good show!
ReplyDeleteNot to start anything, but I may have been in the minority in being slightly annoyed at all of the G1 stuff in BW. I felt like it was a good enough show to stand on it's own merits.
It's odd, I always have about 10 or 15 figures in the back of my head I am always on the watch for, Ravage was definitely the longest though. He just never came up for a good price!
DeleteAnd you're right BW was strong enough to stand on its own, but I thought it was important they linked it back to G1 since it was part of that universe. They only helped make both lines richer in story. Did you watch BW when it originally aired or years later? I can see how it would seem like a tired concept after roughly 12 years of G1 reboots but back then it was fresh, new and exciting.
DeleteI watched the original one. I don't know, I think what set me off was the original Optimus Primal/Megatron two pack. The one where Primal was a bat and Megs was an alligator or something. When I read the package for me, I guess I had "Trukk not munky" rage. When the cartoon premiered, I thought it was a breath of fresh air because it was all new. The addition of the G1 stuff just seemed like a cop-out to me. But, I realize I'm in the extreme minority on this.
DeleteThe first Transmetal Cheetor mold was one of best and they found a way to make it even better. I've seen his price dropping a bit over the years (guess the hype has dropped a bit?), but I still haven't pulled the trigger. My only experience w/ this mold is when I sold my brother's years ago for a whopping $199! One day though. It's too cool of a toy not to own...even if my Beast Wars display is ever shrinking.
ReplyDeleteI was really surprised this figure was never available on the old HTS unlike Shadow Panther, Tigatron and BW2 Galvatron. Especially since it was such a popular character. He is such an integral character, much more so than say B'Boom or Scourge.
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