Name: Catilla
Series: Generation 1
Allegiance: Autobot
Function: Surveillance
Alternate Mode: Sabre Tooth Cat
SABRE TOOTH CAT MODE
Height: 6cm Length: 11cm Width: 6cm
A grey robotic cat with a pale yellow head along with pale yellow fore paws and hindlegs. Catilla has a blue wraparound eyevisor along with various plastic stickers here and there, which are red and grey. The colours don't really look like those of a big cat, which is fair enough since he's robotic - but I'm not sold on the layout of the colours - the front paws look out of place. We'll probably never know what colour sabre tooth cats were - and there were many species - but it's fair to say that grey and yellow are realistic enough colour - although probably not in this layout.
His bodyshape isn't especially car-like, it's wide and low set - more like a bear on all fours. The head is clearly that of some sort of felid, The tail is short and straight, since it has to fold away. The grey robot head is clearly visible on top of his head, although it looks more like a patch than a head, at least.
Play value is minimal, but is what you;d expect of a Pretender. The limbs all swing and his tail can lift up. The grey gun can plug into a screw hole on his back or into smaller holes on the outsides of his forelimbs. The former looks better, and the other holes are intended for the robot mode, anyway.
A simple cat mode, which is really only defined by his cat like head and large incisors. The colours are simple, as you'd expect of a Pretender, and I'm not really keen on the layout. While this is a better alternate mode than most Pretenders with an animal mode, it's far from a great cat mode.
TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE
Flip the tail up, fold out the rear to become his robot legs, flip up the head down under his chest. Stand the robot up, swing down his arms, fold his hands out and flip up the foreclaws.
ROBOT MODE
Height: 10cm Width: 6cm
A grey robot with a yellow cat head on his chest, yellow wristpads and hands and yellow car hindlegs hanging backwards from his boots, Catilla has a red painted face - including his eyes. There's a plastic Autobot logo sticker on his chest - nestled in the cavity within the beast head where his robot mode head stows. The colour layout is much better here, even if the grey is very dominant. The yellow feels more peripheral, which is uninteresting, but it's distributed more evenly.
The lower legs are a single piece - as tends to be the case on Pretender Beasts. The tail blends into the false gap between his boots quite well while the protruding head on his chest integrates surprisingly well. While this isn't a spectacular robot mode, it's better than some of the Pretender Beasts.
Poseability is fairly poor. The shoulders swing, the head can only wiggle. His knees don't bend, they only fold right back for animal mode. The large gun can clip onto the outside of either arm, but cannot plug into his fists, which lack holes.
A pretty simple robot mode, which is as generic as most Pretenders. The colours here are probably the best amongst the Pretender Beasts, but they're mediocre at best. Forgettable and simple, if not awful.
The Pretender Shell
A yellow sabre-tooh cat with a bodyshape that's more tiger than anything else. The inside of the mouth is orange along with flashes on the "mane". The eyes are black and the sabre teeth are white (along with smaller teeth sculpted inside the open mouth). There's red armour moulded onto much of the body itself, complete with mechanical sculpt which contrasts nicely against the sculpted fur on the yellow areas. The tail is composed of a shiny silver plastic which is slightly flexible, and bears a fur sculpt. The colours work well overall and aside from the silver tail the colours are quite credible. Okay, aside from the fact that sabre tooth cats wouldn't have worn red armour.
There's a detachable silver helmet, which must be removed to open the shell. It actually splits down the centreline and the tail can then detach. The inner robot _and_ gun can fit inside, although the gun is meant to plug into a hole in the armour, just above the right hip. This shell is in a slow walking pose.
A well focussed shell although it's not notably better or worse than the other shells. The organic sabre tooth cat is a nice idea (we never saw a beast of this sort in Beast Wars).
VARIATIONS
None I'm aware of.
OVERALL
Probably the best Pretender Beast, Catilla has a relatively strong robot mode with decent colours, a decent beast mode with some colour issues and a good Pretender shell. While nothing really jumps out here and grabs you, there's nothing _awful_ about Catilla. Okay, the robot mode is generic and the transformation is simple, but he's passable while most of the Pretender Beasts are very disappointing - 5/10
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