Name: Tigertrack
Series: e-Hobby exclusives (actually a magazine exclusive)
Allegiance: Cybertron
Function: Guardian
Alternate Mode: Lamborghini Countache
CAR MODE
Height: 4cm Length: 11cm Width: 5cm
A classic yellow Countache, Tigertrack has clear windows and a black front bumper. He's also got black air intakes on the doors and a black panel on his roof. A Ferrari-style logo graces his bonnet, although it's yellow so it doesn't really stand out very much. He has headlight & taillight stickers and a big Autobot sticker on the bonnet.
A very nice car mode. The wheels are chrome, the tyres rubber, all the windows clear - there's even a windscreen wiper moulded onto the windscreen. The back half of the car, save for the spoiler, is die-cast metal. Sharing his mould with Sideswipe, Tigertrack is a lot louder. Basically, he's the sort of car you'd only drive if you were a real attention seeker. Still, his car mode looks nice as a toy which is what we care about, right?
There's quite a lot of detail in the moulding. He's essentially yellow, but as well as a windscreen wiper, he has indented air intakes, mounded head & taillights, engine canopy and boot seams. Inside the cockpit there's room for one driver - a Diaclone driver, of course. You can actually mistransform him so that his head is visible in this cavity!
Play value is limited to rolling on his wheels, which is about as much as you can expect from a car mode, short of a pull-back motor. It doesn't have axles, and hence doesn't roll straight (or very far) unassisted. But Tigertrack looks that good that overall this is still a fantastic car mode.
TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE
Pull back the engine block, separate it into two halves to form the legs. fold down the front around 90° and then pull out the doors to form the arms. You can them completely fold down the front to become his chest, and swing out the head from under this front section. Swivel up his roof to form the backpack, position the arms, give him his weapons and you're done.
ROBOT MODE
Height: 11cm Width: 7.5cm
The yellow is joined by white and black in this mode, with the addition of chrome silver. He's got a black head with a silver face. The chest is yellow, being the front of the car. His arms are silver & yellow, with tyres on his shoulders and black hands. The waist is white, the groin black. His thighs are white, shins black, the sides of the lower legs are yellow and the feet silver. The use of yellow and white, whilst not a bad combination, isn't quite as nice as the all yellow car mode.
He's got some blue present on stickers on his forearms and feet. The factory applied stickers are paper and the ones off the sheet are metallic foil. Foil wears less, but if it curls, you're in trouble. So I guess I'd go with foil, but not by much. It does make it easier to reposition the stickers if you place them unevenly when applying them, also.
The missile launcher itself is black, the trigger yellow and the missile white, with the front part being chrome silver. It shoots maybe a foot, which is pretty good for a Diaclone launcher, actually. The gun is white. The toy's poseability is limited to only the shoulders, which can swivel 360°. But you can add the missile launcher to it's play value. At any rate, the strength of this mode is it's display value, as in car mode. Overall, a very good and well proportioned robot mode, with great display value.
VARIATIONS
None that I'm aware of, and probably none at all since this toy was a magazine mail away and likely done all in one production run.
OVERALL
Tigertrack is a revisiting of one of the two Diaclone colour schemes of Sideswipe's mould - with Deep Cover being the other. Of the two, Deep Cover contrasts more with Sideswipe - Tigertrack is very similar to Sideswipe. Of the two I'd recommend Deep Cover, partly because he's more distinct and partly because he's cheaper. But Tigertrack is still a nice toy in his own right. Attention to detail, realistic car mode, good colour scheme and quality of manufacturing (metal, clear windows) all work in his favour. The yellow works very well in car mode but isn't as successful in robot mode. Tigertrack gets 9/10, lower than Sideswipe or Deep Cover because of his price tag and colours
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