Panther

Panther is a Maximal from the Beast Wars portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.

I stand up!

Panther turns into... a panther! Yeah.

Fiction

Beast Wars Perfect Book

Panther was a Maximal ground soldier. Very fast on his feet, he showcased this ability by using his speed for reconnaissance. Beast Wars Perfect Book

2006 IDW Beast Wars continuity

Panther is somewhat of an oddball... On top of constantly talking to himself, in strange third-person narratives no less, he believes even the most mundane of missions to be of the utmost importance. Though he is stealthy, his tendency to make his monologues out loud tend to give his position away. Beast Wars Sourcebook #3

Beast Wars: Uprising

Panther was on the Maximal team in the fateful 1924th match of the Games, which was interrupted by Lio Convoy's assassination of Supersonic and call for an uprising against the Builders. Broken Windshields

2021 Beast Wars comic

Manta Ray, Rhino, and Panther were visiting Iacon's Sculpture Garden where they mocked the Preadcon Skold for trying to indulge in Maximal activities, lowering her self-esteem enough for Megatron to recruit her. Thicker Skin

Toys

Beast Wars

• Panther (McDonald's Happy Meal toy, 1996)

Part of the first McDonald's Beast Wars promotion, Panther transforms into a heavily-armed Humvee with electronic lights and sounds, plus a spring-loaded missile.

No, just kidding, he transforms into a panther with no other gimmicks. In keeping with most Transformers fast-food premiums, he features an extremely simple transformation scheme, mostly just standing him up in beast mode, making the mechanical detail on the inside of his arms, legs and underbelly visible, and flipping back his beast mode head to reveal his robot mode head. His panther tail is a molded detailing in his back, unlike what his promotional art suggests. His head bears a resemblance to Cheetor's.

Panther was repurposed to be Ravage in the Beast Wars Metals manga. (Amusingly, said manga simultaneously repurposed Ravage's own Beast Wars toy as Ravage's son.)

• More information on Panther at TFU.info

Notes

It's a mutation. It's a very groovy mutation.

• Panther was developed from the original concept of Cheetor, where he was a black panther (or cougar) version of Prowl. The initial toy design underwent many simplifications before reaching the final McDonald's product as Panther.^[1]
• Jake Isenberg's artwork for Panther in the IDW Beast Wars Sourcebook depicts the Maximal with a sort of robotic equivalent for heterochromia iridum. One of his eyes is yellow, the other green in robot mode. Another character, Botanica, exhibits heterochromia iridum in her plant form, but not her robot form.

References