Jagwar

At last, a spelling that could stop British people mispronouncing this word! Mighty Mutanimal Jagwar has been fully self-sufficient since he was 12, which you would expect from the son of the great Jaguar Spirit. He roams the rainforest, defending it against all who would destroy or defile it. One issue before meeting Dreadmon, the Turtles were dropped off in the rainforest outside of Rio Branco, Acre, and immediately ran into an anthropomorphic jaguar-man who took them to his sacred temple and invited them to help him rescue a kidnapped American reporter. Anyone who read the Archie TMNT comics can tell you they really leaned into that strong vein of '90s environmentalism, so a "save the rainforest" arc happening was pretty much a given. Although his first comic didn't come out until 1990, Stephen Murphy and Michael Dooney had pitched the idea for the character a year earlier - in fact, putting him in the book may have been an effort to get that toy made. The original design would have included a spot on the shape of a skull right in the center of his forehead, but that that may have been a bit much for the "kiddie" comic, so don't expect to see that on this toy's cartoony head. Jagwar was sculpted by Tony Cipriano, who's given the friendly cat-man a fully furry body. He's average human height, and definitely muscular under his fuzz. His "clothing" is just pointy leaves looped together to form wristbands, a necklace, and a skirt. The skirt splits in the back to let his tail poke through, but it still provides more coverage than it did in the comics, where it was basically just a belt. Despite being feline, Jagwar's feet are fully flat, not digitigrade. It's always a crapshoot how much "animal" and how much "man" will be in any given animal man, but if he's got c;aws on his fingers, shouldn't he also have claws on his toes? It's possible "Jagwar" is the character's real name - at least, there's no indication he's going by a codename or anything. The toy is mostly an orange-yellow hue, contrasting against the green of his leaves. Although he's clearly a South American character, and named after jaguars, his spots are more like those of a leopard: remember, jaguars have irregular small dots, surrounded by larger dots that blend together to form big individual rosettes; Jagwar just has black rings. Maybe that's just a feature of the pseudo-animated art style; maybe it's because he's a mystical being who isn't beholden to normal physical restrictions. The important thing is, they're not tiger stripes. The toy's hinges were minorly stiff when he came out of the tray, but not to the point where getting them moving was any kind of trouble. Jagwar has swivel/hinge ankles, double-hinged knees, swivel thighs, balljointed hips, a swivel waist, balljointed chest, swivel/hinge wrists, swivel/hinge elbows, swivel biceps, swivel/hinged shoulders, and a barbell head. Being a large cat, he has a tail, made from bendy material and attached to the body with a swivel/hinge. Additionally, both his heads have hinged jaws, which is unexpected! Jagwar doesn't have big bushy eyebrows, so just doing swappable eyes like Dreadmon wouldn't work, which is why we get two heads. The normal one has big eyes, and so so looks friendly, while the alternate head has a much narrower gaze, making him sinister. Good thing we know he's a good guy! Neither of the mouths open very far - basically just enough to part the teeth and give us a glimpse of his tongue - but having the option is good. The toy has three sets of hands: fists, clawing, and gripping. Unfortunately, the hands aren't closed tightly enough to hold the one accessory he would be holding: a sharp stick unpon which he's speared a large purple fish for dinner. He could probably hold the Malignoid larva, though why would he want to? We get a bowl of fruit with no animal intestines in it this time (grapes, apples, oranges, pineapple, bananas, pear), and a nice little campfire, either to cook the fish over or for all the Mutanimals to sit around and share origin stories as they bond. The final accessory is not something Jagwar would ever use. Because the final accessory is Jagwar. Jagwar as a baby, taken directly from a panel in Mighty Mutanimals #2. Jagwar's mom, Juntarra, met the magical jaguar spirit, Yaguaro, while on a quest, and she got a demi-god baby out of the deal. So this little kitten-headed infant all swaddled in a purple blanket will someday grow up to be Jagwar. And thus it's unlikely he'd ever be cradling himself. The fabrication for the accessories was done by Kushwara Studios. Playmates almost did a (non-specific) Jaguar Mutant toy at one point, and Stephen Murphy convinced them to allow him to make it Jagwar when he was writing the bios. But, alas, the toy (and the entire series) was cancelled. That obviously worked out for the best, because now we've got a toy of the real thing, rather than a stand-in. -- 06/15/23