Bengali

He's goin' at it hammer and tongs! The young Thundercat Bengali came to Third-Earth with Pumyra and Lynx-O, but he joined the other Thundercats after their unexpected reunion. He is an agile warrior, accomplished pilot, and a skilled blacksmith. Armed with the Hammer of Thundera, he once assumed the task of reforging the Sword of Omens itself after the Lunatak Tug Mug broke its blade. Despite his intelligence, Bengali is often hot-tempered and impulsive in battle, but he nevertheless embodies the Code of Thundera. Man, how many times was the Sword of Omens broken? A Lunatak broke it, Grune broke it, it once broke when Mumm-Ra tricked Lion-O into attacking Tygra... it has to be the most breakable magic sword in existence! It's, like, extra-super-breakable. No wonder they added a blacksmith to the team! Bengali was always best described as "white Tygra," and this toy isn't about to change that. It's not the same sculpt as the other toy, but his hair is intentionally similar. (The facial markings are more like Cheetara, but covering his forehead, too.) We get two faces - one calm, one snarling - and they both look like Tygra's albino brother. The heads are molded in white plastic, and the face itself is left bare, making it a slightly different shade than the painted white hair. Costume design had progressed a bit by the time the second-tier Thundercats were introduced, so Bengali has some pretty cool clothes. Like Tygra, he's barefoot, and has the same sort of rings at the top of his boots - though his point up, not down. His shirt has flared shoulders, and there are matching elements at the ends of his sleeves. He's also the only Thundercat who doesn't wear his symbol right in the center: he has a two-strap harness around his chest, and the red logo is over the right breast. All his colors are shades of blue, which works quite well with his white fur. His articulation is unsurprising. These Super7 Ultimates are cast in the MotUC mold (not literally), so they tend to move similarly. He's got swivel/hinge ankles, swivel/hinged knees, swivel thighs, swivel/​hinge hips, swivel waist, hinged torso, swivel/hinge wrists, swivel/hinged elbows, swivel biceps, swivel/hinge shoulders, and a balljointed head. He also gets a bunch of alternate hands, as is the Super7 Ultimates way: fists, claws, and two sets of holding (one with the hinge running east/west, the other with the hinge running north/south). Because he's a blacksmith, Bengali's weapon is the Hammer of Thundera, an overly auspicious name for what seems to be a tool he found on Third-Earth. It's not like he brought it with him from Thundera: the planet was exploding and they were rescued by chance, and he certainly didn't have it when living on their remote island. It's an ornate hammer with a white tiger's head as part of the design - awfully convenient that the white tiger is the one who ends up using it! It has a light blue handle with three red balls dangling from it, very similar to Tygra's whip. There's a sling on his left hip where the hammer can be stored, though you'll have to stretch it a bit to get the hammer in. The set includes the Sword of Omens with an orange and yellow blade, representing him reforging it, as well as the pedestal he was reforging it on. Why was he using a table and not an anvil? Don't know. The set does include an anvil, however, with the Thundercats' logo on both sides and a chunk of metal ore sitting on top. Also a separate chunk. None of which are things he used to fix the sword. The surface of the anvil has two blatant indentations - a square and a circle - that seem to serve no purpose. Those are actual features on a real anvil: the square one (the hardy hole) lets you plug in additional shaping tools, the round one (the pritchel hole) helps you poke holes in the metal. Way more detail on this than you would have needed! With the release of Bengali, we now have the complete Thundercats B-team, and are only waiting on Snarf and an appropriate Jaga to finish the while lineup. That's a pretty impressive accomplishment, and makes for a pretty impressive collection. -- 12/15/22

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