Transformers

Review – Transformers – Generations – Brainstorm

If you’ve been keeping track, you might have noticed that I’ve gone through all of the original 7 Headmaster’s remakes from Titan’s Returns. You might have been expecting the last review here to cover Titan’s Return Brainstorm. Well, you’d be almost correct. The thing is, I have Generations Brainstorm already, and I don’t really need Titan’s Return Brainstorm, so instead, you’re getting Generations Brainstorm.

If you follow some of the recent lines just before Combiner Wars, it kind of felt like Hasbro was exploring and experimenting with ideas for future lines. We got Scoop with his Trigger masters, and the Minicon combiner team, and Brainstorm here, the first Headmaster in years, I believe since Transformers Energon with it’s Omega Supreme and Minicon head. Before that was Armada Sideways with his swappable headmasters.

As our first modern Headmaster, Brainstorm is pretty good. There were some early reports about issues with the neck joint on the Headmaster and body, but rumor has it that problem was fixed. He even fakes the classic power level gimmick with a flip down panel inside his chest that activates when the Headmaster is attached.

The Headmaster itself is a little iffy though, the arms are large chunks with the arm bits painted on in the appropriate areas. He looks nice for the most part for such a small figure though. He works well with his little cockpit in space ship mode.

The new headmasters though aren’t compatible at all. There is a size difference for starters, which breaks the port set up. In the broader sense though, I like the size difference here just because it makes for some nice variety from “All Deluxe scale”. I also am not huge on swapping the heads between bodies, so I don’t really mind that there is a lack of compatibility.

So I’m not saying the Titans Return Brainstorm is bad, he’s based on one of the better molds in the line, but I just really like this version of Brainstorm from a few years earlier in Generations.

Review – Transformers – Titans Return – Wolfwire (Weirdwolf)

Feb 9th, 2017

by Ramen Junkie.

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The last entry in the line for Titans Returns Decepticon updates for the G1 Headmasters is Wolfwire. In G1, Wolfwire was known as Weirdwolf. There are all sorts of crazy reasons for name changes like this from rights ownership to names being slurs in other languages or even just because Hasbro decided that they don’t like the name Weirdwolf anymore.

Weirdwolf, Wolfwire, whatever you want to call him, he’s definitely the best of the Decepticon ranks here. He’s has nice pose ability in both modes, his weapons are both nice, his transformations is simple yet nicely elegant.

The beast mode has a real Voltron vibe going for it, though he is a wolf and not a lion. There is a small cockpit window for the Titan Master on the back and the canon that attaches to his back certainly feels Voltron-ish. Maybe Zoids is a slightly better comparison. I suppose in the end robotic animals will look like Robotic animals.

The cockpit is also large enough that he can seat two Titan Masters inside instead of just one, though the front Titan Master doesn’t have a way to attach. Also, like Mindwipe and Skullcruncher, Weirdwolf’s beast mouth is articulated as well.

I mentioned his weapons a bit. He includes a sword and a canon. Like all of the Titans Return deluxe toys, the larger weapons are hollow and designed to work as seats/vehicle things for the Titan Masters. Unlike most of the other weapons like this, his doesn’t look weird when used as a gun for the robot. This is mostly likely because it doesn’t really form a part of the beast/vehicle so it’s free to simply look like a big gun.

I don’t have any major complaints about Wolfwire as a toy. He’s a probably the best of the line through Waves 1 and 2. He even has a nice cockpit making him appropriate for use as a wolf mech for the smaller Titan Master figures.

Review – Transformers – Titans Return – Highbrow

Feb 2nd, 2017

by Ramen Junkie.

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Like most of the original Headmasters, Highbrow hasn’t gotten a proper update in a while. There was a pretty neat Highbrow back in the Hunt for the Decepticons sub-line of Revenge of the Fallen, though his alt mode for that line was a Lockheed P38-Bomber style plane, and he was mostly green instead of his original blue and white. It’s a neat toy mostly for using a cool alt mode, but it’s not very Highbrow and it wasn’t a headmaster.

Like most of Titans Return, Highbrow is a much more faithful remake of his G1 iteration. He has the same colors and turns into a dual prop Cybertronian helicopter. It’s not a toy without some pretty bad flaws though, mostly due to the helicopter blades. This is one of those areas where the lessened budget of newer toys actually become a bit of a hindrance. The helicopter blades don’t have any way to lock into place in robot mode and don’t fold out of the way in any meaningful way. They just sort of flip around, which wouldn’t be a problem except they tend to get locked up in his massive helicopter cockpit backpack.

He also suffers from a severe case of “wobbly head” syndrome, which seems to plague a few of these Titans Returns figures. Part of the problem seems to be that the hook for his head sticks out from his neck a few millimeters. On the plus side, it means he can sort of look up and down a bit, but it doesn’t make things lose and floppy. Something that was most common in the Wave 1 figure Scourge, which brings up another interesting bit…

Back in my review of Chromedome, I made a comment about how Chromedome looks like he is a remold of the Combiner Wars Breakdown mold, but isn’t, he just shares a transformation. Highbrow here has a similar sort of situation going, because technically, Highbrow IS a remold of Titans Return Scourge. That said, they share almost zero actual parts and their transformations are “reversed.” Where Scourge’s front form by joining his legs together, Highbrow forms the rear of the helicopter. The tell tale bit that these are remolds lies in the pull out section on the hips/legs used during transformation. That, and that they are part of the same lines, it’s actually pretty uncommon to have a remold cross over between lines the way Chromedome and Dead End would have done.

The toys are definitely different enough to warrant owning both of them if you are interested in both. The transformation results in a pretty near little helicopter. The cockpit is functional to allow for the Titan Master to fit inside. The two guns can attach to the underside of the wings to give the chopper some artillery, though they attach via the non round pegs, which is slightly against what you commonly see but it allows for the use of the molded landing wheels. There’s a third flip out landing gear that isn’t super obvious on the under side of the cockpit.

The helicopter mode looks good and holds together very solidly. It’s definitely a good addition to the vehicles for Titan Masters. If your interest in this line lies more with the Titan Masters and their vehicles and bases, Highbrow is definitely a good addition, even if his Robot mode is a little clunky.

Review – Transformers – Titans Return – Mindwipe

Jan 26th, 2017

by Ramen Junkie.

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Continuing on with the updated Decepticon Headmasters, today’s review cover’s Titans Return Mindwipe. Wave 1 gave us Skullcruncher, the first beast based headmaster, Wave 2 gives us Mindwipe and Weirdwolf. All of the updated Headmasters figures are very close in design and look to their original G1 counterparts with the exception of Mindwipe. While Mindwipe captures the essence of the Bat to Robot, he has a very different transformation and much more proportioned look overall.

That design change isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it’s just something that may bother people looking for a really pure “update”. Titans Return Mindwipe is also much closer to the original design than the previous best update from Hunt for the Decepticons. HFTD Mindwipe is a nice figure, but he’s a brownish stealth bomber robot. He’s as close to the original design as HFTD Highbrow was.

Like Skullcruncher, Mindwipe does some really interesting things with his Transformation and design. Fortunately, Mindwipe isn’t nearly as flawed as Skullcruncher is. His shins are a little huge, which hinders his leg articulations a but that’s his only major flaw. I suppose I could also mention that the claw weapon is supposed to peg into the Bat’s but to form a sort of tail but it falls out instantly because the hold is too large as well. It really doesn’t feel like much of a flaw though because frankly, the tail is underwhelming and looks lame anyway. The bat is better off without it attached.

So what actually is interesting? Firstly, his robot has extra vestigial wings, entirely to give him wings in his robot mode. This is because of the way the actual wings transform. They sort of roll up on themselves to form the legs. It’s certainly a different technique for dealing with wings in the Transformers line, and pretty clever to boot.

Also fun is his Titan Master cockpit in bat mode, it’s a coffin shaped door, you know, because coffins and vampires and bats. It’s a neat little touch for what could have just been a simple open and toss him in deal.

The transformation is a bit tricky due to the way the legs/wings work, there are a lot of swivels and joints that have to be turned just right to make everything line up and tab in properly, which could be a little tricky for some. The bat head mouth opens and closes, which is a nice touch as well, but it doesn’t have any way to look “up” for flying poses.

Titan Returns Mindwipe is a pretty fun and neat addition to the line. He’s definitely a step up from Skullcruncher’s floppy mess.

Review – Transformers – Titans Return – Chromedome

Jan 19th, 2017

by Ramen Junkie.

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Wave 2 of the Titans Returns line wraps up the redesigned versions of the original 7 Headmasters from G1. Today’s review is for Titans Return Chromedome with Stylor. There haven’t been a whole lot of easy to get options for an updated Chromedome since the original Generation One release. There was a repaint of Transformers Prime Wheeljack for the Collectors Club, and at least one 3rd Party figure in Fansproject CODE. He’s a fairly popular character in the IDW comics but he is admittedly kind of a bland design with all of his squareishness and brown shades. It’s understandable that he’s not the first choice for a toy.

If you’re familiar with the previous Transformers line, Combiner Wars, you might look at this figure and see it as a remold of the overused Breakdown/Prowl mold. While Chromedome certainly has a lot of design queues from that figure and a very similar Transformation, he is a very different figure and doesn’t seem to actually share any parts with that older mold. It’s an understandable mistake, but it’s not an accurate one.

The differences are kind of similar to the old complain that Transformers Cybertron Starscream was the same toy as G2 Smokejumper, which share a transformation but are totally different figures. I feel like Hasbro does such a good job of making every transformation unique despite how many Transformers there are, it tends to just stick out on the rare occasion that they reuse a Transformation.

He’s a nice solid toy as well, there have been some budget cuts on the Transformers design process in the last few years (mentioned by the design team) which resulted in a lot of hollowness and weirdness for a few years but it’s starting to really be apparent with this line that the designers have managed to get a good hold on working within these confines. It kind of feels like it’s helped the line as well, we’re starting to get a lot of good designs that still have simpler transformations with less random flippy bits.

The headmaster Stylor is identical to all of the other Headmasters. The fit on the head peg is solid, which tends to be the biggest issue on some of these figures (say hello Scourge). The fit of the smaller robot in Chromedome’s cockpit is nice and solid as well, the cars are particularly great for the little guys to drive around in.

The colors are definitely Chromedome’s colors, but it does make him pretty bland. He’s not a flashy sports car, he’s not a sleek looking car, he’s just a very, brown car. There is a bit of an issue with his hood being a little tricky to get lines up but otherwise it’s an alright design and rolls along easily.

Titans Return Chromedome isn’t an amazing entry to the Transformers line but he’s not a bad one at all either. He’s pretty middle of the road with no major flaws but nothing that makes him stand out.