Headmasters

Review – Transformers – Titans Return – Wolfwire (Weirdwolf)

Feb 9th, 2017

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 – 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 – Skullcruncher (Skullsmasher)

Jan 5th, 2017

by Ramen Junkie.

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For the titans Returns line, Hasbro has opted to revisit the Headmasters gimmick of G1. There are some other nods to the Target Masters and Power Masters, but the actual gimmick is heads that come off and turn into smaller robots that interact with the larger vehicles. In the original run of Headmasters, there were 7 original toys, Skullcruncher, Mindwipe, Weirdwolf, Chromedome, Hardhead, Highbrow and Brainstorm. Thankfully, for the updated designs, they dove right in nd gave us all 7, across the first two haves (one figure being a store exclusive). There are also some other characters who were not originally Headmasters thrown in for filler.

Today I’m going to start off on these original 7 with Skullcruncher. All three of the original Decepticon Headmasters were animals, Skullcruncher being a robotic Crocodile. I wanted to start with Skullcruncher because while he has some neat tricks and a fun design, he’s got a lot of flaws that really make him one of the weaker toys in the line.

I’m going to start with the good points. The crocodile mode is really nicely sized. Granted a chunk of the length is the tail bit which parts forms into a gun, but fully stretched out he is easily 10″ long. There isn’t a ton of leg articulation, though that’s kind of to be expected for a crocodile, his tail and head and flex side to side a bit giving him some expressiveness in beast mode. The mouth of the croc opens up as well.

The Transformation is pretty basic but the neck and shoulders form up in a neat way to form the front croc legs, which earns Skullcruncher a few points for being interesting. Basically the shoulders flip up and land at an angle while the croc head folds over and pegs it all into place.

Unfortunately, he kind of falls apart a bit in robot mode. The basic robot is all right and he has one of the more interesting looking faces on his Titan Master, but his hips are extremely loose. Like, he’s going to just do the splits and fall over loose. I have heard of numerous reports of this issue across the board on this figure so I can’t say my toy is a 1 off problem. The hips have also gotten much looser over time, I can barely keep him standing now where originally it was loose but doable.

Each of these figures has a cockpit for the Titan Master in their vehicle/beast mode as well. Skullcruncher loses out again, for some reason his cockpit uses a flimsy rubbery flap for it’s cover, something none of the other figures (so far) do. The others all have hard plastic. The soft plastic is tricky to get open and is easily, accidentally pushed down into the cavity. I’m not entirely sure why they went with this weird other plastic for the cockpit cover, the location and set up doesn’t have any need for it.

On one last side note, he has a pretty neat Crocodile man mode than can be made halfway through transformation.

All in all, Titans Return Skullcruncher is a nice looking update to an old figure, but it’s a severely flawed toy in a lot of ways that feel like they would have been easily fixable with a bit more design work by Hasbro.