Toy has posted a new item, 'Brainstorm of a G1 nature.'
A year or so ago, I managed to gain another one of the beloved HeadMasters. I
have loved this concept since the day I got my grubby kiddy hands on Mindwipe.
Slowly but surely I am getting a few more toys that feature this gimmick and
here I have a few shots of Brainstorm, one that I have wanted over the others
for a while now.
What I loved about the Headmasters was that their heads transformed into little
pilots for the vehicle, or in the case of the Decepticons, trainers for the
beast modes. I preferred the way the Japanese continuity dealt with the story
though. I just didnt really make sense for the Transformer to combine and allow
a totally different being to control their body for them like in the US/UK
story. Anyway, as you can see, Brainstorm is a wide robot. Remember these are
Generation One toys, so a certain amount of chunk is expected. He comes with two
guns and his pilot, Arcana, supposedly the guy who engineered the Headmaster
process. I quite like the look of the robot mode for this guy to be honest. He
has enough details on him to keep him interesting. He is slightly taller than a
modern deluxe.Arcana is a fairly well sculpted little fellow. I think the heads
of the Headmasters usually come out looking pretty good for such little guys.
Sure, articulation isnt anything fantastic, but they do come with up/down
movement in the shoulders, which was added as it isnt needed for their head
mode. The legs are relegated to what is needed for transforming and the knees
are pinned together. The chest is always nicely sculpted and they all have a
panel that folds down to cover the robot face on their back. Unfortunately this
gets loose over the years and most will fall covering the robots face when its
being used on the main robot.
One thing I find most odd in the design though is the arms. there is a solid
corner in the underarms, which pushes the backpack back from the front of the
figure. This causes avoidable stress on not only the chest and back, but also
the shoulder joint. As a result, I have seen more than a few Headmaster heads
missing an arm or two. I have a Grax who is missing an arm and sadly its needed
to give the side of the robot head a side.
The head mode is pretty cool though. I do like the details that are sculpted on
there to give them all great personality, but considering how the heads are a
lot larger than other G1 heads, which have some great sculpted detail as well,
its not an amazing feat on these big boys.
I do wish that Brainstorms eyes were a different colour to the rest of his face
though.The head becomes the neck (of sorts, no movement though) and the square
plugs on the shoulders of the little robot help with the stats gimmick that was
a big thing on the head masters.Like thus:
The robot mode looks a bit dorky without the head and they dont have any necks,
so until the head is there, its chunk-city.
You know I think even from the back, old brainstorm looks pretty cool, despite
having the nose of his vehicle mode hanging off him.For me though, vehicle mode
is where the love is.lets check him out.
He looks like a very convincing future jet thing. Nice. The guns on the side of
the nose come off to form the robot mode guns. There isnt that much ambient
sculpting going on, but there are a few nice simple touches such as vents and
air intakes about the place. As my one is getting on now, I have noticed that
his thigh joints are incredibly stiff, I'll have to look into finding a way to
lubricate them up a little. Even the back looks fine with the port for the head
there. Brainstorm also has some little wheels on the bottom for rolling along
the floor when required.Of course Arcana can sit in the cockpit of the jet for
fun flying action!
Transformation for this guy is simple, believe me instructions are not required
as youll be able to work out what goes where just by looking at these pictures,
but its quick and fun and works well in the middle of play battle.I really love
this guy. In fact I love all of the Headmasters I have come across in the
plastic. For me, the little pilot really adds an extra dimension to play. Now,
not only do you have big robots to smash up stuff, you have little human sized
dudes to go into bars and pick fights with other aliens, then they all run out
into the street and OH MY! Arcana can suddenly finish the bar fight in control
of a big jet sized robot. Sure the colours might be a bit naff, but you cant
deny that he definitely looks like an Autobot.With Brainstorm especially I like
his future Jet mode. Its very very cool and to be honest, I would LOVE to see
Hasbro/TakTom revisit the Headmasters (with working Headmaster Gimmick) in the
Generations line. how sweet would a modern engineered Headmaster toy be? After
all they have done a TargetMaster and successfully re-issued Fortress Maximus.
Obviously I am not the only one out there who loves the Headmasters.
You may view the latest post at
http://toy.web.id/brainstorm-of-a-g1-nature/
Best regards,
Toy
http://toy.web.id
