Review - Fans Hobby MB-12 Athena
Fans Hobby is finally diving into the smaller characters from Masterforce, with their debut car-bot Athena; an interpretation of the Autobot Headmaster Jr. Minerva. Athena is stylized and scaled in such a way to fit with your existing Masterpiece collection, and of course she is perfectly at home among Fans Hobby’s previous offerings.
This review is based on a production sample provided by Fans Hobby. A big thanks to Fans Hobby for their support! Let’s check out the figure and see how well Athena turned out!
Vehicle Mode
Just like her inspiration, Minerva, Athena’s vehicle mode is a sleek sports car, styled after the Porsche 959. Obviously this is not a licensed Porsche product, so some of the details are not exactly the same as the real world vehicle. Regardless this is one sleek and gorgeous vehicle mode cast in a shiny white plastic, with painted red stripes along the bottom of the doors, rear fenders, and rear spoiler. There are also painted silver details in the front grill and fenders, as well as clear insert headlights with silver paint behind them. The tires are rubber with sculpted treads, and mounted on painted silver rims that look fantastic. Fans Hobby also did a pretty good job of matching most of the seam lines to natural curves of the vehicle, only the front fender/hood area has any obvious seams due to the knee pads that fold out in bot mode.
Athena comes with a sticker set, that can be used to attach the iconic medics cross on her doors and hood. The hood logo is a split decal as this part of the vehicle mode splits in half during transformation. There are also stickers for front and rear license plates, and interior cockpit details. I am not particularly a fan of decals, but these stickers are very high quality. They feel like vinyl decals, and there are spares of the split cross, and the door crosses, in case you make a mistake in lining them up, or they start to peel for any reason. Under normal circumstances I would be disappointed to see decals used on a figure in this price point, however given the litigious nature of the Red Cross Organization, I can understand and forgive the use of decals in order to avoid any legal concerns. The same thing happened on the Takara release of Masterpiece Ratchet, and I’m sure it will be an ongoing issue for any other Medic bots that are released in the future.
Being a Headmaster Jr, Athena comes with a “power pilot” who can sit inside and pilot the vehicle mode. In order to do this, you must remove the top roof, rear windows, and windshield. They are all attached as one piece, that becomes the backpack in robot mode. Once removed you must push down on the center of the cockpit area, in order to move the robots body section down to create space for the pilots legs. Once the pilot is inserted you can push this piece back up to hold her tight, and re-attach the roof. It can be a bit tricky to get everything perfectly lined up, and you want to make sure the body of the robot is pushed back up otherwise it will scrape on the ground when you roll the vehicle. Weapon storage is also possible in vehicle mode, with Athena’s dual pistols folded up and tucked inside the rear fenders while the roof is off.
Robot Mode
Transformation follows Fans Hobby’s history of intuitive and simple but effective transformations. I suggest giving the instructions a read at least once over, or check out a transformation video just as a precaution, but once you’ve transformed Athena once or twice I think you’ll have it pretty solidified in your mind. The roof of the vehicle is removed and transformed separately, and clips on as her backpack. Yes, it is parts-forming, so if that’s an issue for you, please be aware of this fact. I personally don’t mind parts-forming as long as the final product benefits from it and I do feel Athena benefits. But ultimately that’s up to you to go with what you prefer. There’s no wrong answer.
One thing you will notice right away, is that Fans Hobby Athena has flipped the vehicle mode from the original G1 design of Minerva. The front of the vehicle now becomes the legs, and the rear becomes the arms. I think they have managed to hit most of the signature details of her design despite this drastic departure, so you end up with a gorgeous bot that still looks like G1 Minerva with the exception of the rear windows on the lower legs.
Athena’s bot mode is slim and feminine, without being overly emphasized. She looks like a robot first and foremost. The power pilot transforms into her headmaster, and plugs into a spring loaded socked at the top of the body. You can pull her chest plate down to reveal power level indicators similar to the G1 headmaster figures. This gimmick is activated when you open the chest, not when the headmaster is inserted. She can hold her pistols in both hands, or store them on her hips via tabs on the thighs and slots on the guns.
Be careful when removing the headmaster from the neck socket, you will want to hold the headmaster body tight, and slowly pull while wiggling. If you’re not careful the head of the headmaster may come out and stay stuck in the body. This happened to me the first time I removed the headmaster.
Luckily nothing was damaged and I haven’t had the issue since. Fans Hobby recommends applying a small amount of lubricant to the neck if you find the socket is particularly tight on your copy. Hopefully on their future headmasters they will implement a more robust release mechanism for the headmaster to avoid this.
Articulation is very good on Athena, though a bit limited on the legs/feet due to the bulkiness of the vehicle parts. Here’s the rundown.
- 360 degree rotation at the head, limited up/down and tilt due to the headmaster gimmick.
- Arms swing outwards to 90º, full rotation at the shoulder, Shoulder armor is on armatures that can be manipulated to move them out of the way, bicep swivel, double elbow, wrist rotation and hinge, articulated hands (Thumb is one piece, fingers are one piece).
- Waist is a compound joint consisting of a large ball joint in the pelvis, and a hinge in the mid section, allowing for waist rotation (Due to limitations it will not rotate 360º without severe risk of damage.) ab crunch, and also side crunch. Great for pulling off more feminine poses.
- Ball jointed hips, allowing for just past 90º forward, just under 90º out to the side, and about 45º to the back, limited by extra pieces on the back of her waist.
- Thigh swivel, double jointed knees (however they only achieve around 90º bend due to the bulkiness of the lower legs), minor ankle tilt/rocker, with a separate toe rocker.
The articulated hands are interesting, and I actually like the way they were implemented. My only note would be a separate trigger/pointer finger would have been appreciated. They hold the guns very well though, and I like the option to have calm hands instead of fists all the time. I like that you can use the compound waist to pose her in a sassy “hands on hips” kind of pose, and the way the knees are designed you can over extend them to achieve a more anime style dynamic standing pose. I do wish the knees and ankles were more dynamic. They get the job done but if they had figured out a way to integrate full double knees and a more intense ankle rocker it would have been appreciated.
Accessories
2x Pistols
”Power Pilot” w/ swap out face plate.
Collectors Card
Final Thoughts
Aesthetically Athena is an absolute knockout. I absolutely adore the vehicle mode with all it’s smooth curves and sporty deco. She’s an excellent representation of Minerva in robot mode despite the vehicle mode flip during transformation. Articulation is excellent from the waist up, and passable from the waist down. The headmaster gimmick is well executed, even though I did get mine stuck the first time I did it. All said and done this is a great addition to my Masterforce collection and I highly recommend her to anyone who wants a modern representation of the Headmaster Jr. Minerva in their Masterpiece collection!
Thanks again to Fans Hobby for providing this copy of MB-12 Athena for photography and review, and thank you for checking out the review! If you have any questions or comments please leave them below, or message me on Facebook via the Plastic Spark Photography page!
