Review - Generations Brainstorm!
Brainstorm is a very large Hasbro voyager size figure, standing as tall if not taller than some of their other larger offerings such as Voyager Springer. His color scheme and silhouette simultaneously homage his original G1 form and his new IDW comic book style. His headmaster head has a mouth plate similar to the IDW design, a departure from the G1 robot face.
He has ratcheted thighs and very tight friction joints for everything else. One of the two elbow joints is supposed to be ratcheted on both arms, only one arm on mine is ratcheted which appears to be a widespread issue. Even without the ratchet the friction of the joint will hold it in almost any position. He has basic pin joints on his wrists to allow the hands to flip in to the forearms, if these pin hinges are loose it can lead to some floppy hand syndrome on some of the toys. My hands are tight enough they don't cause any issues but not everyone was as lucky. The arms do have flaps to cover the hand slots which is nice. This figure has almost no hollow space.
He comes with 2 long barreled pistols that can be stored on the front of the jet kibble on his back, in the peg holes on the rear of his back, or of course in his hands.
His Jet mode is a futuristic space fighter with rear swept wings that are able to be positioned in a few different angles. He has a bit of a gap at the back due to the way the legs transform but this can be used as sort of a handle if you wanted to fly him around the room. The transformation is very simple but effective and satisfying. He locks in very solid and has no loose parts or obvious robot parts aside from the hands.
The headmaster is very simple, certainly not on par with some of the third party offerings available, but effective enough for a retail Transformers figure. He has ball jointed shoulders and a ball jointed neck which also allows Brainstorm to have a ball jointed neck in bot mode. Some figures come out of the box with the headmaster jammed in a little too far and he may be tough to remove. Just be gentle and remember to press down the grey segment behind the cockpit as it is part of the locking mechanism. When the headmaster is inserted correctly in robot mode the back of the chair in the cockpit will snap down with a G1 Tech Specs style sticker to homage the G1 Headmaster tech spec gimmick.
Despite a slightly flawed (for some) headmaster gimmick and a few cut corners here and there, Brainstorm is an excellent figure. He has almost no empty hollow holes, a great silhouette and looks fantastic. The flip down tech spec sheet is a great throwback to the classic G1 headmasters.
While lacking a few key points of articulation, mainly a waist and wrist swivels, you can pull off a number of excellent poses with him. The ball jointed head allows for a great range of expression as well. After waiting quite a while to get him in my hands, I am definitely not disappointed.
