In the American cartoon version, Brainstorm is the one that actually came up with the idea of human and robot fusion to enhance a Transformer's performance, after see how Daniel and Hotrod team up to beat Blurr in a race. When they were stranded on a Planet named Nebulos, they join forces with Nebulos freedom-fighters against the "Hive". His headmaster partner is Arcana.
In the Japanese version, the headmasters were once cybertronians in search of a new home world when they end up on "Master", a planet with harsh weather conditions and to survive, they must advance rapidly in technology and then Brainstorm became a headmaster.
The 2 versions of the story created 2 headscalps for Brainstorm. The American version with the faceplate and the Japanese version without.
The Japanese version
The American version.
Smart Robin comes in a Grey box, with an outer plastic with the code name "Function X-3 SmartRobin" on it. Box looks simple, yet elegant :)
Sneak peak of whats inside.
As you open the box, He is in his robot mode, his guns and instruction manual is behind him.
My first reaction to him is that he is smaller than I've expected. I've seen him in some video reviews but still he is a bit smaller than I've expected. Not that it is a big issue, but I was hoping to pose him beside my MP series collections. But as this is a 3rd party project, I can't really complain. He is Voyager size and as you can see in the picture, he comes with his 2 blasters and an instruction manual.
The instruction manual is quite helpful and I got no complains, however, a little color would not hurt lol. But as they are aiming for dark and elegant, I'm ok with that.
And as we can see, there is a sneak peak for the next headmaster..... not Mindwipe!!!
Here is SmartRobin and at first glance, he does look pretty nice. No bulky overhanging parts, nice torso, limbs and head ratio. The head scalp looks like the cool Japanese version. Quite impress with it overall.
would like to see some wing tips in front of his shoulder like the G1 continuation but not really a must and he IS a 3rd party Transformers.
Side view looks good as well with a nice backpack.
Back view looks good too, and not much hollow parts. I like!
On closer inspection, we can see that he has a stern face, haha. But it still looks nice.
Limited head articulations. Can barely look up or down, but can turn side to side (some adjustments need to be done for this to happen if you want to turn a full 90 degree)
His shoulder is on a balljoint and you can turn it 360 degrees around
He is unable to lift his hands to a full 90 degree , but its ok.
He has his biceps joints.
Nice elbow joint movements
His hands are in fixed position, no wrist or finger articulation.
Has hip joint articulation, you can turn him around and pose him.
He can't do a perfect split like Mania King, lol.
Hip articulations goes up to about 100 degrees
Another 120 degrees to the back.
( looks like he is dancing lol )
Knee articulation up to 90 degree.
Tip of his foot is on a ball joint. gives him more articulation on his foot.
Head off!
This is the slot where the head of the mini cybertronian fits in, this part is the same as the G1 toys.
His head transforms into a ? headmaster ? Arcana ? mini cybertronian
His mini me look.... not too bad, much better than the G1 counterpart.
Take a closer look....... as you can see, there is a lot of details even for this small figure and I'm really impress by the attention to details.
His shoulder has a full 360 degree articulation, so he can dance. :)
Side view. We can see part of the face becomes his backpack.
The back view shows that the robot face is partially covered up, and there is no extra effort needed here as when he stands up, his forehead is automatically pushed down to cover the face. Very smart engineering.
He has 90 degrees hip and knee articulation. Again I must say that I love the attention to details.
For me Smart Robin is the most fun to transform among all my Transformers. There are some transformation tricks that I've never seen before. Every part of his body has a purpose, and everything snaps in nicely to transform him into a cybertronian jet. Really really enjoy transforming him.
His jet mode is really awesome and in my opinion, is closer to his G1 cartoon version than Brainwave.
Some back view pictures.
Top view.
Here as the mini cybertronian standing beside his jet :)
He fits nicely into the cockpit, secure and safe.
From this picture, we can see he is inside the cockpit, ready to take off.
Here he is with some Autobot symbols. Looks nice and I love how 3rd parties left some blank part for us to fill in with Autobot and decepticon symbols.
Here he is beside MP-12 sideswipe.
He is very posable, but for balancing part, he is sometimes hard to balance on 1 foot as his feet are not very big, but with some adjustments he can pose nicely in one foot.
Ready to fire!
Locked and loaded!
Here he is beside MP-12 and MP-18. He is slightly shorter..... really wish Fansproject can make him about 2-3 cm taller, then he can be in scale with the other MPs..... so close, yet so far.....
He is slightly shorter than King Mania not Galvatron....
And here he is with MP-8 Grimlock.
Grimlock: "Who is this puny Autobot?"
Grimlock:" Optimus Prime, can Grimlock Keep him as pet?"
Here he is with Brainwave ( pic from internet )..... for me, he totally owned the jet mode.
20 plus years of evolution..... ( pic from internet )
G1 accuracy: 8/10
Articulation and posability: 8/10
Plastic quality: 8/10
Box quality: 6/10
Helpful instruction manual: 7/10
Collector's card: NIL
Paint quality: 9/10
Price: About RM 260-RM 300 ( 80-92 USD )
Size: Voyager size
Pros: He is a HEADMASTER!, Awesome jet mode, fun transformation, good paint job, above average plastic quality.
Cons: He is a bit small. A bit pricey. No wrist joint articulation. No finger articulation. Limited head articulation.
As a summary: Highly recommended for headmasters fans. If you have the extra cash for third party, grab him!
Thank You all for reading! Enjoy your day!
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