Highbrow, stupid name, interesting figure

[JediTricks]

Highbrow is a really off name for this figure, it doesn't fit his personality or his design. That said, I don't really give a crap about the G1 character so I'll just review the figure...

He's an interesting transformer, kind of a cross between a Gee Bee R and a P-38 Lightning in alt mode, so 1930s-style fighter that's a main cockpit fuselage with a center wing that leads to 2 outrigger booms. The top is military green while the underside is sky blue, an early-20th-century attempt at camouflage. The whole thing is covered in rivet holes, and the only paint is a "P+10" either side of the cockpit, plus an odd white bug-like outline logo on the top of either side of the rear horizontal stabilizer. The underside is mostly skinned, but there are areas of exposed technology, most of which feels appropriate for the plane. The center fuselage here has what appears to be a large center intake, as if it were a 3rd motor just missing its propeller. It's bulbous at the front with a pair of small machine guns at the top, and tapers back to a small canopied cockpit. Underneath is what I guess is a pair of intercoolers and a very oddly-designed 2-wheeled landing leg. The main wing is thicker than a real wing would be, designed to look like radiators at the front (which would kill aerodynamics), and is pretty stubby compared to the real P-38. The booms each have a dull-gold engine block that can be pressed down to spin the propeller with 4 blades; I have to give them credit for making the props counter-rotate (the left is counter-clockwise, the right clockwise), but the 4 blades bother me because that config looks so dull, the real P-38 had 3 blades per prop, as did most planes of that era, and the Gee Bee R had a 2-blade prop - luckily, the transformation allows 2 of the 4 blades to rotate 90 degrees and stop behind the first pair, so it can be shown in a 2-blade look. The underside of each boom has a fold-down wheeled landing gear, and the boom then ends at the tail with its single horizontal stabilizer spanning both booms and then a rudder. To the outside of either boom is a very small wing, the underside has 4 non-removable rockets, the top has a hole to plug in a large gatling gun. It's not perfect, it's a tad small, the tail is hard to align nicely, the props don't freespin after a press, there's a couple exposed screws on the top, and the green paint doesn't quite match the green plastic, but overall it's a very cool and unique alt mode, which is why I spent so much time talking about it.

Transformation looks complex and difficult, it's an oddity to be sure, but conceptually once you understand the "why" then it's actually fairly direct and simple. The instructions are contradictory about what to do with the cockpit fuselage shell halves, showing 1 transformation with them down at the sides and then pictures of them up like tiny wings, but ultimately there seems to be no "correct" answer. The hip armor folds down to have the rockets touching the thigh, it's meant to go all the way flat which requires a bit of pressure, but visually pays off having it not stick out, and it appears they designed it to be rotated back part way, though like the shoulderpads this is mistransformed in-package.

Bot mode is pretty short for a Voyager-class, but has a lot of personality to make up for it. Another ROTF figure with a wider body from the hips down, but he has enough bulk at the arms to somewhat re-balance that. The color scheme is now mostly sky blue and flat gray plastic with a lot less of the military green - this is the underside of the plane, after all; there's no faction logo (the weird white bug outlines end up hidden at the big toe on each foot), but the face adds gold and he's wearing a glossy brown helmet with goggles sorta like a WW1 pilot. The face is an odd triangular design but has normal facial features, the eyes are clear light-pipe (I would have preferred color) with a small trapezoid like windows on a DeLorean. The leather helmet folds down to cover part of the face, with the goggles over the eyes which light-pipes a little oddly. The back is interesting, there's a backpack formed by the cockpit, the cockpit separates from the fuselage shell parts and its underside has an unskinned jet motor, very well detailed, my guess is the shell halves unfold to become little wings for part of a jetpack, but the concept doesn't quite sell without a narrative to carry it (and it doesn't have that narrative on the packaging). The jet motor isn't the only detailing, there's a lot strewn about, there aren't any blank surfaces, which unfortunately highlights the low amount of detail at the chest - there's actually more than it seems, but the light blue color and the landing gear take away from it. Each forearm has the propeller and engine spinner segment, and below that an offset fist made from some plumbing (that bit was clever despite being so simple, some time was put into sculpting that to integrate). The forearms unfortunately have a tab of kibble that just detracts from the looks and gets hunt up by the hip armor, and the offset fists don't stand out against the larger propeller and blue motor fuselages, so it's a bit of a weirdy there despite good intentions - the fists are offset mainly so that the engines can be turned sideways to present the spinning props as hand-replacement weapons, and it bites off a little more than it can chew in execution. The arms look a lot better out in front, especially holding the gatling gun accessories. Speaking of which, the guns look great from the outside, lots of detail, the 5mm pegs are a bit short but they work, I do think they're a bit large in vehicle mode but a good fit in bot mode, but the inner side is hollow which sucks - it's mainly only noticeable when holstered to the hip armor though. The legs taper down and use the fuselage shell to bulk up the otherwise spindly lower legs; they end in a foot that has 2 large thin toes made from the wingtips and rudders of the rear stabilizer, with the majority of the rear stabilizer used as the main foot and folded-up heel (it folds up mainly so it doesn't look like a plank).

Articulation is very good, the head rotates, the shoulders are universal joints (hinge and rotation), the upper bicep rotates, the elbow hinges well past 90 degrees, the shoulder and hip armor plates are hinged, the hips are universal joints, the mid-thigh rotates, the knees are only a little high and hinge 90 degrees, the ankles are forward-facing universal joints so the feet rotate to match the leg spread and can dip down, and the toes are hinged with transformation joints to add more stability if needed. The spinning propeller hand-replacement weapons seem effective, they get an extra side-hinge so they can face forward. The 1 big problem with articulation is that the hip spread hinges are a little stronger than the waist halves, so moving the legs often results in the waist de-transforming instead, spreading apart.

Highbrow is an odd duck, a very nifty and unique vehicle mode, and an equally unique bot mode with lots of detail and articulation, yet both modes are small for the pricepoint, and the bot mode has a few design issues. I found it easier to like this figure after spending a few days, at first it was cool, then a little WTF, and finally landed on "eccentric". I like Highbrow, but I suspect this figure won't be for everybody's tastes.

[BWprowl]

I finally found this guy at Target tonight, after looking for what seems like forever. He's a weird one alright, but I really dig a lot of the stuff that makes him unique: The fold-down goggles, the optional propeller hands, the wing-toes, the bizarre vehicle mode (anyone remember Crimson Skies for the Xbox? This is like something from that.). I like having him put his arms out like he's using the propellers to hover up in robot mode, and I totally imagine him with a dashing British accent. He's great.