Botcon 2012 Spinister

I'd be lying if I said that I went crazy over Spinister, the next Transformers exclusive from Botcon 2012. I didn't care about the G1 character back then, I don't see why I should care now; sans it being another toy for my Classics collection.*This figure came packaged with Octopunch and offered as an add-on souvenir package. Here's the review.

Spinister



Alt Mode: Spinister is a repaint of Transformers Hunt for the Decepticons Tomahawk/Transformers Dark of the Moon Vortex. Compared to Botcon's Darkmount and Octopunch repaints, Spinister has a few significant pieces of deco on its alt mode. There are a few nice tampographed designs as well as a new areas of paint application. Though it doesn't look like the G1 Spinister, I can live with it being an homage. I also want to mention that the blades use*grey sparkly plastic.



Robot Mode: Many people in America missed their chance at getting their hands on the alternate head*used on the Japanese Exclusive Vortex. Botcon saved some molding money by simply reusing this head for Spinister. Great idea... but what lazy production. How can they justify the expensive cost of this figure if there isn't anything special about it? The colors look pretty nice, but they're a little too bright for Spinister. Instead of looking like a Classics rendition of a G1 toy, it looks more like a hybrid G2 one. What's the deal? My figure has a fairly loose left-wing that tightened up after I ran it over a lighter's flame a few times.



Overall: Anyone else here not really care about Spinister? In all of Transformers fiction, I haven't seen the guy do anything cool. He was even a thumb sucker in the con comic. Besides this being a character that is just balls, it's repainted from a mold that I don't really like too much. While I like the direction FunPub took to use that alternate head, I think the cost of production should then be lowered. Though I marginally like the colors, I can't say that it's worth the price I paid for it.

For more pictures, The Rabbit Haul

TheRabbitHaul * B/S/T * Feedback

Sold mine to Joevill in an elevator if that says anything.

His pink trousers are such a turnoff.....nice pics...

Yes, cool pics! I hope he looks better to me once I get him in hand. A new head in a upgrade kit down the line for he or Vortex for differentially between the two could be a cool idea.

I must be in the minority in that I like Spinister as a character. However this particular toy doesn't do much for me; I think it's the neon color palette; had it been more muted I would've been all over this guy.

I had held out hope that this was going to be one of the 40 Generations figures next year, since it would've been rather easy to produce, but perhaps not.

The Vortex remold for me, works in a Movieverse toy for G1 fans kinda way. As others have said - particularly when a more G1 accurate Vortex head got a 3rd party release, that just makes things like the legs stand out as overtly not G1/Classics, and here on Spinister, that part is in bright pink for all to see lol. Not that I have anything against any colour, but it is right on the cusp of G2 styling.

I don't own this mold in any form yet - I really wanted to like this enough to get it - and I'm not yet sure if I will. My question is, do the arms mostly stay hidden inside the altmode? No use crying over spilt milk, but if the arms were hiddne like that, they at least could have been pink instead of the legs, if not the torso, which for this mold at least would look a bit jarring in helicopter mode. If solid colour on the arms was too much, they could've tried something like tatoos/the tribal flame pattern on RTS Tracks. Oh well.

If the shade of pink was close to the pinky purple of Lilformers Ratbat in your avatar pic, I think a few more fans would be into this - or the deco at least.

Ran it over a lighter flame? Is this an end to my epoxy-based balljoint woes?

He was an okay character in the Marvel U.K. comics but his personality was kinda generic.

His color scheme is only a touch brighter than his G1 toy. The only reason he has pink legs is because the cockpit is now his chest. And he had to have some pink on him.

He gets a head that was only previously seen on a Japanese toy - that makes him special. Not every mold can get a new head so best to use a lesser seen head. The head wasn't designed to be Vortex's, it was just some random head they made when doing Tomahawk. The choice to repaint Tomahawk into Vortex using the second head would have come later.

This guy is nice addition and all... but the colors make me think of Seacon Snaptrap.

I want it... but part of me doesn't care if I don't ever get one.