I was surprised to get myself a Mindwipe so early. Out of all the Wave 2 guys, this was the one I was most excited for. Vampire bat alt mode?! A robot hypnotist? A speaker of robotic spirits!? This guy is creepy and weird and I love it!

I never had any Headmasters as a kid, but I always loved the Decepticon Headmasters. Turning into robot monsters and animals? Awesome!

Anyways, it's been a long time since Mindwipe got an actual headmaster toy. Since G1 even. So I was quite excited to get this figure after Skullcruncher in Wave 1. Bring on Weirdwolf and I'll be all set for 1987!

Alt Mode

Alt mode is a pretty awesome vampire bat. It's loaded with a lot of robotic detail that screams "robot bat." I love it like this. I've always preferred robotic beasts over organic beasts in Transformers.





There's not much to it though, other than looking good. The wings can fold in, the cockpit hatch opens, and the mouth opens up.




So far without having Weirdwolf, this one already towers over the other guys in alt mode.




Vorath

Vorath, the Nebulon scientist is the head for Mindwipe. He's...well he's a TR Headmaster. Nothing much to say. Like the other Wave 2 guys he lacks any paint in Headmaster mode. That's about it here.





Transformation

Normally I don't bother too much with the transformation process in photo reviews but I REALLY love the transformation for this one. Basically the core premise is that the bottom of the bat is the top of the robot, and the front of the bat becomes the back of the robot. The wings become the legs, and the bat legs become the arms. The small bat wings rotate to sit behind the robot shoulders. Then the rest is pretty self explanatory. Bring the arms down, rotate them at the upper arms, flip out the fists, and plug in Vorath.





Robot Mode

Robot mode is....awesome! This is what really sold me on him. Personally, I think Mindwipe looks fantastic. The colors work, his proportions are pretty great, and his head just looks great. I think he looks pretty creepy as his G1 bio says he is. My only complaint is that the way the wings turn into the legs, his calfs are huge but his thighs are small. Still, I'll take this. Goddamn this is a good robot mode!

His accessories are his Viper Pistol and a shield...which look great. I have no real complaints here. His pistol is G1 as hell and I love it, and the shield is a good use of a partsforming piece. Height wise...he's actually a bit shorter than Skullcruncher and Hardhead. I love it! I love Transformers that are sized differently as it gives a sense of diversity in the line up.






Articulation

His articulation is pretty great! He's got the usual points, sans wrists, but he has double jointed elbows due to his transformation, and a waist joint. This means he can be quite expressive, even with his short thighs.






Closing Thoughts

Mindwipe is an excellent addition to the TR G1 Headmaster line up. I highly recommend him. From great bat mode loaded with detail to an equally great robot mode, with great accessories and articulation, it's hard to go wrong with this guy.

 

Looks great. I'm shocked that we have an intergrated shield accessory that actually looks like a functional shield. The claws remind me of a Gundam Ground Type's sheild, but with guns, too.

These animal Headmasters are turning out great.

 

Looks great. Great review.

 

Thanks for pic review, really looking forward to this guy.

 

Okay, the wings becoming legs gimmick is really nice, and i like where his "pilot" chair is located in beast mode.

 

Got him tonight and I agree. Very strong robot mode, great transformation, decent bat mode although I think some people will be turned off by the soft rubber head and wings. One detail I really liked is the circles molded into his purple wings to evoke the speakers or whatever his G1 toy had in front. He also has silver vents like his G1 version, albeit in back.

Other than the obvious (Optimus Primal), I wonder who they could turn this guy into? Night Scream, just to make people go crazy?

 

Wow, very cool. I'm looking forward to mine showing up with Highbrow on Tuesday. The legs may be hollow because of the wings transforming into them, but it makes it really hard to tell that this turns into a bat.

 

Love the bat face!

Poo.

The idea of the wing transformation is pretty cool, but the bat mode is so geared to make this generic robot that it suffers a lot.


Also, bats only have a "thumb", the rest of the fingers are what makes up the wings. They updated the head so no reason not do the wings properly.

 

Picked this guy up at Walgreens the other night and I love him. Agreed with the above that he's a tad generic in bot mode, but a fantastic transformation and cool bat more make up for it. His head also plugs in really securely unlike most of the wave 1 figures I have.

I've only got Mindwipe and Highbrow from wave 2, but if they're any example this is a fantastic wave of figures.

 

So much rubbery plastic. He is fun to transform. The legs becoming the wings is fantastic.
I don't see why the head had to be made out of the rubbery plastic. Other than that, he is great.

 

I agree.. cool figure.

I dont care for the robot bat wings. I dont like how they look in bat mode, and I dont care for em in bot mode. I may just unscrew the whole torso and remove those swivels if possible.

Real fun figure. Wave 2 is pretty effin awesome.

to me, Mindwipe is the weakest of the wave, but still VERY good..

 

I think those smaller wings are meant to evoke how his wings looked on the G1 toy's robot mode.

 

They were, but I feel like there was a real missed opportunity there. Bat ears are generally much bigger than their heads, so I'm kinda surprised the designers didn't just give his bat head larger ears, add a swivel joint so it can turn its head in bat mode, and thus rotate the head around on his back in robot mode so that the bat ears end up filling in for the G1 wings. It would have been a much simpler and more elegant solution, added an extra point of articulation, and reduced the parts count. Plus you'd have been able to choose if you wanted the ear/wings positioned rightside-up like the G1 cartoon, or upside-down like the G1 toy.

Don't get me wrong, this is a very minor quibble. I'm just surprised.

 

I'm here on this one. I love them myself. They're a total G1 detail that I naturally feel is very necessary to have on the figure. It contributes to my absolute love of this guy. It feels like this thing jumped right out of 1987 and adopted modern toy engineering.

 

his rubbery bits bother me, in particular the armpit wings. but even if hasbro gave us hard plastic its hard to bump mindwipe higher amongst his wavemates as the rest are all stellar.

high brow and weirdwolf are the top 2 for me. so if i'm pitting chromey with mindwipe, no way MW beats chromedome, who's transformation scheme is the best amongst the 4.

btw, OP missed a great feature of the wings, which is how it can wrap itself around the body in bat mode.

BLAH BLAH

 

I like mindwipe overall. Some solid joints and I'm astonished that the wings to legs trick actually hold properly! (the thick pins help). The only thing I do not like is how the rubber bat head pretty much just rests in place, there is the tiniest nub of a peg that doesn't really go into the hole very well, not sure if my peg has been damaged as it is shorter than the hole.

Still it is quite a unique modern transformer, cool colous and I like the how the shield and gun become the tail.

Head has only friction pegs keeping hips in so not as solid as chromdomes head, weird how some have pins, and others do not.

If you hate the bat head back pack it can easily removed by unclipping the purple hinge though I personally like kibble backpacks!

 

No paint on the Headmaster?


Man, at least paint the faces Hasbro, sheesh.

 

None of the Wave 2 anything has paint on the headmaster robots. I suppose Wave 1 blew away the headmaster paint budget, haha.

 

Highbrow's Titanmaster has painted eyes, but yeah, that's it.

 

Wish the ankles had detents. The main thing that bothers me is the abundance of PVC parts. Other than that, excellent figure.