Found Highbrow today, who I was very excited about ever since the initial announcement. I loved the G1 toy, and thought this new update looked fantastic. In hand, it is a great toy, but not as impressive as other recent deluxes I have picked up.

To start off, here's the bot mode, which should look familiar at this point.







As you can see, the arms are pretty hollow, and the chest has a grey piece that "pops out," which is a really nice little detail.



Right off the bat, unfortunately, I have some QC issues with this guy.
His left ball shoulder socket is super tight, but I've loosened it up a bit.
The "neck" attachment is the same part used for the Scourge mold, so I'm guessing there will be lots of issues here. Mine was so bobbly out of the box, that it barely held in the slot. I took a pair of pliers to squeeze and tighten the loose connection, and now it stays in a better, but still has some loose floppy action very similar to the Scourge mold.



The transformation also reveals that this is basically the same mold as Scourge, just heavily retooled with a different chest, arms, legs, everything.



The end result are two very different alt modes. I don't think these toys "feel" similar, and although they transform the same, I still think it's justified to see these as completely different toys.



Unfortunately this is the loosest titan master I have, and that includes close to 10 other heads. The legs are so floppy that the head itself doesn't easily hold its shape. At least there's one sliver of paint..



I really like the cockpit on Highbrow, which even has a landing gear.



And finally, a shot of the weapon, which comes in two pieces, and combines into a "vehicle" for any titan master to stand in.



So there he is, and he's pretty much as good as you see in pictures. The colors are great, and I love how he evokes the original G1 toy. However, he is mediocre compared to some of the other TR deluxes. Highbrow's paint is okay, but doesn't "wow" me the way many of the other new deluxes do. The transformation is identical to Scourge, so it's a quick fun toy, but if you didn't like that figure you may want to rethink this one. I have a feeling the QC is going to be very hit-or-miss.

 

Looks great, but a shame about the floppy titan master.

 

I found Highbrow a few days ago...he does have scary tight joints but they loosen up after some fiddling. However the head on mine was loose as well but one of my steps for transforming all of these headmasters is, I flip the headmasters head 180. when I do that the heads all stay in place much better. I love the look of Highbrow...he is my favorite deluxe so far!!!

 

Updated with side & back robot pics

 

definitely my most anticipated titans return figure

 

Definitely my most anticipated Wave 2 figure (... other than Clobber or Apeface).

It looks so great, and the issues sound like I can deal with them with some Future and elbow grease.

 

Yay, really looking forward to this.

Any chance of a pic of the combined gun with the Titanmaster sitting in it?

Does the combined gun attach under the cockpit?

 

You see on the close up picture of the guns how they both have ammo clips molded in? And molded in landing gear at the back. You can peg the ammo clips into the inner holes on the wings, the hexagon shaped ones, so he has the guns in vehicle mode and can actually use his landing gear. Otherwise the one in his nose cone does nothing more than tilt him up like a propeller based plane instead of helicopter.

Mine's shoulder balls are fairly tight too, and Gort/Xort/Mork from Ork's hips are pretty loose as well. His wrist hinges are a little loose, but not as bad as Xort's hips. Oh, and also the loose head in socket unless you have head and head turned to face the same way issue - which matches the shape of the clip at least, but since not all headmasters need to do that (like Blurr and Chromedome, and my Weirdwolf's head pops out if you do it that way) it pays to experiment.

The only thing I don't really like about the figure is that like Scourge his head clip sticks out of the body a bit so you always see the clip unlike with the others. And since Xort's eyes are the only thing of any titan master painted this wave, and since you need to have Xort's head face the same way as Highbrow's to not wobble, it means his eyes are always visibly staring at you from under Highbrow's chin. Creepy.

 

I just figured out how you're supposed to use the landing gears attached to the guns. Those rectangular bits that look like magazines plug into the octagonal ports under the wings.

 

My headmaster is loose too. It won't hold its place in head mode.

 

Yeah my lil highbrow's head doesn't lock. Also one leg/hip ratchet is a little looser than the other. But besides that he's pretty nice. Good articulation and poses.

 

Not a bad figure aesthetically but mine is also basically a bobble-head which sucks hard.

 

Is it true that his tab for cockpit use the same slot for TR's head? Won't it create many problem in the future, like, more wobbly head?

Can we just cut the tab and still held the cockpit in place?

 

The head was bobbly on my Highbrow right out of the package.

I turned Xort's head so that it's facing the same direction as the Highbrow headmaster face and it isn't bobbly at all anymore.

 

I excitedly picked up Highbrow yesterday, sadly I didn't see this review first. His head is more wobbly than any other TR figure thus far by a long shot. This is very disappointing, also his guns do not sit firmly in his fists and will rotate or slide out if turned upside down. I think he looks great, and was very excited for his release, however I think he is probabaly getting returned. I'm definitely becoming concerned over the looseness of a lot of these TR heads.

 

No need to return Highbrow. He's a fantastic figure. Look at my post directly above yours. You can make the head wobble completely disappear. Other boardmembers in this thread have already confirmed he same thing.

As for the guns, a little clear nail polish or floor polish on the handles should fix that right up.

Don't deprive yourself of a great figure because of a couple of minor issues.

 

^^^THIS^^^

 

Thirded. It's a simple thing and addresses the bobble head issue pretty well.

Love Highbrow he was one of my favorite G1 toys (still have it, broken helicopter blades and all). I think this version is a great update and homage.

 

I did this, and yes, the cockpit sits fine. It's hinge joint is more strong enough to hold it in place, and the clip that goes in the HM port is totally unnecessary

 

Not a big deal, but I noticed that there seems to be a variant on Highbrow.

Some Highbrows have 2 lines forming a box in the upper corner of the yellow area of the the arm...


While other Highbrows only have 1 line...