G1 Mindwipe

Robot Mode: Depending on how you configure him, Mindwipe's robot mode offers either very little or a very obvious clue as to what he transforms into. If you fold the wings on his back backwards so that they aren't visible from the front, he's a rather nondescript black and purple robot with no visible vehicle or animal parts. If you unfold the brown, leathery wings, though, it's very obvious that he becomes some kind of flying animal. Noteworthy, though: The wings are upside down here, which makes for a very interesting visual.

Mindwipe's posability is average for a robot from his time. Not particularly good, but he's not a statue, either. He can swivel the arms at the shoulders and move the legs at the hips. He has knee joints, but they're only used for the transformation and can only bend in the wrong direction. Thanks to some toe movement he can manage a basic running pose, though.

Like all Headmasters Mindwipe's head is a separate figure that can detach. When plugged in, his stats become visible behind his chest plate. According to them Mindwipe is pretty good in terms of strength, speed, and intelligence (though the brains come last), all stats are in the upper third. He carries a simple purple ray gun as his only weapon, but being a hypnotist he probably only carries it for safety reasons and prefers to let others do his fighting for him.

So all in all Mindwipe's robot mode is good, but in no way spectacular and only slightly above average for his time.

Alternate Mode: As one might guess from the wings he has on his back in robot mode, Mindwipe transforms into a mechanized bat. Which mainly involves folding his body into a square shape and flipping out a bat's head and tail. There are two different ways he's transformed in official pictures, once with the robot arms at the side, once with them flipped forward to frame his chest cockpit. The latter is the correct way, as it brings the 'speakers' on his arms into the proper position, but it doesn't change his look much either way.

There isn't really that much you can do here. The bat can move its wings and waggle its tail a bit, but that's it in terms of posability. The look is pretty cool if you like mechanized animals, but there really isn't that much more to say here. Sadly nowhere to store Mindwipe's gun in this mode. Like all Headmasters he has a cockpit in his alternate mode, situated on the bat's chest, where the Nebulon figure can ride. Bottom line: A cool-looking, but otherwise rather boring alternate mode.

Partner / Add-On: Mindwipe's Nebulon partner is called Vorath, a red and black figure that can transform into his robot mode head. Vorath is a first-year Headmaster, meaning he has pretty decent posability and sculpting. When plugged into Mindwipe in head mode, he causes Mindwipe's stats to be displayed on his chest.

Remarks: Mindwipe completes my quintet of first year Decepticon Headmasters. Of the five he had the biggest part in the infamous three-part episode "Rebirth", where he used his hypnotic abilities to mesmerize Autobots and made them... drive backwards. Well, there is no stat for imagination on his chest and now you know why. Anyway, he played a small part later on by sniffing out the location of the key to the Plasma Energy Chamber, but that was pretty much it. In the Marvel Comics his part was restricted to background scenes, but in the Japanese Headmaster series he used his hypnotic abilities to take out the Dinobots and was part of the Destron team that blew up planet Seibertron (Cybertron's Japanese name), both of which is pretty damn impressive.

Despite being the most well-known Decepticon Headmaster (apart from Scorponok) thanks to his comparatively numerous appearances in various media, Mindwipe as a toy is, in my opinion, the weakest of the five first-year Decepticon Headmasters (six if you count Scorponok). He has cool looks, but little beyond that. I got him mostly for completeness' sake and, of course, because a certain convention exclusive figure coming out this July is specifically tailored towards him. As things stand, though, I can only recommend him to completists and Headmaster fans.

Rating: C+