Transformers: Titans Return Brainstorm

 Brainstorm is a Walgreens exclusive. That just never sounds right to me. 

A reworking of the totally outstanding Titans Return Blur, Brainstorm is a really gorgeous figure that does all the same things well that Blur does well. The face sculpt is terrific, the remolded front end piece for the vehicle mode is great, the overall appearance is great. 

Original and mint flavored.

The paint job is terrific, but really does not look as good in pictures as it does in person. Brainstorm is that nice teal that always looks darker or so much lighter it looks sickly in photos. What’s really incredible with this figure is the detail work, and there is plenty of it. Details on the wings and calves make the figure just totally pop, and this is somewhat surprising, considering the figure is the puzzling Walgreens exclusive. It’s kind of surprising that a figure of this quality didn’t just go to mass retail. Brainstorm even has remolded or new parts: small canard wings on the shoulders, a new front end, a new face, new hand coverings and obviously the wings. It’s not like this is just an existing figure from the line that has been repainted; this is clearly a toy that was remolded, and that kind of work is the thing that makes its’ exclusive nature sort of confusing. Like a repainted Blur, ‘Hyper Speed Blur’ or some crap, would make sense; Brainstorm is kind of madness.

Brainstorm basically became necessary for me after I’d begun buying the other Autobot Headmasters. Standing next to the already great Generations Brainstorm, the other guys didn’t look right at all. Generations Brainstorm is far too large as a Voyager class figure to go with these Deluxe sized guys; had Hardhead been Voyager sized, it may have worked out for the simple matter that he’s a tank so huge works. Not that you can’t be a big space ship, that’s totally fine. But the group look was off, so the Deluxe Brainstorm made it onto my shopping list. 

In robot mode Brainstorm has all the poseability and goodness of Blur, although the new paint job and the shoulder mounted wings really do make Brainstorm look like a totally new toy. This is a less extensive reworking than Highbrow from Scourge, but the new parts totally make this a new and distinct robot. The great Blur weapon is included, and the newly molded front end part can detach from the robot’s back and be mounted on the arm, as a kind of shield with lasers on it, if you find that to your liking. If not, it pegs unobtrusively to the back where it doesn’t throw off the balance or anything of the standing figure. The front end/rifle collaboration mode is still present for the Titanmaster figure, if that’s something you’re in to. Titanmaster Teslor has a great name, and is also the bearer of a really nice, crisp face sculpt for Brainstorm. There is even a little bit of paint applied to Teslor, which, considering how many of the mainline Titanmasters are completely barren of paint, is kind of amazing. 

Everything looks good here . . .

For as good as Brainstorm is, he owes it to the base figure he is made from. And, as well as the vehicle mode worked for Blur, it is where Brainstorm gets a little shakey. 

. . .kinda ?

The vehicle mode is a space ship, or like a space fighter jet, but is so blatantly Blur with wings on the back. If you look long enough at alt mode, you can’t help but see Blur. The front end of the ship is pretty sleek and space jet-y; but the rear half is where the illusion fails. It is just the back half of Blur with wings attached. This is because the vehicle mode for Blur is so, so distinct, that it kind of can’t really be shared with anyone else, which becomes a problem when trying to reuse the mold for someone who’s not Blur. And for all the reworking Hasbro did to make Brainstorm out of Blur, they were not able to do anything to the rear half aside from put some wings on it. 

I know, I know. This sounds like a “ruined forever” screed against an otherwise perfectly fine and downright good figure. It’s not. The alt mode still works, and still works rather well all told, and truly isn’t too far a cry from the look of the Generations Brainstorm, or the G1 for that matter. If you stare too long at the rear half of the ship though, it does give off that vibe of some good old boys who welded a car and a pick up truck together because somehow that shows off ingenuity. I just cannot not see Blur in the back half of Brainstorm. 

 

No matter though, Brainstorm looks good amongst the other Autobot Headmasters and is fun to play with. Overall the figure is a little less amazing to me than Blur was, but that may be due to this being the second use of it, and also because Blur was so totally mind blowing to me. It doesn’t succeed as well as Highbrow in terms of being a second use remold of a figure, but I do think that I would have come to regret passing on Brainstorm as I’d originally intended to do. I’m also glad I found him in store, so I didn’t have to try and get him on the secondary market, where a steep price hike would have been involved.