ToysDay: Mastermind REFORMATTED!

     Mastermind moved from their Knight Morpher series over to their reformatted line. This is by far my favorite line of theirs, although I don't have every piece from it.


     In Oct 2014, MMC released R-08, Azalea. This was the first G1 styled Arcee on the market. The figure has it's quirks, with a tendency for the head and other parts to pop off during the extremely tight quarters of transformation. The transformation is fairly intuitive and has good weapon storage in both modes, as well as excellent weapons in general.  She is more of an IDW G1 than a cartoon G1, giving us a hint of what was to come...

     After some recolor/exclusive versions of this figure, they released R-09-Eupatorium- Their version of Elita One. They share the same mold, and the same quirks, with slightly altered transformation. In place of Arcee's swords, Elita has an energy bow. She's graced these posts before a couple of times.

     And then they got ambitious: Seraphicus Prominion- R-11-Their version of Nova Prime. I bought the Core robot first

Yup- He has the matrix
This means he has the touch, and possibly also the power

    Followed by the very cool trailer with armor expansion. He comes in between a large voyager and a leader class in this mode and he looks AMAZING.

I Admit to giving him a Dr Wu gun that matches his colors well. 

More Mastermind to come next week!

Toysday: Mastermind's Hearts of Steel

     Back in 2006, IDW published a Miniseries called Hearts of Steel- it reimagined the battle between autobot and decepticon in the late 19th century. With it, we got steam engine autobots and biplane seekers.

     Now I love me some steampunk, and steampunk transformers...well that's just hella cool.

     In 2010, a company called Mastermind Creations released a figure called KM-01: Knight Morpher Commander. He was Optimus Prime as conceived in this Concept- He never appears in the series, but I had to have him. He was my first third party figure purchase, in December of 2011.

he comes with his smokestack gun and a lance

parts of the barrel of the cannon can become a jetpack for him

the shield becomes the front of hiscabin

And there is his matrix of leadership

     Mastermind continued this line with other characters, and in August 2012, they released the first seeker mold, a limited Monotone. They followed that with Screecher, Stormer, and Warper. I ended up with Stormer, the Thundercracker version of this mold, and he is extremely cool to look at in both modes.

All three came with different cannons

His hipskirts can be removed and used as swords

   

Toysday:IDW Wing

     My first third party Transforming Toy was from Mastermind Creations, back in 2011, and bought from TFSource. In October of 2017, I added another of theirs to my growing collection, which will be spotlighted in a future installment of this blog. For now...Mastermind Creations Aero Alpha- IDW Wing from the Drift Comic series

     It's fitting, in a way, that I ended up buying him from TFSource, because they were the first online merchant I dipped my toe in with, and because Mastermind remains my favorite third party manufacturer.

His accuracy to the character in the comics is outstanding

He comes with two short swords

and and ancient greatsword

His altmode is an alien looking spacecraft with a pointy-yet-elegant aesthetic

Amazed at the inclusion of detailed fold-out landing skids. weapon storage is so-so

Toysday: The Matrix Evolutions

     I think most of you are familiar with the story of Orion Pax, a peaceful, good-natured bot who was nearly destroyed by Megatron.

     Invested with the Matrix of Leadership by the mysterious Alpha Trion, he arose as Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobot cause.

     When Prime Fell in battle, the matrix eventually descended to Hot Rod.

     It empowered him and made him into Rodimus Prime.

     These figures are great! they offer both versions of the characters in each, giving multiple options for display and play. That said, they are not perfect. there is partsforming in both cases. Rodimus Prime has strange shoulders. but they are both highly posable and articulated, plus one more bonus feature

     The Matrices will also allow interaction with a primemaster of your choice, empowering Optimus or Rodimus even further. This is a highly innovative concept, and great execution. I'm liking the new line a lot so far