Legacy Minerva

Prelude: Now, depending on where you come from, you either know Minerva as that teacher from Harry Potter, the Roman goddess of Wisdom (somewhat better known by her Greek name Athena), or you might even remember that she was a female Transformer in that Japanese anime where the school kids smashed their armbands together to armor up and then climbed into giant robots to fight against alien monsters. No, the one without the floating head guy. Masterforce, yes! So here we have the newest incarnation of the robot nurse from Masterforce, Legacy Minerva. So let’s say hello nurse!

Robot Mode: Let’s get the most important thing out of the way first: unlike her Generation 1 counterpart, Legacy Minerva is not a Headmaster. Apparently she lost that ability upon crossing through some portal into the Legacy universe, at least according to an interview or something. Anyway, the head (a very good sculpt that nicely captures the look from the Masterforce cartoon) does not detach and become a little robot. Should that bother you too much, you can stop reading right here.

Still here? Good, then let’s look at the figure. While this mold here was not originally meant for Minerva (it started life as Elita-1), it is clearly meant to portray a female robot. The slim figure, the face sculpt, and the slightly emphasized chest area clearly show a female design. No high heels, though, so I guess the time when you could easily identify a female Transformer by the fact that it had high heels is most definitely over. Ah, those good old days… anyway, Minerva makes for a slim figure that wears most of her car mode kibble on her back as a rucksack. Not the smallest rucksack ever, but far from the biggest, too. Her shoulder pieces are meant to point up, but you can fold them down, too, for a more compact figure (with a bigger rucksack) if you so desire.

Nothing to complain about in terms of articulation, Minerva has the full package. Twisting wrists and hip, ankle tilt, ball-jointed head, the works. The only slight complaint I have is that the rucksack doesn’t tab in solidly. There is a tab that goes into a slit on her back, but it does nothing to keep it in place. Otherwise, though, I have little to complain about here. Minerva comes with two guns, both of them made from transparent plastic, though one has been painted black (except the handle). You can also detach the lightbar from her rucksack and plug it into the transparent gun to form a kind of hammer. Alternatively both of her gun can attach to her shoulder pieces, too.

So bottom line: a very nice robot mode that captures the character from the old Masterforce anime pretty perfectly. Except for, you know, the non-detaching head.

Alternate Mode: Minerva, who used to transform into a Porsche that tried to pretend it was an ambulance, now transforms into a … well… Cybertronian car with a slight Mariokart vibe that pretends to be an ambulance? Sorry, can’t explain it better than that. At least it doesn’t have a little crown on top like Elita-1 did (going for the whole Princess Peach vibe), on Minerva it’s been replaced with a lightbar. That, together with the white and red paintjob, must suffice in terms of ambulance look.

The car looks good in general, though a bit squished (think Generation Minibots). Also, it has quite a few visible seams. The hood especially looks like it should close up much more tightly on the sides, but it doesn’t. Still, the car itself is decent, it has actual rims instead of clipped on tires, and while you can somewhat identify those red parts on the back as the robot feet, you can attach blast effects to them, which looks really cool (captured a mushroom for that extra turbo boost, yes!!).

One more complaint, though: if you look at the car from the bottom, you see pretty much the entire robot. All Minerva does is fold in her legs, the rest of the car chassis is just her rucksack. I don’t personally mind, but I know it’s a turn-off for some people. So bottom line for me: a somewhat funny-looking, but otherwise okay car mode.

Remarks: Minerva was the Takara version of G1 Nightbeat and was one of the main characters in the Japanese Masterforce series. She started out as a lifeless transector, piloted by a human girl called (you guessed it) Minerva (or Minelba in some translations). At the end of the Masterforce series the Transector gained sentience and left her human partner behind. She briefly appeared in the Victory series, serving as a nurse during the operation that saved the life of God Ginrai by transforming him into Victory Lio. There was also an Animated version of the character, and she also had an appearance in the second IDW continuity as part of the Wreckers. The latter used this figure here for her appearance.

Like several other Transformers with a medicine touch (such as Siege Ratchet), Minerva was exclusive to Walgreens in the United States, but more or less regularly available in the rest of the world (at least in terms of online shops). I had zero interest in the Elita-One version of this mold, but I do have a soft spot for the old Masterforce cartoon, so I was interested in Minerva. I would not call her a must-have, but she is a good Transformers figure despite the somewhat funny-looking car mode and if you are interested in the character, she is worth a look.

Rating: B

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