Siege Spinister

Prelude: What do you get when you think “evil” and “helicopter”? Why, Spinister, of course, who has one of the coolest bad guy names of all times. Of course barely anyone remembered him before he appeared in the “More Than Meets the Eye” series as part of the Scavengers. So after existing solely in the form of repaints for quite a few years, we are finally getting a new Spinister toy. Here we go.

Robot Mode: Looking at Spinister in robot mode, several things are easily apparent. One, he is a spitting image of the G1 figure of the same name. Two, he is very tall for a Deluxe-class figure, almost taller than some of the (unarmored) Leader-class figures from Siege. And three, unlike his G1 counterpart, who had two halves of a cockpit as lower legs (permanently joined, of course, he was a G1 brick after all), he’s got two full cockpits as legs. A helicopter with two cockpits? Well, more on that below.

Anyway, Spinister is an excellent Deluxe-class figure. Articulation is superb, no complaints at all, including ankle tilts, twisting wrists, double elbows, and rotating hip. The detailing is also very nicely done, torso and legs are covered with sculpted and painted details. His color combination is probably a bit out there, but it is a match for the G1 figure. The rotor blades lock into place on his back, so they don’t flop around.

Spinister also comes with two weapons that closely resemble the Small Targetmasters he had back in the G1 days. Sadly they don’t transform into little guys, but they are out as Battlemasters if you want to complete the set. The guns can also combine, much like the Targetmasters could. So bottom line, an excellent figure with no flaws. Two thumbs up!

Alternate Mode: Spinister transforms into a military gunship loosely resembling the Apache helicopter. The transformation isn’t terribly complicated, but a bit fiddly. The second cockpit has to vanish inside the belly of the copter, which works great but requires a bit of fine motor skill. The finished helicopter looks great (if a bit garish in his purple and green paint job) and the two guns can be mounted underneath the fins (actually the robot feet). The robot fists can be seen from the back, but that’s about the only bad thing I can write here. So overall, a very good helicopter mode.

Remarks: For the longest time Spinister never had any significant media appearances to his name. It was only once he became part of IDW’s Scavengers that he gained any form of notoriety. Okay, he was described as the dumbest being in the universe for whom the entire world is a collection of vaguely hostile shapes, but he did once shot a torch for glowing at him, so it was somewhat justified. He stuck around for the entire run of the IDW, though.

As far as the toy goes, one gets the feeling that there was quite a bit of engineering budget left over at the end of Siege. Spinister is easily the best Deluxe-class figure from the entire line, one of the best figures of the line overall, and one of the best Deluxe-class figures I’ve seen in quite a while, too. He would have been perfect had they given him his two Targetmaster partners, but that’s just about the only bad thing I can say about him. So unless you are simply not a fan of helicopter-bots, there is really no reason not to get this excellent figure.

Rating: A-

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