I find it strange to admit that there are a number of things I’m really not crazy about in the G.I. Joe world that everyone else seems to love… two of the highest items on that list are arctic figures and the character of Dr. Mindbender.  That being said, you’d think that a figure of an Arctic Dr. Mindbender would fall down pretty far on my list of desired items, and I would have agreed.  But once I got my hands on the G.I. Joe Collectors’ Club’s rendition of this figure, I immediately fell in love.

Well…fell in ‘big like’ might be more accurate.  I don’t quite LOVE the figure, but I like it quite a bit, thank you very much.

For this particular figure, the Club worked with Boss Fight Studio to add a newly sculpted head and fur collar in order to accentuate the newness of the figure, and it works really well.  The first Mindbender was a part of the Defense of COBRA Island 7-Pack, and as such was sculpted in the aesthetic of the times, which looks a bit dated compared to more modern offerings.  He was certainly due for an updated head sculpt, and he got one heck of a nice one here, looking as if it was pulled straight from Sunbow concept art.

The fur collar also adds nice variety to the figure, which is otherwise a mixture of the canceled Arctic COBRA Commander (with mostly comprised of Renegades COBRA Commander arms and legs).  The combination gives us a figure with a terrific arctic look (that happens to be pretty animation accurate) as well as maintaining at least some level of decent articulation.

With the long coat, the legs are still pretty limited, but the arms at least have significantly unrestricted elbow movement, which was one of the major detractions of the Arctic COBRA Commander tooling (which was used for a Convention Iron Grenadier a few years back).

Using the animation as a template, Mindbender is done up in a really nice purple and black paint scheme, following the queues from the vintage version, and you end up with a very nice looking figure that slides pretty seamlessly into any arctic environment, yet also looks unique and very true to Mindbender’s aesthetic.

Accessories

Dr. Mindbender comes with a nice number of accessories, with a familiar pistol as well as his trademark “mind bending” device (stun rod w/ generator), and also comes with the black hose and a repainted version of Sci-Fi’s backpack. He also has a great COBRA-themed laptop and arctic display stand.

The accessories all fit the character well, and the inclusion of Sci-Fi’s backpack is a nice one, too, as it retains a nice technical look while not being immediately identifiable as belonging to someone else.

Anyone who has been reading my reviews knows that I geek out over media-centric figures, and I love that this version of Mindbender is a true Sunbow homage.  It’s also pretty cool that the Club has been using him heavily throughout the comic.  While I wouldn’t have thought an arctic version of COBRA’s lead scientist would be appealing to me, the reality is this is a very fun figure that suits the good doctor remarkably well.  Kudos on this one.

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