Dr. Mindbender

I couldn't help but be amused over the past 6 months as I watched many folks in the fandom bemoan all of the "unrealistic" behavior of the upcoming film, while at the same exact time, they expressed frustration that Hasbro hadn't yet produced a Dr. Mindbender action figure.  People want realism, yet they're also clammoring for a shirtless, monocled former orthodontist who is now a master of mind control and expert mad scientist with a specialty in genetic engineering.  And folks think The Rise of COBRA looks ridiculous?

Initial images of Dr. Mindbender were very promising, showing what looked to be a totally newly tooled figure from torso to legs and everything in between.  The final result is...less than that, yet still manages to capture the essence of everyone's favorite crazed geneticist.  Mindbender's got a newly tooled head, for obvious reasons, but most everything else is rehashed from previous figures.  He's got Gung Ho's torso, and the Crimson Guard legs, which do an effective enough job, but neither are really exceptional.  For whatever reason, the CG legs have some funky knee joints going on, which just translates over to Mindbender, and Gung Ho's torso just isn't as cleanly sculpted as, say, Quick Kick's.  Still, from purely a visual perspective, Mindbender looks fine, just not as nice as perhaps we were led to believe by some of the early pre-production photos.

I do really love the head sculpt, though. It perfectly captures the unique vibe of Dr. Mindbender, and the little touches like the slightly raised eyebrow over his monocled eye add some cool character to COBRA's mad scientist.

Paint apps are as to be expected.  The right shades of purple and skin tone in the right spots.  The parts add together fairly well, though he's missing those familiar purple wrist gauntlets...not a big loss, in all honesty.  His mobility is fine, he doesn't need to be as flexible as some other characters out there, and he fits into my Sunbow display pretty seamlessly, so not much to complain about.

Mindbender doesn't come with much in the way of gear.  Pretty much his cape, stand, and...errr...  funky mindbending wand thing.  It almost seems like the wand was newly tooled, which seems kind of strange for a non-critical accessory such as this, but not a big deal.

By and large, Mindbender follows the trend of many of the other figures in this set that I've reviewed so far.  Pretty nice, nothing spectacular, fills a slot in the Anniversary cast of characters, and will probably end up in pretty much everyone's collection.  Not exceptional,  but servicable, and simply for the fact that he fills a big spot in the Sunbow cast of characters, I recommend getting him on your shelf.

Buy this set at Big Bad Toy Store!

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