Highbrow and The Fallen - New Hunt for the Decepticons Toy Galleries!

They're both looking really good. I don't really mind the colours on Fallen, but he just doesn't really look like he's supposed to. I wonder if they're going to repaint this mold into proper Fallen colours.

Cool galleries. I REALLY wish they would have released The Fallen in true The Fallen colors (solid black with red and orange highlights). However, it just seems as if Hasbro refuses to release the guy in his true colors. First we get army green, then red with black highlights, and now purple and blue?! WTF? The only toy with The Fallen's real colors is the Legends class. Hopefully Takara will get the colors right on this version of the mold because I really want to buy this mold, but I refuse to do it when the constantly screw up the colors.

As for Highbrow, I absolutely love this figure. I don't know why though. I'm not a big fan of the color scheme (dark olive green and light blue don't work IMO), hey's really hard to pose, and his arms are a pain in the ass to make look right. He also has sucky weapons. Still, I'd say Tomahawk and Battle Blades BB aside, this is my favorite ROTF figure.

Highbrow- Vehicle mode, good. Robot mode- Eh...I don't know, looks pretty bad to me, but someone could try to sway me the other way.
The Fallen- Thank you Hasbro! Perfect! Would like the accurate movie colors, but the cool blue colors look pretty sweet on this guy. By the way, does the Takara voyager BB Optimus Prime really have hooks instead of blades? If so, I'll have to get him for the Fallen so he can rip his face off.

I saw these yesterday, and spent a few hours looking at that Fallen, its pretty snazzy

Highbrow being an autobot means I cant get him

Nice Galleries once again!

you know highbrow looks awesome but i have to disagree in what he resembles he looks more like the p-38 lightning from lockheed.

mattyc1007 wrote:Highbrow being an autobot means I cant get him

What do you have against Autobots?

Nice galleries as usual Ryan!

A vintage alt mode is a definite bought. I bet he'd go nice with Ransack and Hubcap.

I have the original, but The Fallen is sorely tempting. I don't buy repaints --as a fan of the actual transformation, there's no point in getting two of the same thing-- but a rip-off-able face AND a staff AND hands to use that staff...

mattyc1007 wrote:Highbrow being an autobot means I cant get him

He lacks the Autobot insignia

Highbrow has some weirdly jointed wrists, but it otherwise pretty snazzy. And I love that there is a Transformer with matching propellor arms for once. I will have to pick this one up if I have money left after Xmas shopping.

The Fallen... meh. Good color scheme, but I dislike the mold. I'd rather get a new 'living furnace' version of this character instead of another 'alien pharaoh'.

Whoa, I didn't know The Fallen's face was removable. I must get this one. Possible get a second and attempt a movie accurate repaint because I doubt we'll be seeing an official one.

I got both of em at wal-mart for 16 bucks and I love em !!!

I have my 3 Fallen repaints on display as "The Primes".

Highbrow stays in plane mode. Im not one to nit-pick but I gotta point out that the idiots at hasbro mounted the cannons in a place where if they were actually fired, they would blow off the propellers in flight. Why didnt they just make the wings a little longer since this plane is not actually a real aircraft, but a hybrid of the P-38 Lightning and a German bomber ???

Kingpun wrote:Possible get a second and attempt a movie accurate repaint because I doubt we'll be seeing an official one.

I think this could happen in later waves of DOTM in 2012. I'm thinking they're gonna bring in all the movie characters.

Rated X wrote:mounted the cannons in a place where if they were actually fired, they would blow off the propellers in flight.

Not nitpicking, but in general, guns can be mounted like that, as long as the rate of fire and propeller spin are synchronized. The bullets literally pass through between the propeller blades. It's pretty slick.

shocktastic14 wrote:you know highbrow looks awesome but i have to disagree in what he resembles he looks more like the p-38 lightning from lockheed.

Sorry, but the core fuselage doesn't match at all:



The P-38 has a traditional cockpit, as well as foreward slung nose cone.




The FW-189, however, has the majority of the fuselage projecting backwards from the central strut. Additionally, it has a nice dome style cockpit in the rear. Remove the main cockpit, and you'd be pretty close to Highbrow.

Anyway, he's just a made up mish mash of whatever traits they think looked cool, but FW-189's silhouette was what jumped out at me immediately.

Mkall wrote:

mattyc1007 wrote:Highbrow being an autobot means I cant get him

What do you have against Autobots?

Nice galleries as usual Ryan!

Noideaforaname wrote:

mattyc1007 wrote:Highbrow being an autobot means I cant get him

He lacks the Autobot insignia

My bro collects Autobots while I collect Con's

give me your face!

chrisc4 wrote:give me your face!

My thoughts exactly.

Blurrz wrote:Don't have an affinity towards vintage-formers like Highbrow so that's likely a pass. That Fallen's removable mask is pretty hilarious..

Well, yeah. What kid doesn't want to reenact a mutilation scene?

I think ill wait a month or two to see if takara will repaint the fallen in his natural colors.

Razorclaw0000 wrote:

Rated X wrote:mounted the cannons in a place where if they were actually fired, they would blow off the propellers in flight.

Not nitpicking, but in general, guns can be mounted like that, as long as the rate of fire and propeller spin are synchronized. The bullets literally pass through between the propeller blades. It's pretty slick.

Did they have that technology in WWII ??? Even if they did, I would still be scared to pull the trigger. One loose bolt or miscalibration and your going for a nose dive

Rated X wrote:

Razorclaw0000 wrote:

Rated X wrote:mounted the cannons in a place where if they were actually fired, they would blow off the propellers in flight.

Not nitpicking, but in general, guns can be mounted like that, as long as the rate of fire and propeller spin are synchronized. The bullets literally pass through between the propeller blades. It's pretty slick.

Did they have that technology in WWII ??? Even if they did, I would still be scared to pull the trigger. One loose bolt or miscalibration and your going for a nose dive

They made some kind of mechanism that only fired bullets between the propeller blades during WW1.

Rated X wrote:

Razorclaw0000 wrote:

Rated X wrote:mounted the cannons in a place where if they were actually fired, they would blow off the propellers in flight.

Not nitpicking, but in general, guns can be mounted like that, as long as the rate of fire and propeller spin are synchronized. The bullets literally pass through between the propeller blades. It's pretty slick.

Did they have that technology in WWII ??? Even if they did, I would still be scared to pull the trigger. One loose bolt or miscalibration and your going for a nose dive

They had that technology before World War I. The biplanes and triplanes iconic of that era typically mounted guns infront of the pilot, behind the prop.

Humorously, when they first tried to arm one of those planes, the engineers thought that the prop would be spinning so fast and the bullets travelling so fast that the odds of the two colliding were insignificant. Of course, there's a pretty significant logical fallacy there, and the first test firing of the guns shot the prop off. I believe their next approach was to simply armor the back of the wooden prop with steel or iron sheets, but that deflected the rounds back into the cockpit - not good. Both tales might be urban legends, but the bottomline is that they eventually rigged the firing mechanism to the engine using an "interrupter gear".

As to the model of the airplane, I kept seeing a Crimson Skies/Sky Captain/Tail-Spin mutated P-38, partly because the colors match up to the Gobot Guardian Bolt. I certainly see similarities to the FW-189 now that it has been pointed out though. To further complicate things, though, someone else pointed out that the stubby wings and enormous props are reminiscent of the experimental XF5U Flapjack and its flight capable precursor the V-173. I think it's funny that while any of these aircraft would be respectable alternate modes, the compromise represented by Highbrow's design probably wouldn't get off the ground.

Caelus wrote:I think it's funny that while any of these aircraft would be respectable alternate modes, the compromise represented by Highbrow's design probably wouldn't get off the ground.

And I think you hit the nail right on the head.

Razorclaw0000 wrote:

Caelus wrote:I think it's funny that while any of these aircraft would be respectable alternate modes, the compromise represented by Highbrow's design probably wouldn't get off the ground.

And I think you hit the nail right on the head.

Aint that the truth ???

Caelus wrote:I think it's funny that while any of these aircraft would be respectable alternate modes, the compromise represented by Highbrow's design probably wouldn't get off the ground.

Heh… Not even with the assistance of a jet engine?

I'm surprised I haven't seen anyone else mention this… but doesn't the nose look like a jet intake?

It's a shame it doesn't look more like a P-38. That's a good looking plane. But in addition to questionable airworthiness, the mishmash of different design elements in Highbrow's alt mode winds up looking rather unbalanced. When I saw the first pictures of this alt mode, I thought I was seeing an unfinished figure that was missing some pieces.

Bot mode isn't bad, but isn't that great either.

I actually like where they were going with this guy's retro design aesthetic; but I'll pass.

funklizard wrote:I'm surprised I haven't seen anyone else mention this… but doesn't the nose look like a jet intake?

I'm sure an AeroE could launch into a lecture about the functional role of a jet engine in an aircraft, but I'll just say that I've noticed this too, but have yet to spot any sort of outlet for the thrust - were I to B.S. an explanation, I'd say it was the air-intake for the monstrous internal combustion engine necessary to drive those two over-sized props. My wife argued that it was in fact a deflector array.

I have two explanations for Highbrow's alternate mode -

1. He uses the same alien anti-gravity technology that the G1 Cartoon Decepticons and Dinobots used in order to provide lift, and his alternate mode simply provides thrust and maneuvering, or is purely aesthetic.

2. The old codger landed on earth, and selected a badass looking prototype aircraft for his alternate mode, without checking first to make sure it could actually fly.

I bloody love Highbrow. I want more vintage alt mode TF's. He just looks superb in both forms though perhaps that blue does look a bit off though that's the only complaint I have.

The Fallen looks great too and I love that he's got a removable face, hehe. I don't yet own any figure of him so I'm tempted with this one. Ok I definitely want both these figures.

Lovin' the plane talk here, I used to be really into WW-II era planes, and to a lesser extent, earlier things, like biplanes, Zeppelins and such.

So I'm really looking forward to Highbrow, non-flying alt-mode or not!

I really dig Highbrow and was planning to put him in my Christmas pile but he got bumped in favor of the sweet USB Hub Blaster.its classics first for me all the way.

To anyone that owns this figure: does the hand/arm design bug you? Or is it something that can be overlooked?

amcgrath929 wrote:To anyone that owns this figure: does the hand/arm design bug you? Or is it something that can be overlooked?

It bothers me.

Counterpunch wrote:

amcgrath929 wrote:To anyone that owns this figure: does the hand/arm design bug you? Or is it something that can be overlooked?

It bothers me.

I'm afraid that will be the case with me as well. I really like the alt. mode but the robot mode is full of fail.

Counterpunch wrote:

amcgrath929 wrote:To anyone that owns this figure: does the hand/arm design bug you? Or is it something that can be overlooked?

It bothers me.

It used to bother me, but now that he is holding guns in both hands, not so much.

amcgrath929 wrote:

Counterpunch wrote:

amcgrath929 wrote:To anyone that owns this figure: does the hand/arm design bug you? Or is it something that can be overlooked?

It bothers me.

I'm afraid that will be the case with me as well. I really like the alt. mode but the robot mode is full of fail.

Ditto, if someone finds a way to modify it and make it better I'll get one, otherwise I'll pass.

I don't really mind the colours on Fallen, but he just doesn't really look like he's supposed to.

funklizard wrote:I actually like where they were going with this guy's retro design aesthetic; but I'll pass.

Or not.

I ended up ordering the TakaraTomy version of this guy a few days ago. (I prefer the darker blue; and prices on the Hasbro version have gone up enough at this point that I could get the TakaraTomy one for just a bit more.)

I still see quite a few flaws with this figure. But ultimately the pros outweighed the cons for me:

• Highbrow is one of the more unusual and ambitious designs we've seen in a while. He's not a complete success; but he's far from being a complete failure.
• We don't get all that many Autobot planes.
• Love it or hate it, the alt mode is definitely distinctive.
• I'm surprised I haven't seen this mentioned more: the bot mode bears a striking resemblance to Energon Bulkhead. The proportions are similar; both sport weaponry mounted on flaps above the hips; and the color scheme is reasonably close. Both characters are even described as uncommonly old in their bios. I'm a sucker for homage; especially to a character that in turn homages G1 Springer.

I'd be very interested to get more backstory on the design of this guy.