(NOTE: Because this is a repaint, this is not a full-blown review. This mainly covers any changes made to the mold and the color scheme, and merely compares it to Autobot Alliance Highbrow. For a review on the mold itself, read the review of Autobot Alliance Highbrow here.)

    Since Obsidian's original Beast Machines form was a fictional helicopter, re-making him into a older style of plane with two rotors works really well in terms of a more "realistic" alt mode, given his general personality-- it's a nice homage without being a slavish update. (Or, should, I say, his Beast Machines version is the update-- the Botcon Machine Wars comic takes place well before Beast Machines, so that's why Obsidian is an Autobot. This is where he earned his reputation as an awesome general.) Anyways, FunPub has done an excellent job on FINALLY getting an Obsidian toy with a color scheme that is quite accurate to how he appeared in the BM television series. He's mostly a dull, bluish shade of gray, with a fair amount of greenish blue paint as well, the latter making itself particularly obvious in robot mode. He's also got a fair amount of black for some small connecting pieces as well as his machine guns, missiles, and some wiring on his waist. (All this said, I wish there was a little more black paint on his robot hips or something, to help hint at his future very "wiry" frame.) Although the bluish gray and bluish green complement each other well, by itself this would be a fairly dull color scheme, but Obsidian also has a fair amount of "cheese" yellow paint on him-- most notably on the rings surrounding his cockpit, but also on some small connector bits in robot mode and around his shoulders and lower chest. The way the black, yellow, and greenish blue all come together on his chest paint apps looks really nice, and really makes the chest look as much like his BM show form as you could on a mold not specifically made for him. There's also a fair amount of red for some "pop", from the rather normal shade of red for the rear tailfins/feet and nosecone, a more pale version of the color used as his rotors, and a nice transparent cherry red on his cockpit. All in all he looks remarkably like his BM show version in both modes, despite being a toy not at all designed to look like him.
    Obsidian does have one mold change, and that's a new head mold. Other than the length-- Obsidian's head is a bit more "normally" proportioned and not as long as in the BM show for space reasons in vehicle mode-- this new headsculpt is AMAZINGLY spot-on, with just the right amount of details-- lime green eyes, a red mouth and "mustache", a yellow brow, and a black section in between his brow and his mouth. It looks really well-done.
    Botcon 2013 Obsidian is an absolutely ingenious reuse of the Highbrow mold, with the colors spot-on, a good number of paint apps, an incredible head-sculpt and a look that just nails the character as much as you possibly could in both modes in lieu of a toy specifically made for Obsidian himself. FINALLY, a large, color-accurate toy for probably my favorite TF character of all time. Definitely my favorite toy of the boxset and-- for character reasons-- the whole Botcon 2013 set.

Review by Beastbot

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