Nightbeat's Titan Master
mode is colored like Nightbeat-- it has the mix of yellow and swirly dark
aquamarine plastic. Both colors go together quite nicely, though I wish
the yellow were a LITTLE duller. The swirly dark aquamarine is a pretty
nifty shade of blue, and in my opinion all but makes the color scheme.
Unfortunately, the toy doesn't LOOK like Nightbeat in this mode. The legs
are molded to look like he has two-pronged "toes" on his feet, there's
a big circular "bolt" detail in the center instead of anything resembling
Nightbeat's chest, and the head has a long Cyclops-like optical visor with
a mouthplate. It has Nightbeat's side antennae on the head, and the arms
are passable (at least at this scale), but... this ain't Nightbeat. Unfortunately
there's not much visible paint in this mode, either-- the mouthplate on
the face is yellow, and that's it in this respect. Like all Titan Master
figures, in robot mode Nightbeat can move at the neck, as well as back-and-forth
at the shoulders, hips, and knees (the latter two as one for both legs,
since the legs are molded together). In head mode, you'd figure if Nightbeat
didn't look like Nightbeat in Titan Master mode, he'd look like Nightbeat's
head here, right? Unfortunately, wrong. It's not a COMPLETE difference
like the head in Titan Master mode-- the head does have similar antennae
(though they're not painted black), and the helmet around the face does
look somewhat similar to Nightbeat's. (It's not an exact fit-- there's
a few vents that shouldn't be there-- but it's close). However, the face
(the most important part) isn't correct. He doesn't have a square visor
with the nose protruding through it, he has individual, honestly rather
slim and tiny eyes, complete with a in-pain or angry expression on his
face that just doesn't fit Nightbeat's detective character at all. The
face is painted a correct orangish-yellow, thankfully, and the eyes are
red, but again, colors alone don't make the head Nightbeat. Apparently
early on when Hasbro was deciding what to do with the Titan Master packs
some were intended to be random 'bots, but were later changed to previously-established
characters-- this may not have been a good idea for this one, as if you're
going to name a brand-new mold after one of the most popular Headmaster
characters, you'd better make it look like that character, and this does
not
look like Nightbeat outside of the colors.
The first of the accessory's
modes is a drill tank. All in all, this is a fairly solid mode, and easily
my favorite of Nightbeat's accessory's. Proportionally it's pretty spot-on
(at least taking into consideration the slightly futuristic look of it),
with no real extras whatsoever except for the top of the jet mode, which
can be seen rather easily in the body of this mode. There's lots of great
mold detailing on the treads in particular, but also on the drill head
and side panels as well. The back end is a bit bland in comparison, having
a bit of yellow plastic without any real mold detailing that would make
it look like the back end of a drill vehicle. The color scheme is very
similar to the Titan Master's, with the yellow and swirly dark aquamarine
going together fairly well, though this time there's a good amount of silver
on the sides and front to help break up the blue a bit more-- it looks
pretty nice overall, though I do wish the treads had been painted black
as well, especially given how much mold detailing there is there. Nightbeat
is in his head mode in this mode, stuck near the back end with the legs
facing up. It's an odd little block that doesn't really fit in with the
overall shape of the toy, but it's generally out of the way at least.
In the accessory's other
vehicle mode, it's a jet. Basically you turn the tank mode upside down,
flip the drill bit out for a cockpit, and then flip out the sides of the
tank to make little rectangular wings. The jet cockpit is nicely proportioned,
and I like the introduction of the metallic red, but the rest of this mode
is pretty weak sauce. The body is way too large and bulky to be passable
as a jet, and though I like the little missiles molded into the topside
of the "wings", they're way too small and not nearly long enough to be
believable as actual wings, even from a toy perspective. Additionally,
the silver that broke up the tank mode is mostly out of sight, leaving
too much unbroken aquamarine. Nightbeat also slots into this mode in a
very odd manner-- the pegs for his feet to slot into are on the front side
of the back end, so Nightbeat ends up kind of leaning over the body of
this mode instead of, say, sitting in it comfortably, which is rather odd.
If you'll notice, compared
to other Titan Master set toy reviews, this review is one picture short,
and that's the lack of a weapon mode pic. The reason this isn't included
is because the accessory's "weapon mode" is literally the drill tank mode
with the handle in the back folded down; there is absolutely nothing else
different about it. It's not even a "halfway" transformation, so I find
this weapon mode really darned weak. Honestly, this shouldn't be a "mode"
by any extension of the imagination.
Titans Return Nightbeat
has a fairly nice color scheme (the aquamarine plastic in particular),
and the accessory's drill tank mode is okay. The rest of this set is pretty
disappointing-- the Titan Master doesn't look like Nightbeat in anything
except the color scheme in either robot or head mode, the jet mode is very
weak, and the weapon mode isn't even an afterthought, it's so little of
a "mode". One of the weakest of the Titan Master sets-- it's a shame this
is all Nightbeat got in this line.
No Stats
Review by Beastbot