Dr. Mindbender (2004)
Well, the good Doctor finally found a little humility in the new millennium, and put on a shirt. After all, what makes more sense for a mad scientist type than a white lab coat? The man can’t leave behind his flair for fashion however, and picked out a side buttoning affair along with jackboots and bloused pants. He’s even sporting some stylish new glasses in favor of the old monocle. He’s actually pretty hip looking in comparison to his previous outfits. Maybe he didn’t want to be compared to the stodgy Dr. Venom, who wore a plain white lab coat and blue pants. Venom probably shopped at Sears.
Mindbender really had some serious focus in the Valor vs. Venom storyline, being the central Cobra character responsible for bringing about the venomization process. I like to make fun of his look, but in all seriousness, sometimes he doesn’t get the credit for becoming the be-all, end-all of Cobra scientists. Whenever a storyline calls for some sort of Cobra scheme, he’s readily available. In that respect, he’s become as indispensable as Destro to the Cobra hierarchy.
In this incarnation, he’s given up the cattle prod for more traditional scientific accessories. There’s a laptop and a couple of test tubes that handily attach to the screen. Not sure what that’s for; maybe they’re some sort of fancy experimental laptop speakers made by Bose.
I really liked this figure, but I really couldn’t get behind Hi-Tech enough to buy that two pack. That was my only dislike about the two-pack style of selling figures in the new sculpt era. I passed on a lot of cool figures because their pack mates were either super lame (like Hi-Tech in my mind) or they were things I’d already gotten from an early two-pack (like the Flint that came packaged with Black Out–though to be fair, Black Out’s crosseyed paint job probably didn’t help him much either). I really do like the look of the lab-ready Mindbender and I am hoping that somewhere that cancelled lab Mindbender from RoC sees the light of day in an affordable form. Let’s be fair, he’s an easy figure to recreate.
This was my first Dr. Mindbender figure, which I got in the two-pack with Hi-Tech at a comic shop in ’08 or ’09. I think he could’ve qualified for single-pack release, with a purple lab coat and black pants (as a nod to the original version).
I wish Dr. Mindbender had turned up wearing this outfit back in ’86. It might have made him more respectable to fans (such as I) who were rapidly becoming disenchanted by the big push towards fantasy and science fiction rather than the realistic stuff Larry delivered in Special Missions.
Mindbender did fill a niche after Venom’s demise and he’s since become a staple of the Cobra hierarchy. Larry Hama killed him off but seemed to have noticed Mindy’s potential and wisely brought him back to fill the “not quite so mad” scientist role. (I’ve always gotten the impression that much like Destro and the others, Mindy is there mostly for the steady paychecks.)
I really like this figure. I hope to add him to my Spytroops/VvV collection one day. I think he is one of the best “reimagined” figures of that period.
At the last collectables fair i went to, i managed to pick up a bag of Spytroops stuff. It was mostly numerous versions of Duke, Heavy duty [including the 3.3/4 one which came with the 12′ “Talking” Duke] and Hi-tech. I’m not so keen on Hi-tech. He looks too much like Micheal Bay for my liking
When it comes to the Spytroops and VvV movies, the only thing that really got on my nerves was that Beachhead was a surfer dude.
This is a nice looking figure and it’s cool to see Dr. Mindbender dressed more as a scientist than as just another one of those Cobra weirdos.
As I already have a v1 Mindbender, when I got htis guy, I chiopped his head off and replaced it with a Governer Tarkin to makie a pretty good Dr Venom, long before he got an official figure.
@Dekkard
Which Tarkin did you use? POTF 1997 or the one from ROTS in 2005?
On the subject of Dr Venom, I’ve been hoping Hasbro will do a 3.3/4 Lancaster with a Venom as its pilot. Though for such a vehicle to be in scale, it would need to be as big as the USS FLAG
We collectors would love a proper 0-ring Dr.Venom done right. I never cared for Dr.Brainwave no matter what bald headed figure they give us.This figure however, is decent. He’d look good in a diorama scene.
It should be noted that the original Dr. Mindbender wasn’t supposed to be a scientist, but a torturer/interogator. There was a reason he came with a cattle prod. Hama talked Hasbro into toning down that role. After the Zartan mental illness file card controversy, he didn’t want to hear complaints from Amnesty International.
I’d like to see a “Modern era” version of him!