No jokes this time, because the-restaurant-that-shall-not-be-named never delivered on those giftcards they owe us.
"Rules are detours on the road of life"
Thinks going by the book is going the long way. Doesn't follow plans - or roads!
Ending the bio there, when the original went on to say he "cuts across parking lots, sidewalks, backyards to get where he's going," makes him sound more innocent. I mean, there are desire paths and then there's flat-out destructive tresspassing! Obviously, yes, you should ignore arbitrary "rules" if there's no reason for them, or the reason is stupid, but "don't drive where humans walk" is a pretty logical one even if you're not a multi-ton metal robot.
Released in 1986, the original Outback was a retool of 1985's Brawn, something that will be important later. Fittingly, this Outback is also a retool: it's Studio Series Brawn, with a new head and chest. Back in the '80s, the characters' heads and chests were one solid piece, though that's not the case today of course. Studio Series Brawn has been released three times - solo, in a multipack with Ratchet,
and as part of this same Retro line - but I passed on all of them because he'd just had a perfectly fine toy in Titans Return. And similarly, I passed on Power of the Primes Outback because he was that same mold again, and I didn't care enough about the character to buy it twice. Instead of two curved vertical bars next to what looks like an air intake grille, Outback,s chest is flat, but angles down to the center where you'll find a checkerboard of four squares in silver and blue, with small tech details sculpted on them. The arms and legs are the same, but who cares about those? It's not like any of the Brawns had flat hook-hands like the vintage toy did, so there really isn't anything to change. Sadly, he does not get big pieces of door kibble on the top of his arms.
The head is silver with a blue visor, which is a cartoon affectation: the first toy to have it was a 2008 rerelease, because the original had no extra paint on the face at all. This is a superior choice, because it breaks up the monotony. He's got a typical mouth and nose, and is clearly wearing a helmet with cheekguards and a flared crest on the forehead, but there's a problem due to the articulation.
Like we said, on the vintage Outback, the head and chest were one solid piece. So when his face just existed inside a box on his shoulders, it was fine. The cartoon dealt with this by giving him a silver face on the front of a brown box head. This toy, unfortunately, wants to look like
the old toy, but it also wants to have neck articulation. So what we get is a super wide block of brown wrapping around the top and sides of the head, like the '86 toy had, but now that block turns with the head. No, no no! If anything, the silver head should turn inside the brown, not with it. This makes it look like he has the robot equivalent of 1970s dirtbag metalhead hair, which is very disappointing. Poor work, everyone; take it home and try again. Other than that, he moves at the shoulders, biceps, elbows, waist, hips, thigh, knees, and ankles, which is a nice amount for a figure of this size. He includes a black gun, which is good: 1986 Outback was the only Minibot to actually include an accessory! It wold have been silly to miss it here.
Converting Outback is a pleasant experience.
Lift the kibble on the back, turn the forearms to the outside, raise the arms over the head then swing them down at the shoulder, hinge the chest open, rotate the front of the truck out of the body, put the chest back, turn the waist around, unfold the shins and clamp down the feet, flip the shoulders back into the body, fold the hands down, swing the extended legs around to the side, lower the roof, and fold down the rear panel.
Outback's altmode is some sort of indeterminate SUV thing, but that's not a result of modern licensing restrictions: the '80s version wasn't based on a real model, either. There's a gas can molded onto the rear
panel, because you don't want to run out when you're driving through the wilderness, and his gun can plug into the spare tire on the roof. That tire is then removable, to no purpose, andin fact the tire pulls out of the roof more easily than the gun pulls out of the tire, so it'll come off pretty much every time you use it. The three Brawn versions had windows painted on the sides in the rear, but Outback just gets a plain tan surface with an Autobot symbol. There's a black square on the hood, with two jagged silver lines painted on it; that seems kind of pointless, but is actually a reference to the toy's secret origin.
The 1986 Outback, like 1984 Brawn before him, had a large, angular M molded in the black on his hood. For years, fans assumed that was M for Micro Change, the Takara line where the toy that would become Brawn originally appeared, but it seems Takara possibly didn't do the work? In 1982, Knickerbocker Toys was working on a line called Mysterians, hoping to bring the Japanese fad of transforming robot toys to America. The "Mobile Force" portion of the line would have been
four small vehicles, vehicles which fans know today as Brawn, Gears, Huffer, and Windcharger. That's right, four toys originally released by Takara in Japan were seemingly developed in America. That's why those four are just regularly-proportioned little cars, not "Penny Racers" like Bumblebee, Cliffjumper, and Bumper, and why they have a different transformation scheme (compare the three definitely Japanese ones' "front becomes the feet, roof becomes the chest, wheels become the arms" to the American ones' "entire chest and head is under the car, legs fold out from the back and sides." So it's entirely possible the M that's been molded on these characters for decades has meant Mysterians this whole time, and so that's what the painted lines on Outback mean, as well. Wild!
I never had Outback before. The character's been released or homaged in multiple lines, but this is my first one. He's a lot of fun to play with, as changing between modes is smooth and creative. The neck articulation is definitely goofy, but the rest of him is great, with the only downside being the ludicrous $27.99 pricetag.
-- 05/26/26
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