Name: Obiwan Kenobi
Series: Star Wars Transformers
Allegiance: Jedi Council
Function: Jedi Master
Alternate Mode: Jedi Starfighter
Thanks to Goktimus Prime for loaning me Obiwan for this review
STARFIGHTER MODE
Height: 7cm Length: 17cm Width: 16cm
A grey space fighter with extensive maroon markings. This is the type of fighter we see Anakin and Obiwan Kenobi flying in the opening scene of Star Wars Episode III. For those unfamiliar, it's a twin hulled single-pilot jet with panels rising above and below the wingtips with a cockpit at the back, between the wings. The yellow is prominent on the hulls and to a lesser extent the panels on the wingtips, with a few maroon paint applications in other locations. There's some black detailing under the panels and on the portside wing the top half of an R2 unit sticks out (similar to R2D2 but with dark grey instead of silver). The droid is fixed but still recognisably similar to the prototypical R2D2. The cockpit has transparent windows and grey inside with a green seat, rounding out a reasonably detailed and coherent colour scheme, which isn't especially inspiring but still works.
There are some nice details on this jet, such as the seat inside the cockpit - complete with headrest. There are legs underneath the hulls which are nicely sculpted, and they can fold away for flight. There are no rear legs as such, rather a bump underneath the cockpit, but it stands fairly well so I'm not complaining. There are silver missiletips sticking out of the wings near their bases, which are the hilts of the robot mode's lightsabres.
The rounded canopy lifts up to reveal a convincing cockpit and a beige figure which represents Obiwan Kenobi quite well. It has a beard and even tiny blue eyes. While the face doesn't really look like that of Ewan McGregor, the paint job is clearly Master Kenobi. While the Anakin mini figure was too big, they've ensured this one fits. There are well concealed triggers on the front of the wings which fire the missiles. They're well designed - not hard to fire but hard to fire by accident. The light sabres don't make great missiles, but the launchers are well designed even if the projectiles don't travel very far. You can fold up the legs for a flight mode, as I've already mentioned.
A decent starfighter, and while the colours are uninteresting, they do what they need to do. The mini figure pilot is better than the mini Anakin, giving this toy an edge over the similar Anakin figure which shares the mould (and base grey colour). As with most Star Wars Transformers, the level of detail is very good. This is easily the toy's better mode.
TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE
Fold away the wing plates and legs. Open the canopy, remove the mini Obiwan. Flip up the back of the cockpit to reveal the robot head, you can fold the seat down and place the mini figure inside again if you like. Slide the front of the cockpit in and close the cockpit. Fold the legs down from underneath, fold the wings down and underneath (taking the hulls with them). Extend the legs, rotate the waist, rotate the boots, flip up his feet. Fold the back of the cockpit down onto his back, pull the arms out from within the sides of the chest (cockpit), give him the light sabres and you're done.
ROBOT MODE
Height: 17.5cm Width: 9cm
A mainly grey robot with some maroon here and there, a pale brown on the boots and some yellow paint applications on his shoulders and the transparent canopy on his lower torso. The distinctly robotic face is silver with an amber beard and amber hair - both of which are angular and are robotic interpretations. The face does still resemble Obiwan Kenobi's, mind you, and while the blue eyes are probably the most organic feature, it looks like it's meant to copy a human look. The colours are slightly mixed up, but Obiwan doesn't have the rather random-looking black hand Anakin has (I know why it's there, but I still think the black looks random on this robot mould). The head is resculpted compared to Anakin's, incidentally, and is a much more focussed effort - Anakin's doesn't really look like Anakin.
The wings are very bad kibble, dominating from the back and pulling this thing over. It's hard to find a pose where it doesn't want to fall backwards. Terrorcon Blot & Autobus Prime point out that the wings can actually clip in - while this does keep them stable, it doesn't help the figure's stability much. The potbelly shaped cockpit doesn't look so good, but the head works reasonably well - which is enough to make this toy an improvement on Anakin.
Robot Obiwan has good articulation but poor poseability, since the poses usually just fall over backwards. The head rotates, which is another improvement over Anakin. The waist also rotates for transformation, which fails to translate here since the canopy will open when you rotate the waist. The shoulders swing and lift out to the sides while his elbows hinge inwards and the wrists are ball joints. The hips swing and lift out to the sides while the knees and ankles are hinged and there are rotators just above the knees. The heelspurs are not very big for a toy with so much backpack, and he really needed something better here. In theory you can strike some cool light sabre wielding poses, in reality you'll find the pose and then spend 5 minutes trying to find a way to keep it upright.
A robot mode that's clearly second fiddle to the vehicle mode. The arms are good, the legs could have been good if not for the useless heelspurs and the transparent blue light sabres do look cool. The head works better than Anakin's which I appreciate, however the torso is still awkward. The kibble on his back is flat out ruinous here. I can't see too much scope to improve the torso, but the lack of heelspurs really hurt. Credit does go to the designer for improving the head - it's not enough to save a poor robot mode but it does make a difference.
VARIATIONS
None that I'm aware of, although Obiwan is a repaint of Anakin Skywalker. Later repaints of the same mould are Mace Windu and Darth Vader (which represents the same as Anakin).
OVERALL
Well, it's a decent starfighter mode, if not an especially exciting one, with some good details such as the R2 Droid and the clever triggers on the launchers. The transformation is lazy, with the wings folding back as huge pieces of kibble while the limbs fold out of storage. The robot mode is disappointing despite good articulation. It's unstable with wings that just float there looking awkward. I am glad they improved his head compared to the earlier Anakin, it makes this a better toy. He's still kinda disappointing - the transformation is still lazy - but at least the designer actually tried to improve the mould - 4.5/10
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