Let's try an exercise, shall we? I want you to rank all of the Autobot Headmasters in order of best to worst. Which one was your favorite? Odds are it was Nightbeat. Who do you have listed as your least favorite? For me, the answer is obvious: Nightbeat. Hey, I'm being a contrarian!
I get why everyone loves Nightbeat so much. He's pretty much Simon Furman's masterpiece, along with Scorponok. Awesome detective solving mysteries? Yes, please. Drawn the best by British artists in the early 1990's? Check. Then why is it I don't like Nightbeat? Man, that could be an entire article. Let's just boil it down to this: all he does is solve "mysteries". Nightbeat is one giant MacGuffin. I know that the minute he shows up, he's there to solve some dilemma that's stumping everyone else. There really isn't any depth to the guy, and I don't get why everyone loves him so much. I mean, Needlenose has been given more depth than Nightbeat. Needlenose! Also, Nightbeat is the worst looking of all of the Autobot Headmasters. There, I said it.
I remember when I first saw Nightbeat in the catalogs in 1988, right after I got Hosehead. I took one look at him and just said "Nope." Over twenty years later, and I still have that feeling. I've put off getting Nightbeat in my collection for so long, that I entertained thoughts of just not ever getting him. My collection would have been missing a very important piece, but I think I may have been okay with that. That isn't to say that this figure is completely crap. Now that I've spent some time with him, I've come to the realization that what makes him look so rough are those arms. They don't look like they belong on him. They're too long. Everything else about Nightbeat? The bee's knees.
I really like the Porsche mode, flame decals and all. I don't know what they were thinking when designing the deco on poor Nightbeat. "You know what would make this Porsche look great? Flames!" Even though I'm not a huge fan of the simplistic yellow/blue color scheme, it somehow works here. You can definitely tell that Hasbro were gearing up for 1990's color trends here.
Nightbeat's Nebulon partner goes by Muzzle. He's super yellow. I really lucked out on this Nightbeat, now that I think about it. I paid a lot less than what he normally goes for, and he's in such great condition. I know that a lot of Nightbeats out there tend to get a bit of discoloration on the blues, but I have yet to run across any on mine. Stickers are in amazing shape as well.
Like all of the small Headmasters, what Nightbeat and Muzzle lack in size, they make up for in accessories. Unlike Siren, to open the cockpit in attack mode necessitates removing the gun on the roof. It isn't a big deal.
This is one of those special edition Porsche's that only seat one. And have a yellow interior. And guns.
The gang's all here! All of the small Autobot Headmasters together in one place! It took awhile, but it was definitely worth it! Sadly, I could have sworn that I had taken a picture of all of the Autobot Headmasters together, but I can't find it. Which isn't surprising since I took these pics nearly five months ago. What I'll show you is a picture of all of the Autobot Nebulons together.
So nice to see, and have, all of these guys. One day, I'll have all of the Decepticon Nebulons. Then the Japanese ones. Guess that means I'll have to keep collecting...
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