Fall of Cybertron Brawl is probably the weirdest of the Bruticus limbs. Part of his weirdness I’m sure stems from him being one of the designs from the first game. Unlike Swindle, Vortex, and Blast Off, Brawl already had a set robot mode and vehicle mode which they had to incorporate into the design for Bruticus, instead of being able to start from scratch. And I really liked the design from the first game! … but this isn’t a particularly good toy of it.
The culprit is, obviously, him having to be both an arm and a leg in addition to the hovertank and robot modes already given him. And for this to happen, apparently he’s mostly backpack, with some dragging coattails. Brawl’s robot mode is small and spindly, which is very not like the giant massive titan seen in the first game. His giantness probably took some influence from the live-action movie Brawl, who was a giant green guy with two barrels on his back, versus the original Brawl, who was a normal-sized green guy with one barrel on his back. Incorporating new ideas into older characters, especially those who are as blank slate-y as Brawl, is something I enjoy, so I was happy to see that. But most of that is lost in this toy’s interpretation of the design.
It’s an awkward robot mode. Easily the worst robot mode of the set of five. He’s not good at standing, either.
Thankfully, his leg and arm modes are interesting enough to compensate a little! His default limb is the left leg. It’s not quite just the tank mode stood on its ass like Swindle and Blast Off are. There’s some stuff to do with the turret and the rear-end of the tank, plus you gotta fold down a foot. Mercifully, the foot pegs into notches on the robot arms. Otherwise, the foot is too floppy to support his weight.
Like the foot mode, Brawl’s arm mode is also not just the tank mode with a fist attached at the end. In fact, most of the tank mode isn’t used for the arm itself at all. The legs of the robot fold down and out from the tank mode and form the arm itself. Two sets of two fingers deploy from the sides of the super robot’s wrist, and which sided arm you’re making him into determines which of his feet you unfold as his thumb. It’s neat looking. Though it does result in the double-barreled turret pointing at Bruticus’ own head.
Whoops.
Small and spindly? That’s unfortunate. he’s easily the most visually interesting Combaticon of the set for me. Can we get a pic of him next to a commonly available deluxe?
I still like it, though. He’s actually one of my favorites of the set, with Swindle. Blast Off’s decent, and I kinda dislike ‘slaught and ‘tex.
“Though it does result in the double-barreled turret pointing at Bruticus’ own head.”
“Ah, ah, ah, [i]atchoo[/i]!!”KABOOM
Why does he have tank treads on the SIDE of this vehicle mode? I always assumed the promotional images had him mistransformed, but I guess not?
His vehicle mode from the first game: http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Image:WFC-Brawlvehicle.jpg
They’re not treads, they’re a tread-shaped perimeter for his glowing hover-things.
Are you sure they’re not treads too? If I recall, in that game the vehicle modes had two configurations, normal vehicle mode and “I’m in a hurry” vehicle mode, and the means of propulsion would shift to match. The Megatron toy actually featured the ability to be in either mode, with little treads sliding down to form hoverunits not dissimilar to Brawl’s here.
It’s possible!
As I already said, I was looking forward to get a Brawl figure, but I’m not too fond of him.
I must admit, however, if I would buy a Bruticus, I’d probably buy an Onslaught, two Swindles (legs) and two Brawls (arms). I don’t really care for Vortex and Blastoff.
Well Brawl always did have a turret backpack anyway so I think I can deal with this. I’m still diggin’ him, while Vortex is my favorite I think this guy still ranks in second place for my favorite out of the set. Of course, I didn’t actually manage to get one, so perhaps my opinion will change when I have my G2 set in-hand in October.
Eh, the turret backpack isn’t the problem. It’s the connector-thingy and the hull of most of the tank mode hangin’ down near his nads.
Exactly. In the game, most of the mass of his tank mode goes into his limbs, giving him a nice bulky appearance. In his toy however, most of the tank rests on his back, resulting in rather thin limbs. He doesn’t look too bad IMHO, but it’s still a bit unfortunate.
What I completely forgot in my first post: Nice title for that blog, Willis.
For some reason- I think it’s the yellow eyes in contrast with the lime-green plastic- his G2 redeco looks very Waspinator-y to me.
b-but waspinator has purple eyes