Transformers Review: Combaticons (G1 Knockoff)

Intro:

            I’ve been waiting for ages to do this particular review. This is the one Transformers figure that is the closest to my heart. Read the details, here.

            Anyways, based on the original G1 animated series continuity, the Combaticons were created by Starscream, out of his frustrations to lead his own army, using the sparks of several rogue Decepticons and wreckage of old World War 2 vehicles, hence the name. 

            Bruticus – the super robot that the Combaticons transforms into – is one of the strongest Decepticon gestalts at the time, and it gave both the Autobots and the Decepticons a lot of problems.

            As we go on with this review, please take note that some of these figures are already broken and thus I am unable to depict some of the modes mentioned.

            So without further ado, let’s get down with the review.

Vortex:

            Vortex is the Combaticons’ resident nutcase and is their interrogator extraordinaire. He transforms into a helicopter and based on the info I’ve gathered, he actually transforms into a Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk. I may not be a heli-fanatic, but I do know that this is one of the most commonly-used helicopter by the United States Air Force… well, TV plays a huge part of that.

            The copter mode looks fairly realistic.

            The set also comes with a small gun that can be mounted in front of the helicopter, specifically at the orange-color portion in front of the cockpit. Unfortunately, I can’t show you that because I’ve somehow lost the gun.

            Transformation is kinda simple, but a knockoff being a knockoff, the quality of the plastic isn’t exactly satisfying. Over time, the plastic has gotten brittle, and the first thing to give in was the ball-joint stick on the shoulders. Both on mine had broken off, and now, they are only held on to the main body with super glue.

Blast Off:

            Blast Off transforms into a space shuttle. He is the Combaticons’ resident loner, and being stationed high up in space away from everyone else just doesn’t quite help with his social difficulties.

            The space shuttle mode is kinda neat and it really looks realistic enough to pass as a NASA shuttle replica.

            Again, as with Vortex, Blast Off isn’t really that durable. The cockpit, which splits up into his arms have really brittle shoulders. Just as with Vortex, the shoulder joints gave in as well on mine.

Swindle:

            Swindle is probably the most business-savvy of all the Combaticons, or even Decepticons at that. He sees everything in terms of opportunity to make profit. 

            Transforming officially into a FMC XR311 military vehicle (looks more like a jeep to me), he is my favourite of all 4 of the smaller Combaticons. 

            The vehicles supposed to come with a blaster that can me mounted on top of the vehicle, but unfortunately I’ve lost that piece.

            Transformation is kinda simple and the robot mode is probably one of the better ones among the 4 smaller Combaticons.

            It is definitely one of the more durable of all the Combaticons.

Brawl:

            Brawl, the bot with some real anger-management issues. He transforms into a Leopard Tank.

            He is definitely the most solid and durable of all the Combaticons. The turret turns 360°.

            The robot mode isn’t exactly good. The sheer blockiness of the mode really restricts an already-limited range of articulations of this figure.

Onslaught:

           The leader of the group and their very own master strategist – he is the most powerful of all the Combaticons. He prefers to devise tactics and strategies rather than get himself dirty in a fight, but when his plans do fail, he has no qualms to get involved himself and unleash his ultimate fury.

            Onslaught transforms into an anti-aircraft truck. Physically, he may be the biggest, but compared side-by-side with the rest of the Combaticons, they’re definitely not in scale with one another. 

            His robot mode itself is the biggest amongst the Combaticons, and rightly so since he is the main body and torso of Bruticus. As such, he is also the most articulated of all five.

Bruticus:

            The combined mode, a.k.a. Bruticus stands close to about the height of a Voyager-class figure.

            He’s tough and blocky, and if I were an Autobot, I would definitely hate to be facing him in a fistfight. 

            Bruticus wields his signature Sonic Blaster, as well as a shield, formed by the ramp on Onslaught’s trailer. 

            Overall, I really like how Bruticus looks.

Overall:

Like I said, Bruticus has a special place in my heart, despite being only knockoffs. The Family literally began with him.

Knockoffs being knockoffs, they are definitely not perfect, but I will say this – it is knockoff figures like this that will produced more future TransFans. Let’s face it, with the prices of Transformers figures increasing rapidly over the years, parents may want to resort to knockoffs like this in order to expose their children to this awesome franchise – at least until these kids know how to take care of their toys better. I mean, Transformers are expensive toys, no doubt about that, and most parents may be quite reluctant to allow their kids to destroy these figures in a matter of minutes – tamper tantrums or not.

Anyways, what better a first for kids than a knockoff gestalt.

I love Bruticus.

Highly recommended.

            Final verdict: 9.5/10 (from the heart); 4/10 (overall quality-wise).

Transformers Review: Bruticus (FOC) – Part 6 of 6 – Bruticus

 Intro:

            This is it, boys and girls… This is what we all have been waiting for. We’ve gone through 5 different reviews for the individual Combaticons, just to get to this. 

            In the original G1 series, Bruticus (or the Combaticons) was a creation of Starscream, attempting to lead his own group of Decepticons to overthrow Megatron. Each of the Combaticons was originally Decepticon rogues imprisoned in the Decepticon Detention Center, Room 217, until they were released and given a new body by the renegade Decepticon Aerial Commander. 

From left: Swindle, Blast Off, Onslaught, Vortex and Brawl

           Bruticus was the perfect soldier by Megatron’s standards – he was strong and powerful, but lack of initiative, which he does really need. Without a given order, he would just stand there and do nothing. With so much power in possession, Megatron wished that he had more than one Bruticus in his army, where he only need to point them in the right direction, in order to get the job done.

            Prior to the aftermath of the 1986 Transformers movie, Bruticus was my number 1 gestalt. It wasn’t until Predaking coming into the picture, and many more subsequent gestalts, that he would eventually be dethroned from my list. 

            Anyways, that still doesn’t take away the fact Bruticus was still one heck of a gestalt to be reckoned with.
            The Bruticus mould would eventually be reused in the Car Robots/ Robots in Disguise line and be renamed as Ruination, which also features the Scramble City gimmick.

            Bruticus would later appear in the Energon/ Superlink, in which he was called Bruticus Maximus instead. In the team, Onslaught takes the form of a Missile Tank with the rest of the Combaticons were nothing more than just drones. Personally, I don’t quite like that reincarnation though.

            Almost a decade later, upon the release of the Fall of Cybertron video game, we finally get to see a new and updated version of Bruticus, with all transformable individual robots (unlike the Supreme-class ROTF Devastator), and none of the team members are drones.

            It took me quite some time to land this figure, and I probably wouldn’t have if it wasn’t for my pal, Big Daddy V. Thanks bub, I owe you one.

            So yeah, I knew I just had to get this guy, so here I am, having myself an early Christmas present (just in case if the world does end of 21^st of December later this year).

Combined Mode:

Onslaught forming torso and body

            The transformation sequence isn’t that complex, though they are not a walk in a park either. In fact, they are quite cleverly intuitive. 

From left: Blast Off and Vortex forming the arms

From left: Brawl and Swindle forming the legs

            Similarly to the original Bruticus, Onslaught would become Bruticus’s main body and torso; Blast Off and Vortex each forming the right and left arm respectively; and finally Swindle and Brawl each forming the right and left leg respectively.

Bruticus

            The combined robot, though quite massive in size, are unsurprisingly light, as I would’ve expected it based on the heft (or lack thereof) of each individual robot reviewed earlier.

 

            From the sides, Bruticus is incredibly thin for a bot that tall and wide. 

            The head sculpt is dead on accurate to the original G1 Bruticus, and Hasbro really did well to ensure that this is indeed an updated version of the classic G1 Bruticus by maintaining numerous homage such as the twin gun pack at the back; the head sculpt, the alternate modes of each individual names, as well as their names and characterizations and the overall look of the robot. 

            Articulation-wise: the head turns 360°; the shoulders rotate on soft-ratcheting joints, and move outward on hard-clicking joints; Blast Off as the right arm also rotates slightly below the shoulder and his hips acts as a bendable elbow joint; Vortex as the left arm rotates at the waist and bends at the hips, so that’s as far as the elbow joints that you’re going to get out of him; Bruticus’s waist turns; the hips maintains Onslaught’s range of movements; and finally the knees bend and are both on clicking joints. 

Size Comparison, from Clockwise from left: Unicron, Cybertron Primus, FOC Shockwave, FOC Bruticus and Reveal-the-Shield Wreck-Gar

Size comparison with 2007 Movie Leader-class Optimus Prime

            Bruticus has a surprising amount of articulations for a gestalt. 

            Size-wise: Bruticus is quite tall, though smaller than Supreme-class figures, but slightly taller than a Leader-class figure and weigh about the same as a Voyager-class figure (probably lighter than that). 

            I really do like Bruticus and what he has to offer, and he is definitely a very good update of a classic gestalt.

            However, boys and girls, if you think we’re done with this review, think again. There’s still more to Bruticus than meets the eyes.

Combined mode (Bonus #1):

Bruticus, post arms swapping and legs swapping

            If you guys (and gals) remember, Takara-Tomy released a special G1 episode called Scramble City, which depicts various gestalt robots having the ability to swap limbs, not just amongst the same team, but as well as with other teams as well.

Blast Off swapping thumb pieces

            Well, I guess Hasbro still hasn’t forgotten that since they did incorporate the idea into the designs of these Combaticons.

            That means Vortex and Blast Off can switch places with one another, as well as Swindle and Brawl, as in the depicted photos.

            In this mode, however, Vortex no longer sports the opened hand, but instead a machine (the one utilized in his Chopper mode).

            As for Blast-Off, you just withdraw the original thumb of the fist and flip out a new one.

            Articulation-wise, everything remains the same.

            While it was never officially stated in the instructions, this definitely can be done.

            However, we’re not done yet folks, in fact, we’re far from it.

Combined mode (Bonus #2):

From left: Vortex and Blast Off forming the legs

            The Scramble technology means not only you exchange each arms or each legs, it also means that the arms can become the legs and vice versa. So now we’re really gonna have more fun with these guys, won’t we?

 Brawl and Swindle forming the arms

 

            The transformations of each limb, i.e. from hands to legs and vice-versa are quite simple.

            While I do like how the overall combined mode looks like, there are still a little bit to nitpick. 

            Although Blast Off looks blocky enough to look like a leg, there isn’t anything on it that could act as a toe-piece in order to prevent it from toppling over. As for Vortex, the frontal cockpit doesn’t lock-in onto the body, rather depending mostly on friction to hold it in place. 

Brawl's awkwardly-designed thumb

            As for the arms, Brawl may just a little bit awkward, due to its thumb and overall look of the palm. Swindle, on the other hand look fantastic. 

 Swindle makes a good-looking arm

 

            Also, just in case if you’re wondering if this version of Bruticus can also wield the Sonic Cannon, then the answer is a YES. 

            Visual-wise though, I prefer this combined mode rather than the default one, because this mode seems to make Bruticus looks tougher, whereas the default combined mode looks a bit streamlined.

            Most articulations remain the same, just in case if you are wondering about that.

            Awesome mode nonetheless.

Combined mode (Bonus #3):

            Again, just like Combined Mode (Bonus #2), the arms can interchange, as well as the feet.

 Swindle and Brawl swapping sides

            The only difference is that both Brawl and Swindle still has palms.

Weapons:

            Another unique feature of this set is that all of the robots’ weapons can be combined into a massive weapon dubbed the Sonic Cannon. 

The Sonic Cannon

            Overall, the combined weapons looked as awesome as it is deadly.

           

Overall:

Well, what more can I say about this set that I haven’t said already? This set oozes with fun!

I am really happy with this set. Notwithstanding those re-released figures in the Encore series, FOC Bruticus is probably the best gestalt set that we’ve got since Legends-class ROTF Devastator, and definitely one of the most articulated ones to date.

Bruticus definitely deserve to be in any collection.

Highly and absolutely recommended.

            Final verdict: 10/10.