Intro:
Welcome
back folks, to another edition of Transformers Reviews. Today, finally we have
come to the review that you been waiting for – the big guy himself, Bruticus.
Bruticus
has always been one of my favorite gestalts. In fact, generally, I have always
liked Decepticon gestalts more than the Autobots’. To me, most of them somehow
look better, meaner and more powerful.
Bruticus
(or the Combaticons) has a really good back-story. They were created by
Starscream using junk parts of old war vehicles, and the sparks of dangerous
Cybertronian war criminals, who even by Decepticons’ standards, are considered
dangerous.
How
cool is that?
And
Bruticus is also considered as the ideal warrior/ combination by Megatron,
because although Bruticus is tremendously strong, he has no will of his own. He
merely acts upon instructions, and would literally stand there, right in the
middle of a battle, if he doesn’t receive any instructions from anybody.
Anyways,
in keeping up with the concept of “Scramble City”, which is an old Japanese
term for the ability to swap limbs, this review will cover both version, and we
shall start with the default version.
Combined
Mode # 1
In
combined mode number 1, which is also the default combination that we are
mostly used to, Blast Off and Vortex forms the arms for the big bot, while
Swindle and Brawl form the legs.
Blast
Off and Vortex, in arm forms, are literally their robot mode semi-transformed,
whereas Swindle and Brawl in leg form, are in their vehicle forms.
Onslaught as Torso
Vortex and Swindle as Arms
Swindle and Brawl as legs
After
I’ve fiddled with my Onslaught in order to prepare him for this combination
mode, I found out a QC issue with my figure. I’m sure that this is definitely
an isolated case, since I have not heard of any complaints from anybody else so
far.
 |
| How the flawless right leg socket looks like |
 |
| How the problematic left slot looks like |
 |
| How the right and left slot compared to each other |
The
left leg of Onslaught in torso mode, or specifically, the slot where the left
leg should slot it, is hindered. It means, when you try to slot in any of the
limb into that left leg slot, they can only go in halfway, as depicted in the
photos.
The
only way to overcome this problem is to carefully dismantle that left leg, and
file off the mold excess. I
was kind of disappointed that my emails to Hasbro went unheard and unattended –
I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, huh?
Anyway,
aside from that, the overall combination mode actually looks quite nice – well,
at least from the front or back. From both of these directions, Bruticus looks
all buff and tough.
However,
when you turn him sideways, Bruticus looks way too skinny for his own good. I
guess this is a recurring issue for most combiner bots nowadays.
When
compared to the other Combiner Wars combiner figure that I have, i.e. Menasor, Bruticus
looks to be a little bit shorter.
 |
| Menasor and Bruticus |
Articulation-wise,
most gestalt robots in this series have generally the same points of
articulations – thanks to the wonderful aesthetics of their individual robot
modes.
 |
| CW Bruticus and Fall of Cybertron Bruticus |
Bruticus’s
head is on a ball joint; universal joints at the shoulders; the elbows bend and
rotate thanks to Vortex and Blast Off’s knees, hips and waists; hips; and
knees.
Overall,
the big guy’s articulation points are kinda good.
Combined
Mode # 2
In
combined mode number 2, which is also the default combination that we are
mostly used to, Blast Off and Vortex swaps roles with Swindle and Brawl, to
become legs and arms respectively.
The
combined mode looks good, but compared to its 1st mode, the 2nd
mode looks beefier. The mass of Swindle and Brawl add inches more to Bruticus’s
arms, while having slimmer legs.
The
points of articulation are similar to the 1st mode, so I’m not going
to repeat myself.
Overall:
Personally,
I prefer the 1st mode to this, not only because how he looks over
all, but the overall stability that both Swindle and Brawl provide as legs of
the combined mode.
Still,
I do understand why some fans love the 2nd mode instead.
Anyhow,
if you weren’t able to buy the Hasbro individual package version of these figures like I have, you
could always get the Combiner Wars gift set boxset issued that you can easily get from retail, which also comes
with Shockwave.
Either
way, whichever variant that you may prefer, this set is definitely recommended
to fans of the Combaticons and gestalts in general.
Recommended.
Final
verdict: 8/10.
hoi
ReplyDeleteI am looking for building instructions for this do you have that or do you know where I get it thanks