Fall of Cybertron Bruticus
In short: The best Hasbro combiner since Predaking, possibly the best ever.
+ Very smart design
+ Loads of tabs and locking
+ Combination system works, locks on tight, and allows lots of poses
+ Poseability is the best yet on any Hasbro combiner
- Feels lightweight and cheap
- Feels unfinished
- Poseability is hampered by lack of joints or joints in awkward places
My biggest fear was that this was going to be a scaled-up PCC, with awkward vehicles, spindly limbs, and tolerances that lead to poor QC and spontaneous limb ejection. While PCC improved over time, this was Hasbro's first full size combiner since Energon and the first ever all-Deluxe combiner. There was so much that could go wrong.
It's not perfect by any means, but Hasbro has accomplished some really major things. This blows the Energon combiners out of the water. It also is the first Transformers combiner to include everything right into the vehicles. I'm not counting PCC here because the drones didn't transform, and I'm not counting Legends Devastator because it only approximated hands and feet (and could get away with that because of the scale).
And finally, Transformers can tell Puzzler to suck it.
The only thing that is real competition for this is Predaking. Predaking has two things going for it: heft and aesthetics. The Predacons were close to modern Voyagers and they were also when Hasbro wasn't so cost-obsessed. So Predaking has a size, a weight, and a sense of unified completion that this new Bruticus lacks. On Predaking, the robot head that wasn't filled in on the back was the exception. Here it's the rule, with hollow and unfinished limbs everywhere.
However, some of that is deliberate and smart design. The new Bruticus guys were designed to be lighter in order to avoid problems common to combiners: the weight just gets in the way and leads to poor poseability and joint problems. That is not an issue here. New Bruticus can get into some pretty
insane poses and the joints can handle the weight. The limbs don't disengage or sag, and Bruticus will not fall over just because you put the arms or legs in an interesting pose.
Puzzler who? Let see him beat me at the limbo.
What is probably the biggest limitation is that the figure is stuck with the joints it has and is missing some obvious ones. There are no ankles or swiveled platforms. The arms also have decent articulation -- just not where you might want them. Being able to get the arms into the position you want can be fiddly or even impossible. If there were ankle joints, this guy could do just about anything including the limbo. It's a sad omission when it's
this close.
But, that said, the figure is so well designed. There are tabs, posts, and locks everywhere. If it folds together, you can lock it in place. There are even hip locks so you can give Bruticus extra help standing in certain poses, or disengage them to try something wacky. I can't give this enough praise and I am so happy to see such care put into the engineering. Energon Superion shows what happens when you don't have enough locking and I am so glad they learned from that mistake.
Also, I can't say enough about the gestalt design. There are no Energon Superion thunderthighs. There's no Energon Devastator awkwardly restricted limbs. You can move Bruticus, you can pose him, and things do not get in the way. And just in case it isn't clear in the pictures, all of these poses are not supported in any way -- the arms and legs are all separate and doing their own thing and not resting on anything.
I tried taking Superion to pilates, but his legs wouldn't fit through the door.
Here's how I'd rate the team members:
Winners: Blast Off and Vortex. Both have killer robot modes that just drip personality. Blast Off has a clever robot mode and transformation. Vortex is an homage to the original that will be instantly familiar, yet smart and surprising in its updates. I think I would give Blast Off the edge because Vortex's helicopter is just slightly dorky looking. I can't put my finger on it, but the proportions are just wrong and it's more cute than menacing. The baby blue color doesn't help, but it's probably my favorite vehicle color of the set, so I don't hold it against him.
Solid Team Members: Brawl and Swindle. Both make good robots. Swindle has a better vehicle mode -- Brawl's just feels unfinished and somewhat lame. It's not nearly as imposing as a tank should be, and the open front needs some guns or something. It just looks empty. It reminds me of FoC Shockwave, but Shockwave felt finished.
What's limiting about both is that they feel like scaled-up scouts, Swindle especially. Swindle's vehicle also suffers by being a leg -- from the top Swindle looks great, but from the side you can see the foot supports, which look awful. Transformations on both are simplistic, and while the robot modes are fine, they are not nearly as interesting or distinctive as Blast Off or Vortex.
Loser: Onslaught. Simply put, Onslaught should have been a Voyager, and too many compromises were made all around in order to get him to be Deluxe size. I think if FansProject ever decides to enhance this set, they'll replace Onslaught. I would be okay with that. Onslaught's vehicle mode is a downright disappointment. The other two modes get the job done, but the figure feels lacking. Onslaught had the most to do, and so it's actually pretty good that he is able to function in all three modes and support the gestalt. But it would have been worlds better had he been a Voyager.
I do like that they made the effort to have the guns combine. Sadly, it looks dorky. The colors don't go together and it looks like a bunch of spindly guns held together by rubber bands. Also, Onslaught comes with a double-barreled launcher to echo G1 Onslaught, but it won't stay on mine. It fits, but falls off over time. It's also very cheap, both in appearance and manufacture.
Some of the combiner parts suffer from cheap appearance. The double-barreled guns I just mentioned, but Bruticus' pelvic skirt also looks cheap from lack of paint. Part of it is the deco -- I bought it, but I'm not a fan. I hesitate to criticise it, because this is the one I selected. But part of it is that lots of things are unpainted. While that may have been the case on the G1 figure, it doesn't change that now it looks unfinished and a missed opportunity. I guess all the budget went into the purple camo, and that's nice but it doesn't really make it feel finished.
Also, I gotta say, none of the decos are really great, not even the SDCC one that's going for a hefty chunk of change. They lack a cohesiveness to the design and all look toy-like. The SDCC set is best, but I have no plans to get one unless the bottom falls out of that market. I would love to see Hasbro redeco this set. Charge $10-$20 more, but go all out on the paint and make the vehicles adult, military colors that go well with each other. If you look at FansProject Bruticus, they were very smart with the color choices -- they're all different and half of them were Hasbro colors, but they compliment each other, make a decent scheme together, and nothing stands out too much. The recent Unicron and the upcoming Omega Supreme show what can be accomplished when someone really cares.
Which brings us to FansProject Bruticus. I think it's an unfair comparison for a couple of reasons. FansProject is Hasbro stuff, enhanced by $100 of upgrades. This
whole set cost $60. Also, much as I love FP Bruticus, it is a partsformer. I don't have a problem with that, because FansProject went the extra mile to make all the parts make sense in both robot and vehicle modes. They did an insanely good job with that, too.
But this Bruticus is trying something different. By incorporating all the parts, they lose the extra joints and detail. There's an elegance to this choice that makes the design that much more difficult, not even taking the vast cost difference into account. That Hasbro was able to accomplish this Bruticus with 5 regular unenhanced Deluxes is
incredible.
So no, new Bruticus does not beat FansProject Bruticus. But, again, is that even a fair comparison? Not really. So I'll say this: FP Bruticus remains my favorite combiner of all time, but New Bruticus is the best unenhanced Hasbro combiner ever. (I still love you Predaking. Don't be mad.)
I realize not everyone would make that choice, but integrating everything into the robots/vehicles
along with the insane articulation puts it on top for me. Both, on their own, are major for me, and to have them in one package is amazing.
. Ultra Magnus is in the $40 price range now.
