TRANSFORMERS TOYS AND MERCHANDISE SECTION

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Blackjack's review: Bruticus

UNIVERSE 2.0 BRUTICUS MAXIMUS
Allegiance- Decepticon
Subgroup- Combaticon

I'll start with each of the Combaticons separately and I'll cover them in combined form. Each Transformer will get his own 'Transformation', 'Durability', 'Fun' and 'Overall' marks.

This is gonna be one heck of a review...

Okay. Firstly,

ONSLAUGHT

Function- Combaticon Leader/Strategist
Motto- "The mind is the greatest weapon."
Repaint of- Energon Barricade

Firstly, the Combaticons are repaints of the Destruction Team combiner from Transformers: Energon. The Destruction Team is based on the Combaticons anyway, so it's kinda fitting for them to be repainted. The Combaticons enjoy a large fanbase, mainly due to the fact that the original G1 Combaticons mold have been repainted like a gazillion times. Myself, I'm more of a Constructicon fan myself when it comes to combiners, but the Combaticons, Predacons and Stunticons are close seconds. Therefore, given a choice between Devastator and Bruticus, I'd take Devastator. It's just as well I didn't. Sir Auros' and the others' excellent reviews had managed to convince me not to pick up the Constructicon set, so here we are.

Now the Combaticons began life as the third Decepticon combiner. Like every other G1 combiner (other than Devastator, Predaking and Monstructor), Bruticus uses the Scramble City configuration, meaning his limbs can be swapped with each other, or any Scramble City combiner limb. The G1 Combaticons appeared in the comics for a short while, mostly fighting Defensor or appearing as background characters. Disappearing a short time during the Headmasters' introduction onwards, the Combaticons nevertheless made appearances troughout Earthforce and the G2 comics. In the cartoon, however, they had a more major role. Apparently the Combaticons were so evil that even the Decepticons locked their sparks up. Starscream freed the Combaticons and gave them new bodies. The Combaticons rebelled against Starscream, and later against Shockwave and Megatron. After being put down by the combined force of Autobots and Decepticons, Bruticus was reprogrammed to serve the Decepticons loyally... which he did.

Leading the Combaticons is the Decepticon strategist Onslaught. Whilst chock-full of weaponry and generally looking bad ass, Onslaught has always been described as a 'strategist who prefer strategic warfare to proper warfare'. Reminds me of DC's Luthor or Hush. However, Onslaught is a force to be reckoned with both physically, and as a background force. In the comics, he (under the leadership of Ratbat) led the most successful Decepticon strikes on the Autobots, nearly decimating everybody before those damn spoilsports Blaster and Grimlock had to come to rescue. In the cartoon Onslaught's strategem was able to take over Cybertron, pwn both Starscream, Shockwave and a slew of generic Decepticons. The Decepticons and Autobots had to work together to defeat the Combaticons then.

I don't think the name Onslaught had been used to other characters. G1 Onslaught was a missile truck, and the toy was repainted into his G2 self. Universe Classics brings us with three versions of Onslaught--a legends class repaint of Cybertron Red Alert, an original Ultra class mold and this one.

ALTERNATE MODE

Onslaught transforms into one of those gigantic missile rack trucks, similar to Universe Dropshot or G1 Flak. The difference is that unlike them, Onslaught is a proper truck instead of a tank. The truck bears heavy resemblance to G1 Onslaught (though not as much as the Ultra toy). Onslaught is primarily dark gray, with lighter shades of gray, silver and greenish gray mixed in. Red and purple adorn the tiny details. Actually, I would've preferred a more greener/bluer shade of gray, which would be closer to G1 Onslaught. But anywaaaay.

From the front, Onslaught's slick paint job and well detailing (for an Energon mold) makes me like him. However, look at him from the side and you'll see his robot mode head sitting there, hoping not to be noticed. It's just stupid.

Furthermore, the, um, crotch and upper legs are also very prominent behind the missile rack. Boo.

Other than that, though, Onslaught is a sweet little toy. He rolls well on eight small wheels, and his missile rack (with eight indentations, suggesting artillery ports) is rather poesable, owing to it being his legs.

Minicon ports could be found on the back of his rack. The writings 'ON-SLT' and 'C5' are tampographed on his front. ON-SLT is obviously Onslaught. I like transformers who have their names somewhere in the vehicle modes. Examples of these include universe Galvatron and Sideswipe. The C5 possibly references one of his G1 ID numbers... Combaticon number 5? Something like that.

Mediocore vehicle mode. But then, this is a repaint from the Energon line...

ROBOT MODE

Truly, Onslaught's robot mode is... pathetic. He's decently poseable, and is much sturdier than the Silverbolt/Storm Jet mold, but that's where all my love for him ends.

Firstly, it's the damn head. It bears no resemblance to G1 Onslaught. G1 Onslaught had an optic band, and a faceplate. His head is primarily black. However, this mold manages to paint it gray, have eyes and a mouth. And OMG, he has Princess Leia's bun hairs.

Also, the entire front part of his vehicle hangs from the back, making him very back-heavy. This limits the number of poses you can put him in. And his colouring... Damn it, where does all the purple come from? It's bad enough that they strayed away from the dark blue-green colour. Gray is still okay. But the purple makes him look like Terrorcon Hun-Grrr. Especially the legs. Seriously, the legs really look like Hun-Grrr.

Oh. One more thing. The Combaticons all have these fancy Energon weapons. Onslaught? Nope. But I won't penalize much for this... Onslaught is a strategist after all. But I want the two thin turrets on his back... Ah damn.

Once you look over his dissimilarities with G1, however, he's a decent toy. Almost.

Marks out of ten for the following:

TRANSFORMATION- 5/10 Not too hard.
FUN- 2/10 No gun. No fun.
DURABILITY- 9/10 Meh, at least he's good for something. Dropping him doesn't deign to break him.
OVERALL- 5/10 As part of the Energon line, he would've gotten a 7 or even an 8 from me. However, this is supposed to be a reincarnated G1 Onslaught. Unless the aim of this toy is to make us all remember how horrendous G2 Combaticons' paint jobs are, well... if this Onslaught couldn't combine, he might just as well not be produced. What's wrong with making new head sculpts, Hasbro?

BLAST OFF

Function- Space Warrior/Astronaut
Motto- "I destroy Autobots by choice, not command."
Repaint of- Energon Kickback/Blight

Okay. Let's lay the cards on the table. Energon Scout class molds are very nice, some even rivaling the Classics molds. The Kickback/Blight/Landquake tank mold was one of my favourites, even though I've never gotten hold of it myself before this.

Let me tell you this. The mold and toy rocks, in both functionality and design. However... Okay. How do you put this? G1 Combaticons had five members--Onslaught the missile truck, Brawl the tank, Vortex the helicopter, Swindle the jeep and Blast Off the space shuttle. The Destruction Team has a missile truck mold, two tanks and two helicopters.

So evidently Blast Off had to have an alternate mode other than his original Space shuttle. Even if borrowing one of the Aerialbot molds is impossible, you'd think Blast Off would get the other helicopter mold. But no. The designers think it's funny to place Blast Off into a tank. Sometimes I just cannot understand what's going on in the designers' minds. Thankfully, unlike Swindle, this doesn't bother me too much, mostly because the colouring is not too shabby.

Blast Off had only been used in G1, G2 and Universe for the same character, mainly because Hasbro lost the trademark for Blast Off until recently. Same goes for Onslaught (in the case of Onslaught, apparently Hasbro was so happy to have his name back that they released three toys of him at once).

Blast Off is an arrogant and aloof loner within the Combaticon ranks, raining destruction from space.

VEHICLE MODE

Blast Off is a f***ing tank. Not his original Space Shuttle. Okay then. I can live with that. Tanks blast off stuff, right? (okay, that gotta be the lamest joke I've made...)

But once you've gotten over that part, then you gotta love Blast Off. Unlike Brawl's rather generic paint job, Blast Off's teal and gray is simply beautiful. Reminds me of another Decepticon, Quake. The shade used on Blast Off is just right.

Other than the fact that this is supposed to be Blast Off, they did pull out a nice tank. Better than the other mismatched Combaticon, anyway. Blast Off has black tampographs that reference G1, just like Onslaught. On the front of the tank is a black star, similar to one on his G1 toy. On his the front of his tank treads are the letters B and O. I hope they stand for Blast Off and not Body Odour or something.

Regrettably, Blast Off's fists are prominent in this mode, although they can be easily covered by the energon weapons or rotating the arms at the elbow so that the cannons are at the top of the turret instead of the sides.

Blast Off has two turrets, mounted on the sides of his futuristic 'cockpit'. The energon weapon included adds two more long turrets, although they're translucent orange. They'll grow on you, though.

Three small molded artillery ports on each side of the energon star are nice details.

ROBOT MODE

I gotta say, this mold's robot mode is one of the better ones I've seen.

Unlike Onslaught, Blast Off's head sculpt is nice, with the tiny artillery ports forming tiny beside-head weaponry. Blast Off has a slew of weaponry, his two long turrets adorning his lower arms as well as the long, flat energon rifle. Just wish it wasn't translucent, but I'm not picky. Better than having no weapons at all, yeah, Onslaught? By the way, none of the Combaticons' energon weapons can be attached to Onslaught's hands, due to a raised wrist. Strongarm's energon axe and Skyblast's spear work fine with Onslaught, though.

Blast Off, aside from the tank kibble and head, is very similar to G1, a fact helped by his excellent teal and dark purple paint job. His tank treads form a swept-down cape I'm very fond of. His feet, made from the front part of the tank, resemble snowshoes or skates, but I'm okay with that. In fact, it reminds me of Whirl in some way. Poseability is excellent, and the toy is stable as well. Easily the best mold of the three in the set.

That's about it for Blast Off. Seeing that the colouring and the general appearance more than makes up for the lack of his shuttle mode, I'm going to be gracious.


Marks out of ten for the following:

TRANSFORMATION- 4/10 Hey, people. He's a scouts class toy...
DURABILITY- 7/10 Durable, yes. But the tank treads and arm cannons can be loose.
FUN- 9/10 Got gun, got fun.
OVERALL- 9/10 He would've gotten a perfect mark from me if he wasn't supposed to be Blast Off. Hell, I'd buy him even if he wasn't sold as a set. If he was Quake, I'd give him a solid ten. The mold is perfect. Amazing, coming from Energon. The few I've seen (bar Omnicons) are just crap.

BRAWL

Function- Ground Assault/Artillery Gunner
Motto- "I was built to be wild."
Repaint of- Energon Kickback/Blight

Brawl shares the same mold as Blast Off, so this part of the review can be referred to the one above. I'll just divulge into the differences between Blast Off and Brawl.

First off, Brawl is a loudmouthed, trigger-happy, 'kill-them-all-dammit' Decepticon. G1/2 Brawl is a rugged Leopard Tank. He got the distinction to be the Decepticon to be seemingly killed by Megatron in a fit of madness. (He appeared fit and healthy later, though.)

I can't really remember any other character that used the name Brawl save for the Movie one. Appearing in the Movie cast of Decepticons, he was mis-named Devastator, although many other fiction used Brawl, and there was a heated debate across the fandom (and printed media) on which name is the correct one. The toy used Brawl, and both the tiny retcon in Reign of Starscream and the incoming appearance of Devastator in TF2 safely retcons the Tank Decepticon in the first movie as Brawl. Good thing too.

TANK MODE

Technically, it's the same with Blast Off, only this is painted a rugged shade of green. While not as eye-catching as Blast Off, I mean, hey. This is Brawl we're talking about here. Besides, what kind of tank could stay in the rugged military areas and stay so spanky and eye-catchingly green? Huh?

So Brawl, like Blast Off, is also FTW. On his hood, the letters and numbers 1MJ9. I had no idea what this means, until I flipped it upside down. On the font it is written, it actually reads 'brWL'. Funky.

ROBOT MODE

Brawl's basically the same with Blast Off bar the paint job, which, in Brawl, also hearkens back to G1 as well. My release of Brawl has a little defect. The right eye is slightly smaller than the left eye. Unnoticeable at best, I only noticed it when playing with the light piping. This is not the case with my Blast Off, and my friend who has this set does not have the same defect. So it's localized then. Nevermind, but it gives him a cool Armada Demolishor feel.


Marks out of ten for the following:

TRANSFORMATION- 4/10 Same with Blast Off. Hey, this is a scouts class toy.
DURABILITY- 7/10 Again, watch out for the wrist cannons. They're not meant to come off!
FUN- 9/10 BRAWL!
OVERALL- 10/10 You know, an excellent mold, similarity to G1 (not the head perhaps...) and able to combine... mmm...

SWINDLE

Function- Munitions Expert/Con Artist
Motto- "Make deals, not war."
Repaint of- Energon Stormcloud/Blackout

Swindle is one of my personal all-time favourite Decepticons. I mean, he's a far cry from most of the maniacs and bloodthirsty Decepticons. He's a Decepticon con artist, selling stuff to anyone who pays the highest. Hell, if I could find him, I'd buy Animated Swindle.

Of all the Combaticons save possibly Onslaught, Swindle had the most incarnations over the years. G1 and G2, like the rest of the Combaticons. Then, he was a military jeep. He also had the distinction to be one of the few Decepticons to get the Alternators treatment. Hell, not even Megatron or Starscream got the Alternators 'Pimp my Ride' makeover! The Cybertron line got us another Swindle, this time also a military style buggy. Movie gave us a radically different Swindle (a red cyclopean Chevrolet). Animated gave us an excellent re-imagination of G1 Swindle.

ALTERNATE MODE aka rant time!

Now Swindle's brownish-tan military jeep mode would've been nicely substituted by the tank mold, or perhaps one of the construction vehicle molds, if it has to be a repaint.

Did Hasbro do the sensible thing? No... Instead, Swindle became... a helicopter! A dune buggy or a Chevrolet I can get, but a helicopter... I mean, whatever happened to logic?

Swindle used to be a tan Decepticon with black and some dark purple detailing. Being a tan-and-black helicopter would've been cool by me, but did Hasbro even bother to do that? No...

Swindle became a tan helicopter... with light tan detailing. The paint job isn't bad per se, but it just isn't Swindle. It's SANDSTORM dammit. I mean, when pics of Swindle were leaked online, everyone said he was SANDSTORM not Swindle.

That aside, the helicopter is seemingly based on G1 Pretender Sky High's 'jetcopter' alternate mode. A helicopter with jet-like wings (and prominent robot mode feet like Sky High). Rotors are great, and the the cockpit is quite nice. It's a pity the mold isn't coloured properly.

Part of in-jokery on the designers' part, Swindle has a dollar symbol ($) tampographed beside his cockpit. Funny. $windle indeed.

ROBOT MODE

It gets worse in robot mode. Now don't get me wrong. The mold is nice, but it just. Isn't. Swindle. Especially not the head. The head sculpt, while nice, is a single optic band in a tan face. Swindle's face is black with large, very large purple eyes.

Le sigh.

Okay, apart from my anger against the colouring, the Stormcloud/Blackout mold is nice. Poseability in robot mode is excellent, and the helicopter tail doesn't actually bother me that much. The cockpit sits in his chest, giving him a very Whirl-like look.

His rotors can be clipped into a Movie Blackout-style fashion, hanging down his back, or opened to resemble a back-mounted rotor, a la Blades.

Swindle's Energon weapons resemble a hand with all fingers outstretched. Removing the central piece gives Swindle two long translucent guns that can be attached on his hand-holes or his wings. Otherwise, he can hold the entire assembled weapon, but it looks stupid.


Marks out of ten for the following:

TRANSFORMATION- 8/10 Rather complex for a toy his size. Damn it, he's more complex than Onslaught.
DURABILITY- 5/10 Rotors can break off, joints will get loose, ugly paint job just makes me want to throw him into a blender...
FUN- as Swindle 2/10 as Bruticus' limb or Sandstorm 9/10
OVERALL- 7/10 The mold itself would've received a solid eight or nine, or even ten if I feel gracious. However, this is supposed to be Swindle. And they paint him like Sandstorm. Boo.

VORTEX

Function- Interrogator
Motto- "I'm Vortex, fly me--if you dare!"
Repaint of- Energon Stormcloud/Blackout

Now this is something. Exactly the same mold as Swindle, but suddenly everything bad about Swindle disappears. Vortex's paint job is similar to his G1 self, and to my favourite Autobot Wrecker, Whirl. He also resembles Movie Blackout if you squint from afar. It's amazing how a fresh coat of paint job can turn an eyesore into an excellent toy.

Vortex is one of the few Decepticon interrogators. While the others of his profession (Beastbox and Laserbeak) employ physical torture, Vortex does psychological, taking his victims up on spark-stopping rides through the air, and dropping them when no longer needed. I like his style.

The name Vortex has been used on G1 and G2 versions of the character, a preliminary name for Movie Blackout (and apparently Incinerator). Due to trademarks, this is the first Vortex toy we've seen since G2.

Vortex's alternate mode is much better. While the gray is not very accurate per se, it does give Vortex a very geewunesque look. Still, he looks like Whirl.

ALTERNATE MODE

Basically, he's similar to SandstormSwindle. Legs sitting there hoping not to be noticed, excellent rotors, translucent cockpit, hands turning into winged fuselages... et cetera.

V-1 is tampographed on the side of his cockpit. He looks like Whirl.

ROBOT MODE

Vortex's robot mode is just like Swindle, of course, only with a better distribution of colours. Actually, Swindle is a great toy, but the colours... Vortex, on the other hand, rocks. There's not much difference between him and Swindle, although I hoped that both their eyes could be purple instead of icky orange.


Marks out of ten for the following:

TRANSFORMATION- 9/10 same with Swindle.
DURABILITY- 6/10 One mark higher than Swindle because I have no desire to chuck him into the blender.
FUN- 9/10 Come on. He's cool.
OVERALL- 9/10 Perfect. Nice paint job... Nice mold... Helicopter needs work, but the robot mode is FTW.

BRUTICUS MAXIMUS

Function- Doomsday Weapon
Motto- "The road to conquest is paved with Autobot wrecks."
Repaint of- Energon Bruticus Maximus

Now... BRUTICUS. The combiner. The road to conquest is paved with Autobot wrecks. (Coincidentally, Blackjack has nearly the same motto. Replace conquest with victory.) G1 Bruticus has been repainted over and over again, from Bruticus to G2 Bruticus to Battle Gaea to Carrotbots Valdigus to two versions of RiD Ruination...

The name Bruticus has also been used several times. Other than G1/G2/Universe Bruticus, a late Beast Machines toy named Bruticus was released under the RiD banner. This one is a three headed dog. Beast Machines Bruticus somehow ranked high enough to get himself a Universe remake. Imagine that. Guys like Huffer and Trailbreaker and Gears and Reflector who have been MIA since 1984 gets tossed over, but RiD Bruticus, who never appeared anywhere out of toy form, gets a new toy? The horror, the horror.

Now Bruticus can have a number of combinations. The most normal, and the one following G1 character models and the instructions, is to have Brawl and Swindle as legs, and Vortex and Blast Off as hands.

The front of Onslaught's vehicle become the chest, and a head (which do not resemble G1 Bruticus too much) pops out from within Onslaught. The reason people hate the energon combiners is that they have no frikkin' hands, but malformed claws. On Devastator and Superion, this is true. On Bruticus... well, if you use Brawl and Blast Off as arms, their energon weapons do resemble hands, albeit with very long and stiff gun-like fingers. So I'd say that that Bruticus is the best Classics combiner.

Bruticus is poesable in the shoulders, due to the ratchet joints in the smaller Cons and Onslaught's own elbow-shoulder joints. He has ball joints at the waist and able to turn 360 degrees on the hips. The knees can bend as well.

Bruticus stands taller than Ultra class Onslaught, and he towers over Deluxe and Voyager class toys. If the Scale chart used for the cartoon is anything to go with, then Bruticus is actually in scale with the Legends class toys, meaning that say, Legends Class Hound would be in the correct size to be pwned by Bruticus.

The fun doesn't stop there, though. Bruticus can swap any of his limbs with the Aerialbots or Constructicons, or those from the Energon lines. Minicon ports on Onslaught also add to play value.


Marks out of ten for the following:

TRANSFORMATION- 9/10 My first combiner, so it's hard. Not as hard as Superion, though.
DURABILITY- 7/10 Little pieces to loose, joy. Also, displaying Bruticus risk toppling over.
FUN- 10/10 Hey. This is the Combaticons we're talking about.
PRICE- 7/10 Bruticus, Vortex, Brawl and Blast Off certainly are worth it. However, the half-arsed Onslaught and Swindle really sucks.
OVERALL- 8/10 Onslaught is a mediocre toy, while the tanks and Vortex are excellent. Swindle, while an excellent toy in his own right, isn't such a great representative of his G1 self. Still, it's better than hunting for a reissue of G1 Bruticus... I like mine just fine. However, the price may deter me recommending it, as seriously, it should've been cheaper. Nevertheless, Bruticus (Maximus... don't know why they must put the Maximus there. This isn't a gladiatorial arena people!) is a nice gestalt, and, in my humble opinion, is a much better gestalt than Classics Superion or Devastator, once you get over Swindle and Blast Off having different alternate modes. So if you're aiming for only one gestalt, go Bruticus.