Brawn Studio Series 86

[HotShot81]

Name: Brawn
Allegiance: Autobot
Function: Demolitions
Class Size: Deluxe
Quote: “Might over microchips.”
Accessories: Gun
First US Cartoon Appearance: More Than Meets The Eye Part 1
First US Comic Appearance: The Transformers
First UK Comic Appearance: And There Shall Come ... A Leader!

Brawn is the Autobot’s muscle, he’s the one who when there is a mission that requires a heavy hitter, he’s there, even if he is a little guy. He will take on the likes of Megatron solo, despite Megatron towering over him. This isn’t just toy vs toy, even in the cartoon Megatron’s gun that normally fit on his arm, well Brawn had to use it as a shoulder cannon. A cannon that when fired subsequently knocked him flat on his titanium keister!

As with other studio series toys, he has a brief biography on the back of his box, that reads, “In an effort to protect the crew, Brawn is the first to act when Decepitcons attack the Autobot shuttle.”

Talk about an understatement, when the Decepticons attacked, Brawn was one of the first to die in the 1986 movie when Starscream wielding Megatron, shot him in the shoulder and killed him. Guess Megatron ate his Engergon-Os that day to do that kind of damage with one shot. I mean the Autobots and Decepticons had been fighting for millions of years and he didn’t die until the great battle of Autobot City in 2009, so give credit to Megatron.

Robot Mode


Brawn comes in at 4.5 inches tall, which is about what a Deluxe sized toy is. Let’s break him down.

The whole purpose of the Studio Series (besides giving us more toys to buy) is to give us more accurate representations of the character, both in robot, and alternative mode. Brawn hits this score 9 for 10! Unlike his G1 original toy where it took some . . . imagination to figure out who we had on our hands. There is no denying that Brawn looks like Brawn as we saw him during the cartoon show, and in the movie. The only problems I see are the hood is a bit long, and his rear is a bit too high up. I can see someone 3-d printing a mini-cassette to land on his shoulder like Laserbeak when he broke into Autobot HQ.

Brawn is always famous for offering a X knuckle sandwich, kind of like Bones from Star Trek say, “Damn it Jim, I am a doctor, not a X.” I mention this since one detail which sticks out for me is the extra knuckle busters if you would that Hasbro built into his fists. For curious fans, he has a typical 5 mm port here, mind you I think the gun he comes with would look better with Bumblebee, but given how Brawn is known for bashing things over blasting. I don’t see this as a big area of complaint.

Hasbro could’ve taken the shortcut when it came to designing him from an articulation perspective. That is use lots of ball joints, and go with it. Instead there are loads of pins when it comes to how moves. He had a very human like articulation range, i.e 90 degrees in his knees and elbows. The only thing preventing him from doing the splits is his trailer. I guess Brawn gets to skip that 400,000 mile lube job.

Vehicle Mode

As a quick note I managed to transform him without looking at the manual, so you might get different results than I by following the manual.

I title the head forward which moves his whole chest forward, swing the part behind the back of his head 180 degrees. This will give him a front grill for his car move. Close this back up by returning his head back to where it was. Swing the arm assembly 180 degrees downwards, not the arms which are on ball joints. Then pivot the assembly up into place, and don’t forget to close up the fists into his arms. This is where we have a lot of pegs on holes to close up for a tight form combining the two arms, and forearms together. Rotate his hips 180 degrees, and close up his feet (front to back). You will have to break up the double wheels that he has as a robot. Stretch them out before lining them up with where they go with the front and back wheel slots. You can use his former feet as a guide as to where they go. When you swing the back door down, once again pegs and holes to hold everything into place, and it makes a nice rear bumper. Feel free to put his gun into the peg in the roof rack, which like his fists is 5 MM.

Interesting note about the top rear tire, it is in its own 5 MM hole, and a common problem I faced was when I went to pull the gun out, unless I held it down. It would come out with the gun as one piece.

When Brawn made his debut in the 1980s he was suppose to resemble a Suzuki Jimny SJ20 in his vehicle mode. For several reasons, I suspect legal, Hasbro took some liberties with this design when making him a Studio Series toy. Since none of the images I found of this vehicle had a gas tank on the back, or a tire on the roof. Generally for this vehicle either the tire goes in the back seat, or hangs off the rear bumper.

As a note here given his early demise in the film, we cannot compare him to how he appeared in the movie, but only in the cartoon in this mode. Thankfully he was a semi-regular character in the show so we can compare him to that. On that score he’s 100% accurate. As in every detail that he has in the show matches up with how he looks as a toy.

Let’s talk about him as a toy in vehicle mode. Now I did some minor toy torture tests, and well. Flaw alert! The pegs and holes that hold him together don’t do that great a job. The fact is they are a bit too small on both counts. Then again maybe we can split the difference and call it battle damage?

As a robot Brawn has two large arches that go from top to bottom on his chest. I thought this was going to be a catch point for him in vehicle mode, but knock on titanium, it’s not. When Hasbro designed the wheels they made sure they were large enough to give those arches the clearance they needed.
He does roll around fine, I was able to rotate the improvised cannon in the wheel on his roof. Good way to blow away those pesky Decepiticons salesbots who can’t take no for an answer. Even without slamming him around thought I felt sometimes it was a bit hard for him to hold this form due to the pegs and holes. Just to be clear, while he looks good like this, you will find gaps in where the parts close up.

Final Call

Transformation Design: 9/10 If Brawn is easy enough for an old bot like me to figure out fresh out of the box, and a challenge. He’s good on this front. Only thing I hate about the design is the little pegs and holes in vehicle mode.

Durability: 7.5/10 As mentioned earlier a major flaw is the pegs and holes both made of plastic. One item that knocked this score down was his feet. How? Well, the thing is Brawn has feet made of two halves, and if you mishandle them, they will break off. It does affect the durability of this iron like toy.
Fun: 10/10 Great bot to play with in either format. As a deluxe figure he can fully interact with a Titan class toy.

Aesthetics : 9.5/10 As a collector with over 200 toys MISB it takes a lot for a toy to break out of the box. That is how good Brawn looks. The one real complaint I have is I feel his back gas tank could’ve used a paint job, and not just a box with an X in it.

Articulation: 8.5/10 While it is true robots can have articulation better than humans, Brawn has almost human level articulation due to a design flaw. I also thing a revision might’ve helped increased his articulation as a SUV.

Value: 8/10 It’s hard to believe bots have almost doubled in price since I last did review back in 2017. I paid $39.99 CAD which is about $2.00 higher than MSRP for him, but he’s good for it. Solid plastic, with excellent detail work, and paint work. I think the aftermarket guys are going to have a hard time designing stickers to improve on his appearance.

Overall: Grimlock, can you please give me the overall score? Grimlock! 87.5% Not many people would go home with a score like this and sulk. Brawn is what a Studio Series bot should aim to be. Not just a repaint of an earlier figure, but a a higher quality toy. While the Titan and Commander Class toys usually fall under must have. You would regret passing on Brawn given how good he is.