Transformers Combiner Wars Bruticus : Review

We were finally able to get our hands on all of the Transformers Combiner Wars Bruticus figures. This was no easy task we have had the limbs of Bruticus for about 2 months now but Onslaught (Torso)  was a different story we finally located him at a Toys R Us by checking every day. I want to first say that I found it hard to go into this review without setting my expectations too high, Bruticus is one of my favorite combiners in the series and sometimes the Combiner Wars line can let us down a bit like Menasor or Optimus Maximus but I did my best to keep an open mind. So lets go ahead and get started. Bruticus like the other Combiner Wars figures is made up of five separate Decepticons, Swindle, Blast Off, Onslaught, Vortex & Brawl all shown above in their robot and alt modes. Now lets break them down individually below. Click "Read More" to continue.

Let start with Combiner Wars Blast Off, he is the right arm of Bruticus and typically has a spaceship or Cybertronian spaceship looking design (shown Below) but for some reason Hasbro decided to go with a repainted jet mold that we have seen on the other combiner sets and paint it brown. The color of Blast Off isn't bad because it does match the original color scheme of Bruticus. We would have liked to see him in his G1 form or his Fall of Cybertron forms though.  The other issue we had with Blast Off was that Hasbro only provided him with 1 blaster and no real dedicated place to put it when he is in jet mode. We attached it under his left wing but it makes him look like he is missing his other gun.

Generation 1 Blast Off

Fall of Cybertron Blast Off

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Next we have Combiner Wars Vortex (Left Arm) he is another helicopter repaint which is sad because we would have liked to see them move from the 2 bladed helicopter style to the 4 blades which is more accurate to his original style also they picked a weird color scheme for him of blue, grey and yellow. This isn't bad on its own but when put with the other Bruticus figures he stands out which is frustrating. If you are good with repainting figures then we definitely suggest you try to change his color scheme a bit even if you just repaint the yellow missiles. Just like Blast Off, Vortex only comes with 1 blaster and you are not given an official place to put it on the figure when in helicopter mode. We attached it to the side but it makes the figure look unbalanced.

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Combiner Wars Onslaught forms the torso of Bruticus and is the most expensive figure in the set priced at $26.99 at Toys R Us. He uses a similar torso design that we saw on Hotspot (Defensor Torso) which is great because the torso design for Motor Master (Menasor Torso) & White Optimus Prime (Optimus Maximus Torso) is terrible and makes the combined figures unstable. In robot mode Onslaught looks similar to his Generation 1 style with no big changes here, his color scheme is nice and he comes with 2 blasters which if you want can be placed on his back. His vehicle mode is strange looking and left us wondering "What the heck is this thing?" but a quick google search from a friend informed us that he is one of these things 'Cybertronian Missile Truck, Flatbed Missile Truck, BTR-80 APC, S.W.A.T. vehicle, Astros II MLRS' we image searched all of these things and Combiner Wars Onslaught looks like the love child of all of these vehicles combined. Unlike Combiner Wars Blast Off & Vortex, Onslaught has a specific place for his weapons, they attach on his truck bed and look like part of his regular weaponry.

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Swindle forms the right leg of Combiner Wars Bruticus and is surprisingly a new mold! The yellow color of the figure does not clash with the other when combined and he has a specified place to put his weapon when in vehicle mode. He is closely designed after his Generation 1 design but we would have liked to see him keep more of his original Jeep design. 

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The final piece of Combiner Wars Bruticus is Brawl the tank (Left Leg). Brawl is also a completely new mold and he doesn't disappoint, his design is sturdy and aside from a few transformation issues we had he is a very good figure. His gun becomes the nose of the tank easily and his colors match the rest of the set (except for Vortex). We actually realized that we have his gun in the wrong place in Tank mode it should actually be placed further down. Oops.. I knew we should have asked Shockwave for assistance...

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The four limbs of Bruticus ( Blast Off, Vortex, Swindle & Brawl) all come with a Trasnformers Combiner Wars Comic from IDW and they are very good, we definitely suggest you give them a read.

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Now to the finale, Combiner Wars Bruticus when put together is pretty impressive except for his Vortex arm which just annoys me every time I look at him.  Over all he is very stable when standing up and his limbs are able to be posed in many different positions with out him falling over, he looks good next to the other Combiner Wars figures and is slightly taller than Menasor. 

So by now I bet you are dying to know what we rated this figure. This was a hard decision but we based it on a few different aspects. 

1. Design of each piece.
2. Ease of transformation this included robot to vehicle and then robot to limb modes.
3. Color Scheme.
4. Ability to pose when combined.

Design: We really liked how they used new molds for Swindle and Brawl but reusing older molds on Blast Off & Vortex really hurt this figures overall look.

Ease of Transformation:  The Combiner Wars figures are not hard to transform at all aside from a few issues where the instructions are not very clear there really are not any issues with transformation.

Color Scheme: DAMN YOU VORTEX! Other than that the color scheme looks great!

Ability to Pose: Bruticus is sturdy, you can move his arms in different directions but make sure you hold onto his shoulder joints or those will move instead of his arm joints. His legs are sturdy and don't wobble like Menasor or Optimus Maximus. 

All of these reasons combined (No pun intended) is why we gave Transformers Combiner Wars Bruticus 4.5 PUNCHES!

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