Pricepoint/Vintage: Deluxe, 2015/2016.
Modes: Robot, Tank, Arm,
and Leg.
Transformation Style: CW deluxe limb,
collapsible legs.
Play Patterns: Robot and aircraft,
combiner, 5mm weaponry, a pack-in comic in the USA.
Points of interest: Only original
deluxe in Combiner Wars Wave 5, suspected Technobot in waiting.
The Good
Done up in olive drab, lots of
detailing and with integration of both weapons, Brawl looks pretty
good in tank mode. The combiner piece attaches in a way that evokes
the G1 toy, and there's three 5mm ports in useful places. Brawl also
makes for a very beefy leg or arm, matching Swindle well, with those
ports still being convenient. The robot mode has 16 points of
articulation, happily including ankle tilts, and uses the tank gun as
a rifle, or an arm cannon. It engineering meanwhile attempts to
replicate the G1 toy in terms of transformation, while the smoke
launcher in robot mode evoke the old Marvel design.
The Bad
Brawl is infamous for his waist, which
does collapse fully or securely, drastically affecting the appearance
and the articulation. While I took steps to minimise this, careful
use of glue and fiddling with the combiner post, Brawl has other
design flaws. The turret is fixed, an almost unforgivable sin on a
tank of this size, and there's a minor case of Visible Head Syndrome.
His combiner piece suffers from an over-large fist hole on one side,
and things don't peg together as they should. Robot mode proportions and cavities
are also iffy. He also has loose shoulders.
The Mediocre
While the transformation is obviously
new and therefore interesting, but fiddly.
The Alternatives
Due to a quirk of fate, the Combaticons
struggle for legitimate alternatives within Combiner Wars, but is
well-served elsewhere. Putting aside the unreleased Takara and G2
versions, there's the Energon era toys, the Fall of Cybertron toys,
and the upcoming TFSS 4.0 Mayhem Attack Squad. The Energon toys are
popular, if having their own repaint paint issue, but the FOC toys
aren't. The TFSS toys are based off known Combiner Wars moulds, made
a bit nicer, at a bigger price. Brawl lacks convincing alternatives
in either, so I'd point you towards Generations Warpath instead.
The Verdict
Brawl makes for a sharp contrast
between himself and any other CW deluxe, demonstrating how good the
line actually is, by being one of its few misfires. I'd personally
rank him above at least two of the Constructicons, but the designers
clearly bit off more than they could chew, and I feel we'd all have
been better off if they had just turned Rook into a tank. Then again,
he wouldn't be as G1 that way, and the tank mode looks nice.
Long-story-short, he's not as good as he should be, you wouldn't buy
him if he hasn't needed for Bruticus, but you're gonna combine him
anyway, so whatever.
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