So today, we're looking at yet another Titans Return toy, one made fascinating by its mere existence. Sorry, Titans Return just generates a lot of material like that.
So, with the 1984
Transformers cast, you'll often find they fit one of two categories.
Category 1 is a character so fundamental to the franchise its
difficult to imagine thier absence, often because the character is so
memorable or just lends itself well to different interpretations.
These are the characters that drive stories and universial nostalgia.
Category 2 are the supporting cast, the dudes which are merely there,
the ones that despite 40 odd years and multiple toys, never seem to
leave an impact. The one sentance biographies, if you will. These
characters are easy to spot, thier wiki pages usually take form of "x
was there when" repeated over several pragraphs and
continuities. Both categories get seemingly endless new iterations
though, which is a little tiresome after a while, especially if its a
blank slate like Windbreaker, Sideswipe, or Boba Fett. A good example
of Category 1 is Soundwave, he always makes his presence felt. His
minions? Category 2, although Ravage does better if he's verbal that
day. Today's subject, Brawn is definitely a Category 2. His gimmick
is that he's tiny but strong, but he's almost linterchangeable with
any number of autobot cars. Possibly his only claim to fame is as
Megaton's first onscreen kill in the 1986 movie. Closely followed by that one comic where he went insane, so maybe he does better than some?
Anyway, advance to 2016, and it's Titans Return, and in a prolonged homage to the Headmasters line, everyone is some form of Titanmaster, or a titanmaster-adjacent toy. This was great as a play feature, as it made every toy its own playset, more or less. The heads of larger toys detached to form thier own robot, which could then drive the vehicle modes, crew weapons, or populate base modes. You could even get spare heads, via the solo Titanmaster price bracket, if you lost one. These featured small accessories for the tiny Titanmasters to interact with, and we're both quite cheap and extremely cheerful. With the exception of Nightbeat, I won't hesitate to say that they were all great. Spare tiny head dude, vehicle for it to ride, or combine with, and it's also a gun. Win. Brawn came into the line here at wave 2, and us another charming toy, with a slight side order of "pardon?".
Wiki image here used as the toy is titchy and hard to photograph
Titans Return featured
many Headmaster characters, but from the outset it was very clear
that just about anyone could be Titanmaster, regardless of previous
toy status, hence Brawn. I did attend a convention panel which touched
on this, it seems the original idea was for the solo Titansmasters to
be new characters, only for somebody to want brand recognition
instead, which is immediately obvious if you look at the wave 1
moulds. Its a shame that we didn't get any new blood, but with Brawn it's a little harder to say. He's got a 4x4ish
tracked-jeep altmode, the colours work, and his individual robot mode
does resemble his G1 toy a bit. On the other hand, Brawn was never
associated with tracked jeeps that become hover bikes that also
become big guns. He did more punching, while being a landrover. As a pocket money toy Brawn is
however quite nice. All the modes work, and a fairly big deal in
context, and the face is spot-on. These guys often had a weak mode
somewhere, they had 5, something had to give, but Brawn does not. At
worst, the head is one of those where the faceplate doesn't quite
conceal the robot bits. Is he as good as Shuffler? No, but he's top 5
Titanmaster material, easily. However, as is typical of Western
releases, there's not a huge amount of paint other than on the head,
so the entire set looks plain. If you want more paint, you could go
to Takaratomy, but, the daft beggars broke the play pattern so they
could pander to the G1 Animation crowd. They didn't release solo Titanmasters,
and instead reshuffled them as accessories for other toys. Thus the
tracked jeep ended up being repainted blue for Brainstorm, and the
little guy ended up an exclusive. Sorry, I'm not seeing that as worth
the trouble.
The other Titans Return Brawn
So, assuming you could find them at retail prices, solo Titansmasters like Brawn were a great time. Titans Return generally was. However if the solo Titansmasters were usually great, the Legends, the next size up, were often uneven by comparison. Half were attempts to create ye olde cassette gimmick, presenting some unconvincing and blocky triplechangers. The other half had to carry Titanmasters in some way, often resulting in design compromises. These toys weren't big enough to do the head swap thing by themselves, so thier attempts to fit the play pattern felt a touch vestigial. Brawn materialised in the last wave of this price point, and true to form is a category 2. He's not bad by any means, but surely the design team can do carformers in thier sleep, and this one cuts some corners. Pre-empting Earthrise Cliffjumper by 4 years, the legs rely on a removable "shield" piece to complete the vehicle mode. Fortunately, some redundant sculpting means that it's not the end of the world if you loose it. The Visible Head Syndrome? Less tolerable. The robot mode is more of a success, capturing the stocky look the Cartoon model had while modernising. It benefits from extra joints in the hips and shoulders, which compensates for the fixed waist, so the guy moves well for someone apparently made of boxes. It's another good mould, possibly not the best in his pricepoint, but I can see him shortlisted with Gnaw and Rewind.The japanese version of course has nicer paintwork. But enough fluff, you know where this is going...
To answer the obvious question, Brawn can indeed interact with Brawn, and things get memetic and suggestive very quickly. Brawn can ride in Brawn's jeep mode, and need not be removed for transformation. Brawn can therefore always be inside Brawn like something horribly symbolic. Brawn can also weild Brawn's gun mode, and while Brawn is a hair too big, Brawn can just about handle it. That's what she said. You can also mount Brawn's Jeep mode on top of Brawn's Jeep mode, for Brawn on Brawn action.
Sorry.
My point? Well, Titans Return Brawn is something that exists. Twice. I'd make the case that we may not needed one, let one two, but each was a success in thier classes. I actually grew to like both more as I wrote this, which is odd as I only started this for the joke potential.
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