TF Views

Until JT gets his review up and/or I get to fiddle with (and ruminate on) the copy that Lewis Brooks likely has coming, lets all talk about the damn near record sell-out time.

For me, this is like 2007 all over again. I was not planning to get one, and am (as of now) largely skipping the line that the exclusive is a part of. But, damn, I feel for the people who waited hours (either in a physical line or online) and missed the toy. In some cases, people missed the toy because they went to the bathroom. One AllSparker reported having the toy in his "cart", and being told it went out of stock while he clicked the "check out" option.

Personally, I am glad to be sitting out toys this year.


Dom
-just waiting out a seasonal storm, and witnessing a fan storm....

I haven't seen any fanrage at all over this and I certainly don't expect anything like Thundergate. Now, if this were an exclusive and we thought that was the only one we were ever getting ever, then yeah, there would be a shitstorm. But we already know there's like 4 other repaints getting produced at mass retail. Which means that most fans will get a version that will apease their particular tastes. Yeah, there may be one or too put out by this, but nowhere near Thundergate.

I have seen some. It comes down to Hasbro failing to anticipate demand for a toy that could have done well at retail.

There are 3 pressings of this mould, and 1 head swap. Only 2 of them are accurate to any context.

-SDCC
-Amazon
-retail
-Wreckers (w/ head swaps).

The variant that is accurate to the game as most people will recognize it is the SDCC variant. The fact that there was no reason for this only makes Hasbro look worse.


Dom
-

Shockwave wrote:I haven't seen any fanrage at all over this and I certainly don't expect anything like Thundergate. Now, if this were an exclusive and we thought that was the only one we were ever getting ever, then yeah, there would be a shitstorm. But we already know there's like 4 other repaints getting produced at mass retail. Which means that most fans will get a version that will apease their particular tastes. Yeah, there may be one or too put out by this, but nowhere near Thundergate.

I agree with this all.

It's also worth a serious mention. that Takara & ehobby will most likely release their own differently colored variations for FOC Bruticus.

I'm hoping Takara does a extremly 1985 color accurate bruticus. with a dark grey vortex & a Chocolate brown blastoff.

It would be kinda sweet it ehobby released FOC Bruticus in 1992 operation combination battle gaeia colors.

I'm still getting my world back on track after Comic-Con, so this isn't my full comments on Bruticus by a longshot, but here's some preliminary thoughts:

Bruticus is a mixed situation, some good and some not-so-good.

The instructions for each figure neglect to show you how to transform to combiner mode, only out of it. They also don't have the character names on each sheet, that's really odd and I suspect will be corrected for mass-retail.

Bruticus is about a foot tall, and a little awkward due to the way Onslaught's hips are ratcheted (he either leans a little forward or back, never straight up). The figure never fully sells what the box's character art says, there's no thick connectors and wholeness, but it's not a total disaster, he looks cool in his own rite. There is articulation, but each one needs a little thought, and some stuff doesn't prefer to move. Onslaught really is the true problem, he's not big enough so the arms are out of scale and there's a LOT of cheating to get him looking as big as possible which only looks ok at first glance.

The bots' accessories can merge to be a rough weapon, Hasbro mistransforms this so Vortex's blades should tab into Brawl's gun so they're sideways. The gun is a tad big and not that great to look at, but it's not terrible. It can peg into Bruticus' back. Instructions say it's supposed to combine with Onslaught's weapon, which it can as there's a lot of holes, but then Bruticus doesn't have his back covered or his "missile launchers".

Blast Off is the one figure that really looks bad, his caramel is just too much, they should have added more silver because the back looks ok but the upper body and the head, everything that isn't the alt-back / bot-shoulders looks too one-note and boring, caramel plastic is dull (and his guns match too, they kind of hold back the larger Bruticus weapon).

All the bots have built-in merge parts, it's a big cube-grabber that flexes out at each wall, it seems like it'll hold up for a while and is jointed independently so it isn't makeshift articulation to wear it faster. All of 'em are purple which adds a lot of visual appeal, all except Vortex who gets only a black connector - kind of weird, and makes it easier to want to leave him as a leg since it doesn't show that way.

In terms of deco, the base plastics are all pretty flat in color, if you look hard enough there is a light amount of metallic but it doesn't really come through at all. The paint does more of the heavy lifting on the lighter figures.

Brawl is transformed differently in Hasbro packaging and photos than he should be which greatly improves his stability (he has a main toe area, and his fists act as additional heelspurs).

Scramble-citying works nicely, Swindle makes a really decent arm except for his long heelspurs and upper body kibble not really locking into anything (there are no instructions for this alternative, so it's possible I'm just doing it wrong), and Brawl as an arm is a very different and interesting look. Blast Off makes a much better leg than an arm because he's not so overly long as a leg (Hasbro I don't think transformed the mold correctly on the G2 or Ruination display, Blast Off's arms become toes to stabilize the leg, which weren't in play), and the leg transform on Vortex is a nice change of pace. Vortex as an arm can be drawn into a much better length, but Blast Off cannot so the only way to keep him as an arm looking good is to use the package art which has him as a gun (just withdraw the back of the shuttle, it's not much of a gun but it's better than an arm). Each figure has its own built-in hand with side-swappable thumbs OR has a hand for either side, and each is different from the other - Brawl has a flat hand that can't really grab anything so there's holes in the back; Vortex has a fold-out flat hand with a flip-around thumb so he can grasp any 5mm peg; Blast Off has a traditional 5mm-hole-bearing fist and a flip-out thumb for either side; and Swindle simply has a pair of big hands (they're the best hands in the set).

The package is hard to figure out how to open at first, the carrying handle is the only clue, then the gatefold opens and inside is a box similar to MP Starscream's. The inside of the outer box has game images of the individual characters but they're in the retail colors, so that's an odd little boo-boo.

Speaking of individuals:
- Onslaught is ok as a bot, a little small as a vehicle and Kup-like but not terrible, and has a real transformation. Rolls roughly due to wheel design. Really needs weapon attached in alt mode to look like NOT crap.
- Brawl is kind of cool as a hovertank (no wheels), surprisingly spindly as a bot but seems to go with the game art, midsection is an odd joint and I'm not sure if it's meant to be used here. His turret turns free and can be elevated on the transformation joint if you cheat. Having his black turret gun be a removable little handgun and his long silver cannons be the main guns for the turret reminds me of the G1 figure (one of the few I still have) with his accessory in place.
- Swindle is nifty in alt mode and alright in bot mode, probably the simplest of the group in transformation but the shoulder transformation is an odd joint that even Hasbro didn't understand (it slides back as it raises up, but it feels like it stops WAY before it does). Swindle is the biggest of the group, although Onslaught is nearly as bulky and just a hair shorter.
- Vortex is an interesting alt mode, curved a bit like a flying insect with his front gun pointed down compared to the skids and rotor. Bot mode is a little odd as it's less blocky and almost using a native american theme, the solid colors in bot mode are a bit of a drawback. The giant sword-guns (they're mostly swords with deep tech lines sculpted in, but there's also a blaster at the bottom with corresponding grip) don't look so great in alt mode as they overwhelm the chopper, but work in bot mode, they're red hilts with silver blades.
- Blast Off gets ripped off, his alt mode looks ok but is missing the black elements, and could have used more purple to offset the monotone caramel plastic I mentioned earlier; the bot mode however really is suffering from those problems, visually he is just caramel through and through, none of the painted purple and dark gray stuff makes a visual dent, only the silver shoulders really have anything to say and they're way off to the sides; the guns being caramel really don't look right in any mode. Bot mode looks good, but the shoulder articulation is so bizarre that it's hard to find any pose that doesn't look off. The sad part is that he'd look the best of the bunch if not for A) his deco; and B) his shoulders being impossible to use in any real poses.

As individuals, all of them have significant compromises which make them dubious $15 MSRP purchases separately but not horrible, they all stand up as their own toys just not greatly so. Although I really like the game-accurate colors on Onslaught, Brawl, and Swindle; the colors on Vortex are a little harsh, and the color on Blast Off is just a misstep. They look alright as a group, but 3 of the 4 limbs look too similar in color and drab, so I hate to say it, but the retail colors make some sense - although seeing the retail Bruticus in person at the con confirms that he's a loud rainbow of yikes, so I'll take the SDCC colors as a group and even the G2 one (because that ugly mess was at least made with love for the idea) and Ruination over the retail Bruticus colors.

At $108 for the SDCC exclusive with tax, it's a damned good thing he comes in a nice Con-exclusive package because this just feels like a $60 set of figures. However, considering this is the only Bruticus that will A) look like the game trailer character at all; B) not be a visual cacophony of mismatched loud colors; and C) none of the others will be out for a couple months, it works for what it is to a degree. To be honest, I'm more impressed with the packaged experience on Zombie Cliffjumper and GI Joe Shockwave HISS, but none of them are a foot-tall gestalt.

I'll have more probably this weekend, I'm thinking photos instead of a lot of words.

Pics are going to be delayed a couple days, waiting to get a replacement tripod. But so far, Bruticus hasn't fallen down or anything.

I finally got to fiddle with Lewis' SDCC and retail Bruticus toys yesterdays. So much has been said about these toys over the last few months that I really do not have much to add.

The merge-forms body is definitely too small. If the hips lined up differently, it might look a little better. But, the jointing that would require might end up making the figure as a whole more unstable.

Putting aside questions of game accuracy, (a measure by which the SDCC figure is only slightly better), I actually like a few of the retail figures better. Retail Onslaught and Blastoff look better than the SDCC figures. Vortex looks no better or worse. (Both the SDCC and the retail variants look like Happy Meal toys.) The SDCC Swindle and Brawl look far and away better.

If the SDCC colours were available at retail, the set would be more worth getting by virtue of it being slightly closer to the colours used in the game. But, even then, (especially considering how much AllSpark's Cheetimus was able to improve the SDCC set a few months ago), it would not necessarily be worth getting. (It would be more worth getting, but not actually worth getting. Get it? )


Dom
-not sorry about missing it.