[Toy Review] “Brawl” looks stocky and has unusual hips

Robot mode. (Brawl)
Robot mode. (Brawl)

The fourth Combaticon I’m looking at today is Brawl, who transforms into a tank. He retails for SGD $31.90 in stores. Thanks Hasbro for sending him over! He usually forms the leg of Bruticus, though he can become another limb if you so choose. Why would you choose him to be another limb though?

Brawl’s a brand-new mould, so there’s no retooling or recolouring involved, and you can check him out as a completely new toy! Deluxe tanks are hard to pull off, because they’re usually supposed to be much larger than their companions who are cars, and it’s hard to be scared of a tank that’s the same size as a car. I’ll have him fight Warpath another time.

Packaging

Packaging. (Brawl)
Packaging. (Brawl)
Packaging. (Brawl)
Packaging. (Brawl)

Brawl looks pretty wide in package. Though he’s not really as short as he looks, his thick, broad body makes him seem that way. Unfortunately, his pose on the comic also makes it looks like he has short arms, which again compounds the wide, broad look.

But then, dwarves are hardy and tough, so that’s not necessarily a bad choice to go with. It makes Brawl seem shorter, but also hard to knock down.

Contents

Contents. (Brawl)
Contents. (Brawl)
Robot and accessories. (Brawl)
Robot and accessories. (Brawl)
Accessories. (Brawl)
Accessories. (Brawl)
Accessories. (Brawl)
Accessories. (Brawl)
Comic. (Brawl)
Comic. (Brawl)
Comic. (Brawl)
Comic. (Brawl)

So out of his package, you can see that Brawl is actually taller and slimmer than he might first appear. This is mainly due to the way his waist/hips transform, and also him merging into the background colours of his comic. His illustration also doesn’t quite depict his height that much, because there’s a camouflaged section between his greenish brown tank portion and his black hip portion that adds extra height to his body.

It’s this part that also makes him look more proportionate in robot, and adjusts for his appearance. Brawl comes with his own barrel rifle that becomes his tank’s cannon in alternate mode, and also the usual limb gun for Combiner Wars Deluxes.

Robot Mode

Robot mode. (Brawl)
Robot mode. (Brawl)
Robot mode. (Brawl)
Robot mode. (Brawl)
Robot mode. (Brawl)
Robot mode. (Brawl)
Robot mode. (Brawl)
Robot mode. (Brawl)
Robot mode. (Brawl)
Robot mode. (Brawl)

So again about that hip portion. You can see that it’s actually a black flap that’s at an angle (the green part is actually his back kibble) to give him extra height. It’s really weird if you look at him from waist level, but most of the time you’ll be checking him out from higher vantages. Probably best not to apply too much pressure there.

His robot mode takes advantage of the sculpted cannons in the front, although that bright blue is a bit distracting. But the solid brown-green colour fits Brawl’s straightforward personality.

Alternate Mode

Alternate mode. (Brawl)
Alternate mode. (Brawl)
Alternate mode. (Brawl)
Alternate mode. (Brawl)
Alternate mode. (Brawl)
Alternate mode. (Brawl)
Alternate mode. (Brawl)
Alternate mode. (Brawl)
Alternate mode. (Brawl)
Alternate mode. (Brawl)

The tank mode is, well, I daresay, cute. It’s a weird adjective to use, but the compactness combined with the dwarf feel of his robot mode just gives me that feeling about Brawl.

His turret can’t turn though, if you were looking for that feature. Neither can it go upwards, but then, you’ll be using Brawl as a limb most of the time, not as a tank! Right? Right.

Overall

Robot mode. (Brawl)
Robot mode. (Brawl)
Alternate mode. (Brawl)
Alternate mode. (Brawl)

Brawl follows a very consistent theme with his design, from character to personality to even his singular accessory (which is just a gun, but an accurate looking one). His hips don’t lie though – well, they sort of hide in the background, and that’s the weirdest part about Brawl. He should make friends with fellow tank-con Megatron soon!

Check out my other upcoming Combaticon reviews soon!

Combaticon Toy Reviews

Onslaught

Vortex

Swindle

Brawl

Blast Off

Bruticus

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