And finally, here’s Bruticus! The combined form of all five Combaticons – Vortext, Blast Off, Swindle, Brawl and Onslaught – Bruticus is the last of the G1 Season 2 combiners to be released for Combiner Wars, and the 5th unique combiner (not counting Ultra Prime but counting Optimus Maximus) to be out.
He’s optimised for his look in his combined form, rather than as individual robots. Which suits me, really, since that’s the whole point of calling it Combiner Wars, right? He’s got the blocky, muscular look that hearkens back to his G1 looks (rather than the recent top-heavy bottom-light DCAU look, or the odd spiky aesthetic that the Movie-verse has given us since). Which makes sense, since he’s made up of war vehicles after all.
Packaging
Put together, you can really see that they’re all from the same team. Even as individual robots, they’ve got a very unified look, with complementary colour schemes and the same gritty palette that gives them a serious demeanour. You’re not going to mistake them for members of the combiner teams, and neither will you mistake other combiner components as Combaticons either.
The Combaticons
As a team, the Combaticons look pretty good. They have the same amount of gravitas, and give the impression that they work as a well-oiled unit. They’re definitely task-oriented colleagues, but they probably don’t hang out after work for drinks. The Combaticons are all business. Friendship is secondary to them.
Unlike, say, the Stunticons, who look like a motorcycle gang, or the Constructicons, who look a bunch of Ah Bengs/rednecks, the Aerialbots, who look like a uniformed group, or even the Protectobots, who look like they’re pals.
Bruticus combined!
This is the official, combined mode that you’ve been seeing everywhere, which is perfect except for… the two large blocks on his shoulders that show off Onslaught’s fists and wheels, and hide Onslaught’s cannons. It’s much more stable though, and allows for more posing positions. He does have the wideness of the original Bruticus, but the shoulders are what makes it less of a homage than I’d like.
Bruticus combined – with some tweaks
So the instructions tell you to peg his shoulders up, but I like the smokestacks look so I’ve turned them around to look like that, though it’s not quite as stable. But once again, the whole point of Bruticus is to have him as a combiner! But the general squarish blocks that make up his legs are what gives him that powerful, muscled look that a robot of war should have.
His arms, being the usual air vehicles as most of the other Combiner Wars combiners are, don’t seem as slim because of the crest of his chest plate, which fills out his body and gives him that V-shaped bodybuilder look without sacrificing the actual mass. It’s a good blend of both worlds.
Overall
So should you get Bruticus? The answer should be pretty clear. It’s a yes. But Bruticus vs Superion vs Menasor vs Defensor? I’d say it’s a tough toss-up between Bruticus and Superion, but seeing as which Bruticus is more powerful, yes, you should get him. If it’s between Bruticus or Devastator, I’d say go for Devastator because of his sheer size and popularity.
Compared to past Bruticuses, the Combiner Wars one executes the concept well while paying respectful homage to his roots. He’s got a much more powerful central body, compared to the Fall of Cybertron Bruticus, and is a much more stable and poseable build than Transformers: Energon Bruticus.
Most of all, he looks like he could maul almost any other Transformer in the Combiner Wars (thus far). Well, at least until the rumoured Lio Kaiser arrives, that is.
Combaticon Toy Reviews
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