Robots in Disguise: X-Brawn

Ah, the eldest of the tree Autobot brothers. Okay, so this brings an important question. If transformer brothers are simply ones that are built at the same time (by the same complex or whatever the hell builds them in RID), how can one be older than the others? Whatever, someone correct me please.

X-Brawn of course takes advantage of the SUV craze that's been going around the past few years or so. Who woulda thunk that a big powerful transformer would turn into one of those 'small trucks' that flips easily and all that. I'm not a big SUV fan as you may have guessed.

Anyways, the vehicle mode is pretty cool, and very tight. It's mostly silver, though at the rear it oddly fades into green, which I don't get, but it looks kinda neat. X-Brawn also comes with two weapons which are supposed to store under the vehicle, except the larger one was remolded in this version to be more blunt (lousy safety standards) which makes this method of storage a pain in the ass since it doesn't quite stay. It also limits the rolling of the vehicle mode as the larger weapon scrapes against the ground, or pushes the smaller weapon down to make it scrape.

Transformation is interesting, not as hard as Side Burn's, but still pretty complicated. His legs come from the rear of the SUV (hey, just like G1!), but the top half of the SUV unfolds and rotates and all sorts of fun stuff. It's not too hard, but not too easy, so I like it.

What you get is an oddly proportioned robot mode. X-Brawn's legs are too long, and his left arm pretty much contains the entire rear of the SUV, making it nearly double the length of his other arm. Also, his other arm doesn't have a hand. It has one molded into it, which looks quite corny, and is topped with a spring loaded mechanism which he can fire either of his weapons from.

The cool thing about his huge arm is it has a jointed thumb on his hand, which allows him to grip pretty much everything that can fit in there. Always an added bonus when you get a transformer with a jointed hand, that's what I say.

The big picture? X-Brawn is pretty cool. Even though he has an odd looking robot mode, his transformation and nice looking vehicle mode (and the jointed hand!) make up for this, and unlike Side Burn, he has tight joints. This guy is worth the 10 bucks you'll have to spend on it, yes now.