Bruticus
(RiD)
Bruticus' beast mode
is a technorganic...Cerberus...dog...thing. Er, yeah. He's supposed to
be a cerberus- and he is indeed a three-headed canine of some sort... but
he looks quite a bit different from how you'd picture a cerberus, even
considering the whole "technorganic Maximal" theme of Beast Machines (which
was where the mold came from). The proportions in this mode are majorly
messed up, and makes Bruticus more of nondescript monster-thing than an
actual cerberus. For one, his middle dog head is MUCH larger in proportion
than the other two "side" heads. It's also much wider than the other two,
so the three heads don't look equal at all. The middle head has cheeks
so wide, in fact, that it looks rather goofy, despite the bat-wing ears.
The right head has a HUGE muzzle-piece attached to it that the toy would
have been much better without, and makes that head look rather goofy as
well, despite the cool-looking sawblade and spike on the top of it. The
left head looks rather nice, with its "punk" hairdo, but its mouth can't
open and close by itself- you have to seperate the whole head in order
to get him to close his mouth... Also, this head has absolutely no discernable
neck- it just suddenly protrudes out from the main body. Bruticus' front
legs are also much longer and skinnier than his back legs, which actually
have no useful articulation in this mode, which is rather odd, as it could
have been allowed easily. Bruticus also has no stomach to speak of, so
he almost loks like he's starving to death in this mode, although the large
front-leg panels on the sides help to alleviate this effect somewhat. The
three tails are a very nice touch, however- one tail ends in an axe, another
in a drill, and another in a dagger. Three weapons in one, whoo! The "broken
chain link" hanging off of Bruticus' left front foot is pretty nice, too-
a "rabid-monster-broken-out-of-its-cage" effect. As for Bruticus' color
scheme, most of it is pretty nice- the black, dark purple, and red go together
nicely- but the yellow completely ruins the parts where it's prevalent,
as it doesn't go with the other colors at ALL. Some people have also commented
on how Bruticus almost looks like a prototype, with his lack of paint detailing.
I don't see it, however- with the exception of Bruticus' back legs and
part of his upper back, I think he has plenty of paint detailing, and in
many different colors, too- the three heads are especially well-detailed.
In robot mode, Bruticus
looks more like a non-descript type of canine monster than a robot. This
time, though, he's in a more humanoid form. His main robot head is just
his main canine head without the "cheekplates" covering it, which was rather
uncreative, but what's also pretty neat- and pretty unusual- about his
transformer is that he has three heads in robot mode, too. His other two
heads- one a small, evil-looking sleek one, and the other, a big, saggy-looking
bulldogish one- are on the sides of his "main" head. The Predacon spark
crystal is located on the back of his head. Bruticus also has his canine
jaw hanging off of his main robot chin, which looks rather corny, as well.
It's rather creative with what the did with Bruticus' two side "dog heads"
from his beast mode, though- one folds out into an arm holding a sword,
while the other dog head becomes a sort of head-hand, in which Bruticus
can hold his three tails as a sort of three-pronged weapon. It doesn't
fit that snugly, though. The shoulder panels also don't seem to interlock
with any of their surrounding parts in either of Bruticus' modes, and they
just sort of... stand out and look completely unnecessary. Bruticus also
suffers from the same "lack of stomach" problem that he had in beast mode,
only this time it's much more apparent, since he doesnt have any leg panels
to partially cover it up. One definite upside to Bruticus in this mode,
though is that he is EXTREMELY articulate. Pretty much the only thing he
CAN'T move are his fingers and toes. And, if you flip out his back beast
legs into an extra set of arms (oddly not mentioned in the directions,
but clearly meant as an extra feature on the toy), he has even MORE articulation,
and looks like some sort of freaky, ancient multi-armed demigod! Cool!
Another interesting feature is that, if you open up Bruticus' chest panel,
you can see a piece inserted in there that includes some robotic detailing.
However, as there's an apparent large hollow space in Bruticus' chest,
one would surmise that this was where the "Battle for the Spark" spark
gimmick went, before it was scrapped for RiD. Interesting...
Bruticus is certainly
a unique transformer, that's for sure. However, there are some issues,
such as the very odd proportions, and certain parts not fitting together
the right way, that make this Transformer seem unfinished. Especially the
missing "Battle for the Spark" gimmick. However, he certainly does have
his redeeming features, such as his posability and multiple heads and arms.
Bottom line: If you liked the Beast Machines Maximal aesthetic, you'll
like Bruticus. If you liked more "robotic" robots, than Bruticus probably
isn't up your alley.
Review by Beastbot