Allegiances: Decepticons (Generation 2?)
Set Price: $100 U.S.

(NOTE: Because this set is composed of repaints, this is not a full-blown review. This mainly covers any changes made to the set and the color scheme, and merely compares it to the original versions of these molds. For a review on the mass-release Shockwave, go here. For a review on the mass-release Decepticon Brawl, go here. For a review on the mass-release Swindle, go here. For a review on the mass-release Blast Off, go here. For a review on the mass-release Vortex, go here. For a review on the mass-release Onslaught, go here.)
 

Blast Off (G2)

Size: Deluxe
Difficulty of Transformation to Robot: Easy
Difficulty of Transformation to Leg: Very Easy
Difficulty of Transformation to Arm: Very Easy
Color Scheme: White, black, dark metallic purple, and some glossy black and red
Individual Rating: 8.2

    The original G2 Blast Off toy was actually fairly realistically colored for a space shuttle-- he's mostly black and white, which of course is absolutely fitting for a space shuttle, even if by itself it isn't the most exciting color scheme. The paint used on Blast Off is a glossy color compared to the more "straightforward" black plastic. Of course, it being G2, they had to add purple camo-- which OF COURSE makes sense for ANY vehicle, much less a space shuttle-- and so it's been applied to this toy, as well. Granted, since Blast Off is now a jet the concept of camo makes more sense, but purple camo never makes sense. It still looks great, though, and all the camo really looks awesome on the vehicle mode in particular and breaks up all the white to keep it from getting too one-tone or boring. In robot mode there's a bunch of nice metallic purple paint on the chest, but unfortunately it's not used anywhere else on the robot mode-- the knees, feet, and fists are black, and the head has no paint detailing beyond the red optics. It's unfortunate, because some purple-- particularly on the lower legs or head-- would really help the robot mode pop more. As is, it looks a little boring. As with the other deluxe Combaticons in this set, Blast Off's weapons and hand/foot/gun are both solid black plastic. One thing I should mention now that bugs me not just on Blast Off, but on ALL the G2 Combaticons in this set-- is that they don't have the G2 symbol! They have the G1 Decepticon symbol, which is just bizarre-- why the heck would you make a G2 set with G1 symbols? I can follow the logic as far as "the G1 Decepticon symbol is better-recognized", but you're already going to the more obscure G2 color scheme, so for goodness sake give them the G2 symbols so they can match the other 2 Combiner Wars G2 sets! Sigh.
    No mold changes have been made to Blast Off.
 

Decepticon Brawl (G2)

Size: Deluxe
Difficulty of Transformation to Robot: Easy
Difficulty of Transformation to Leg: Very Easy
Difficulty of Transformation to Arm: Easy
Color Scheme: Moderately light green, dark metallic purple, and some black and red
Individual Rating: 7.6

    Brawl by and large was the one who wasn't changed much from his traditional G1 toy-- at least if you compare the original G1 toy and the G2 toy. For this "G2" version, they went a bit further to differentiate him from the initial version of this mold, with most of his plastic being a considerably lighter shade of green, as opposed to the dark olive of the original CW Brawl. The lighter shade helps bring out all that nice mold detailing quite well. Like with the other G2 Combaticons, Brawl of course has the wonderfully nonsensical metallic purple camo paint job over all of his vehicle mode, AS WELL AS metallic purple treads-- it all comes together very nicely, keeping the vehicle mode from looking remotely boring. Given how much of the vehicle mode is visible in robot mode, it also keeps the robot mode from looking boring as well, especially with those marvelous purple treads. In robot mode there's also some metallic paint on the crotch and robot head, which helps with the color variation as well, and he's got his visor painted red which looks GREAT against said purple to the point that I wish it was used a bit more. There's also some black used for the hand/foot/gun, upper legs, tank gun, and a few other minor parts-- this helps bring some dark to the color scheme. That said, I do wish just one more fairly major color was in the mix, to help vary things up a little more-- but it still all fits right in with the "G2" theme of the set.
    No mold changes have been made to Decepticon Brawl.
 

Onslaught (G2)

Size: Voyager
Difficulty of Transformation to Robot: Easy
Difficulty of Transformation to Torso: Medium
Color Scheme: Milky yellow, black, dark metallic purple, and some red, silver and metallic black
Individual Rating: 8.3

    Onslaught's unique color for the G2 Bruticus set is yellow-- that and black are his main plastic colors. Of course the black contrasts against the yellow fairly well, but the yellow plastic itself is not of a particuarly attractive shade. Now of course, if you've been reading my reviews for a while you know yellow is one of my least favorite colors so there's that, but even on top of that this doesn't look that great. It looks cheap-- now, I'm not saying it IS cheap, just that it LOOKS like it, mind you. Why exactly is hard to pin down, it just doesn't look great. Of course, Onslaught has some metallic dark purple camo mostly visible on Onslaught on the sides of the back pieces of the vehicle mode and on the very front pieces. Onslaught has a lot of other metallic dark purple camo, but unfortunately most of it's on the black portions that form Bruticus' chest, so it's not very visible in either of Onslaught's "normal" modes. He does also have some purple on his waist, which helps break up the colors in robot mode a bit more and looks quite nice. The chest also has some cool metallic black and red paint on the details, and his head has a red visor. Still, I think a bit too much emphasis was put on the paint on his combiner chest, as otherwise he seems slightly paint-barren-- no paint on the sirens, the vents, the shoulders, the fists, or the guns.
    No mold changes have been made to Onslaught, but unfortunately he has the same (fairly easily fixable) upper leg misassembly that Pyra Magna from Victorion has.
 

Shockwave (G2)

Size: Legend
Difficulty of Transformation: Easy
Color Scheme: Dark purple, moderately dark red, and some light milky gray, light orange, silver, and metallic gold
Individual Rating: 9.3
 

    Shockwave is the odd 'Con out in this set, as he's not a Combaticon. When it comes to the fiction he's related to them in some minor aspects, but he's also the odd 'Con out in that there was never a G2 Shockwave released-- thus, he's the only one in this set where a G1 Decepticon symbol on him makes sense. This version partially homages the Action Master Shockwave version, which mostly just looked like Shockwave in robot mode but had some extra orange on the chest and gun. And-- for the MOST part-- that's what this toy looks like. It's the one from this set that's easily the most similar to the original version of the mold (and if this was being sold by itself, I wouldn't recommend this toy unless you were a Shockwave completist). The purple is pretty much the same shade as on the Combiner Wars original, and same with the light milky gray plastic on the feet. He's also similarly got silver on his waist and side antennae. There's two main areas where this version differs, and the first is the aforementioned light orange on the chest and gun-hand. The pruple angular line through the chest really makes the orange pop, and as the orange chest is surrounded by silver it "completes" the chest sculpt quite well and is my favorite part of the figure. The other major difference is that the upper legs, targeting reticle in vehicle/gun mode, and a few minor parts are a somewhat dark red, which helps complement the light orange. It doesn't really go with the purple that much, though it doesn't outright clash, either, and is at least more visually interesting than more gray. It helps his color scheme complemnent Swindle's, though, so there's that. There's also a nice little dot of metallic gold on Shockwave's eye, which I really appreciate (particularly since this is the only place in the set that this color is used). One downside to the added color in robot mode, though, is the lack of extra color in vehicle mode-- the transparent plastic from the original CW Shockwave toy is gone, so no more transparent light purple, which makes the front part of the vehicle/gun mode in particular look a little bland.
    No mold changes have been made to Shockwave.
 

Swindle (G2)

Size: Deluxe
Difficulty of Transformation to Robot: Easy
Difficulty of Transformation to Leg: Very Easy
Difficulty of Transformation to Arm: Very Easy
Color Scheme: Moderately bright orange, black, and some dark metallic purple, moderately light blue, and light pale red
Individual Rating: 9.3

    Swindle's main G2 color is a fairly bright orange, and it's replicated quite well here. It's very eye-catching and definitely a little bright-- either just a shade enough to be loud or a shade too dull to be loud, I can't decide. Either way it's a great plastic color, and the dark metallic purple camo really works quite well against the orange-- heck, purple and orange are a great color scheme pretty much regardless of how they're used. There's also some nice metallic purple on Swindle's chest and waist, which helps connect him a bit more to the G1/original Combiner Wars version, along with the moderately light blue faux headlights on his chest. There's also some red on his face, which goes good against the black. Black, by the by, is the other major color on Swindle, which contrasts well against the bright orange, and is used primarily on the wheels, upper legs, middle of the arms, head, and some paint apps on the bars in vehicle mode and on the lower legs. (Of course, like the other deluxe Combaticons, his head/foot/gun and weapon are black, too.) All that said, though, Swindle has the least amount of purple camo compared to the other G2 Combaticons-- there's barely any visible in his robot mode, and some on his lower legs especially would've looked good. Still, that's a relatively minor issue, given how well his color scheme is as a whole.
    No mold changes have been made to Swindle.
 

Vortex (G2)

Size: Deluxe
Difficulty of Transformation to Robot: Easy
Difficulty of Transformation to Leg: Very Easy
Difficulty of Transformation to Arm: Very Easy
Color Scheme: Semi-metallic moderately bright blue, dark metallic purple, and some dark semi-metallic purple, black, and light pale orange
Individual Rating: 8.7

    Vortex is a bit different from the other "main" G2 Combaticons in this set, in that black really isn't a major color on him at all-- it's just used on his weapons and his rotor. Instead, his color scheme is made up entirely of the usual dark metallic purple and a very, VERY nice semi-metallic (glittery) shade of moderately bright blue. It's an absolutely gorgeous color, and is a bit bolder than the pale blue used on the FoC G2 Vortex toy. He has the usual dark metallic purple camo on him, and used quite generously too-- it's pretty much all over his vehicle mode, along with some more of this shade on the missiles on the sides of his vehicle mode, on his chest in robot mode, and on the bottom side of his cockpit. He also has a bit of plastic of this shade that's VERY close to the metallic dark purple used on his upper legs, head, waist, and a few other minor parts. There's also just a touch of light pale orange on Vortex's visor-- compared to the red used on the other Combaticons' eyes/visors-- and it looks absolutely amazing against the purple, to the point where I wish it was used a little more, given how two-tone Vortex otherwise mostly is (though both of his main colors definitely are awesome).
    No mold changes have been made to Vortex.
 

Bruticus (G2) [Combined Form]

Individual Rating: 8.9

    Combined together, Bruticus-- like most gestalts-- is very obviously made from five (well, six, counting Shockwave) separate bots. The black hand/foot/gun parts, weapons, and the black on the chest piece and head help keep a common "theme" throughout the entire gestalt, though that's not nearly as obvious a "common theme" as the really nice metallic nonsensical purple camo on all of the main five Combaticons-- and there's plenty of it on the black chest piece on Bruticus as well, and it all goes together pretty darned nicely. The only exception to this rule are the upper legs of the gestalt mode, which have NO paint on them whatsoever and really should've had some more metallic purple camo on them. The black and silver on the face is very well-done, with most of the silver paint only visible from the front and not the side-- given how the light plays off the black plastic on the head, this can play "tricks on your eyes" in a good way where you think certain parts are painted silver on the head-- until the angle changes some. The red eyes on the gestalt also look boss against the black head. As for the "odd 'bot out"-- Shockwave-- he still works pretty well as a combiner gun, and all the purple helps him blend in with the other Combaticons regardless, even if he doesn't have any camo paint apps. I said it before, though, and I'll say it again-- I HATE having the G1 Decepticon symbols on this obviously G2 color scheme, with the big Decepticon symbol right in the middle of the chest being the biggest, most obvious offender.

    The "Generation 2" Bruticus color scheme is always a winner, and Hasbro did a pretty nice job taking the bright G2 schemes and applying them all fairly accurately on the CW Combaticon molds. The "purple camo" paint apps help keep a common theme among disparate color schemes, and the shades used for all of the Combaticons-- except perhaps Onslaught-- are done quite well, with Swindle and Vortex in particular colored a bit better than the "Fall of Cybertron" G2 Bruticus set. That said, the G1 Decepticon symbols are a more significant downside than I'd have thought-- just why would you do this if you're releasing a $100 giftset specifically homaging the G2 set?-- and out of all the CW boxsets, this one was the least needed, given the existence of the FoC G2 Bruticus set. Of course, the molds for this set are superior to the FoC molds, but still-- I would've preferred a G2 Defensor in Bruticus' place instead, if I had to choose one.
 

Reviews by Beastbot

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