Brawl's alternate mode
is a tank, and it's reflected surprisingly accurately for a Fast Action
Battler toy. No slightly kiddified proportions or anything, and there are
no robot extras in tank mode either. The mold detailing is also pretty
good, with "metal paneling" and "electronic wiring" in quite a few places.
The overall color scheme, made up of different shades of green and greenish
blue, may not be the most exciting, but it's certainly an appropriate,
realistic scheme for a tank and the "camo" paint apps help to break up
the colors a bit. However, that said, there should be several more camo
paint apps in this mode to make it look more realistic-- there's still
several fairly large patches of military green on the figure that aren't
interrupted by dull green-blue. The top turret on the toy can rotate perfectly
fine (though it can come off a bit easier than I'd like), but the "main"
bottom turret can't rotate at all, which is unacceptable on a toy at this
scale in this day in age, regardless of whether it's made for little kids
and not. I mean, that's one of the coolest things about a tank! The two
missile packs on the sides of the upper turret can each fire missiles,
but they're not missile launchers that have been used on any Transformers
yet to my knowledge, and I hope they're never used on Transformers again.
Instead of locking into any position so that they stay in the missile launchers
when they're not fired, you have to pull back on the rear tips of the missiles
manually and then let them go to fire them. Needless to say, they don't
fire far, and since there's nothing holding said missiles in their launchers,
they fall out if you so much as tip the figure forward a little. VERY annoying,
and along with the lack of main turret rotation is the toy's main downside.
Brawl's robot mode is
fairly good, even ignoring the fact that he's a simplified Fast Action
Battler toy. His proportions are pretty much spot-on-- even better than
the "normal deluxe" toy's proportions, in fact, since his head isn't too
small on this version. He also has excellent mold and paint detailing on
most of his robot parts, especially his face, which is very well decorated.
His missile-launcher backpack stays connected to his body much better than
in vehicle mode, which is another bonus. Brawl has decent, but not spectacular,
articulation-- he can move at the head, shoulders, hips, and knees. His
waist can also move, though like some other Fast Action Battlers, it can
oddly only rotate to the left and snaps back to its normal position when
you let it go. Brawl's only major flaw in this mode is that the halves
of his main turret hang rather obviously off the backs of his arms, and
don't really look like anything or complement the mode's look or anything.
Another, more minor, flaw is that there are some fairly obvious gaps in
the sides of his chest.
Although Double Missile
Decepticon Brawl has a few annoying flaws-- such as his lack of main turret
rotation, some obvious kibble in robot mode, and frustrating missile launchers--
these are easily overshadowed by his many good points, like his great proportions
and armed-to-the-teeth appearance. He's definitely one of the better Fast
Action Battlers-- mildly recommended.
Review by Beastbot