Allegiances: Decepticon
Set Price: $60 U.S.
Overall Rating: 7.4

(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 FoC Blast Off, go here. For a review on the mass-release FoC Decepticon Brawl, go here. For a review on the mass-release FoC Onslaught and the Bruticus gestalt, go here. For a review on the mass-release FoC Swindle, go here. For a review on the mass-release FoC Vortex, go here.)
 

Blast Off

Size: Deluxe
Difficulty of Transformation: Easy
Color Scheme: White and some purple, black, light red, periwinkle, and silver
Individual Rating: 9.1

    Like the other "Generation 2"-painted Combaticons in this set, Blast Off has-- in typical '90s "EXTREME!" fashion-- a completely nonsensical purple camoflauge deco. Because of all that naturally-occurring purple, of course. What makes it even weirder is that, contrary to normal G2 fashion, Blast Off's new color scheme otherwise makes complete sense, much moreso than his traditional G1 colors-- he's otherwise mostly white and black with some silver, the colors of an actual space shuttle. Admittedly, these colors are a bit boring by themselves, but the black and white do contrast against each other well enough. Still, complaints about the weirdness of the purple camo aside, it DOES add some nice color to an otherwise monochrome color scheme, and for that I'm quite glad of its presence. I wish there were a few more purple camo paint apps, in fact, particularly on the inwards-facing side of his legs or guns, which are simply big patches of solid white. There are a few other colors on this version of Blast Off, though both are reserved for his head-- he's got light red eyes and a bit of periwinkle coloration along his head vents, the latter of which in particular looks VERY nice against the white, to the point where I wish it had been used a bit more, accuracy to the original G2 Blast Off toy be darned.
    No mold changes have been made to this version of Blast Off.
 

Decepticon Brawl

Size: Deluxe
Difficulty of Transformation: Easy
Color Scheme: Moderately light green, black, and some silver, purple, and light orange
Individual Rating: 7.4

    Poor Brawl. All the other Combaticons get all sorts of different colors in their various releases, but you get stuck with green every time. In fact, the shade of green on this "G2" version of Brawl is pretty much the exact same shade of the color used on the mass release version-- maybe a slight shade lighter, but very very close. The only immediately obvious change made to this version are the purple camoflauge paint apps, which thankfully are on a pretty good portion of his vehicle mode, thus definitely increasing the visual interest of the mode (though obviously not its realism-- but hey, it's a space tank, so whatevs). His black is also on the same spots here as on his mass release version, though the side "tread"-like details near the front of the vehicle mode are painted purple this time, but NOT the robot mode bits that form part of those "treads", making those latter parts look a bit too obvious in this mode. His silver paint is a touch lighter, and is used a little more extensively on his robot chest, which frames his robot mode G2 Decepticon symbol nicely. (He also has a rather obnoxiously large G2 Decepticon symbol in tank mode, in front of his turret.) His eyes are also an orange shade now, which makes him look like he's getting angry-- appropriate for Brawl, to be sure. The price of the extra camo apps in vehicle mode is that, unfortunately, his rear thrusters aren't painted at all-- but given a choice between the two, I prefer the camo for visual interest's sake.
    No mold changes have been made to this version of Brawl.
 

Onslaught

Size: Deluxe
Difficulty of Transformation: Easy
Color Scheme: Yellow, purple, black, and some silver and light red
Individual Rating: 6.0

    Onslaught's G2 color scheme is mostly yellow this time around, with the prequisite purple camo paint apps that are on all the toys in this set. There's also a fair amount of purple plastic, as well-- his waist, upper legs, weapon, and most of his arms are all purple plastic. His regular robot head is also purple, which is a pretty interesting color for the head-- and given the "G2-ness" of this set, it works well in this instance. There's also some black along his wheels, combined mode head, and a few other minor parts/details. Now, I'm not normally a fan of yellow as a main color-- and I'm still not-- but combined with the purple plastic, purple camo, and black, it doesn't become too overwhelming in either mode, and both the black and the purple (the latter, in particular) contrast very nicely against the yellow, making him quite visually interesting. There's also a few accent paint apps of silver on his chest, waist, and Bruticus head, and both his regular robot head and Bruticus head have light red painted on the eyes, as well. They're both nice colors, but the silver doesn't really add much, and the light red is used far too sparsely to do anything other than make the eyes look more "evil" and fitting for the character. About the only part of Onslaught I would say doesn't look great in terms of the paint app/plastic color mix is the robot waist-- having only part of the upper waist painted silver, and black hip joints while the rest of the upper legs are purple, looks a bit haphazard.
    No mold changes have been made to this version of Onslaught.
 

Swindle

Size: Deluxe
Difficulty of Transformation: Easy
Color Scheme: Black, moderately light reddish orange, and some purple, light orange, and silver
Individual Rating: 7.4

    Swindle's main color for his G2-homage version is a rather magma-like shade of reddish orange (it looks a little more red in pictures than it is in real life), and looks well as the main "bright" color. Black is his other main color, serving to ground the scheme in a darker shade, and of course he has the same purple camo paint apps on his vehicle mode that his other "G2" Combaticons all have. He does have some silver paint apps on his grill, engine, and a few bits near the back feet, but nearly all of his paint is used on the top of his vehicle mode. This makes that mode look fairly nice, as the purple goes fairly well with all the other colors and there's no big space of unpainted plastic here. Unfortunately, this also means that significant portions of his robot mode have no paint (his orange visor and black fists are the only robot mode-specific paint apps this toy has). His arms practically have no paint at all, and the same with his midsection-- to the point where they look positively prototype-ish; this is all the more of a shame given how much mold detailing is on parts of him, like on the wheels. At least the reddish orange is a very eye-catching color and his camo paint apps carry over to robot mode, otherwise his robot mode would be REALLY boring.
    No mold changes have been made to this version of Swindle.
 

Vortex

Size: Deluxe
Difficulty of Transformation: Medium
Color Scheme: Light pastel blue, purple, and some silver, black, and light orange
Individual Rating: 7.5

    Vortex's main G2 color is a rather light pastel blue, which is generally just an eye-catching shade of the color, nevermind that it fits well with all the purple plastic on Vortex and the purple camo apps that he shares with the rest of the Combaticons in this giftset. He's a bit unusual among his team in that black is more of a secondary color for him, and it's more visible in robot mode than vehicle mode. (Blast Off is the only other one that's like this.) The black windows and front gun look nice in vehicle mode, but I'm sorta glad they relegated most of it to the robot bits, as a lot of black in 'copter mode would have made him a bit too dark and not given that lovely blue a chance to shine and contrast so nicely with all his purple. Despite having a good number of camo paint apps in vehicle mode, Vortex is NOT relatively un-painted in robot mode, like with Swindle-- his chest details have a nice mix of both silver and black paint on them that looks quite cool. His optic visor is also orange just like on Swindle and Brawl, and his fists have been painted black, as well, fitting in with his mid-arms in terms of color. Really, the only parts of Vortex that really could use some more paint are his blade-weapons, which are all purple-- otherwise, he's well-covered.
    No mold changes have been made to this version of Vortex.
 

Decepticon Bruticus (Combined Form)

Difficulty of Transformation: Hard
Individual Rating: 6.8

    Bruticus' combined form is still very obviously composed of five different toys-- each of his individual components DOES have a different major color, after all-- but the black and particularly the purple shared between all of the Combaticons this time around helps to tie them all together visually when they're combined like this. The purple camo paint apps shared among all of them makes this particularly obvious, and in my opinion, is what tips the scales into making this version of FoC Bruticus the most cohesive overall in his combined mode-- the most obvious that these five are supposed to go together, if you will. Of course, he's also the most "obnoxious"-colored of the different versions of these molds-- I mean, purple camo paint apps--but that's part of the feel of G2. I will say that the way his combined mode weapon alternates between black, white, and purple abruptly doesn't look all that great, though, particularly since none of the individual weapons have any paint on them to "ease" the transition.

    The "Generation 2" FoC Bruticus set is definitely aimed towards a specific subset of Transformers fans-- those who don't mind wacky, nonsensical color schemes if it means that the individual bots' color schemes stand out on a shelf. If you want duller, more "realistic" colors, you'll definitely want to look at some version of the SDCC game-accurate Bruticus set-- but if you're a child of the late '80s/'90s and/or simply want something that looks "so gaudy it's awesome", I'd recommend this set over the mass-released FoC Combaticons. (If for no other reason than the price-- at $60 U.S., you're basically getting a Combaticon free, and all in one giftset as opposed to having to hunt them down individually.)

Reviews by Beastbot

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