(NOTE: Because this is a repaint, this is not a full-blown review. This mainly covers any changes made to the mold and the color scheme, and merely compares it to Combiner Wars Offroad. For a review on the mold itself, read the review of Combiner Wars Offroad here.)
YOU...CAN'T...STOP...THE
RUCKUS! YOU...CAN'T...STOP...THE GRABUGE! ...Yeah, okay, Grabuge's original
G1 name was way better, but copyright laws are what they are. As such,
FunPub took the French name for Ruckus since they couldn't get his actual
name. This is Grabuge/Ruckus' first update since his original G1 toy, though
for this update he's no longer a dune buggy but a truck, due to CW mold
reasons. (Honestly, I think the Swindle mold
would've fit him a little better, but maybe they figured Ruckus' color
scheme was too close to Swindle's.) Anyways, it was apparently quite difficult
to get Ruckus' color scheme close to his G1 version's due to the mold colors
breakup, because Ruckus has a TON. OF. PAINT. 80+% of his entire vehicle
mode is covered in paint, and although his robot mode has a more "normal"
amount of paint, it's not lacking in that department either. Ruckus' vehicle
mode is a nice mix of purple in the front, a pale orangish tan in the middle,
and a mix of those two colors plus some nice pale bluish green stripes
on the back third or so. All of the colors go together quite well-- even
if they're not remotely realistic-- with the bluish green being used enough
to really pop, but not so much it's overly loud. There's some nice decals
of suspension springs near the front-- replicating a detail on his G1 toy--
and all of his windows are painted a nice silver (except for the rear window,
due to plastic break-up reasons). There's also a bit of silver on the wheel
hubs and on the front grill (along with a little extra bit of orangish
tan on said grill for some extra color-popping). In robot mode the coolest
bit is that the suspension springs on his lower legs are painted exactly
like the decals in his vehicle mode, with silver springs and yellow and
a lighter purple used for smaller bits-- it all looks pretty cool, and
there's some silver on his feet as well. At least SOME of Ruckus had to
be relatively paint-less because of all the vehicle mode deco, though,
and this includes his arms and upper legs, which are mostly unpainted dark
purple. The sides of his chest-- and even the interior of his alt mode
backpack!-- are painted orangish-tan, though. It should be noted here,
however, that the small amount of orangish-tan PLASTIC is noticebly more
milky and less glossy than the paint, so this can clash on a few areas
like the middle of the chest compared to the sides. The purple head has
some nice yellow paint on the face and dark red optics. To top off all
these wonderful colors and paint apps, Ruckus has dark aquamarine weapons,
which complement the dark purple bits quite well.
No mold changes have
been made to Grabuge, though he doesn't really need any-- originally Offroad
was supposed to be Ruckus but was changed for whatever reason, so of course
the head works perfectly here. That said, this mold has been redone enough
where the hip joints are getting a bit loose. It's nothing a bit of nail/floor
polish can't fix, though.
TFSS Grabuge/Ruckus
is an excellent redeco, with such a HUGE amount of paint used it's really
quite impressive, even for a premium-priced Collectors' Club toy. The number
of paint apps and different colors look quite good and really makes it
clear Ruckus is an homage to a late '80s toy due to his completely unrealistic
color scheme. Highly recommended, as it's my favorite color scheme this
mold has gotten and is a great update to the character (slightly-changed
alt mode aside) even if you don't want to use the combining aspect. He's
the only TFSS 4.0 toy that doesn't come with at least a little something
extra, but given all the paint on him I'm not complaining.
Review by Beastbot