Brawl's vehicle mode
is a tank, and as tanks go this one looks pretty darned good. The dark
greenish-blue patches make for a nice camo paint job without looking too
much like a bunch of random paint blotches, and the mold detailing on this
toy is extremely good, as well- things like entry hatches and rivets can
be made out all over Brawl's figure. Both of Brawl's two turrets can rotate
360 degrees as well, a definite plus, and his side-mounted missile packs
can each move at two places each. (Brawl's main cannon can figure a spring-loaded
missile, but his other guns can't fire physical missiles.) Simply put,
Brawl can fire at anyone, anywhere! The tank turret is SLIGHTLY oversized,
but otherwise the proportions are spot-on when compared to the real thing.
Brawl does have a few visible robot parts in this mode, however-- for one,
his feet are really obvious on the rear end of the vehicle. His head is
also fairly obvious, as it's looking up at you from right in front of the
turret. If you turn his turret enough to the side, you can also see a few
holes in his main tank body due to his transformation, but this last one
is pretty minor compared to the other two robot bits.
Brawl's robot mode is
also very, very cool, but with one big flaw that I'll get to later. Nearly
everything I have to say about this mode is positive-- his paint and mold
detailing is EXCELLENT (especially on the head and arms), he's loaded with
weapons, his proportions are great, as his articulation-- he can move at
the head, shoulders (at two points), elbows (at two points), at the base
of each of his arm-mounted weapons, at two points on the missile packs
that now hang behind his shoulders, the hips, and the knees (at two points).
His vehicle extras also tuck away very well-- his turret sits snugly against
his back without getting in the way of movement much, and his tank side
pieces fit nicely against his lower legs, too. The front part of his tank
treads also actually complement his head & chest design instead of
taking away from it. The front pieces of the tank mode that just hang off
the front of his chest do look a little odd, though, and they inhibit arm
movement a bit (as well as the large tank cannon on his right hand, but
that huge cannon looks really cool, so I don't mind it). Brawl also has
a really cool automorph feature--as you bring his lower body into alignment
with his upper body during the transformation, his head and shoulder-mounted
tank treads all rotate into place by themselves. Brawl has one absolutely
crippling flaw in this mode, though-- his arms are supposed to peg into
the sides of his main body, but this just. Won't. Happen. They fall out
if Brawl is so much as touched, and hang off his body limply. There's just
no way to fix this, and it only gets worse the more you play with Brawl.
It completely ruins the mode and is incredibly annoying-- honestly, I've
never had a toy with a flaw that took THIS MUCH away from it. How an obvious
QA issue like this got past Hasbro I'll never figure out.
Brawl's has a great
tank mode and an even better robot mode design, with great colors, proportions,
articulation, and look-- the works. But his inability to have his arms
properly connect to his body is such a huge, annoying flaw that that, by
itself, knocks down the toy's rating enough to keep him from getting a
mid-range 9-10 score for a rating. I'd love to recommend the deluxe version
of Brawl, as in some ways I feel he's even better than the much more expensive
leader class version, but with such an
annoying flaw I can't. Only get him if you're a big fan of Brawl's look
and absolutely cannot afford the leader class version.
Decepticon Brawl (Allspark Power) Bio:
With his cannons powered up by Allspark
energy, Decepticon Brawl has more destructive power than ever, and he’s
setting his sights on blasting the Autobots to pieces.
Strength: 8.0
Intelligence: 3.0
Speed: 3.0
Endurance: 9.0
Rank: 5.0
Courage: 9.0
Fireblast: 9.0
Skill: 3.0
Review by Beastbot
*In addition to its normal release, this mold was also re-released in special "Allspark Power" packaging as a Target Exclusive with some Allspark blue paint apps added (though no other paint changes made). I think the blue clashes a bit with the green, though, so I'd recommend the original over it.