Sunday, October 28, 2018

Toy Review: Transformers Generations Studio Series Brawl (Voyager)


Review:  #469
Name:  Brawl
Brand:  Transformers
Allegiance:  Decepticon
Line:  Generations - Studio Series
Year of Release:  2018
Size Class:  Voyager (Wave 2)
Mold Status:  new

TANK MODE:


Brawl, who is based upon the first movie's incarnation of the character, transforms into a M1A1 Abrams tank.


This is a great looking tank from most angles.  The only area where it kind of falls apart is the semi-visible silver hands peeking out from underneath the turret.


Due to transformation, the turret cannot rotate.  The robot mode weapons can attach to the turret, where they do look a little bit awkward.


Brawl is a Voyager classed figure and above is a size comparison against Generations Combiner Wars Motormaster.  Brawl is a decent size.  While the treads are molded, there are plastic wheels underneath which allows him to roll.


A wonderful alt mode, looking fantastic (and yes, his head is still semi-visible near the front of the tank).

TRANSFORMATION:

Getting Brawl into robot mode is quite simple but effective.  It works well although even though there aren't any engineering surprises.  The rear splits into half to form the legs, and the turret form the arms.  However, the figure has a reliance on the tank shells either folding upon itself in panels or covering the limbs.  One of the more interesting parts is how neatly the chest plate attaches to the torso and locks everything (including the treads) into place.

ROBOT MODE:


This version of Brawl aims to be as screen accurate as possible, and thus he is a bit more spindly and alien looking than previous figures.


The figure is fairly clean looking although you can see that a lot of the tank ends up as kibble behind his arms and legs, cluttering up the figure.  The cannon also points straight down and can get in the way sometimes.


The amount of detailing in the headsculpt continues to surprise you, with some really intricate sculpting in the eyes and mouth.


Brawl comes with two weapons which attaches to his forearms, a gun and a double claw with a mini-Gatling gun.


There are a few aesthetics issues though, mainly centering on his arms.  The hands and forearms are huge compared to the skinny shoulders, with the kibble surrounding the arms not helping matters.


Articulation is your standard affair and although his feet are large, they don't have any jointing so can be awkward to balance in certain poses.


In terms of size, he is a shorter now but since he retains his bulk, still looks impressive.


As part of the Studio Series of toys, Brawl comes with a large cardboard stand to display the figure upon.


The background of the stand is the ruined city in which Brawl did battle.


There are plenty of sculpted detailing and the silver paint serves to highlight these complex areas.


It takes some getting used to but Brawl's robot mode is wonderful.

OVERALL:

Like most of the Studio Series line, Brawl is a solid figure.  While he may not be as good as some of the others in the line, he's still fun and looks impressive in both modes.  To be honest, the only major issues of the figure is pure aesthetics, being that the skinny shoulders doesn't quite match well with the kibble-laden hands.

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For other Transformers reviews, have a look at this page.
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