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Damn that G2 Bruticus looks hard ! Got it in my POL which BBTS is going to ship with a few exchanges I sent back (love those guys) From there I can decide how tight it fits on the mold and if it could damage the shiny paint on the takara version. Im not saying I wont buy a microblaze onslaught at some point. But it, isnt cool that they want people to wait until june/july just for an announcement if they will be doing repaints. The free SDCC shoes indicate that they were trying to kill two birds with one stone to avoid making a run of ugly grey onslaughts that nobody wants. Taking the fruticus onslaught and giving it muted G1 colors was a smart move. But without some takara boots, theres not much I can do with him. Glad x transbots didnt let me down. Disappointed about ruination though.

Well I finally got this thing together. It is a bit fiddly, but mostly because of the crappy Hasbro base figures which are floppy to begin with. It took me an hour to assemble it. I actually figured it out for myself instead of turning to a review as I usually do. But I must admit, the end result is glorious. While I wont rule out getting the Microblaze Onslaught if it comes out in G2 or Takara colors, Ill probally display him as Onslaught. The X-Transbots set gets the job done without parts forming or outshining his limb teammates when not combined. I can live without the added elbow articulation that Microblazes parts forming arms delivers. And when standing side by side with FP Bruticus, the proportions look very similar. While having a deluxe for the torso isn't very traditional, the add on parts really make up for it in combiner mode. So I gotta give Boosticus two thumbs up.

Hey X, would you mind putting up some side-by-side pics of your Boosticus upgraded set with one of your other standard sets in combined mode just for comparison of what the real in-hand differences are? I think folks might find such images useful.

xyl360 wrote:Hey X, would you mind putting up some side-by-side pics of your Boosticus upgraded set with one of your other standard sets in combined mode just for comparison of what the real in-hand differences are? I think folks might find such images useful.

Which combiners would you like to see him side by side by ?

Rated X wrote:

xyl360 wrote:Hey X, would you mind putting up some side-by-side pics of your Boosticus upgraded set with one of your other standard sets in combined mode just for comparison of what the real in-hand differences are? I think folks might find such images useful.

Which combiners would you like to see him side by side by ?

Any of the other FoC Combaticon repaints which doesn't have the upgrades. I think I recall you saying you had the Takara set, right? That one would do.

xyl360 wrote:

Rated X wrote:

xyl360 wrote:Hey X, would you mind putting up some side-by-side pics of your Boosticus upgraded set with one of your other standard sets in combined mode just for comparison of what the real in-hand differences are? I think folks might find such images useful.

Which combiners would you like to see him side by side by ?

Any of the other FoC Combaticon repaints which doesn't have the upgrades. I think I recall you saying you had the Takara set, right? That one would do.

Ill take one soon. Honestly I have never combined the Takara versions since I ripped em out of their packaging. Even funnier, I never transformed G2 Bruticus into individual bots. It went to the shelf right out the package. I gotta watch a few reviews to get the transformations figured out. Then I got you covered.

Thanks for the pics, X! I look forward to more.

I am seriously reconsidering this set...

Doesn't look bad at all.

But I don't understand your parts-forming bashing... isn't this set all about parts-forming? Sure, you don't have to take apart any of the figures, but Onslaught's trailer, etc. all have to come apart to make this thing work, no?

megatronus wrote:Doesn't look bad at all.

But I don't understand your parts-forming bashing... isn't this set all about parts-forming? Sure, you don't have to take apart any of the figures, but Onslaught's trailer, etc. all have to come apart to make this thing work, no?

Having to pop off ball joints on arms and legs is too extreme for me. Especially with shiny painted Takara figures. I never had a problem with adding on hands, feet, chest shield, etc. But taking apart the figure and reassembling it into a limb seems like cheating. if theyre going to go that far than just design new limb bots to go with their Onslaught and the hell with the upgrade concept.

As per request…

Boosticus and Hasbrocus side by side for comparison…













Gone is the Hasbroish monkey right arm, karate chop hand, and Brawl leg brace. You get an awesome chest shield and proper sized cannons that wont leave stress marks on the back tabs as I just found out the stock cannons do. While it might be limited to the original Hasbroish articulation, no parts forming needed which is a plus if you have nice shiny Takara paint you don’t want to wear down or chip. Im so getting the Takara Boosticus set. Maybe ill get the Microblaze set down the line. But this set really satisfies my needs for a Cybertronian Bruticus.

thanks for the pics X! i was 99% sold on the boosticus sets before, but this clinches it. in a couple weeks i think ill stop by chimung and get the G2 and takara versions. and probably mania king...

shajaki wrote:thanks for the pics X! i was 99% sold on the boosticus sets before, but this clinches it. in a couple weeks i think ill stop by chimung and get the G2 and takara versions. and probably mania king...

No problem. I think the Boosticus pulls it off pretty good for the price. I kind of like my combiner team members to either be all hasbro or all 3rd party. I dont mind 3rd party add on sets to enhance them. But one base figure shouldnt outshine the hasbro figures like microblaze or FP did. This set compliments the existing figures nicely. Its like why didnt hasbro just do it like that in the first place ?

But, The whole purpose of 3rd party add ons parts for HasTaks combiners is to add some height to the Gestalt mode. Don't see the point in buying these as they add no height. Whats the point in spending the 3rd party big money if its still vastly smaller in height compared to the TFC combiners.

Also don't like that the HasTak toys need to be taken apart to the extreme. Just to spend a few hours placing these 3rd party combiners gear all over the toys. Whats worse afterwards these HasTak toys can no longer transform back & forth. Without ofcause spending more hours taking aparts the toys and removing all the 3rd party combiner add ons gear.

Honestly, don't like the HasTak FOC Combaticons toys. I had the SDCC & Platinum versions. I got rid of them both because the toys in all modes had so many QC and ugly sculpting issues. All the color variations were all equally terrible. With the Takara colors being the least ugly.

Buying 3rd party combiner add on parts for terrible FOC Combaticons HasTak toys is not something I am willing to do. It's literally dressing up terrible molds but not fixing the bulk of the problems. At least the Energon Five men teams combiners were worth buying 3rd party add ons for. As the Energon Five Men Combiners had next to none QC issues,More exspensive beautiful sculpts and superior engineeing and combiner tech.

Tsutsukakushi wrote:But, The whole purpose of 3rd party add ons parts for HasTaks combiners is to add some height to the Gestalt mode. Don't see the point in buying these as they add no height.

i dont recall any of the complaints about this bruti involving height. it was... all those other things... which this set solves...

and you think the energon combiners were beautiful?

Tsutsukakushi wrote:But, The whole purpose of 3rd party add ons parts for HasTaks combiners is to add some height to the Gestalt mode. Don't see the point in buying these as they add no height. Whats the point in spending the 3rd party big money if its still vastly smaller in height compared to the TFC combiners.

While it's not a large change, the Boosticus set does actually provide a lift in height. So, you are incorrect about that. And TFC combiners are ridiculously too large. Almost lampoonish and cartoonish in their design.

Tsutsukakushi wrote:Also don't like that the HasTak toys need to be taken apart to the extreme. Just to spend a few hours placing these 3rd party combiners gear all over the toys. Whats worse afterwards these HasTak toys can no longer transform back & forth. Without ofcause spending more hours taking aparts the toys and removing all the 3rd party combiner add ons gear.

You have the wrong set in question. This thread is about the Boosticus set from XTransbots/EchoTF. You're thinking of the other one from Microblaze Productions, which does require disassembly of the figures. It's posts like this that derail threads and cause confusion.

Tsutsukakushi wrote:Honestly, don't like the HasTak FOC Combaticons toys. I had the SDCC & Platinum versions. I got rid of them both because the toys in all modes had so many QC and ugly sculpting issues. All the color variations were all equally terrible. With the Takara colors being the least ugly.

So, you didn't like the molds, right? Why would you buy more than one of the set? Not a criticism, I'm honestly asking. I just cannot imagine buying more than one of an item that makes me cringe.

Tsutsukakushi wrote:Buying 3rd party combiner add on parts for terrible FOC Combaticons HasTak toys is not something I am willing to do. It's literally dressing up terrible molds but not fixing the bulk of the problems. At least the Energon Five men teams combiners were worth buying 3rd party add ons for. As the Energon Five Men Combiners had next to none QC issues,More exspensive beautiful sculpts and superior engineeing and combiner tech.

Wait, wait, wait. What?

You are entitled to your opinion on the FOC molds. While I don't agree and I happen to like them, I can agree that they have some flaws. However, they're not terrible molds. I've seen far worse come out of Hasbro. FOC Jazz for example. He's a painted egg shell. Or those horrible garden gnome looking things that they have for sale right now. (Those haunt my dreams.)

The Energon Combiners are a horrible mess. FansProject's Bruticus (Colossus) is truly the only Energon add on set worth buying. Their Superion set helps, but doesn't fix the flaws that Hasbro created by making the limbs clones of each other. Technically, they're THREE original molds, with duplicates filling in the gaps. Yay... At least the FOC set has 5 original, individual molds.

No QC issues, eh? Okay. Uh, how about design flaws that should've been checked? Such as combiner ports that wear out just by using them as they're intended.

Expensive, beautiful sculpts? Wait. What? Silverbolt looks doofy and his chest won't stay closed, plus that massive HOLE in his torso. Whatever the heck they call the Constructicon main guy is possibly the strongest looking of them all, but his articulation is hindered by that giant and stupid scoop on his shoulder. Oh and Onslaught? His backpack is so large he can barely stand. and his head looks ridiculous. And they were all $10.00 a piece. So...what's expensive and beautiful about them?

Superior engineering? Um. Huh.
Superior combiner tech? Um. Whu...?

I'm sorry... I can't take this last part seriously. Their translucent feet/hand weapon pieces crack like all translucent plastics, they don't look like hands (except Bruticus, he's the closest to it), they look horrible on Superion, they're somewhat passable on Devastator. The limbs having to alternate because their ridiculous kibble slams into one another, and it kills articulation because you can't pose 'em without them wanting to collapse. Especially Superion. His chest pops open and his torso folds forward because of the weight of the arms. You can like them, that's fine, but the facts are against you, so please post this stuff as an opinion piece, not as fact.