The Energon Pub

[Banjo-Tron]

Hi guys, you can see my review of my 'Classicsverse' Brawn stand-in below, and the rest of my stuff at http://teletraan2.blogspot.com/ Enjoy...

Figure Details

Manufacturer - Hasbro
Toyline - Revenge Of The Fallen

Additions/Mods:
- Added large Autobot symbols to the doors (covering the tampographed symbols)
- Added Autobot symbols to the shoulders (covering the grey tampographed ones)

Review

Appearance (Robot Mode) 6/10
Brawn was hard as nails, until he inexplicably died like a massive wimp in the animated Movie. Despite this, he really deserves a good figure, but until he has one, I feel that ROTF Brawn is the best option, especially as I picked him up for £6.50. I prefer this figure to my last stand-in (Firetrap), but there is a lot of kibble hanging off of his back and shoulders and his arms are extremely long, and his hands connect to his forearms at a slightly funny angle, so they seem to point down a bit. His head is somewhat reminiscent of the old Brawn, as is the colour scheme.

Appearance (Alternate Mode) 7/10
Brawn should be green in his alt mode, but this is an olive brown. Actually, I quite like this colour scheme, and this mould sits really nicely with the other 'classicsverse' cars. Spiritually, this feels very Brawn-like and is actually a very nice alt mode indeed, with chunky tyres and lots of great detailing. A good point about the figure being a deluxe-class is that you don't have to have an inexplicably tiny 4x4 being dwarfed by someone like Prowl.



Transformation 7/10
There is a fair bit of shellforming going on here, but the transformation is actually very satisfying. You would never guess how the arms are incorporated into the alt mode either - shame they are so damn long.

Poseability 8/10
This figure has fabulous articulation, until you get to his arms, which have no bicep swivel - making the upper body poses limited. However, his arms bend at the elbow over 2 joints, so he can fold his arm as if he were doing a bicep curl. His head/neck is on a ball joint and can pitch back and forth.



Durability 9/10
This mould feels really solid, I have no real compaints here. All the joints feel tight, and it doesn't feel like any undue stress is applied during posing of transformation.

Overall - 37/50
Well, I suppose this figure could be a lot worse. I actually quite like him. Aesthetically, he doesn't really look great with the more cartoonish figures, such as Hound. But what is the alternative? Legends class Brawn is tiny, and has rubbish legends-class articulation. Scout class, iGear's 'Hench' might turn out well, or you could get hold of Firetrap, but, to be unnecessarily dramatic, the designer of that toy should be shot. Even for a Movieverse figure Firetrap has unforgivably long arms, and the rest of him isn't much better. At least, now that I have this pretty decent version of Brawn I can consign Firetrap to the great void (eBay).