Some Thoughts About Universe Bruticus
(not a review)
Energon was a series that was released in between my two bouts of collecting, but like most collectors, I'm quite partial to combiners, so I've always wanted to acquire Energon Bruticus Maximus and Superion Maximus. I was very excited to hear that they were to be re-released under the Universe moniker, so I shelved my intention to acquire the Energon versions.
Thanks to STL and LCZ128, I acquired Bruticus on Friday... and I love him.
As is the case with many re-releases/re-paints, some of Hasbro's decisions attracted some ire and complaints, most notably the fact that Swindle was done as a Helicopter while Blast-Off was done as a tank. Also, many didn't like the vehicular colors and in TF08's fantastic photos, it appeared that the Energon extremities were of varying colors, drawing further disgruntlement.
Colors
Similarly, Hasbro's decision to make Powerglide a gray A10 with red highlights as opposed to a red A10 with gray highlights, drew the ire of many collectors. Hasbro defended the decision by stating that with the Universe line, realistic colors were of great importance and G1 tributes and homages were not going to trump this in every case. I think this decision is enforced with the colorings of these Combaticons. I find these Combaticons to be considerably more realistic looking color-wise than there Energon comrades. Here are some comparison photos (pardon my bad ones):
Swindle vs. Blast-Off
Although I can't recall where, I thought I had heard that the decision to swap the land vs. air styles of the two was partly based on the decision that Blast-Off was more suited to a tank (due to the word "Blast" than a helicopter which doesn't really blast off). While this made a slight bit of sense, this theory is either falsified or at the very least incomplete by the poor description of Blast-Off on the back of the box: "Arrogant Loner Astronaut".
I've since come up with another theory that perhaps this decision also lends itself to Hasbro's attempt to balance realism and tributes. G1 Blast-Off was brown and purple, and purple isn't a very realistic color for any of these vehicles. Swindle's helicopter alt mode is all pretty exposed in his robot mode, unlike Blast-Off the tank, which can hide its rich purple highlights in alt-mode, but nicely expose them in robot mode, thus providing tribute without sacrificing realism.
Regardless, this never bothered me. I welcome change as much if not more than tribute and it certainly doesn't detract from this great set.
Energon Weapons
When I saw TF08's photos, I thought that the photographer's lighting caused the slight descrepancy in colors of the Energon weapons. On personal inspection, the color difference is quite obvious, but it's not random and without thought. In what I think is a very nice touch, each limb's Energon weapon matches its light piping, it's Energon star hole, and in the case of the tanks, some other clear highlights and in the case of the helicopters, the cockpits. I think it's fantastic! It's extremely hard to capture in photos, but here's a couple tries:
Alt Mode Markings
An other thing worth pointing out is Hasbro's choice of paint-applied writing on each figure:
Onslaught: ON-SLT and C5 (a tip of the hat to his Takara team ID number) on his bonnet.
Swindle: A subtle blend between the character "S" and a dollar sign "$" on his side.
Blast-Off: "B" and "O" on each side of the tank fenders with a star on the bonnet.
Brawl: "1MJ9" ("BRWL" upside-down in calculator-speak)
Vortex: "V-1" on his roof
In my opinion, these are nice subtle touches that show me that Hasbro does "care".
Beyond all of that, I won't get further into a review except to say that I think these guys are all good individual figures and the combined mode is also quite good. The individual articulation on the limb figures is fantastic: ball joints at every joint and Onslaught has all the right joints in the right places, although he is a bit burdened with a backpack. On top of that, Bruticus is arguably the best modern combiner.
Brief Note: I can't be nearly as positive for Universe Superion. The colors aren't realistic at all. Luckily, I acquired Superlink Superion a week ago which I greatly prefer.
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Originally Posted by Stompy
