FansProject's Crossfire 2: Bruticus Upgrade

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I won't go into much detail on the Crossfire 2 set as enough has been said and discussed about it. However I will say that the hype is justified as the set is freaking AWESOME! The improvement from the base mold is immeasurable as you can see in the pics bellow.

Munitioner and Explorer are very nifty figures even if not at the same complexity level as Defender. However they are extremely well executed and although their plastic quality seems a little less than previous FansProject products, they are still miles ahead of any Hasbro/Takara figures.

Most of the accessories for the individual bots fit superbly and several of them have a transforming aspect with different configurations at an individual bot level. In Gestalt mode they either combine or transform into larger weapons or parts for Bruticus such as joints and waist plate. Unlike the Crossfire1 accessories, these fit more naturally to individual figures as they do look like proper weapons rather than makeshift accessories from combiner kibble. The accessories also effectively upgrade the vehicle modes, specially Onslaught and Vortex.

Bruticus also gains new shoulder joints which allow for much greater shoulder movement as well as better upper body proportions.

I will however point out some of the Cons of the design so that I don't sound like a raving Fanboy lunatic

- Onslaught's missile pods do not stay securely and severely limit articulation.
- Bruticus waist piece is a little easy to pop off (although I could be putting it in wrong)
- Explorer's shuttle nose is fairly thin on plastic given it's mass and it seems that during factory assembly mine developed a couple of tiny stress marks.
- Explorer has no landing gears as such but it's ability to mount up on Onslaught's launch platform makes up for it.

The Control: Bruticus as displayed before the upgrade.



Comparison between Energon and G1 Bruticus (Scale Control)



Xfire 2a & Xfire2b boxes front/back



Combaticons in Vehicle Mode: Surprisingly, Onslaught's new flatbed truck is actually pretty solid



Combaticons in Robot Mode



Onslaught in Launch Platform mode



Onslaught with an alternate (not as instructed) and more G1 configuration



Comparison with G1 Bruticus



Bruticus with Rifle and Combat knife



Bruticus weilding his dual shotguns