Brawl's alt mode is a hover-tank, and like most other "Fall of Cybertron" toys, it takes a few design liberties with the design of a tank. Unfortunately, in this case those design liberties are the downsides to this tank mode. There's a big square gap in the front of the tank, which you'd have to imagine Brawl getting stuck on things all the time as he's hovering forward; also, looking at it from a straight-on frontwards angle, you can see the black fists and back of the robot head because of this large gap, too. (The fists are the bigger offenders, being obvious from more angles and in different colors than the surrounding plastic.) The back half is also a bit incomplete; there's a similar gap in the middle (though not as big as the one in the front), though this is a bit easier for me to give Brawl a pass on since that's where his combiner port folds out of. Other than those two notables, this mode is pretty good; the turret looks nice, angular, and awesome, as a FoC toy should, and the way his little hand-held gun from robot mode fits into a hole in between his two main tank barrels to effectively form a third barrel is a pretty neat idea. I also love the illusion of treads on sides of the front half, though I wish this had been extended to the back half, as well. Brawl's main color is-- just as is the case within the video game-- green, though it's noticeably lighter on the toy than in the game. This is likely because the other mass-retail Combaticons have colors homaging Energon Bruticus Maximus, and instead of just homaging his game appearance, this color scheme primarily homages Energon Kickback's, who also happens to be primarily green. Still, a bit darker of a shade really would've helped him look better and less plain, particularly in this mode. There's a fair number of paint apps on the main body of the tank, such as the black treads, gunmetal gray rear thrusters, and a couple other random dark green and gunmetal gray paint apps, but his turret is utterly devoid of said paint apps, and it REALLY needs some with all the awesome mold detailing going on up there. (The main body of Brawl's tank mode, by comparison, is a bit sleeker and has less mold detailing on it.) There are no little wheels on this tank to roll it along; it just sits on a surface with Brawl's chest basically forming the bottom. (The turret can rotate, though, if you had any doubt, though it can't move up or down.)
    Brawl's transformation is pretty simple, mostly consisting of simply folding out his arms and legs and standing him up. The result looks admirably like the game model, keeping in mind that A. Brawl was in the prequel game to FoC, so his design likely was considered with even less of an emphasis on eventually making it into a toy than most of the other FoC Combaticons and B. the usual budget and combiner toy issues. His main body is definitely the best-looking part of him, with some nice crisp detailing on his stomach and waist (and some nice gunmetal gray-painted springs below his chest). His head sculpt is also pretty darned good, and the yellow on his visor really pops well; I wish it had been used as an accent color in a few other places. Unfortunately, he's got a bit of back kibble. The turret on the back is pretty much Brawl's thing so I won't ding him there, but his combiner peg piece and his rear thruster piece both just hang off the back of his butt unceremoniously and is distracting. His arms and legs are pretty serviceable, but they're definitely too skinny for a beefcake like Brawl, and thus don't give him the "oomph" visually that he's ideally supposed to have in this mode. His hollow lower legs also don't have heels, which is a surefire recipe for having a toy that can topple over backwards easily. For articulation, Brawl can move at the neck (though his head collapses back into his chest VERY easily, so I tend not to touch it much), shoulders (at three points), elbows, slightly at the wrists, and at the hips (at two points), knees, and slightly at the ankles. His arms are annoyingly hollow from many angles, though, and as mentioned before, his stablity isn't the best, so his articulation is a bit less than you'd think from that description, particularly when it comes to the lower legs.
    Brawl forms an arm or leg of Bruticus.
    FoC Brawl is decent in both modes, but he has enough issues (odd gaps in tank mode, some kibble and proportional problems in robot mode) that keeps him from being particularly great. About average for a FoC Combaticon mold; out of the various releases of this mold, this is the color scheme I like the least.

Review by Beastbot

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