TFv's SDCC Bruticus Review (with photos!)

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JediTricks
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TFv's SDCC Bruticus Review (with photos!)

Post by JediTricks »

Since we as a group never figured out a better look for our news, it's kind of hampered the way I was able to present this review (a lot of work went into making that page work as well as it does), but I am very happy with the content. The delays in finishing this review were significant, a family situation took up a majority of that time but shooting also took several days as well.

http://www.tfviews.com/news/toysandcollectibles/1390

Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy the pics and gain a greater understanding of the figure. Not quite everything I set out to do got achieved, but I think any fan could walk away from this review with a greater understanding of the figures in the set.

Thoughts?
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Re: TFv's SDCC Bruticus Review (with photos!)

Post by Dominic »

Solid review JT. No real suprises. But, it is good to get a solid accounting of what this toy is.

Cheetimus over at AllSpark apparently bought two sets, and customized one. His *really* looks like the game. (Mind you, we are talking about the "better" SDCC toy here...)

http://www.cheetimus.com/


It is too bad that Hasbro did not bother to give complete directions. (I am fine with "reverse order" instructions. But, based on JT's review, they could have tried a bit harder with the instructions for making the limbs.)


The fact that even the more game accurate colour scheme is so far off is enough to make me glad to have skipped this set.


Dom
-still happy to have the review though.
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Re: TFv's SDCC Bruticus Review (with photos!)

Post by JediTricks »

Thanks. I found it surprising that I liked pretty much every Combaticon more than I expected to (except Swindle, he's exactly what you see really) and Bruticus less. I found it odd that didn't give Bruticus a good weapon. :p

Those are very nice custom paint jobs, at this price that's probably what Hasbro should have delivered instead of mainline-quality paint jobs. $70 GI Joe Shockwave as HISS Tank had nicer than mainline paint, for example (though no wear and they did skimp in a few places).
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Re: TFv's SDCC Bruticus Review (with photos!)

Post by JediTricks »

I'm a little disappointed to see just 1 comment here. There are 254 photos in that review, yet not even a complaint about my using my white dining chair for the backdrop or anything. Just don't care, is that it? These 5 figures are the next 6 months or so of the brand, apparently, as Hasbro plans to release them twice into the mainline, one might think there'd be remote interest after the hours and hours we all spent discussing and even arguing about these molds in the past few months.
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Re: TFv's SDCC Bruticus Review (with photos!)

Post by Onslaught Six »

Hey, they're good pictures! I just...well, there's no way I'll be buying him at his inflated price, so it's the retail release I gotta worry about. Plus I have the G2 version preordered.

You guys already know I wasn't even very fond of the SDCC colour scheme anyway for a variety of reasons, so!

Also, even though you have the figure, I don't think any of us do, so it's...hard to do a comparative comment?
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Re: TFv's SDCC Bruticus Review (with photos!)

Post by Dominic »

I will probably have more to say once Lewis' Bruticus shows up in the mail.


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Re: TFv's SDCC Bruticus Review (with photos!)

Post by onslaught86 »

Oh look, it's totally not me coming out of nowhere to post something! Hi, guys. How've you been?
O6 linked me to the review when I found a gap in my currently insane work/study schedule - and considered this significant enough to talk about.

First up - fantastic gallery & commentary, I'd almost forgotten what it was like to read a review that went properly in-depth with niggles like joint placements and cost-cutting sprue-merges. Clearly I've been away too long! As you rightly note, this set of five figures represents a large chunk of the TF product for the best part of a year, with the Wreckers to come, and probably additional releases after that (Will be keeping a close eye out for Takara's take). The SDCC set has been a big ticket item on my radar for obvious reasons, but I could not justify the $300+ NZD that it would come out to on the secondary market, especially in light of the love that went into the G2 set - and the lower prices + cheap international shipping that Amazon's business models afford them. So I remain Bruticusless for now, and gaze at your photos with a mixture of envy and detachment, because it's probably the idea that I like more than the reality.

As you note, the colours are very drab, meaning that the reasoning behind livening them up a bit for retail holds some water. I'm still unsure why neither of those two versions went with a G1 scheme for Vortex, he seems awfully confusing between the red and the yellow. It's unfortunate that this set is so compromised in terms of component scale, wonky modes, ugly/hollow weapons, and most crucially, the official robot mode arm configuration. It still seems bizarre to me that Hasbro's clearly talented team can stand to see their work so unnecessarily butchered, be it in default configurations or shoddy, incomplete instructions.

I greatly appreciate your work with those alternate limb modes, this is easily the best documentation of those I've seen. Giant gorilla Blast-Off just doesn't look good, and neither does open-handed Vortex. I much prefer your alternate configuration for both (Aside from Blast-Off's absent hand - Is it possible to jam a gun in there somehow?). The Swindle/Brawl arms seem immediately aesthetically superior to that default configuration. There's something very Mecha about that Brawl arm, although the hands being different sizes is a bit of a turn-off. When some version of this set makes its way to me, I think I may try for Brawl & Blast-off as legs - those toes make all the difference - with Swindle & Vortex as arms. A shame about Swindle's top half not locking at all, made worse by his having more articulation than the others and better hand sculpts to boot. It will be interesting to see whether the bonus weapons included with the Wrecker set contribute towards the combined form in any meaningful fashion. I don't have high hopes, mind you, but added bulk and a few locking tabs could, it seems, make a big difference.

As you say, this set does not represent the monumental leap forward that the years of engineering experience between this product and the last proper combiners would lead one to conclude it should. Whether it's cost-cutting or the wrong features being sacrificed - regardless of it increasing retool & redeco potential, I think I would rather have seen the Scramble City gimmick scrapped in favour of the limbs being dedicated to one configuration. That would theoretically have allowed for the figures to perform better at those individual tasks, rather than poorly at many, and could even have allowed a few extra joints or grams of plastic to go Onslaught's way - he being the only one that does not have two combined modes, and the most compromised as a vehicle.

Perhaps it will be interesting to see if the third party manufacturers will produce anything to help extract the full potential from this set. Replacement hands, heads, and guns, add-on merge parts, stickers from Reprolabels, all would help. It brings me to the same conclusion about a gap in the market that I've come to many times before - Beyond the Masterpiece line, there are just too many compromises made to ambitious designs like this one to allow them to be profitable at mass market retail (And in the SDCC set's case, it feels a little more painful as there's a premium price, and they aren't really premium product). There's really no ideal solution to the problem. Collectors would surely eat up a properly premium giftset, yet economies of scale mean exclusives cannot have any additional tooling. High-end collectables have a flourishing home in the Japanese market, for sure, but Hasbro & Takara do not license the property to companies who would compete with them in that field, and those companies would not have the experience needed to tool the products properly - Hot Toys G.I. Joe makes sense, Hot Toys Transformers does not. Given how excellent some of the Masterpiece figures are, HasTak are clearly capable of performing for that audience themselves.

I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir, here - It's frustrating to be a fan of the property and see so many figures come so close, and fall crucially short. Even if this set isn't as excellent as it could have been, I still admire its ambition, and hope that it's successful at retail to allow for more along the same lines in the years to come.
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Re: TFv's SDCC Bruticus Review (with photos!)

Post by Dominic »

Awesome.
it's totally not me coming out of nowhere to post something! Hi, guys. How've you been?
And, you are totally bringing sexy back like it never left!
Clearly I've been away too long! As you rightly note, this set of five figures represents a large chunk of the TF product for the best part of a year, with the Wreckers to come, and probably additional releases after that (Will be keeping a close eye out for Takara's take).
This could blow up in Hasbro's face. Swindle and/or Onslaught could easily outsell the others, meaning that retailers could have 3 or 4 pieces from a five piece case sitting on shelves. This would be bad enough in and of itself. But, when those pieces are made even less appealling by the fact that they are complimented by the missing piece(s), it could lead to the kind of back-log caused by poor sales of wave 1 PCC figures. (And, the problem is even more easily predictable and avoidable.)

As a result, the Wreckers set could be delayed, only released in limited numbers, or possibly even cancelled. (We know that Hasbro is not above cancelling waves of toys after the debacle of 2010.)

but I could not justify the $300+ NZD that it would come out to on the secondary market
Yeah. For that kind of money, the toy needs to have fewer obvious flaws. It needs to be closer to the game's colours. It would be nice if the game's colours were better in and of themselves. And, the joint issues that JT mentions need to be less pronounced.
It still seems bizarre to me that Hasbro's clearly talented team can stand to see their work so unnecessarily butchered, be it in default configurations or shoddy, incomplete instructions.
Poor execution of the designs has been an issue for about 2 years now. In some cases, the designs themselves have been seriously flawed to begin with.

As you say, this set does not represent the monumental leap forward that the years of engineering experience between this product and the last proper combiners would lead one to conclude it should.
C'mon and say it.

It has been over 10 years ("10 years!") since Hasbro has released something resembling a competent merge-team. And, the RiD Trainbots were not only "old" moulding at the time, the initial research and design work was not even done by Hasbro.

That was followed by the back-wards stumble of the "Energon" teams, which were recoloured far more than they should have been. Hasbro was unjustifiably proud of toys that were carrying some of the worst elements from 2 decades before....nearly 10 years ago.

I managed to forgive them for PCC because the toys had high fiddle value and I was expecting better things to come.

Perhaps it will be interesting to see if the third party manufacturers will produce anything to help extract the full potential from this set.
That is likely. From what I have heard, the big thing now is third party Stunticons. Hasbro has been stomping that fire pretty hard of late. But, they have not figured out that the best way to deal with the third party companies is to actually meet the demand they are....and do a better job of it.

The half-assery of SDCC Bruticus (and the mould-related toys) is just going to leave third party companies with the same opportunities that they have been exploiting for years.
There's really no ideal solution to the problem. Collectors would surely eat up a properly premium giftset, yet economies of scale mean exclusives cannot have any additional tooling.
You have been out for a while.

Hasbro is half-assing stuff that they used to get right. Look at the FoC toys. They do not seem bad, until you realize that they are billed as Deluxes, which is supposed to be the most solid and reliable price-point in the line. I *almost* want that Prime. But, I cannot bring myself to reward bad behavior from Hasbro. Jazz is mal-porportioned enough to discourage me from buying my favourite character. Shockwave has obvious screws and rivets on the front of the damned toy. They would be passable Scouts, but are no acceptable as Deluxes.

Economics plays a role. But, Hasbro is also getting lazy because they are assuming that they can. (In the long-term, this will backfire on them. But, that is at least another year or two off.)
I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir, here - It's frustrating to be a fan of the property and see so many figures come so close, and fall crucially short
Yeah. But, I wanted to cut back on toys anyway this year. So, Hasbro is helping me with that.

There are a few things that appeal. But, even so, much of that is custom fodder.


Dom
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Re: TFv's SDCC Bruticus Review (with photos!)

Post by Shockwave »

I think you're being a little harsh on Shockwave. Yeah there's two screws on the front that probably should be on the back but I wouldn't really take points off or call it a half assed figure because of it. And the pins holding the arms together are no less offensive that any of the seekers or the Autobot cars from about the last 5-6 years.

I will agree on Jazz though, that chest just dominates the robot mode. Prime is also a pretty solid figure all around, my only complaint being that his head seems too small.
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Re: TFv's SDCC Bruticus Review (with photos!)

Post by Onslaught Six »

I need to stop reading other people's thoughts. Before I was cool; now I just notice the screws.

Also, I'd like him more if he didn't have the wings.
BWprowl wrote:The internet having this many different words to describe nerdy folks is akin to the whole eskimos/ice situation, I would presume.
People spend so much time worrying about whether a figure is "mint" or not that they never stop to consider other flavours.
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