Transformers Movie Toy Review: Brawl

As I've said in previous reviews, the Transformers movie is coming out on the 4^th of July and preceding its release there are many action figures being released of Transformers characters. One of them is Brawl.

Brawl transforms from an Abrams Tank into a giant robot. A really souped-up Abrams Tank that is! When in vehicle mode, Brawl has an additional turret on top of the normal turret of an Abrams Tank. In addition to that extra fire power, he has two rocket launchers mounted on top as well. He also has two claw-like attachments on the front of the tank when he is in vehicle mode. Because of these things, his vehicle mode is very good overall.

Brawl is supposedly in the Transformers movie, but as of this writing, no clips have yet to be released of him.

Transformed he looks like he's been made for one thing, and that is to destroy. Of course, Brawl is a Decepticon, so that fits the character perfectly.

In robot mode, he has the large cannon of the tank on one arm. It fires a plastic projectile from it. On the other arm is a claw reminiscent of Wolverine's claws from the X-Men. The rocket launchers, while he's in robot mode, are on the back of his shoulders.

There is very little paint application, but what paint application there is, is applied well. Brawl is mostly composed of green camouflage colored plastic. There is a little bit of black, silver and gold paint on him. His eyes are red tubes that run through his head, and if you set a light behind him, Brawl's eyes will glow. It's actually very creepy. I set him in front of my monitor and his eyes glow red from the light the monitor gives off.

Despite the fact that his vehicle mode is very good, his robot mode really isn't up to par. For starters, he's kind of bulky because of all the equipment he's composed of. I do like the overall design of him for the Transformers movie, but this toy version of him was a bit of a disappointment. It was truly a bad execution of the design. Also, his arms don't stay in place on their own, and because the arms hold his back, neither does his back stay in place. There are tabs on the back that can be folded down to hold the arms in place, although the instructions don't say so. In fact the instructions don't even show them used in this capacity. So unless you figure this out on your own, or perhaps from reading this, you may be really disappointed in this figure when the arms just won't stay in place. I was prepared to return Brawl to the store before I found the tabs because he just wouldn't stay together.

Because of its design flaws, I would only recommend this figure if you are into the military Decepticon line. The only truly good thing about him is the vehicle mode. I give him a 3 out of 5.