Swindle robot chest does face forward on G1 Bruticus as do the legs on Piranacon

 

SHOCKWAVE is his Legends counterpart, thank you as I have been racking my brain trying to discover which one paired with Bruticus. Shockwave was the last one I expected as he technically never leaves Cybertron and my FOC ver. is still an awesome figure. I will definitely give him another look as a Bruticus Accessory.

Superion: Powerglide
Menasor: Blackjack
Defensor: Groove
Optimus Maximus: Rodimus (IMO not Hotrod, his tiny relative lol)
Bruticus: Shockwave
SkyReign: Wreckgar
Victorion: RustDust

Ahh ok, Swindle isn't your typical limb configuration so it threw me off. I did try flipping the CW version around but it didn't look right. I like how Hasbro has all the new CW limbs with their vehicle kibble facing forward, giving them some armored protection vs. chest facing forward and exposed.

 

I'm also a fan of the new configurations as well.

 

I really want to like this version of Bruticus. He was one of my absolute favorite characters from G1. I absolutely love the Defensor mold.

I really don't mind that Blast Off is fighter jet. Makes more sense with the aesthetics of the figure to have a jet rather than a space shuttle. Plus the Firefly/Quickslinger figure is one of my favorite Transformers molds.

But, I just can't get over the fact that Bruticus' combined mode head is black. It's just wrong to me. It's a great looking G1 Bruticus w/a G2 Bruticus head as far as I'm concerned. It looks way off. It's enough to make me avoid the figure when it comes time for me to buy it.

 

The wardog is awesome!

 

I am and always have been Autobot obsessed, especially Superion but now CW Bruticus is my absolute favorite. I don't care what color his head is, it is one of the sharpest head molds of the entire CW line up.

Bruticus does unfortunately suffer from the same hip ratchet issues as Defensor.... so he leans forward and sometimes falls over. I have already ordered the PE Hands & Feet upgrade kit and hope that makes a difference.

I have enjoyed the CW line-up from the start but Hasbro really nailed it with Bruticus.

 

They really don't help much. The best way to fix the leaning in Hot Spot and Onslaught, is to dismantle them and take out the springs for the ratchets and the little bits with the nubs. Then add in some future polish on to the hips from the inside and reassemble. You lose the ratcheting, but the friction is strong enough to hold the combined figure up.

 

So take apart the hips and do this,you mentioned this before in the HS and Defensor thread. Has it been successful for you? Got some pics?

 

What helped with my defensor is that I took HotSpot's hips apart by Taking the screw out of his thigh, then turning the circular ratchet joint 180 degrees. Doing this helped with defensor forward lean, but now hotspot has two visible forward facing screws on his thighs. Not a big deal since I primarily display his combined form.

 

of course, you can't recreate Devastator vs Bruticus, since Devastator is larger than all the Scramble City Style Gestalt now

for Bruticus' Rifle there's
-Mr Chaos method (DOTM Laserbeak guns, used by Blast Off, combined into a larger rifle)
-AOE Lockdown's rifle (which fits into the pegs)
-I haven't tried G1 Onslaught's rifle yet
-the back cannons combined like Defensor's

 

I do not have a complete bruticus yet but I have one of movie ironhide's gun waiting for him.

 

Despite being mostly remolds, Bruticus really is the best of the CW combiner teams. I see why they released him last – if he came out first, nobody would have bothered with any of the others. He's got the advantage of the Hot Spot torso mold – the best of the torsos, IMO – but with tweaks that allow for more custom transformations and thus a better look than Hot Spot has. The limb bots have a great variety of alt modes, and probably the best variety of transformation schemes: two with the feet at the front of the vehicle mode, two with the feet at the back; two that require a 180º waist rotation for transformation, two that don't; three where the bottom of the vehicle forms the chest, and one where the front does; one winged vehicle, one bladed vehicle, one wheeled vehicle, and one treaded vehicle. And so forth. And the colors coordinate really well; the earth tones blend nicely without being uniform like Devastator or crazy cartoon bright like Superion.

Point is, he's really nice.

I customized mine with back cannons from the CW Silverbolt/Cyclonus/Scattorshot mold, painted silver.

 

^I like the leg formation there a lot.

For everyone who has Bruticus, is the head black or dark gray?

 

It's all painted; I don't know the plastic colour underneath, but it's fantastic. The bulk of the head is the same dark gunmetal that's used on Swindle and Blast Off. Just in case you want some other comparisons, Brawl has a lightly lighter equivalent, Vortex doesn't have any, and Betatron's head is the same colour.

 

Nice,how did you get him to hold both blasters like that?

I wish someone would make a piece for the blasters to attach together and make one solid dual blaster.

 

They're pegged together like that. There's a rectangular depression in each gun just above the lateral 5mm peg that the other peg fits into. I have Defensor set up the same way.

 

Gotcha. I wish there was a better way to make them look more symmetrical and even with each other.

 

I kinda want to get him, but comparing him to my old Fansproject upgraded Energon Bruticus, I almost think my old guy looks better than the new... maybe I will still get him. Ah, who are we kidding? I will get him.

 

In combined mode I'd give them a tie only because the guns for FansProject are really really nice.

In robot and alt modes the combiner wars version wins for every character except for Onslaught's alt mode.