Bot Reviews: Transformers: Studio Series 86 Deluxe Brawn

Something I never see anyone else talk about when they’re discussing the original G1 cartoon is that when it came to the character writing, there was very much a Generic Autobot Personality. For every unique Autobot character, like Jazz or Ironhide or Wheeljack, there was about three other Autobots where the writers either couldn’t figure out a unique personality, or didn’t care enough to. So, there was a kind of placeholder persona that big chunk of the cast had: A swaggering, cheerful, wisecracking, two-fisted adventurer, always ready with a quip, before socking a villain in the jaw. And Brawn was one of those.

He wore that personality the best, I think, mainly because his whole deal was he was a strong, punchy fighter, who spent a lot of screentime in the first two seasons doing just that. So it’s a shame that most people just flatten his whole existence into “he got shot in the shoulder in the Animated movie, and that somehow killed him. Or did it?”

No love for the time he got a multi-issue arc in the Marvel UK comics that involved him going berserk and beating up everyone, Autobots included.

As for this new version, because it happened to come out in the Studio Series 86 line, it’s marginally based on that tiny little cameo in the Animated movie, though, hopefully, people are picking him up for more than that. Me, I’m getting him because I sold his previous figure, the 2017 Titans Return Legend, some years ago during a collection purge, which is a shame in hindsight, because that was a very good figure.

So, while I don’t have it on me to compare directly, I do have fond memories, so it’s interesting to see how this one compares.

Robot Mode

Despite the fact that Brawn’s a Minibot, and current Transformers toys are all about scale, Brawn manages to not be too tiny. He’s smaller than a standard Deluxe, but not by a lot, and manages to be taller than Netflix Bumblebee.  He doesn’t feel instinctively undersized.

At a glance, Brawn looks very Sunbow accurate, including his odd domed Juggernaut-looking head, with a kind of gormless expression.

I don’t know that he’s much more accurate than the Titans Return one, though, his waist and feet sections are just kinda whatever.

Two things bug me about his proportions: His shoulders feel oddly low and withered, which feels like a bad move for a punchy brawler, and his backpack is also not great.

It’s just a chunk just hanging outside his body on a strut, with a panel at the bottom hanging down. It feels like it should fold up and in more. As for that tiny panel on the bottom, I folded it in, but it was a dicey operation, and I’m not sure I’m supposed to do that.

His colors are nicely accurate, though. On one of the Hasbro designer streams, the Transformers team talked about his specific shade of greenish brown being hard to nail, but they did it.

He’s also yellow, and different shades of silver/grey, with an Autobrand on the chest. He feels like he’s got a LOT of paint on him, with his whole head, yellow torso, and silver forearms all looking very glossy. It’s all on there nice and good though, with no QC issues.

Brawn’s construction and handfeel is pretty good, mostly. His shoulders are on struts that feel like they want to come out of place, but you just need to make sure they’re actually pegged in. And, of course, his backpack is still out there on a strut and not locked in, but at least the joint is tight.

Brawn’s got the usual solid articulation. His leg poseability is particularly impressive considering they split down the middle for transformation.

He’s got all the right swivels and joints, though his wrists only dip, not swivel, due to his transformation. It can feel a bit awkward to pose him with his bulbous torso, but you can make him do plenty of punchy poses.

Brawn’s head articulation is odd. Basically, you outright can’t move his neck thanks to the big panel behind it. Instead, there’s a workaround, where  you flip down his torso, twist his head, and then put it back in place, which feels like a bad design choice.

Like, I get that he’s got a panel behind his head that has to be there for Cartoon Accuracy, but this wasn’t a problem on the Titans Return one. That, and the fact that his torso also doesn’t actually peg in, it’s just on a friction joint, doesn’t feel great.

Did Brawn ever use a gun on the show? Probably. I just remember him being a brawler, though. But he comes with a generic black pistol, of the type a lot of Sunbow Autobots had. He can hold it well enough, or you can clip it onto the spare tire on the backpack.

Brawn’s also missing much in the way of 5 millimeter ports, though he’s got two on the bottoms of his feet.

You can also pop off the spare tire on his backpack, though it can’t really do much. He can hold it, though.

He can’t do anything else, there’s a severe lack of features on him, and that includes blast effect ports. In an earlier photo, I was able to wedge one onto his shoulder via a transformation peg, but it was very much not intended. He feels kinda featureless, really.

Transformation

Okay, Brawn’s transformation is a pretty fun highlight of this guy. Those telescoping legs? They split, unfold, and wrap around his body.

The panel behind his head flipping to reveal the grill is neat, too. You don’t think it has clearance, and then it does.

It can be a challenge figuring out all of the little ways things fold together, but there’s tabs everywhere for guidance.

Jeep Mode

A good thing about Brawn’s original alternate mode was that it was already a made-up model in G1, so no futzing to get around licenses was required this time.

Brawn’s big, armored offroad Jeep comes across as wider and more massive than the show design, or other toys of him. I’m not complaining, it’s a good look. He’s small, but feels big and massive. I think it’s the tiny wheels.

He looks good! He’s a bit gappy around the doors, and his back bumper has a gap where it ought to be, but it overall looks fine.

Brawn’s colors are now nearly entirely olive, with only a tiny bit of yellow, on the bumper, as well as silver. His wheel rims are painted too! Plus, he’s got a new Autobrand on the front. His windows are not clear, but are painted light blue, which is my preference on how to handle them, actually. The big problem is the back window isn’t painted. Maybe I could marker over it if I had a light blue Gundam paint pen.

If everything is tabbed in, he holds together very solidly.

He rolls nicely too. You can mount the gun uptop for features, and that’s about it.

Overall

Y’know, to be perfectly real, I don’t think I like this guy very much.

He’s got a lot of little problems to him, like his awkward backpack, his blocked head articulation, his scrawny arms, and his general lack of features. But I’ll admit, he’s still a technically proficient Transformer. He’s got a good transformation, he poses well, all that stuff. I think my problem’s something deeper.

Generally, I’m not fond of the trend in some toylines (Star Wars comes to mind) of consistently releasing new, marginal improvements on the same designs, and while Transformers has historically avoided that, the G1-oriented side of Transformers feels like it’s been doing that lately. And this is a really egregious case of that. This doesn’t do much that the 2017 Legend didn’t do. It’s a little bigger, a little more poseable, about the same for show accuracy. But also, it feels like it does it with no style? This is a very bland, “checks the bullet points off” type of update, and I don’t remember the older one feeling like that. This feels like Studio Series 86 Jazz and Scourge both did, and I wonder how endemic this is to Studio Series’s approach versus Legacy’s approach. You’d think they’d be the same, and yet.

So, I don’t know. He’s not bad, but he’s curiously empty-feeling. Honestly, I’d recommend that you just  track down the old Titans Return Legend. You can probably get it for cheaper, and it’s just as good, maybe better thanks to having more soul to it. And if you already have that one? Don’t bother with this, you’re good. You know who did have sauce? The Bumblebee Movie version. Get that one if you want a newish Brawn.

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