BrAwL WaNtZ mOre ScReEn TiMe!

Boom! That's all she wrote... Brawl comes off as a shoot now, ask later character, and the persona translates well into the toy. You get a very scary looking tank, a very intimidating, and scowling robot mode. The only problem is brawl has to pull this off at only a fraction of his size! Brawl is batched with the Deluxe group of transformers, meaning he is sized accordingly. Actually he is even slightly shorter than Jazz and Bumblebee, where in the movie he absolutely towered over the Autobots!

Beware a walking destroyer comes... in a very compact but terrible size!

His tank form is well conceived in my opinion, no visible robot kibble can be discerned from the top view. The bottom view really only shows the thighs and legs. So overall there is very little to detract from the overall presentation. His tank form is armed to the tooth, there is a primary cannon that fires a clear red plastic missile molded into what appears to be an energy blast. Above the primary cannon is a secondary turret that freely rotates independent of the primary cannons rotation. Then amidst the twin mounted secondary cannon are two missile mounts that grace the side of the secondary turret, there are on ball joints giving them an independent array of motion all their own. It would be wishful thinking to ask for actual tank treads on a Deluxe class, so instead, we are given 4 small wheels that constitute his movement ability... 0_o

Brawls' tank form

Brawls' transformation process isn't all that involved. In fact it would have been down right easy except for a small yet annoying snag. That's for later though. The main reason there isn't much kibble on brawl is that his turret actually hides the arms. This leaves space for the actual tank form to be completely envisioned without any extra parts hindering or detracting from its overall presentation. His conversion is a simple matter of lifting the turret from its place and moving the front tank panels and moving them to the rear. His auto morph feature involves the front half of the tank and treads (which is actually pretty neat). If you push that particular section down, his head will pop up as well as move the tank treads to either side of his head. At this point he's almost fully formed, you can actually stand him up at this point (just tuck his feet and ankles out first), and you see him semi transformed.

Brawls' arms under his turret

Brawl semi transformed and dragging his arms... All that's really left is to move the arms outside the turret and combine the arms with the torso.

Here is Brawl on the brink of complete transformation, if you look closely I've managed to attach (as pathetic an attachment that it could be) one of brawls arms to his torso. I intentionally left the other arm dangling so that you can see that there is a small tab that supposed to connect to the torso and link up the arms and hold them in place (in a perfect world, on earth we can only hope for the best). They do NOT however do this for my particular Brawl... (insert dismay)

Brawl almost transformed... Curses that infernal tab and slot joint!

Here is the offensive tab and slot joint up close... If the tab connects, but doesn't hold this will make brawl very flimsy... (insert more dismay with weeping)

If you are able to overcome the entire hullabaloo with the arms all that's left is to rotate the secondary turret so that it faces upwards and slide the missile holders onto the sides of Brawls' body after all that, you finally get a fully transformed brawl. His robot form is actually well executed also, just neglect the size issues.

Fully transformed Brawl... Notice the flimsy arm joints (insert infinite sadness here)

Brawls' very wide back

Final impressions are that Brawl has a nicely done vehicle mode, a VERY ambitious but still clever transformation that was poorly executed on my particular Brawl, but if you are able to get over this very annoying slip up, he is still a very pretty transformer! I still like him, and I hear good things about nail polish that may solve my particular dilemma, so all in all I still suggest TF collectors out there to pick him up...

Unless of course you have space (and the cash) for the leader class Brawl! I doubt there will be any flimsiness there!

Leader class Brawl! Whee, no size issues here!

Brawls face up close... Only a mother could love... The face of destruction, and the master of flimsiness!