Maybe calling Fall of Cybertron Bruticus a “turkey” is a little harsh because Hasbro’s heart was definitely in the right place when they released this set. This was Hasbro’s first foray into the combiner world since the Energon combiners, and, for the most part, they did what fans had been requesting for some time. Hasbro released the full set of Combaticons across a single wave of Generations figures, which meant a total of five deluxe-class figures that could combine to form Bruticus. We even got multiple versions of the set — this particular version comes from the “Platinum” box set with Fall of Cybertron Grimlock. But while Hasbro’s intentions were nothing but noble here, the final product was… something else.
Honestly, Bruticus here isn’t all that bad a combiner; however, the 3rd party “transforming-robot world” had already been releasing combiners that were downright amazing, so Bruticus felt like too little too late, and this only heightened our awareness of the figure’s shortcomings.
The head sculpt is great and works well as an updated Bruticus. From the neck down, though, Bruticus is an oddly proportioned mess, and this is made all the more evident when comparing him to Fansproject’s upgrade of Hasbro’s reissued Energon Bruticus (comparison pic can be seen below). Fansproject’s effort came out first and was absolutely fantastic for its time, so unless you were a glutton for punishment, which I apparently am, there was really no need for this newer Hasbro effort. Well, it could be argued that these two figures represent two very different versions of the character because, well, they do, so that made owning this version seem a bit more reasonable, and it wasn’t long before the 3rd-party world swooped in on this set, offering upgrades or complete replacement figures to help this set more closely resemble its video game counterpart.
Once fully combined, Bruticus did leave a little to be desired. Due to the odd proportions, he’s difficult to pose in anything but a standard vanilla pose, so he’s not the most exciting presence in a display.
The individual Combaticons did not fare much better and came loaded with soft joints, weird articulation schemes, and, in some cases, very half-assed alt modes. None of these are really worth owning on their own merits, so it was really the combiner gimmick that sold them to fans and collectors.
While this set did fall short of our hopes, it provided Hasbro with the foundation to move forward with the combiner platform. Bruticus evidently sold well enough to encourage Hasbro to go full-bore with the concept in 2015, and what they’ve got cooking looks to be miles beyond their tentative first steps here. So I guess you could call this their “learning curve”? That’s what really makes this set a “turkey” in my eyes; it’s main purpose was to test the waters and see if this concept was viable at retail. Fortunately, Bruticus, with all his shortcomings, basically revived the combiner platform.
This set is still available at Toys R Us, should you want to judge it for yourself.