As I mentioned in Jazz’s post, in the Fall of Cybertron line everyone is tremendously more bulky in game form than they appear in toy form.
There’s a million and one real world reasons for this and in my opinion it’s fine in most cases. I find the bulging designs of most of the characters in the game to be too much, I like the slimmer look of the toys. However, nowhere is this difference more apparent than the default combined mode for Fall of Cybertron Bruticus.
One arm longer than the other, his top is spindly, gangly, lanky, awkward; whichever word you choose. He takes the weight loss paradigm a little too far and definitely doesn’t have the impact his game incarnation has.
With the proportions reversed, using Swindle and Brawl for arms with Vortex and Blast Off as legs, things don’t any better.
Also, despite being a Scramble City style combiner, there really is a kind of default with Vortex and Blast Off as arms.
Fortunately you don’t have to do the default transformation for Vortex and Blast-Off. Unfortunately this lead me to an even bigger disappointment.
One of the best parts about this incarnation of Bruticus is that he has actual hands; unlike a majority of modern combiners, …
Not just hands, but each one has the ability to be either a right or a left arm, meaning each one has right and left hands — some by simply rotating the thumb piece around to the appropriate angle, some just have two full, separate hands. Though Brawl gets the award for worst, the best hands are actually on Swindle. Vortex’s karate chop/salute hand really annoys me.
From left to right (and worst to best): Brawl, Vortex, Blast Off, and Swindle
So, how to use the best hands when they are both on the guy that is best used as a leg?
Step one, easily extract said hands by removing two screws and sliding them off their bars with Swindle none the worse for wear. Steps two through done; cut some dowel rods, make alternate transformations for Blast Off and Vortex, attach the hands, and voila.
The best hands in the set with a transformation that makes Bruticus a little less lanky.
Any other potential flaws are inconsequential enough that this alone moves these guys from “pretty ok” to “freaking awesome”. Also, falling in the “freaking awesome” category is the packaging for the exclusive G2 themed set.
Adorned with G2 Decepticon symbols and completed with painstakingly accurate original-style box art, the box itself is a masterpiece.
The lettering, the colours, the “Clip and Save!” Bio and Tech Specs, all perfect. One thing the package doesn’t do, is make one mention of Fall of Cybertron.
Why is this important?
Well, fictionally, it means there is no actual tie between this incarnation of Bruticus and the one from the videogame. Yes, the videogame has downloadable content to use the G2 coloration, but it also has a G1 Optimus Prime skin you can use.
So, why should you care?
You shouldn’t. Unless you run the TFWiki, in which case you then have to include the retail, SDCC, and TakaraTomy releases under “Fall of Cybertron” but include the G2-themed release under G1.
I’m still only including these guys on my War for Cybertron/Fall of Cybertron display. Continuity gives me nosebleeds.
'Til All Are Mine 
That packaging really *is* freaking awesome. Captured the G2-style in a way that I wish the Botcon’s boxart had. Scale-aside, they’re not in any way compatible combiner-wise with the Fansproject limbs, right? Just wanted to be sure. Looking forward to tracking down at least *some* version of these molds!
Actually, scale-wise, they don’t seem that far off in their limb modes. However, the connector types are different (the male connectors on the FoC are larger and square), so combiner-wise they’re incompatible. http://tinyurl.com/a86p4n7
Ah-ha! Am attached to FansProject Munitioner as Swindle that I was hoping a mix-and-match would be possible. Thanks for that pic!
Do you think you could give some more in depth instructions on how to replace the hands?
Because it looks epic, and I really want to be able to swap them.
So, I gave this a try, but wasn’t successful. My technique, as it were, was less step-by-step and more “keeping folding things until they looked good and there was a place to wedge the dowel rod securely”.
Meh; I like FOC Bruticus as is but the G2 scheme does look good on him. I personally quite like Brawl as an arm for two reasons: one his arm can rotate with the hand pointed normally unlike Swindle and Blastoff who have the “gorilla arms” and two is because you can stick Vortex’s knives on Brawl’s hand which looks cool. The way you have it in the picture is a bit awkward. I can’t remember how it’s supposed to go but I know Brawl’s arms go differently and you can then ratchet him down a bit and it doesn’t look nearly as disproportionate. Overall I prefer Brawl and Vorex as arms though Blastoff is absolutely atrocious as a leg.