Name: Brushguard
Series: Cybertron
Allegiance: Decepticon
Function: Xenobotanist
Alternate Mode: 4x4
4x4 MODE
Height: 5.5cm Length: 9.5cm Width: 5cm
A pale blue off-road vehicle with big indigo tyres, silver windows and yellow lights at the front and on the roof here and there. Brushguard is a proper off-road four wheel drive, with not a soccer mum to be seen. There's a smaller spare tyre on his roof and some grey above and below the windshield, with a silver mountain logo at the bottom corner of this grey section. The paint mask has been updated since this mould was used for Overhaul, which I appreciate. The blue and indigo theme works quite well, giving Brushguard a rather cold feel and a different feel to Overhaul.
For a toy with no axles, Brushguard rolls quite well. If you have the missile inserted, the transparent purple tail will hang out the back about an inch, looking vaguely out of place without being awful (and far less obvious than the red missile of Overhaul). You can insert his blue and silver Planet Key (code: s0u6) into the back of the truck, but it doesn't activate anything in this mode.
Quite detailed for a basic vehicle mode, Brushguard has a nightprowler feel about him, and a different Planet Key to boot, he's an Earth Planet vehicle. The tyres are _big_ in proportion, making Brushguard a rugged little scientist.
I do wish there were proper storage spots for the key and missile, but otherwise this is a solid little truck. The colour scheme is nifty, probably better than that off Overhaul, and it matches the cuteness of the vehicle.
TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE
Swing the door panels out and back, lifting out the rear wheels and arms as you go. Fold down the front of the truck to form his boots, flip out the feet. Pose his arms and legs, flip up the head from within the spare tyres and turn it around. If it wasn't in place, slide the missile into his chest until it clicks into place.
Brushguard has an unusual transformation, with some aspects that work (the novel way of hiding the head) and some that don't (the elbows). I personally like the innovation - sure beats another beast with limbs that become limbs.
ROBOT MODE
Height: 10.5cm Width: 11cm
The pale blue is still his main colour, with a lot more indigo this time around. The chest, arms, groin, thighs and feet are indigo, while he has little Wolverine-style purple claws on his knuckles. The chest has some yellow and white paint applications, while the shoulders have blue and white, with a tiny Decepticon symbol on the right shoulder. His face is white with transparent purple eyes and yellow antennae. The lightpipe works okay, although not as well as Overhaul's red one. There's a definite Minibot feel to this robot mode's shape, even if the colours make it pretty obvious that Brushguard is a Decepticon.
There's a lot of 4x4 here. The boots are the hood of the car while the windshield sits on his knees and giant kneecaps - you wouldn't want this guy kneeing you. The rear wheels sit on the back of his forearms and the doorpanels sit on the back of his shoulders, and while we're now seeing the insides, they're clearly car parts. It's a little shellformerish with those panels, but the boots are about a third of the vehicle so I'll stop short of calling him a shellformer.
There's some play value here. If you insert the planet key into the slot on his back, the missile will fire, and easily propel itself over a metre across a floor, which is impressive. By the way, the blurb on the card and online call this missile a heated acid burst (Hasbro's website rather dubiously claims he's a rhino). The head turns, the shoulders and hips are ball jointed, the elbows and knees hinged and the waist turns. The elbows are moulded into a permanently bent-inwards pose, which limits the arm poseability somewhat. The upside is that with large footprints and heavy boots, his legs are poseable and stable.
As much as I'd like more elbow movement, I'm more annoyed that there's no handheld weaponry - he has fist holes. OK, the missile is meant to be a blast of acid, but I'd still like to see it in his hand. It doesn't look like a ranged weapon ready to fire, and once it has been fired, there'll be a gap in his chest, so it's either play with him or pose him with only the claws for weapons.
Despite the elbows and weaponry shortcomings, this is a cute little robot. The bulk and car chunks really remind me of the G1 Minibots, a line I'm fond of. The leg poseability is good and the colour scheme works well. Not a toy to play with, but he is fun to pose and displays well.
VARIATIONS
None that I'm aware of, although he's a repaint of Overhaul. Movie Warpath also shares the mould.
OVERALL
A fun little toy in a Minibot kind of way, Brushguard's colours make him quite distinct from Overhaul, and work well in their own way. Both truck and robot modes both have great display value and while the arms are badly constructed, the transformation is novel and the leg poseability good. The play value could be better, but once he's posed Brushguard is quite nice - 7/10
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