As with the first film's figures, the Revenge of the Fallen toyline was padded out by various toys based on vehicles featured in the movie even if they were non-transforming. There didn't seem to be as many for the sequel, and some of them (such as Seaspray) were held over to the 2010 line anyway. One that did make it out as part of Revenge of the Fallen was the Autobot Deluxe Brawn.

Brawn's vehicle mode is based on the armoured Hummer 4x4 vehicles used by NEST in the film, and looks not a million miles away from the design used for the Deluxe version of Ratchet. As armoured cars go it's not bad looking - certainly a step up from the dune buggies Sector 7 were lumbered with in the first movie at least.

He's rather an odd tone of brown, and typical of Revenge of the Fallen line, quite sparsely detailed - there are NEST logos and vehicle lights, but that's about it and the bulk of the vehicle is just expanses of browny-green plastic. It might be semi-realistic, but it doesn't make for a particularly exciting look - a camouflage pattern would have greatly increased the look. It's doubly a shame as Brawn's nicely made - lots of moulded detail is lost in the flat tone of the plastic. The gun can only move in an upwards arc too - something of a step back from the flexible mount used on Brawn's spiritual predecessor Landmine.

While some movie toys have verged on being shellformers, Brawn goes all the way. You crack open the armoured car like an egg, fold all the major pieces away onto his back and are left with a protoform-like robot in gold and green with a bunch of armoured car parts on his back. From dead-on front aside from the wheels and truck grille on his knees there's very little sign of what he turns into, never an aesthetic I've been that fond of. Like most toys of this particular type, transformation is very easy once you work out where to start cracking, and the sequence has very few surprises.

There are some points on offer for the design, though. The robot does a respectable job of evoking the original Brawn without looking much like him, with the head cast looking like the original Minibot face ran through ILM's computers. Indeed, Brawn is one of those guys it's quite easy to picture in CGI, forward-rolling past a tank in a desert and firing a grenade launcher. He's got a monkey-like gait which is also quite fitting. Brawn also has a neat pair of pistols which can be removed from the fists and clipped onto his back if needs be (they're stored deep inside his vehicle mode, and in the figure's hands by default in robot mode), while the vehicle's cannon can flip up and be positioned above the robot's head. Add in an excellent range of articulation and he's rather good fun even if he isn't the best-looking robot out there.

Anyone hoping for a backdoor Classics Brawn in the manner of Bludgeon will be disappointed, as he's very much a Movieverse toy. Personal appreciation will depend very much on your appreciation of this aesthetic, and while he's a little bit too much of a shellformer for my tastes, he is pretty good fun to play with.

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