Dune Runner is a military-style dune buggy. I think I passed on him before because he reminded me so much of that Deluxe class dune buggy that was released at the tail end of the first movie line. If I wasn’t motivated enough to get that guy, why buy this one? I want to say his name was Armorhide, but some of this movie stuff is just a big blurr to me. Either way, Dune Runner’s vehicle form looks like a cross between something out of GI JOE and Halo. But, like all of ROTF’s Scout classes, he’s packaged in robot form, so we’ll start there.

Dune Runner has a pretty nice, complex and, super detailed robot form for a Scout Class figure. In fact, I think this guy could have been upscaled to a Deluxe and he would have gotten by just fine without any additional work. He has a nice clean, humanoid profile with the front of the vehicle becoming his feet, the roof forming his chest plate and the sides forming his arms. He has a slender gatling guns mounted on each shoulder and they’re mounted on double hinged arms so you can aim them all over the place. I absolutely love his little head sculpt. Its a great mix of classic and new design, complete with a blue visor for eyes and a cool helmet. The head seems like a Beachcomber homage. I don’t know if that was intentional, but it certainly fits since they’re both dune buggies.

I really dig the coloring on this figure too. The buggy parts are all green, his inner parts and limbs are black and he’s got some pale blue, metalic blue, silver, gold and yellow trim. There’s just a ton of color on this figure, albeit mostly subdued military tones. He has military style ID numbers painted on his doors, a silver Autobot symbol on his chest and a NEST insignia. You know how a lot of times Hasbro will release preview photos of figures with all sorts of great paint apps that are ultimately cut from the final release to save cost? (*cough* Long Haul *cough*) Well, Dune Runner looks like all the initial paintwork was kept in for the final release.

Articulation includes balljointed neck, shoulders and upper legs, double-hinged elbows and hinged knees, and as I already mentioned those arms that hold his gatling guns have three friggin points of articulation allowing for all sorts of great firing positions. Dune Runner can just as easily target Decepticons in the air as he can on the ground in front of him.

His transformation is pretty straightforward, although his dune buggy mode isn’t entirely solid. Sometimes, I do have some trouble getting the doors locked in tight and other times it all comes together just fine. The detail and paint apps in his buggy mode are just as amazing as his robot mode. There are spotlights molded on the front bumper and above the windshield, tiny rivets everywhere and the gatling guns on the back are still poseable in lots of positions. Hasbro has even detailed it with molded shocks on the front and back wheels and tiny vents and exhaust pipes on the back. It’s incredible work for such a tiny vehicle.

It just goes to show you, you never really know about a toy until you have it in your hand. I passed on this guy lots of times, and now that I own it, I have to say he’s probably the best Scout that Hasbro has turned out in years. I’m almost tempted to say he’s wasted on this small scale, but then there’s something so impressive about having a Scout class figure with this much detail, paint quality and articulation. Being a Scout also probably puts him in better scale with the Deluxe cars. If I was still a kid, I’d probably have this figure in my pocket all the time, he’s just that much fun. Great job on this one, Hasbro!

Like Brawn, Dirge is a deluxe figure that is part of the Revenge of the Fallen line, but not really a character from the movie. Maybe he was in the game, I don’t know, but he’s obviously a fanwank back to the original G1 character in more ways then his name.

In jet mode, Dirge is a harrier jump jet and a pretty good sculpt. There’s robot kibble a plenty underneath, but from the top he looks really good. I’ve always been fascinated by this aircraft design ever since I was a kid, so straightaway, Dirge is scoring some major points. The panels in his fuselage are nicely sculpted, the clear canopy actually opens to reveal a tiny molded seat, the landing gear retract and he’s got a big honkin missile launcher under each wing, which are pretty reminiscent of the ones on the original three G1 Seekers (although, ironically, the original Dirge had long black guns instead of launchers so FAIL, Hasbro… FAIL!). The coloring is primarily dark blue with some gold trim on the wings, forward vents and missiles, and some silver trim around the cockpit. Dirge has a big black Decepticon logo stamped right on his back.

Dirge’s Transformation is a bit complex, but you should already expect that from the ROTF deluxes by now. Its definitely a unique transformation that results in a pretty unique robot form, but there are both good and bad ideas at play here. The worst two things about the figure’s robot mode are his right arm and the wings on his legs. The right arm is comprised of the cockpit and nosecone part of the aircraft. Its stubbier than his good arm and while it does have articulation, the nosecone interferes with the shoulder so that basically all it can really do is rotate up and down at the shoulder. It is, however, saved by the fact that you can mount one of his wing rocket launchers onto it and at least make it into a functional weapon. I’m a fan of symmetry in my robot modes, so this does throw off the figure’s aesthetics quite a bit. You can also mount his other launcher on his good arm, but it does interfere with articulation. It seems like you really can’t win.

The wings on his legs are just kibbly, and Hasbro obviously saw this because they designed them with double hinges in addition to the ability to rotate. The result is that you can come up with all different positions for them and choose the one you like best. The one I like best isn’t the one shown in the instructions, but it gets them out of the way and makes them look like armor plating rather than just bits of aircraft hanging off of him.

With those two issues out of the way, the rest of this figure has some good points. I absolutely love the sculpting on his chest and head. The center of his chest is made up of what looks like a diminished cockpit, but its obviously just a fake-out because, as already pointed out, the jet mode’s real cockpit is on his right arm. There are two gears on his chest that make up his “mech-alive” feature, which rotate when his arms move up and down. The head sculpt is detailed and very much in line with the movie style faces, although it reminds me the most of the Armada Thrust figure. He does still have a conehead and the two shoulder cowls from his original G1 namesake are present. All in all, considering how bad the other Deluxe movie jets have been, Dirge is at least a step up. Now, onto Wheelie!

I don’t have nearly as much to say about Wheelie. I skipped his deluxe version because I just thought it was ridiculous of Hasbro to make him in the same scale as figures like Bumblebee or Sideswipe because in the movie he was an RC off-road truck and just a few feet tall in robot mode. He’s much more suited to the smaller and simpler Legends class. I don’t usually collect the Legend’s class toys at all, mainly because they’ve gotten way too expensive. Don’t get me wrong, some of the toys are impressive for such a small scale, but paying five bucks for an oversimplified Matchbox-sized version of a figure when you can get the original deluxe for ten or twelve is just not my bag. And as much as I like Legends Wheelie, I still can’t help but be amazed I had to pay five bucks for this little thing.

His “vehicle” mode works well, because it looks simple and toyish. Its mostly blue with silver painted windows and it rolls along on its over-sized black wheels. There’s a fair amount of robot kibble visible in his truck mode, most notably his face staring out the back of the cab. Granted, since Wheelie’s face is a rather abstract, it isn’t so obvious unless you know to look for it. His transformation is easy, but pretty clever and despite how complex Wheelie’s character model is, this simple Legends class gets it down pretty darn well. In fact, the only complaint I have is I wish the arms shifted toward the front so that they would be more prominent. Apart from that I think Hasbro really nailed this one. If only it were priced at around $3.99 it would be a sure thing.

Brawn’s vehicle form is a military style pick-up truck. Keep in mind that the figures being released now are focusing on the NEST teams, that is to say the Autobots working with humans to hunt down Decepticons, and as such, Brawn’s alt mode really fits the bill perfectly. The truck’s body is brown with a little black and green trim and the windows and windshield are all clear. There is some excellent detailing on the mold and the seams are pretty well placed so as not to be too ugly or too obvious. Each side of the truck bears the NEST emblem, and there’s an articulated black machine gun mounted on the top. As an homage, to G1 Brawn, its not too obvious, but it is close enough. I think the colors are actually a little closer to G1 Outback, although granted he was a repaint of Brawn. Overall, the truck mode is solid and unless you pick it up and peak underneath, there’s no obvious signs of there being more than meets the eye here.

Transforming this guy isn’t too bad, but there are a lot of plates to move out of the way and a few double hinged pieces to deal with. His transformation is definitely unique and while he does have a fair amount of truck kibble, most of it gets tucked off to the back and out of the way. I do have a problem with his upper leg ball joints wanting to pop out during transformation. Its a big pet peeve of mine with these toys. It’s been an issue with a lot of the RotF figures, so its not fair to single out Brawn here for it. Besides, better they are designed to pop off than break off.

In bot form, Brawn is just plain awesome. His primary color goes from brown to green, with a substantial amount of gold in his chest and upper arms. Its a little closer to G1 Brawn’s coloring, especially if you are substituting gold for yellow. He has two cutouts in his chest, which are supposed to show off the “mech alive” gears that are connected to his arms, but they are sunken pretty deep and aren’t easy to make out. I absolutely love Brawn’s head sculpt, which can be best described as Autobot meets Cylon and it is quite reminscent of the head on the G1 toy.

Another cool and unique thing about Brawn is that he comes with two pistols that are actually in his hands when you transform him. They can both be removed if you wish, but this is the first Transformer I can think of that had detachable hand guns that were already in place when he was transformed. This design would be right at home in the movie, transforming to bot mode, doing a roll and coming up with both guns blazing.

Brawn’s articulation is quite good. He has the aforementioned ball joints in the upper legs, hinged knees and ankles, and hinged heel spurs. He can turn at the waist and at the neck. His shoulders are ball jointed and his elbows are hinged. Despite all the truck parts hanging off of him, none of them really deter his articulation, making him a pretty fun figure. The machine gun from his truck mode can also be positioned over his head. He can be a bit back heavy, though, if you don’t get his kibble positioned just right.

I really tried to be picky about the ROTF toys I buy, but Brawn is yet another reason why I have so many. He’s a really well designed figure with great coloring and sculpting. For a while I was bitching a lot about Hasbro upping the price on the Deluxes to about $12 now, but I don’t seem to mind so much when I’m buying figures like Brawn where the investment in details and complex engineering is so apparent. He’s a quality piece, its obvious a lot of work went into him, and I highly recommend adding him to your Autobot army.