Transformers Platinum Edition Grimlock vs. Bruticus

I have previously reviewed these molds.  I have little to add to my reviews of Generations Fall of Cybertron Voyager Grimlock and all three versions of Bruticus (Retail, SDCC 2012, Generation 2).  I am going to focus on the differences, which are mostly small.

This toy is one of the “Thrilling Thirty” toys celebrating the thirtieth anniversary of the Transformers.  Click here for more info on that.

Packaging

The most obvious thing about the packaging is that while it carries the Platinum Edition name, unlike the first three toys in the series, it does not have lots of awesome looking gold foil.  It’s a decent enough looking box, but after how amazing the first three were, it has to be considered a let down.

Grimlock

The main difference from the original Grimlock is that his dinosaur neck and robot chest are now metallic gold.  There are a couple of other minor changes.  The paint on his sides of his upper tail was all tan on the original, but now has some unpainted areas.  Also there is some additional red paint apps on his dinosaur shoulders.  The Platinum Edition is on the left in the pictures below.

Combaticons

Before I got this toy, I was finding very little info on whether or not Bruticus was identical to the SDCC 2012 version.  It actually is different, though the differences are minor.  All the toys are slightly darker, slightly more metallic looking.  It’s pretty easy to tell side by side, accept on Onslaught, where the difference is so slight it’s really hard to see.  In all the pics below the Platinum Edition is on the left and the SDCC 2012 version is on the right.

Vortex

Blastoff

Swindle
 

Brawl

Onslaught

Bruticus

Overall: Grimlock is really nice and colored the way the retail version should have been.  This trend by Hasbro of intentionally giving toys inferior paint apps or accessories in order to make the better version an expensive exclusive really sucks.  As to Bruticus, at $100 for the set, if you never got a SDCC Bruticus due to the expense, then this one is for you.  While slightly different, it’s pretty darn close, and the color change only makes it look better.

Thanks for reading!