Before looking at the Legends Class one, I might as well start off with the first Titans Return release of Brawn, a Titan Master version that is still shelfwarming shelves to this day. No joke, I was at my local Target the other day and still found him there, when there was next to nothing else from Titans Cyberverse, Studio Series and Power of the Primes. Is there a reason for it? Aside from older fans wanting the Legends class one more, yes and no. Titan Masters were quite a throwaway class. Alongside the Titan Master itself, each release has a small vehicle that the Titan Masters interact with. In the case of Brawn, there is a Jeep with tank treads that Brawn himself becomes the roof of, an ok looking gun that the bigger figures can use, so yes, alongside Brawn being able to drive Brawn, Brawn can also use Brawn as a gun that's almost as big as he is. The final mode is a... hoverbike... thing... that Brawn can drive. None of the modes is spectacular, though you do have the chance to use Brawn's head for other Titans Return figures, and due to the shared engineering, can be used in place of Prime Masters and Matrix cores in Power of the Primes.
Starting in their car modes, these are some pretty heavy duty Jeeps, on the level of almost military looking due to the proportions. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if this was based off an actual military vehicle, or at least heavily inspired by it. What backs it up is how the cars look without the shields attached (one of the rare times Legends class figures have accessories lately, and thankfully they have integrated weapon storage to boot, that rarely ever happens now). The big problem with these two is how the back end looks in car mode. While I can let it slide cause at least it's for the robot mode, for those rare people that actually care about how the back of Transformers look, you're going to hate this car mode. In terms of functions, they've got Titan/ Prime Master compatibility, allowing them to drive the cars. Considering as this function isn't affected by the robot modes, I do wish they'd used a clear plastic to allow the Titan/ Prime Masters to see through the windows. What we get instead though are painted pieces, though for some reason Outback gets more of it then Brawn. Both pieces look to be moulded in black, but Outback gets cream paint on the inside, whereas Brawn's just stays black.
Once in robot modes, they both look solid. Nothing spectacular, but they are fitting updates that, unlike their G1 forms, actually look like functional robots. While they look great for the characters, like with the alt modes, there's nothing exciting about them once you get past the fact that these are new G1 inspired Brawn and Outback. They look good, they pose fine for Legends class figures, but the transformation is basic without any exciting parts to it, and something about these two, to me at least, come off as just ok. If I had to pick between the two, I'd probably go with Outback just because I prefer the head sculpt a bit more, Brawn's face just looks a bit small due to the size of the helmet.
Neither Legends Brawn, nor Outback are bad toys, there's nothing about them I genuinely hate, but there isn't anything that excites me either. They feel like figures you'd set and forget on a display shelf, exciting to know they're there, but that's all they're there good for, be there on the shelf. Honestly I find that the worst thing about them, because even other Legends class minibots have something about them that is exciting. To use another Titans Return one for an example, Wheelie is fun to mess around with and to go between both modes. I don't even get that from these two because there's so little to the transformation. Honestly the best thing I can say about them is "they exist". I'll end on that, because next week I plan to do something more recent, something more original. The Siege finally begins here with War For Cybertron Siege: Skytread.
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