bruticus

Color Scheme:

Red, yellow, and black. He also has a few bluish-silver accents, as well as some gold accents on his... err... ears (I think). What's interesting is that he's not mostly red with yellow and black bits, or anything. He's pretty much evenly colored with red, black, and yellow. It kind of makes a little sense, seeing as how he's a three-headed dog, three equally used colors is a reflection of his nature. Such reflections continue...

Robot Mode:

In robot mode, well... he looks freaky. Freakier, even, than a three-headed dog turned into a robot would be expected to look. His two side dog heads become his robot arms and hands, and the center head transforms a little into the robot head. There are two other robot heads on his main robot head. Actually, they're more like faces on the sides of his head... very much like a Quintesson. His weapons, which are built-in, are blades of varying sorts. His legs are a little wide-stanced for my tastes. I think they could have made them fold in in some fashion. He has a huge torso, and a panel on his chest that opens to reveal... another panel? Yes, just some decoration. The folding panel serves no other functions as far as I can tell. Maybe they were going to cram a gimmick in there but pulled it at the last minute, because he has this very large torso that is completely empty and unused. I wish they had left whatever gimmick in there, because it probably would have made this toy cooler. Anyway, he also has a couple extra arms in this mode, as two of his dog legs fold up against his back, but can also be extended with built-in weapons, and made to be very ominous looking. Check out the photo above of him with four arms. One of the cool things I haven't mentioned yet are his shoulder pads in this mode. One is mostly just a piece of armor, the other has a huge spike sticking straight up out of it next to his head. The shoulder pads both get in the way of the huge ear-like things coming off of his main head, but those are hinged in two places, and can be positioned out of the way as you please.

Beast Mode:

A three-headed dog. As far as that goes, it's kind of cool. My only complaints about this mode are that the two heads on the sides are barely dog heads. They are much smaller than the middle head, and are almost unrecognizable as dog heads rather than bumps on his shoulders. His middle head also looks almost like a lion, but the long ears that resemble bat wings take care of that right away. As you can see in the photo, his right head has a spinning blade on top... no, it doesn't spin. :\ The "things in threes" that I mentioned above reappears in his tail, which has three ends, each with a different instrument of pain on the end. His tail also serves as a weapon in robot mode.

Transformation:

Two dog heads become arms, and his front two dog legs become his robot legs. The rear dog legs just fold up to his back, but they can also be extended and moved almost to his sides to become additional arms in robot mode. While rated Advanced, it's really not a difficult transformation. The only part that is anything near complex is getting his robot legs into the correct position.

Gimmicks:

His trident tail becomes a hand weapon, and the rest of his hands all have built-in weapons. His three robot heads are pretty cool, but they don't do anything. He has a purple Predacon spark crystal in the back of his head, and the afore-mentioned chest panel that reveals another chest panel. Nothing flips or shoots as far as I can tell, though. :\ He also has a little bit of what appears to be intended to be chain links attached to one of his feet. If it weren't for the huge hinge holding them on, or the bright yellow paint covering that piece, it might look like a chain.

Pros/Cons:

Great concept, very ominous and freaky in both modes. I'm not so sure about the color scheme and the big ears which don't seem to be necessary at all. Overall, a cool toy, which any fan of mythical beasts should probably get.