Encore G1 Devastator

Post by **Blackjack** » Mon Jul 04, 2011 1:56 am

Source

Set for release in November.

Post by **inflatable dalek** » Mon Jul 04, 2011 6:38 am

Nice to see it finally happening (and considering the state it was supposed to be in I guess restoration techniques have come along in the last few years, can Grimlock and Mirage be far behind?).

Not to sure if I'll be buying though, I can never decide if I like the look of him or not. Sometimes he has a rather sweet old fashioned charm, others he just looks a bit rubbish.

Cliffjumper · Post by **Cliffjumper** » Mon Jul 04, 2011 9:44 am

He's interesting just because the combination is nicely done and the variation in team members is a lot better than the Scramble City figures, while most of the Constructicon figures themselves aren't bad for their size. But Devastator himself does look like a good breeze would take him out - so that's cartoon accuracy handled as well...

Good news that they've repaired/found the moulds, though - hopefully he's the first of many, but if I was interested I'd wait until examples were in buyers' hands after that Bruticus fiasco.

Post by **inflatable dalek** » Mon Jul 04, 2011 6:35 pm

Cliffjumper wrote: Good news that they've repaired/found the moulds, though - hopefully he's the first of many, but if I was interested I'd wait until examples were in buyers' hands after that Bruticus fiasco.

Good point, if the combined form is a frail as all that it won't take much degradation to completely ruin it.

The Reverend · Post by **The Reverend** » Sun Jul 10, 2011 4:53 am

I had to look up the "Bruticus fiasco" to see what you guys were talking about - I'd ignored Encore Bruti completely as, well, I just didn't care (already have the Geewunners). Mein gott, from what you were describing back then, that's just pathetic.

Cliffjumper · Post by **Cliffjumper** » Sun Jul 10, 2011 12:50 pm

Aye... It actually makes me pretty cynical about the 'restoration' or whatever of Devastator - have the problems with the moulds been properly fixed, or have they just realised people bought Bruticus despite the massive faults guessing that it'll do.

The warping on the Onebox brothers was terrible too... From pictures, the turn-of-the-century reissues didn't look that bad, which raises once again the question of what exactly are TakaraTomy doing to these things between reissues.

Post by **inflatable dalek** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 7:52 am

Having been reminded of the Bruticus thing I actually looked up the old thread, with all respect to the erstwhile Nevermore I still think a lot of his logic there doesn't hold.

I can sympathise with a toy like Devastator which hasn't been used since G2, a time where Hastak seemed to learn a sharp lesson that the G1 stuff wasn't up to current standards and wasn't much use to them, being in a bad way. That's the best part of 20 years for human error, basic wear and tear and so on to set in.

But Bruticus was in use in seemingly good condition less than a decade before the badly ming monged Encore version. It was being used for RID at the same time as the early reissues, the time they realised there was money for old rope potential after all. Not keeping it, nor any of the toys released since around that time, in good nick is deeply stupid. Especially when you factor in the RID use wasn't a nostalgic thing, Takara considered it good enough to be released as part of a line aimed at kids and could hold its own against toys made that year.

Cliffjumper · Post by **Cliffjumper** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 12:41 pm

The bottom line with Bruticus is that, whether a good excuse for the abuse of the mould exists or not (incidentally, it doesn't), the thing should never have been released in that state of disrepair... Imagine spending sixty quid or whatever to get that shipped over only to find TakaraTomy have intentionally issued a substandard product because they plain don't give a shit once they have your money.

Apologists for them only ensure this will never, ever change, which is what really worries me about Devastator. Like I say, don't even consider buying it until there are non-shill people out there with examples in their hands

The Reverend · Post by **The Reverend** » Fri Jul 15, 2011 7:22 pm

No kidding - if the Encore release suffers from the same type of problems, save your wallet and just buy one of those 99-cent Chinese KOs.

Or, from what I've seen, the individual Constructicons really don't cost much on the secondary market, unless you must have all their individual pistols. Its not like Takara's doing us a massive cost favor putting this one out.

Cliffjumper · Post by **Cliffjumper** » Fri Jul 15, 2011 7:34 pm

Depending on the price, and assuming the accessories toolings are undamaged, it might be worth buying for the parts alone, actually. Pick up loose individuals as and when poor reproduction demands it, and hey presto, decent Devastator.

In fairness, it wouldn't shock me if the moulding on this one wasn't too bad. The Combaticons and Seacons both have very simple combinations and can still work with bad moulding even if they look awful. Devastator's still one of the most complex combiners Transformers has done (off the top of my head, only the RiD ones are much more complicated - the Energon ones had more complex figures, but the same five-part symetrical one point attachments in combined mode) - if they bugger up the moulding on, say, Hook by enough, he simply won't fit together.

The Reverend · Post by **The Reverend** » Sat Jul 16, 2011 12:19 am

Maybe so - the biggest issue I've seen on the KOs has been the hip piece. The tongue never seems to be the right size to snap into Long Haul's crotch correctly.

Rack 'n Ruin · Post by **Rack 'n Ruin** » Sat Jul 16, 2011 10:52 am

The Reverend wrote:The tongue never seems to be the right size to snap into Long Haul's crotch correctly.

The Reverend · Post by **The Reverend** » Sat Jul 16, 2011 4:56 pm

Rack 'n Ruin wrote:

Must have something to do with that "unhappy with unglamourous role" line in his Tech Specs....