TRANSFORMERS TOYS AND MERCHANDISE SECTION

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Detective Barricade's review: Legends Class Devastator

Name: ‘Constructicon’ Devastator (plus Overload, Mixmaster, Rampage, Scavenger, Scrapper, Long Haul, and Hightower)
Allegiance: Decepticon
Function: Constructicon combiner
Sub-Group: ROTF Legends class (Wal-Mart exclusive gift set)

Never before has a robot so powerful been seen anywhere in the galaxy. (Constructicon)Devastator is the equal of Earth’s most powerful storms - a ferocious destroyer of all in his path.

Strength: 10 Intelligence: 2 Speed: 2 Endurance: 10 Rank: 9 Courage: 10 Fireblast: 10 Skill: 3

When Devastator was announced and shown, some people were in an uproar. $100 for a near Fortress Maximus sized (I.E. nearly 2' tall) hunk of plastic whose components couldn’t convert into individual robots?! No thanks! However, there was a light at the end of the tunnel: TakaraTomy made seven Legends class Constructicons that could convert into individual robots as well as combine to form Devastator! The down side: you had to import the set from Japan, which with shipping included, might not have been worth the price. Then Hasbro announced that they were bringing the Legends Constructicons over into their market as a store exclusive gift set. Eventually, said store turned out to be Wal-Mart. Is Legends Devastator worth the wait? In a word, YES.

Vehicle modes
Devastator splits up into seven different construction vehicles. I'll quickly review each one.

Mixmaster is the muddy grey cement mixer with some silver on the mixing drum and lavender windows. The wheels are dark grey. There's a nice amount of details on him, including smokestacks, a ladder on the left, tiny roof lights, and even a tiny folded up pouring chute in the back.

Scavenger is the red and white excavator with grey tracks. It looks more complete in the back than Demolishor, but has a comparatively HUGE pair of wheels inside for the robot mode. There's a lot of detail here, such as ladders along the sides of the vehicle and a tiny door on the cabin, which definitely gives a sense of scale.

Rampage is the yellow bulldozer with dark grey tracks and light blue windows. He doesn't seem to be the same kind of bulldozer the Deluxe toy is, but then I'm no expert on bulldozers. The pistons for the blade are among a couple of details on him.

Long Haul is the green dump truck with dark grey wheels. This is definitely not the same dump truck that the Long Haul seen diving into the ocean to revive Megatron in the movie was, but seems quite accurate to the one who helped form Devastator. The grille and ladder running in front of it are very nice touches of detail.

Hightower is the yellow truss crane with a dark grey boom and a white cabin. The panel detail along the sides of him as well as tiny rivets make this look very real and tough.

Overload, the red articulated dump truck with dark grey wheels and black cabin, is kind of the black sheep of the group. The Supreme Devastator toy completely omits him. Poor guy. The grille is a nice detail, and so is the sides of the dump bed.

Scrapper is the pay-loader, and in virtually the same colors as Rampage. There's some window detail behind the liberal slathering of light blue, and a pair of ladders behind the rear wheels.

Robot modes
Unlike the overpriced waste of plasticSupreme version, this Devastator's components do have individual robot modes. This section will cover them.

Mixmaster's robot mode is the weakest of the set. His shoulders are really wide, and Devastator's head rests behind his butt. I wish I was kidding. There's a bit of detail here as well, especially inside of his arms. Shoulders and hips are all on ball joints.

Scavenger greatly resembles Demolishor in this mode. The tracks end up on his back instead of forming the wheels, and the cabin is on the left instead of the right, but the resemblance is very much there! The arms have articulation, but like Demolishor he can't make much use of it due to resting on his claws to stay upright. Despite that, this is my second favorite of the set...

Rampage's robot mode is like the Deluxe toy's 'Jackhammer mode' in that he rests on a single leg, if you want to call it that. The bottom half of the tracks is stuck to this while the top half forms his arms and 'tread-whips'. The leg and head are intricately detailed, but only the shoulders can move. Even so, I really do like the little guy.

Long Haul does at least try to look a bit like the Voyager toy. He's got a little fake dump bed sticking up behind his head, and his shoulders carry a similar detail to his wheels... But, the design is rather awkward with the somewhat wide shoulders that only swing out to the sides. At least his hips are ball-jointed.

Hightower has a very unique robot mode. He's got a claw at the end of his tail, and the tracks spread out from the body. He's also got a pair of funny little arms attached to the cage his head is behind. Sadly, he's only got movement in his tail and that's it. However, I still like the look of him.

Overload has big arms and stubby legs. He's also almost constantly looking down... Poor guy. Like Boncrusher, he's got a tail on his back as well. He's got about as much articulation as the average Legends figure does, except the legs only do the splits. I really feel sorry for this one, but he's not my favorite.

Scrapper, however, is. He is tall and lanky, yet oozes with danger! He's got the average articulation of a Legends figure, except he includes ankles! This lets him take a good few stable poses, as well as serve a purpose for transformation. It's really a shame that Hasbro has no plans to do a Deluxe or Voyager class version of Scrapper, as this design could have worked well in a larger toy. Oh well.

Devastator mode
Finally, we get to Devastator himself! He comes packaged in this mode, albeit slightly mistransformed. He looks more accurate to the CG model in general than the Supreme version. The silver wash over the face really helps to bring out the details on it, and the bright green for his eyes and inside of his mouth really gives them a glowing effect that's both cool and a little creepy. A little red on the face over the silver could have made it look a little more accurate, but it's not a huge loss. As far as articulation is concerned, he's got maybe 14 points total, but few of these are actually useful. The one thing that may really hit a nerve with some people is that Devastator is only about the size of a tall Scout or a small Deluxe, making him completely out of scale with any other figure in the line. Overall though, I think this is a nice way to have a Devastator from Revenge of the Fallen while also having it do everything a combiner/gestalt should do.

Marks out of 10 for the following:

Transformation: 4/10 The components are all super easy, but take a little time to combine.

Durability: 9/10 These little guys are quite solid, including their connections to each other when combined. It may even be a bit of a struggle to separate Devastator back into his components!

Fun: 8/10 They’re fun to play around with as a set, but don’t do much individually.

Price: 9/10 At Wal-Mart for about $32, less than a third the Supreme Devastator’s price, that is pretty good for seven Legends figures these days.

Overall: 8/10 If you have the Takara version already, you’re not missing much. Otherwise, this is a nice little set, and miles better than the Supreme.