RotF Legends Devastator (Gen1 colours)
I picked this up the other day from Empire Toys (local import shop). I got the Green and purple G1 homage set for a cool $70 (that's roughly the price of 7 Legends figures is it not? I don't usually pick up Legends class stuff).
I must say that I am very very impressed. From the photos I thought that the G1 colours wouldn't work, but they look marvellous in person - especially in vehicle mode. All of them have the constructicon green and purple, as well as black/dark grey for treads and detailing, and they've all got red for eyes. Scavenger (wheelman) has grey for his shovel and cab area, but apart from that they all share the same four colours.
The individual vehicle modes are well enough detailed. The best is probably Hightower or Rampage (the jumping jack one from the film). They've both got a good amount of detail and hide the robot modes really week, in addition to looking groovy with the G1 colours. The rest are also quite good - Overload, Long Haul, and Mix Master are very good representations of various construction vehicles. Scrapper (bulldozer) isn't as good as the rest - he's still quite good but the back end of his vehicle mode is very elongated to accomodate the arm connector port. Scavenger's is the weakest of the lot, as he's shovel arm only has one point of articulation, and you can tell from any angle except head on that he's hiding two large wheels in the chassis of the alt mode. However, given the scale and context (combiner ie needs three modes), they are very very good.
The individual robot modes are a bit of a mixed bag. They generally look very nice, but their articulation is more on the scale of a minicon than your average legends figure. Again, this is excusable given that they all need three modes and don't have much size to work with. The nicest looking robot mode probably goes to Overload (articulated dump truck, not seen in robot mode in the movie), with it looking imposing and bulky. Articulation is not amazing - the shoulders are on ball joints but the legs can only splay sideways. Scrapper also has a really nice robot mode - compared with the others in the set he's the most G1 looking of the lot, he has nice straight limbs and is proportionaed reasonably like G1 figure. He's also the best articulated of the lot, with ball jointed hips and ankles, and a very nice double jointed shoulder set up that allows him complete freedom of arm movement and the ability to shrug his shoulders. The only other robot mode we've not seen in a larger sizeclass is Hightower, who forms a sort of wierd scorprion/T rex hybrid. It might seem like a cop out but the character was designed this way from the start (concept art attests to this), so it's not like they ran out of ideas and gave him a slapped on robot mode in the toy design process.
The rest of the robot modes we've seen before. Long Haul looks nice but can't do much (arms move sideways only, legs on ball joint at the hip). Scavenger is much like the larger Demoilshor release except with less joints in the arm. He's the weakest of the robot modes too for my money, if only because the panels that form the side of his alt mode are on pegs that like to come unstuck on mine. Mixmaster looks very nice and is quite posable, and Rampage has balljointed shoulders, and is in the jumping jack mode seen in the film (as opposed to the crab tank mode the deluxe toy also has). Overall, it you're looking to only buy one or two (you'd have to import from Japan to do that) then I'd heartily recomend Scrapper and Overload as standalone Legends figures. The rest are quite nice, but again suffer from having to combine.
The combined mode is a thing of beauty. Long Haul and Rampage form the legs, and Overload froms the hips and spine essentially. Scavenger plugs into Overload to form the torso, and then Scrapper and Hightower plug into the sides of his shovel arms to form Devatator's arms. Then all that's left is for Mixmaster to plug into Scavenger to form the shoulders and head. If this confuses you the best way to think about it is that Scrapper, Hightower, Long Haul, and Rampage are limbs, and the central body is formed from essentially putting Mixmaster on top of a splayed out Scavenger, and that on top Overload. The combined mode looks very imposing. There's a nice paint wash on the face, and the bright red used for the eyes carries over to this mode too. You can get a decent amount of posability out of the arms, although how much of it is intended (as opposed to working along transformation joints) I don't know. The legs... well you can adjust the height by changing the angle of the knees and the ankles, but theres no forwards or backwards movement. It is possible to get him on all fours by turning the legs around to face the wrong way, which allows them to be manipulated such that the feet are flat on the ground while his hands are touching it too. Overall, it's about the size of a deluxe and looks very imposing.
I would strongly recomend this set. For $70 AUD you're getting an immense amount of play value. The vehicles modes are by and large very good, and the robot modes are decent if nothing special. The combined mode is a thing of beauty and makes me yearn for what might have been if Hasbro released a larger version with triple changing robots. The best of the set is Scrapper - he has a nice vehicle mode and one of the best robot modes in the set. The disappointment of the set is Scavenger when taken as an individual robot, but then he was designed around the paramter that he was the torso of Devastator and had to hold the arms on.
A strong 8/10 for me. Get it if you can.
