Toy Review - Combiner Wars Devastator

Got mine combined yesterday, and it was very nice and a lot sturdier than I had expected for such a huge figure. Aside from Hook coming apart a little while posing/playing, Devastator is like a single solid toy. Hasbro & TakaraTomy have done well on this set.
I only needed to look at the back of the box a few times to see how each Constructicon needed to look for their parts to join together.
It is imposing and impressive... and If I were to vote on a favourite 2015 toy, I don't think I could pick one out of all of the Combiners this year.

(unfortunately this is a bad timing toy, as it is distracting me from processing my BotCon photos and news)

While building it from the feet up... Long Haul on stilts. :p
http://www.toycollectors.com.au/blog/c834.jpg

With some random toys of different sizes, towering over all of them.
http://www.toycollectors.com.au/blog/c833.jpg

Climbing my Masterpiece shelf to get at the Autobots. (he's actually holding onto the shelving with his hands and feet)
http://www.toycollectors.com.au/blog/c832.jpg

The Autobots about to fire back.
http://www.toycollectors.com.au/blog/c830.jpg

It reminded me of the episode "City of Steel", which had Devastator climbing the Empire State Building like King Kong.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by GoktimusPrime

Mine holds together well enough for Bonecrusher to balance precariously on top of a rock melon without splitting apart.
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y22...ps5wwjmxwt.jpg

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This raises so many questions...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by griffin

Got mine combined yesterday, and it was very nice and a lot sturdier than I had expected for such a huge figure. Aside from Hook coming apart a little while posing/playing, Devastator is like a single solid toy.

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Have you ensured that Hook is securely attached to Long Haul via all four connection points? The two obvious ones are the black connectors which plug into Long Haul's smoke stack and the driver's compartment roof, but there are also two tabs on the top of Long Haul's shoulders which plug into two small slots underneath Hook. They're small and easy to miss, but I find that they do notably help to secure the attachment between Long Haul and Hook. The connection on my Hook can be less secure if I don't have those tabs properly plugged in, but it's fine if they are. Works on my Devastator anyway. :o

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Okay, I'm going to be slowly reviewing each Constructicon separately to appraise each toy on its own merit before reviewing Devastator as a whole. Today I'm looking at...

SCAVENGER

Photo links
Vehicle mode
Robot mode
Devastator (right arm)

Vehicle Mode
L: 10.5cm W: 7.3cm H: varies 6.5cm to top of roof or 18cm with shovel arm fully extended
True to his G1 counterpart, CW Scavenger transforms into a massive excavator. Primarily lime green with purple treads and windows. The hydraulic piston on the shovel arm is painted silver, and there are further silver and red highlights on the sides. There are also silver and red paint apps on the back, giving the appearance of rear tail/brake lights, although I have no idea what a giant excavator would do with tail lights considering that they're not even road-worthy vehicles (they need to be transported on backs of trucks). Ah well, I guess kids won't notice (the Constructicons drove around on roads in G1 and it never bothered me :p). There's actually a lot of really nice detail throughout the sculpting of this toy, although much of it is lost in the G1-accurately bland colour scheme. I don't necessarily mean this as a criticism of this mode btw, as I said, it is G1 accurate. :) Unfortunately the upper section of the vehicle cannot swivel, although the shovel arm can, so you can have Scavenger with the scoop face either forwards and backwards. Scavenger has 3 wheels which helps the toy roll along, which is a big improvement over G1 Scavenger which just had... nothing (you just had to slide the toy along and scrape the bottom of the treads!). There's also a small Decepticon logo tampographed on the front of the driver's cabin which looks pretty nice.

Transformation
* Separate and swing down the caterpillar tracks
* Swing down waist and swing up groin section. Some force may be needed to untab it.
* Swing pelvis up.
* Swing tracks down and extend to form legs.
* Open bottom of tracks to form feet and heel spurs.
* Swing shovel arm forward and flip cabin towards the middle.
* Lift up rear sections of each side (robot arms)
* Swing shoulders forward
* Lower arms and flip out fists.
* Compact shovel arm into recess on back
* Open chest panel
* Flip out head and close chest panel

Robot mode
H: 17.5cm W: 10.5cm D: 9cm
Points of articulation: 11
A really good rendition of G1 Scavenger's cartoon model accentuated by the exquisite detail from the alt mode. There are also additional paint apps in this mode to break up the blandness, and also homage some of the detailing from the original G1 toy (which the cartoon model omitted). So sculpt wise, it looks like the G1 cartoon model, but with extra paint ops which reference the G1 toy. The face is silver with a red visor, just like the cartoon. The head, shoulders, elbows and knees are all on ball-and-socket joints, allowing for a free range of motion. The ankles are on swivel joints. Like many contemporary toys, it does use some "hollow" parts to reduce the amount of plastic used, but none of it really compromises the integrity of the toy, so it seems that HasTak are getting gooder in the use of hollow parts. Scavenger's weapon is a hand held missile launcher which forms Devastator's right hand. The missiles themselves aren't individually painted like in some promotional images.

Overall
One of the best Voyagers to come out in a long time, and for the equivalent price of a Deluxe! Unfortunately mine came with two left fists, but I haven't heard of anyone else having this problem.

Highly recommended. :)
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y22...s/jaam_yum.gif

BONECRUSHER

Photo links
Vehicle mode
Robot mode
Devastator (left arm)

Vehicle Mode
L: 15cm W: 8cm H: 7cm
True to his G1 counterpart, CW Bonecrusher transforms into a predominantly lime green bulldozer. There are some silver highlights on the sides and front grill with purple windows, as well as a Decepticon insignia tampographed in the scoop. There are 3 wheels underneath which help the vehicle to roll, although the clearance towards the front is very low with only about a millimetre of space. It rolls fine on a perfectly flat surface like a table top, but not so well on any rougher terrain like carpet etc. I guess Bonecrusher must've been lowered for speed. :p Still, at least the undercarriage does clear, unlike say Long Haul's undercarriage. And the wheels are a welcome improvement over the original G1 toy which has no wheels at all and just relies on you dragging it along the ground. This mode desperately needs more colours to break up all the lime green, but on the other hand, it is rather G1 accurate in its monotone. :o

Transformation
* Separate caterpillar tracks
* Swing down halves of the pelvic girdle
* Re-position hips to the outer sides of the pelvic girdle
* Squeeze hips together to connect the pelvic girdle halves; this works better than attempting to squeeze the pelvic girdle halves themselves
* Pull down on caterpillar tracks to reveal knees
* Open lower part of tracks to form feet and heel spurs
* Pull back and disconnect rear section
* Lower scoop
* Separate bonnet
* Flip back driver's cabin
* Flip up robot head
* Unfold lower halves of bonnet to form arms. Lower at shoulders.
* Lower black connector and lift up from the centre to connect rear section onto chest, completing the torso
* Raise scoop to form robot chest

Robot mode
H: 18cm W: 10.5cm D: 7.5cm
Points of articulation: 11
A good rendition of Bonecrusher's G1 cartoon model with additional silver paints on the chest and arms which greatly helps break up the blandness, as well as paying homage to the G1 toy (which the cartoon model omitted). Bonecrusher had two main head styles in the G1 cartoon; one with larger "ears," and the other with smaller "ears." This one has gone with the smaller "ears" version of the show model. The head, shoulders, elbows and knees are all on ball-and-socket joints, allowing for a free range of motion. The ankles are on swivel joints. Like many contemporary toys, it does use some "hollow" parts to reduce the amount of plastic used, but none of it really compromises the integrity of the toy, so it seems that HasTak are getting gooder in the use of hollow parts. Scavenger's weapon is a hand held missile launcher which forms Devastator's right hand. The missiles themselves aren't individually painted like in some promotional images. I just wish that the driver's cabin could swing back further rather than just sticking out behind the head.

Overall
One of the best Voyagers to come out in a long time, and for the equivalent price of a Deluxe! A really solid figure. Highly recommended. :)
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y22...s/jaam_yum.gif

Bonecrusher was one of my first TFs as a kid and the only Constructicon I had, so I'm more attached to him than the rest of Devastator's components. But I think he and Scavenger are the weakest in this set by a wide margin. Those tread legs... terrible! Scavenger looks slightly better because at least his legs are a different colour. But poor Bonecrusher. No.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Maruten

Bonecrusher was one of my first TFs as a kid and the only Constructicon I had, so I'm more attached to him than the rest of Devastator's components. But I think he and Scavenger are the weakest in this set by a wide margin. Those tread legs... terrible! Scavenger looks slightly better because at least his legs are a different colour. But poor Bonecrusher. No.

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I actually think they are the best:o IMO They are more MP then any of the other constructicons.

Just my 2c

On the whole I'm happy with all of them -- the elbows aren't as big an issue as I expected.

Almost tempted to get a second set to display individually if he does hit wider retail down the track.

Came across this variant which I suspect may be an earlier prototype. It basically features two shades of green; the regular lime green that we have on the standard release of the toy, and this weird "Shrek" green that just randomly appears in some places. It's much more noticeable IRL than in photos.
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y22...psai9qe28u.jpg

I was allowed to take the right hand from Scavenger from this set and swap it with the spare left hand from my store-bought Scavenger, so you can see that my Scavenger now has a "Shrek green" right fist.
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y22...psi5lyubha.jpg

Quote:

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Originally Posted by GoktimusPrime

Have you guys tried squeezing from the hips rather than the groin? When I first tried to transform him to robot mode, I squeezed at the groin, but then I tried again by squeezing the hips and was able to get that sucker to lock in. Once it does lock in, it's pretty tight.
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y22...psbind9dro.jpg
→← = groin; avoid squeezing here
→← = hips; squeeze here

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I have this same problem, have tried the advise noted above but seems to be that the hooks that click together on mine are not long enough to hold together.:(. So just have to be careful while displaying him in robot mode.

devastator's back kibble...can that be reduced in anyway?