Imagine you're Shogo Hasui around 2017. As part of the overseas product team you had been working on the new Studio Series a while and the whole team were having a blast especially with the movie CGI files available for reference. Then you went in a meeting one day and you were told Hasbro wanted the full Constructicons line up in the Studio Series, that can combine. And of course being the virtuoso veteran on the team, you were nominated to spearhead this project. Aside from all the wtf damn you Hasbro thoughts that also ran through Takashi Kunihiro san's head when he was handed the design task of the RotF Leader Prime/Jetfire combo, you sit down and take a look at some of the difficulties you have on hand:

- By nature of the character design, the combiner is highly asymmetrical, with one arm made of two Deluxe figures and one arm of one Voyager, which may lead to imbalance/weight distribution issue. And the two legs, although of similar size and being in the same size class, are massively different in design, so the individual weight and even center of gravity might need to be carefully planned out.

- Also by nature of character design, Devastator's hunched, with his knees permanently bent, and extremely top heavy (with his upper body made of 1.5 leaders, 2 voyagers, and 2 deluxes). This is not only a potential weight distribution issue, but more importantly a structural challenge. Let's have a quick look at Devy's legs (in red) in side view:



Assume the upper body center of gravity is in line with the hip joints, there's gravity G which the upper body weight. This force can be broken down to G1 which is along the direction of Devy's thighs, and G2 which is perpendicular to G1. Although G2 is smaller than G1 when the angle of hip joint is less than 45 degrees, it still applies a great deal of torque (green arrow) on the knee joint (G2 x length of thigh); similarly, G1 applies torque on the ankle joint. Heavy ratchet joints will be required for these two joints, and the at least one set of them needs to be fully integrated within Long Haul and Rampage. An alternative would be: making one set of them rigid.

- Every individual component is an individual stand alone release, with their own parts count incorporated in the budget, and this can be a double-edged sword. Previous Titans combiners like G1 Devs and Predaking's individual components suffered visible simplification when viewed as stand-alone figures because they were budgeted as one Titan class figure; however the combined mode arguably benefited from this because in general the less move parts in a given system, the more rigid this system is. Now each SS Devy component has to be their own stand-alone figure, with their own unique engineering. Hasbro's reps need to be able to market these as good enough individual figures to retailers, especially when the component releases span across several waves.

- Design time lines. How do you plan out your engineering? The components will be released across multiple waves spanning over more than one and half years. You'd probably need to design the legs in details first and prototype a mock up combiner asap for loading bearing testing. You'd probably also need to figure out Scavenger's general transformation scheme as well, as the his combined mode needs to be rigid enough to support the head and the upper limbs, and Scavenger's design says everything but rigid.

I would love to read an in-depth interview with Shogo Hasui about his SS Devastator experience!

All that rambling above, is basically me trying to say what I said when HasTak first reveal this project, that imho SS Devastator is the single most ambitious project(combiner or otherwise) they've ever done.

Finally the team is complete:




I love this combined mode. Thanks to the nature of movie designs, he has details to look at for days. Not overly tall but is incredibly massive mass/volume wise. Makes for a gorgeous display piece. Put it in the middle of your house and people won't be able take their eyes off it.








Considering it needs to be fully integrated into a Voyager-sized figure, I think the head is fantastic, and the paint job is superb.




Not much to say articulation wise. I personally think Shogo Hasui gave us the best that this deign can offer.






So lets quickly look at my rambling at the start of this post, and see how Shogo Hasui fared against all those challenges:

- the left arm feels noticeably heavier to me than the right. The connecting post that everybody is worried about does carry a heavy load, a bit unbalanced no less, but it looks to be made of sturdy ABS so I'm not too concerned. Guess time will tell. The legs might be different in weight in the end,but the upper body weighs so much more it feels like that's negligible.
- Hasui opted for omitting the knee joint altogether, which is a sensible decision imo. This also facilitates the much stronger sliding connection between Overload and the two legs. Judging by all the TakTom official photos Devy was probably designed standing only so I haven't really tried fan-moding him on all fours yet. Might add to this post later. As to the hunching physique, yeah nothing much you can do to fight gravity really; I'm happy Devy can be hunched as is.
- The majority of individual components to me, are worth their own purchase, and this is already a hug win for HasTak. Personally I'd even say Long Haul, Scavenger and Scrapper are among some of the best SS figures. Individually they're just well-engineered, fun figures.
- Although Mixmaster/Scavenger could've easily had tabs for Overload's legs, overall the combined mode feels well planned out imho. Maybe we'll find out if how Hasui planned out the design processes, but the end result is excellent all things considered.

OVERALL:
I maintain my claim that this is the most ambitious project HasTak have done. Please remember: MPs are a completely different ball game altogether than retail.

If you're a Transformers engineering nerd like me, get this set. Despite the limitations in articulation, this is an incredible design achievement. I'm still in awe that Shogo Hasui pulled this off.