Alrighty, brief review for the Big-Ass Devastator...not expecting to change any board member's minds with this but here goes...

First up, he's a lot of fun. I have to say that before anything else, because I think it's really important to sometimes be able to enjoy your collection on the merits of what it was designed for. This is a kid's Transformer, make no mistake. But in terms of size, gimmicks and playability, he's awesome. Having him loom over (and eat) a bunch of Legends-sized Autobots is great fun. The kids'll go nuts for that sort of crap. He's also one of those Transformers that are just fun to 'fiddle' with. The transformation sequence is just involved enough to be interesting, without the insane intricacy of most of the movie line - no Mixmaster/Leader Prime-like frustration here. I've had more fun tooling around with him tonight than I have had with MP Megatron the whole time I've owned him. I bring him up because he's the only other transformer I've spent this much money on before, and he's at such an opposite end of the spectrum. Brilliantly designed, great attention to detail, lovely display piece, respectful to the character - but no fun at all. Transforming Megs is an ordeal, and it's not a toy I can share with the kids.

I also want to state categorically that Devastator can stand all fours, and lift his head up. A lot of folks seem to think he can't, but he can. There's a flap under his chin that can slot into the Scavenger component to hold his head up - it's not mentioned in the instructions, but it's a snug enough fit that it seems pretty intentional. It does take a bit of work to get him stable on all fours, but it can be done, no mods required.


The face is pretty well done, especially the way it moves when you pull on the lever (although that has a habit of making the cement mixer detach). It has to be said that from behind, he looks ridiculous, but so do 95% of Transformers. As a representation of the movie model, it's not too bad - it's just that there's a lot of details on him that are lost due to the shoddy paintwork. For example, the cockpit of the excavator is visible on the front of his shoulders like on the movie model, but it's all in the one red colour so it's lost. Likewise, the gold/yellow colouring on his shoulders is supposed to suggest the 'tangled' nature of the gestalt, but again, poor colour matching means this detail is lost too.

And really that's what lets this guy down overall - the paintwork. There really is a lot of work put in the detail on the components, in both modes, that is completely lost because they've just been rendered in straight plastic chunks. Hightower is the worst offender, although Scavenger isn't far off. There's also a missed opportunity in the underside of Scavenger's treads - these aren't visible in vehicle mode, so there's no reason why these couldn't have featured additional robot detailing and colouring. It wouldn't even touch the ground in vehicle mode thanks to the generous-sized rolling wheels.

Mixmaster needs to shut up too, he is WAY too sensitive in both modes. The sounds are pretty good, and it's not just a case of pushing the button for different cycled effects, it changes depending on whether you push it, hold it or hold it longer - the latter producing the cycling light effect in his mouth and the grinding sound effect. The effects would be worth keeping in if they would just shut the hell up, but as is, I think the batteries will be coming out after the kids have a bit of time with him.

Overall, I'm happy with Devastator. He's not the best TF I own by a long shot, but as a big chunk of ugly plastic, he's pure win. I can't wait to show him to the kids. More importantly, I can't wait to get started on adding more paint details to him - nothing to the degree of the more professional modders out there but enough to bring out all those great details. Lots of silver highlights, and a properly-coloured face would be a good start IMO.