General Information: When I was a kid and Generation One was simply known as "The Transformers" it was rare for my friends and I to have all the components of any Transformers Combiner. Often we would figure out who had which piece and get together just so we could fully assemble a "giant" (as we called them back then). Devastator was the first of these Combiners that we sought to assemble. It took years and some logistics behind who bought which piece, but eventually we managed to put all the pieces together (for the record, my contribution was Scrapper). That was the last time for many years that I would own a fully assembled Devastator. Interestingly for many years there were knock-offs of Devastator widely available in a variety of colors, some coming very close to the original G1 colors. However, in 2011 Takara Tomy finally reissued the Combiner under the banner of the "Transformers Encore" line. For the purposes of this review, I will go through each Constructicon first. After that will be instructions to have them form Devastator starting in vehicle mode. A final summary will cover my thoughts on the set and figures overall.
Function: Demolitions
The vehicle mode is cast almost primarily in a bright, neon green-yellow color, commonly shared amongst all the Constructicons in this set. A bit of the purple and black plastic from the robot mode shows in this form as well. There are four primary stickers used on this figure to provide extra detail. On the sides of the vehicle are hazard stripes. The top has a Decepticon symbol on the left side and the shovel itself has a heat sensitive rub symbol that works perfectly. Bonecrusher can use one of Devastator's forearm pieces with a drill attachment in it as a weapon in this form. Using the forearm piece with holes side by side and attach them to the "smokestacks". In this version you can press the trigger on the forearm piece to launch the drill at enemies (or Decepticons he doesn't like). This spring loaded feature was removed from certain iterations of the figure, so it's good to see it intact here. Transformation to Robot Mode:
Robot Mode: While the previous mode had a conservative amount of extra details, this mode has quite a few stickers giving it mechanical detailing. On the underside of the canopy from the vehicle mode is a silver, blu, blac, yellow and red sticker showing wiring. Stickers on his forearms are silver, yellow, black and red with "V" shaped details overlaid by circles. His upper arms have silver, black and blue details with triangles on them. On his purple waist panel is silver and black sticker that look like several layered armor panels. The middle of that same section has a red and black sticker with horizontal black details. The most elaborate of the stickers is the one found on his chest, which has all of the colors from the other stickers with a complex set of vent lines, circles, rectangles and more. Overlaid on top of this is a Decepticon sticker. In contrast to his vehicle mode it's really quite the explosion of colors and looks fantastic. Bonecrusher has four points of articulation in this mode, all concentrated in the arms. They can turn up and down and bend at the elbows. That doesn't sound like a lot, and it isn't, but back in the days of G1 this was very typical of most Transformers so I don't count the articulation against this figure. Almost all the joints on this figure are tight, but there is one in particular on mine that isn't. The left food doesn't lock in place. Instead, it just flops around a bit if you pick the figure up and shake it. Sometimes with reissues and having to create new tooling for old figures this can happen. It's hardly a deal breaker since he stands on the foot just fine. I would simply be remiss if I didn't mention it.
Function: Combat Medic
The standard "green-yellow" Constructicon color is used for most of the vehicle form. the wheels are cast in black and the windows of both halves are deep purple. The middle section and the hook on the crane are vacuum metallized silver. Hook has a few stickers in this form. The crane itself has two hazard line stickers on it (gold and black). On the left side is a purple and silver Decepticon symbol sticker. The other side also has a Decepticon sticker, but it is a heat sensitive sticker instead. On the back of the vehicle are two stickers in silver, red, yellow and orange that represent the rear lights of the vehicle. I really like the use of stickers to give vehicle mode details. I do wish there was a bit more visual color here, but the general design concept behind the Constructicons was to have relatively simple vehicle modes give way to more complex looking robot modes so I'm okay with that. There are silver details painted onto the sides of the wheels as well. Hook can roll on all six of his wheels. His crane can turn at its base and the arm itself can move up or down. What's even cooler is that the crane arm can extend at the end and the hook can swing on its hinge. All this functionality works very well. Each section is tight and moves without a problem. I was very heartened to see this as not all reissues always work out so well in the functionality department. Hook originally came packaged individually with Devastator's head and the weapon that attaches to the side of his head. He also comes with a hand weapon. All of these components can attach to him in vehicle mode. The Devastator head folds down with the weapon attached. The purple base section attaches to the middle section. The small black hand weapon attaches to the left side of the vehicle in the front. This gives Hook quite a bit of weaponry in this mode and I think it looks really cool. I really enjoy how Hook is meant to be a construction vehicle, but is loaded up with weaponry to be destructive. Sounds just right for a Decepticon! Transformation to Robot Mode:
Robot Mode: Hook has four points of articulation in this form. His arms can move up and down and his lower legs can be swung back thanks to his transformation scheme. All of his joints are tight and the weapon fits very well in either fist. I'm really happy with how well this sculpt has come together in this reissue.
Function: Transport
Long Haul uses the green-yellow color found on all the Constructicons, but his vehicle mode shows off a bit more purple than other Constructicons. That includes the engine in the front and the sides of the front end. The middle section next to the driver's cabin and the wheels are cast in black. Unlike many of his fellow Constructicons, Long Haul shows off a lot of stickers in this mode. On the front end is a Decepticon symbol in silver/purple. The purple sections on the sides have silver and black bands. The open-box is where most of the stickers are. The edge towards the middle and the back end have silver, red, black, blue and yellow stickers with lots of mechanical detail similar in styling to the other Constructicons. The left side of the open-box also has a heat sensitive symbol on it, set at an angle. Thanks to the way the figure transforms, Long Haul can actually tilt his open-box to "dump" whatever he is carrying. However, I have noticed these joints are slightly more loose than the G1 Long Haul I own. That isn't unexpected in a reissue, but it does make it very difficult to pose the figure with the open-box angled down. There are tabs on the sides of the open-box that you can attach Devastator's hip panel to. Then Devastator's waist armor can be attached to the hip panel. On either side of the panel are blasters, giving Long Haul some weapons to along with his powerful looking vehicle mode. Transformation to Robot Mode:
Robot Mode: Long Haul is mostly yellow-green in this mode. His purple colors show up on his engine piece and his arms. There are some black parts making up his fists and head. Thanks to all the sticker details on his open-box section in the vehicle mode his legs have plenty of detail. He gets a bit more in the form of a sticker on his waist. with line details and a triangle in the center. He looks great, but quite different from his brethren. There are four points of articulation in this form. His arms can move up and down and his legs can swing back thanks to the transformation. While his legs are loose when trying to use it as a dumping mechanism, they lock nice and tight in this mode. His arms also have tight joints. The sculpt looks crisp and looks great as well.
Function: Camouflage
The green-yellow plastic used on most of the Constructicons makes up most of the vehicle, but he shows off some purple too in the windows and on two small sections sticking out the sides behind the front wheel wells. His front grille/headlight section is vacuum metallized silver. His wheels are cast in black. There are four stickers providing details in this form. On the back are gold and black hazard stripes on either side. On top of the cab section is a silver and purple Decepticon section. At the very back of the vehicle is a heat sensitive symbol. As a bit of warning, when I combined this figure into Devastator's leg this sticker moved a bit, so be careful with it. Mixmaster can accomodate two weapons in this form. On the top of his driver section you can attach his small hand held weapon. On the right side is a hole at the front of the mixing drum that can accomodate Devastator's rifle. I dig how threatening Devastator's rifle looks attached. He's got to be one of the more threatening of the Constructicons when equipped like this! Transformation to Robot Mode:
Robot Mode: In this form Mixmaster shows off purple, black and vacuum metallized silver plastic. The purple makes up most of his chest, waist, hips and parts of his legs. The vacuum metallized plastic is on his upper legs. The head is cast in black. A bit of silver paint provides detail on the head while his purple parts all have stickers on them. They range from a silver and purple Decepticon symbol on his chest to yellow, silver and blue stickers on the sides of his legs. The stickers really give a lot of detail to the figure, enhancing the existing sculpted details. Mixmaster has two points of articulation in this form: his arms, which can move up and down. His cartoon and comic book portrayals generally used his dual blasters/missile attached to his head, but Mixmaster also comes with a single missile/blaster that connects to the same point. If you press the black trigger on the left side of the figure it fires the projectile. All his joints are tight and the purple tabs on his legs keep his upper body from swinging back. Since Devastator's rifle has a small peg on it, Mixmaster can also hold it in his hands.
Function: Mining
The top half of the vehicle is mostly cast in green-yellow. The plastic used to create the arm is slightly more flexible than the plastic on the rest of the figure and interestingly enough is a bit off in color from the green-yellow used on the base. The lower half is cast in purple. The windows are also purple. There's minimal sticker detail here. There are four altogether. On either side are gold stickers with two black arrows. Under the front window of the driver's section is a silver and black Decepticon symbol. On the back of the figure is a heat sensitive Decepticon symbol. It's not ultra complex in terms of sticker detail, but that fits with the theme of relatively simple vehicle modes leading to more complex looking robot modes. Scavenger's shovel arm can move in two places, the base and the middle. The entire base of the vehicle can also turn in a circle. If you want Scavenger to go from a construction vehicle to a rolling weapon, you can attach one of Devastator's forearm pieces to the two pegs on the right side of the vehicle. You can then insert one of the drills into the forearm piece to give him a weapon or a projectile to fire. Despite being a vehicle on treads, be very careful pretending to have Scavenger "drive" around. He has no wheels on the underside of his treads, so if you push him around on the ground you'll wind up scraping the plastic up. Transformation to Robot Mode:
Robot Mode: Scavenger's colors are pretty much split in half. The top of his body is green-yellow while the bottom half is purple. In the middle is a vacuum metallized piece that goes from his chest to his waist area. His head is cast in black. Like the other Constructicons, details are provided by several stickers on the figure. In this case there are nine going from his chest down to his feet. The stickers on his chest are shaped the same, but have different details. They also use the same colors as the other Constructicon stickers including silver, red, yellow, blue and black. He also has a Decepticon symbol on the left side of his chest. Scavenger has three points of articulation in this form. He can move his arms up and down and his legs can swing forward thanks to his transformation scheme. All his joints are tight, however his feet have a tendency to pop off when you're turning them. It's not a huge deal as they slip right back in.
Function: Construction
Scrapper is almost completely green-yellow in this form. His wheels are cast in black with silver on the sides. He has two stickers in this form. On the front is a silver and purple Decepticon symbol while he has a heat sensitive symbol on the back. I'm not sure why, but the plastic used for the canopy is a slightly different shade of green-yellow than the rest of the vehicle form. Scrapper can roll on all four of his wheels and his shovel can be moved up and down. You can attach Devastator's chest shield to the pegs on the back of the figure. Not only does this give him some weaponry, but I always imagined that it also gives him the ability to fly. I also noticed that the canopy cover is glued down in this version, whereas in my G1 Scrapper the piece comes off very easily.
Transformation to Robot Mode:
Robot Mode: This mode adds purple and vacuum metallized plastic to the colors in the form of his upper body and legs respectively. The purple section of his body is full of stickers (nine altogether) that have various mechanical looking details including crosshairs on the left side of his chest and shapes like rectangles and circles on the other stickers. It uses the same palette as the other Constructicon stickers including silver, red, yellow, blue and black. On his legs are two stickers at the knees. The sticker details definitely add a lot of cool details to the figure and it would look super dull without them. Scrapper has four points of articulation. His arms can move up and down and his lower legs can swing back thanks to the transformation scheme. All his joints are tight, but his arms aren't as tight as the ones on my G1 Scrapper. They're not loose at all however. They can hold up just fine, but they just don't feel super tight.
Function: Giant Warrior Transformation to Combined Mode (starting with vehicle modes):
The most prominent "new" details on Devastator are the stickers on his chest armor and waist armor. The chest armor has several angled and sleek details that align in design with the ones on the individual Constructicons. The designs include vent-like lines, triangles and circles. The waist plate has angled details on the sides and rectangular details in the middle with a triangle in the center. Silver paint is used on the crest and face while the eyes are painted yellow. There are only two articulation points on the figure: the arms. Each can move up and down. If you want to stretch things a bit, the point at which the forearms connect to Scavenger and Bonecrusher can also serve as an articulation point. If you really want to stretch even further, his hands can turn at the wrist. They can also be launched at enemies and replaced with the drill weapons or Mixmaster's "head" missiles. For the most part, all the joints and parts connect very well. However, there is one exception. Bonecrusher's connection to Hook is not that strong. If you turn him to the side and shake him a bit Bonecrusher goes sliding right off. Out of everything I've noticed in this review thus far this is perhaps the biggest flaw in the figure. The thing is, I can't guarantee that it would happen on every single set out there. It could just be mine or a particular day's run of this figure. However it is something to keep an eye out for.
Final Thoughts:
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Vehicle Mode:
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Devastator (aka Devastar in Japan) is a name that holds a lot of resonance with Transformers fans. Say it to almost any fan, old or new and their faces light up with some positive reaction, be it recognition, happiness or reverence. Devastator is a really crazy looking robot if you think about it. He looks like a mash up of construction vehicles and there are few details here you couldn't have seen by looking at the Constructicons separately. The robot head is the primary "new" design. He has a large central crest over wide eyes and a face with a protruding chin piece. Attached to the side of his head is a weapon that is absent from most of his television show and comic book interpretations. The wing shaped chest armor gives him a cool, sleek look that he wouldn't have otherwise. I enjoy the way all the various panels and pieces used for extra weaponry on the vehicle modes of the Constructicons easily double as Devastator parts.
