General Information:
Price Point/Size: Supercon
Retailers: General (K-Mart, Toys R Us, Wal-Mart, Kay Bee)
Release Date: July 2002
Transformation Difficulty Level: 3 (Advanced)
Accessories: Blackout Mini-Con figure, Four missiles

• In Package
• Blackout (Vehicle Mode)
• Blackout (Attack Vehicle Mode)
• Blackout (Robot Mode)
• Blackout (Robot Mode with radar)
• Vehicle Mode
• Vehicle Mode (Blackout attached to missile launcher)
• Vehicle Mode (Blackout attached to side)
• Vehicle Mode (Close up)
• Vehicle Mode (Blackout attached)
• Vehicle Mode (Blackout detached)
• Vehicle Mode (Blackout in pilot seat)
• Vehicle Mode (Rear, seat up)
• Vehicle Mode (Rear, seat folded down)
• Attack Base Mode
• Robot Mode
• Robot Mode (Blackout attached to shoulder)
• Robot Mode (Blackout attached to lower arm)
• Robot Mode (Blackout attached to arm)
• Robot Mode (Close up)

In concept, Demolishor seems to be the descendent of Beast Machines Tankor. Make a nice, bulky, heavily armed Transformer tank that uses a desctructive sounding name with "or" at the end. In all honesty, not a bad idea. Every army needs its desctructive brute, and the Decepticons now have Demolishor. Demolishor comes with the Mini-Con, Blackout. This review will first briefly cover Blackout and then move on to Demolishor and how the two figures interact.

Vehicle Mode:
Blackout is a multi-purpose vehicle. He seems to be both a battle vehicle and a communications vehicle. He has two cannons on either side as well as a radar dish on the back of the vehicle. He somewhat resembles a mobile field base from the Mechwarrior series of games. Nice touches on his sculpt include doors molded into the sides, details on te radar dish and detailed cannon tips.

Blackout's primary color is dark red. His cannon ends are orange and the top of the vehicle is a metallic beige. These colors of course match up with Demolishor's colors.

Blackout's cannons can be folded down to the sides of the vehicle or moved to the top. When folded up, the vehicle is in "attack mode".

Transformation to Robot Mode:
Swing the arms out to the sides. Swing back the wheel sections which form the robot legs. The radar dish can go up or down depending on whether you want Blackout in "radar mode" or not.

Robot Mode:
Blackout looks rather odd in robot mode, yet at the same time appropriate. His eyes are actually a visor, but it seems to get cut off at one point by a monacle, perhaps a scanner of some sort. He has no hands, just the lasers at the ends of his arms. The Mini-Con symbol is molded into his chest. Blackout looks thoroughly robotic, without the more organic or human influences of a rounded face or scrunched up facial expression.

The eyes are silver (until they cut off at the monacle). The chest is mostly orange painted over the dark red plastic.

Blackout is a fun little toy and his look harks back to a very classic appearance for robots of any series.

Vehicle Mode:
Demolishor's vehicle mode is a tank. His primary colors are metallic beige and red. His missiles are light grey while parts of the main body are dark grey (such as the treads and missile bases). Silver is used for the front of the turret base and the guns mounted on top of the missile launchers. In a move that shows how well a paint job can bring details out, the base of the vehicle above the treads has been given a black wash. This coloring accentuates all the sculpted detail on those parts, and truly makes the toy look fantastic. It also serves to give the toy a used look, as if the tank has been in battle many times before. Excellent work.

The sculpt for this mode is wonderfully done. The details brought out by the black wash include bolts,wires and vents. On the main body of the tank is a molded Decepticon symbol (something that is seemingly standard for the line) painted purple. A green hatch appears to be the entrance to the inner workings of this war machine. With fourteen potential points of firepower, Demolishor easily earns his name.

Blackout can interact with Demolishor in an impressive number of ways. The simplest is acting as a driver. On the back portion of the vehicle, you will see a dark grey section with an X. This can be flipped around to form a seat. Blackout can fit right in there and even lend his firepower by pointing his arms forward.

Blackout can also connect to Demolishor in vehicle mode. Make sure Blackout is in vehicle mode with the arms out to the sides (cannons pointing forward) and the radar dish down flat. Blackout's head connects to the grey tab on the lower section of Demolishor. Now press the button in front of the back seat and Blackout launches out the front. Having Blackout as an addition to Demolishor is nice as well since he adds his firepower once again.

Now what about those huge honking missiles? The bad news is that only one side launches. The good news is that it is a fairly neat gimmick. Attach Blackout to the left side missile launcher. This extends the missile base a bit. Then tug on the Mini-Con attached and the missiles will fire. This gimmick will not function unless a Mini-Con is attached. Very interesting.

A variant on the vehicle mode is the Attack Base mode. You can change the tank into the attack base by following these steps:

1. Flip up the chair in the back of the vehicle.
2. Fold the treads down on the hinges a bit, allowing you to swivel the upper section of the tank around 180 degrees.
3. Put the treads back into their original position.
4. Swing the tank treads forward, and swing down the edge of the tank tread slightly.
5. Angle the tank treads so the weapons face up slightly.
6. Blackout can sit in the seat as a gunner/pilot.

Transformation to Robot Mode (from tank mode):

1. Swing back the treads, and fold the ends down so they are at a righ angle with the treads.
2. Swing down the tread covering from the back down, then fold the front of the treads on top of those sections to form the robot legs.
3. Swing down the hinges that the legs are connected to so both meet in the middle.
4. Rotate the upper body around 180 degrees.
5. Slide the halves of the turret section to the sides, revealing the robot head. Flip up the robot head.
6. Straighten out the missile launchers and fold down the lower arms (the silver guns are his fingers).

Robot Mode:
Although not many new colors crop up in this mode, Demolishor still owes a lot of his aesthetic to his sculpt and the wash on his legs. Without the missile launching arms in the way, his chest is a bit more visible, and the silver on it works well. The robot face is black with green eyes.

Some details stand out more in this mode than the vehicle mode. The robot head is nicely sculpted, with one eye looking more like some type of targeting system over his right eye. The chest has nice intricate mechanical details on the silver portions while the use of the silver barrels as his fingers is both interesting and appropriate at the same time.

Demolishor has eleven points of articulation as a robot. This includes elbow, knee and waist articulation. Mini-Cons can attach to Powerlinx points on his upper and lower arms, adding to his firepower. You can activate his missile launching feature in this form if you point the left arm missiles forward.

Although some may consider the Mini-Con features too gimmicky, I think they really add a lot of play value and fun to the toy. The sculpt is also very nice, so what you have is something both aesthetically pleasing and fun.