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May. 7th, 2017 01:33 pmSo I got my Toyworld Constructor (3rd party Devastator) on Friday. Though disappointingly the Concrete (Mixmaster) figure was missing its chest piece. So I have a support ticket put in to hopefully get a replacement part, since its actually just a single piece that snaps into place.
Its funny, because I only started collecting a few weeks ago, and figured I missed the window for this set. So I had resigned myself to getting just the one based on Mixmaster since he was my favorite of the Constructicons. But then they decided to sell the entire set, along with the add ons for Burden (Long Haul), for cheaper than it would cost to get the other five figures, so I didn't think I should pass this up.
Anyways, I've checked the rest of the figures, and they seem to be fine, so like I said, its interesting of all the figures to have an issue, its the one I already had a spare of. Which is lucky.
Missing parts aside, this really is a great (but not prefect) set.
Pros- I love that these are Masterpiece scale. They're beefier than the MP scale Autobots, but that's to be expected since these are construction vehicles. Of course, because of that, the combined form is ridiculously huge.
Some say the individual figures are "uninspired" but I think the set does an accurate representation of the original figures, just upsized and updated in quality. The vehicle and robot forms are all pretty good. Like Scrapper, Longhaul, Hook, and Mixmaster, the original toys were simple, just flip the cab or rear end around, and there's the legs. It works similarly with these figures, but they actually have individual feet. Its a nice touch.
Bonecrusher and Scavenger are also marvels. The toys had fake tracks, just plastic pieces molded to look like tracks with wheels hidden in the bottom. I mean, it was necessary since you folded the ends out to form the feet. These figures, they actually have working tracks, and do a bit of clever magic to form the feet, which actually match the tracks.
As I said, the combined form is huge, and unlike the original, there's a good bit of articulation. I mean, G1 Devastator could move the arms a bit, but otherwise, it was just 6 robots clipped together as a robot shaped brick.
All in all, combined, robot, or vehicle mode, they look good.
Cons- Lots of partsforming in the combined form. I mean, with the amount of ingenuity they put into the individual forms, its disappointing they couldn't figure out how to form them into Devastator without extra kibble. Other 3rd party Devastator sets manage to do it.
Like the original Constructicons, Scrapper and Mixmaster, who form the legs, attached to Longhaul via a plastic piece that held them together. Now, this had no articulation, just a flat piece of purple plastic. But, at least in Longhaul's dump truck mode, the piece snapped on top of the rear open box bed to form a sort of bomb launcher.
Here, there's this large lower torso/thigh piece for the figures to snap onto, but they serve no other purpose than to be the upper legs. I mean, I know they did it for the articulation, but its silly.
Same for the upper arms and head. Now, the original figures, the lower arms could attach to pegs on Bonecrusher and Scavenger to make a missile launcher. Same for Hook, the head for Devastator could fold down and you could attach a gun to the side to make an "attack mode" for his crane form.
Here, they're just extra kibble. At last Hook can still attach his gun to his crane mode, but its disappointing to not have his head cannon. But that's better than Bonecrusher and Scavenger, who have no way to store their weapons in vehicle modes like the others. So sadly, they lack an "attack" mode like the rest of the team.
Scrapper's attack mode is great. Not only can he attach Devastator's chest piece to his rear to form his flying attack mode (which was always a little silly, because give a vehicle wings doesn't necessarily make it able to fly), he can also attached his gun.
The original Mixmaster's attack mode consisted of attaching Devastator's solar beam rifle, and Mixmaster's gun side by side on top of the vehicle. Concrete can still mount his gun on top of the cab, but the large rifle pegs onto either side. (Since I have two Concretes, I can actually attach two of the big-ass rifles, one on each side) The problem is the gun is too damn big. It looks a little balanced with two of them, but just one looks rather silly.
Hook and Long Haul's attack modes are rather boring, just insert their gun into a hole in the vehicle mode. But yeah, Long Haul's add ons consist of a cover for his rear bed, so in combined form there's not this vacant space on the back, and some lats. Now, since Hook in chest mode is wider than the width of Long Haul, originally his body was basically a T.
Now, to make his chest bulkier and for more support, they added these lat pieces. Unfortunately, like the thighs and forearm, these pieces serve no other purpose. I mean, there's a way to attack those pieces to the top of Burden/Long Haul's cab, but that looks stupid.
The other problem, which isn't limited to his set, is that like a lot of modern 3rd party Transformers, is that transformation can be a doozy. Like I applaud these makers to try and cut down on the kibble, but in the quest to make neat robot and vehicle forms, they've made some of these transformations pretty complex.
Seriously, some of these new Transformers I've collected, its taken me an hour to just transform it from one mode to the other. And then there's the fear of accidentally breaking things, so you're trying to be very careful and taking it slow. And a lot of these instruction booklets are confusing. Like they show diagrams, but they're often unclear, and I end up having to look things up on the internet.
Take Allocator/Hook for example. For a while I thought maybe this figure wasn't constructed correctly, because I couldn't press the forearms into the shoulder piece. Like examining the arms, I didn't see how you could, it was a hinge, so it seemed like there was no movement. But after looking closer with a flashlight, there was a large groove on the inside for the hinge part to slide down in order to make the parts of the arm flush for transformation into vehicle mode.
Heh, the cons section ended up being longer than the pros section, making one think this set is terrible. But like I said, its pretty good, it would be better if there wasn't so much extra kibble.
Its funny, because I only started collecting a few weeks ago, and figured I missed the window for this set. So I had resigned myself to getting just the one based on Mixmaster since he was my favorite of the Constructicons. But then they decided to sell the entire set, along with the add ons for Burden (Long Haul), for cheaper than it would cost to get the other five figures, so I didn't think I should pass this up.
Anyways, I've checked the rest of the figures, and they seem to be fine, so like I said, its interesting of all the figures to have an issue, its the one I already had a spare of. Which is lucky.
Missing parts aside, this really is a great (but not prefect) set.
Pros- I love that these are Masterpiece scale. They're beefier than the MP scale Autobots, but that's to be expected since these are construction vehicles. Of course, because of that, the combined form is ridiculously huge.
Some say the individual figures are "uninspired" but I think the set does an accurate representation of the original figures, just upsized and updated in quality. The vehicle and robot forms are all pretty good. Like Scrapper, Longhaul, Hook, and Mixmaster, the original toys were simple, just flip the cab or rear end around, and there's the legs. It works similarly with these figures, but they actually have individual feet. Its a nice touch.
Bonecrusher and Scavenger are also marvels. The toys had fake tracks, just plastic pieces molded to look like tracks with wheels hidden in the bottom. I mean, it was necessary since you folded the ends out to form the feet. These figures, they actually have working tracks, and do a bit of clever magic to form the feet, which actually match the tracks.
As I said, the combined form is huge, and unlike the original, there's a good bit of articulation. I mean, G1 Devastator could move the arms a bit, but otherwise, it was just 6 robots clipped together as a robot shaped brick.
All in all, combined, robot, or vehicle mode, they look good.
Cons- Lots of partsforming in the combined form. I mean, with the amount of ingenuity they put into the individual forms, its disappointing they couldn't figure out how to form them into Devastator without extra kibble. Other 3rd party Devastator sets manage to do it.
Like the original Constructicons, Scrapper and Mixmaster, who form the legs, attached to Longhaul via a plastic piece that held them together. Now, this had no articulation, just a flat piece of purple plastic. But, at least in Longhaul's dump truck mode, the piece snapped on top of the rear open box bed to form a sort of bomb launcher.
Here, there's this large lower torso/thigh piece for the figures to snap onto, but they serve no other purpose than to be the upper legs. I mean, I know they did it for the articulation, but its silly.
Same for the upper arms and head. Now, the original figures, the lower arms could attach to pegs on Bonecrusher and Scavenger to make a missile launcher. Same for Hook, the head for Devastator could fold down and you could attach a gun to the side to make an "attack mode" for his crane form.
Here, they're just extra kibble. At last Hook can still attach his gun to his crane mode, but its disappointing to not have his head cannon. But that's better than Bonecrusher and Scavenger, who have no way to store their weapons in vehicle modes like the others. So sadly, they lack an "attack" mode like the rest of the team.
Scrapper's attack mode is great. Not only can he attach Devastator's chest piece to his rear to form his flying attack mode (which was always a little silly, because give a vehicle wings doesn't necessarily make it able to fly), he can also attached his gun.
The original Mixmaster's attack mode consisted of attaching Devastator's solar beam rifle, and Mixmaster's gun side by side on top of the vehicle. Concrete can still mount his gun on top of the cab, but the large rifle pegs onto either side. (Since I have two Concretes, I can actually attach two of the big-ass rifles, one on each side) The problem is the gun is too damn big. It looks a little balanced with two of them, but just one looks rather silly.
Hook and Long Haul's attack modes are rather boring, just insert their gun into a hole in the vehicle mode. But yeah, Long Haul's add ons consist of a cover for his rear bed, so in combined form there's not this vacant space on the back, and some lats. Now, since Hook in chest mode is wider than the width of Long Haul, originally his body was basically a T.
Now, to make his chest bulkier and for more support, they added these lat pieces. Unfortunately, like the thighs and forearm, these pieces serve no other purpose. I mean, there's a way to attack those pieces to the top of Burden/Long Haul's cab, but that looks stupid.
The other problem, which isn't limited to his set, is that like a lot of modern 3rd party Transformers, is that transformation can be a doozy. Like I applaud these makers to try and cut down on the kibble, but in the quest to make neat robot and vehicle forms, they've made some of these transformations pretty complex.
Seriously, some of these new Transformers I've collected, its taken me an hour to just transform it from one mode to the other. And then there's the fear of accidentally breaking things, so you're trying to be very careful and taking it slow. And a lot of these instruction booklets are confusing. Like they show diagrams, but they're often unclear, and I end up having to look things up on the internet.
Take Allocator/Hook for example. For a while I thought maybe this figure wasn't constructed correctly, because I couldn't press the forearms into the shoulder piece. Like examining the arms, I didn't see how you could, it was a hinge, so it seemed like there was no movement. But after looking closer with a flashlight, there was a large groove on the inside for the hinge part to slide down in order to make the parts of the arm flush for transformation into vehicle mode.
Heh, the cons section ended up being longer than the pros section, making one think this set is terrible. But like I said, its pretty good, it would be better if there wasn't so much extra kibble.
