Name: Devastator
Series: Generation 1
Allegiance: Decepticon
Function: Warrior
Alt Mode: None, formerly a gestalt
ROBOT MODE
Height: 9.5cm Width: 4.5cm
Not quite the lime green super robot we saw last time around, Devastator is a greenish yellow figure with a purple chestplate and purple lower arms. The best comparison I can think of for his green is the colour of a tennis ball. His head is black with a silver face and red eyes, his thighs are charcoal along with his handgun. There is some green detailing on his feet (the wheels of Scrapper and wheels and windshield of Mixmaster). The basic colour pattern matches the gestalt, although the thighs have been added - there are no distinct thighs of any colour on the Constructicon gestalt. Considering the original was a foot tall, it's no surprise that there's less detail here and that a lot of the little purple bits have been left out. I'm happy with the paint job - the figure is instantly recognisable as Devastator without being overly detailed - which would have ruined the look of the figure at this scale.
Devastator is easy the most unusual Actionmaster conceptually, being a scaled down figure of a gestalt. The arms are recognisable as Scavenger and Bonecrusher, the waist is clearly Long Haul's grille and the boots are recognisable as Scrapper and Mixmaster, the latter probably the most obvious component. Hook is nowhere to be seen, but then he was covered by the chestplate anyway. The head, face and chestplate are a good replica of the original and while the gun is not purple, it's modelled on the giant purple gun that came with Mixmaster. Some of the little changes made (proportions, joints) are based on the cartoon Devastator - this is as close as we're ever going to get to that version of the character although at the size of an individual Constructicon, Devastator won't tower over anyone - not even Gears, one of the shortest G1 toys.
As a standalone figure the asymmetry makes Devastator one of the more interesting Actionmasters, even if at this scale the character might not quite work. A replacement for the set of Constructicons this is not, but as a tribute to the character, it works (in much the same way as the recent MyClone and SCF figures from Takara work).
Poseability is identical to that of every other Actionmaster - the head turns, the shoulders rotate, the knees bend and the hips are G.I.Joe style ball joints based on an internal metal T. The leg poseability is far better than that of the gestalt version, although his arms are actually less poseable, since he lacks elbow joints. Still, this toy wont fall apart if you look at it, something that the gestalt is likely to do.
THE PARTNER - SCORPULATOR
A black scorpion with fluorescent yellow mouthparts, pincers, legs and tail. Scorpions usually have eight legs, while this one has six. Still, other than that it's a decent scorpion with a hinged tailed. As Actionmaster partners go it's probably one of the better executed animals, although I really don't see why they gave Scorpulator to Devastator - it's a good sidekick but not for him.
There's a yellow button at the base of the tail that causes the head to flip over. You can attach the handgun to the barrel that flips out. Fold down the tail, swing up the claws and detach the legs (which become a rather silly backpack for Devastator) and you've got a giant gun for Devastator. It actually looks pretty good although on mine it's too heavy for the loose shoulders to support. If you leave the scorpion legs attached they'll end up in Devastator's face so if you don't like the backpack idea, just put them to one side for this mode. I want to go on record as saying that the regular handgun looks better than the Scorpulator gun.
VARIATIONS
None that I know of, although there have been at least four different gestalt versions of the character.
OVERALL
It's a strange quirk of Transformers history that this toy remains the only toy that's purely Devastator. Which is both it's best and worst aspect. The upside is that this is a nice little tribute to the G1 cartoon's ultimate bad guy, the downside is that you don't get the sense of scale that the gestalt has (nor the six Constructicons, obviously). It's a pretty interesting idea for an Actionmaster and for what it is, this toy works pretty well, but it's really more for the Actionmaster fans than G1 cartoon fans. Scorpulator is a good sidekick, but the pair are mismatched. As weird as he looks next to other classic character Actionmasters, Devastator is a decent toy if you're an Actionmaster fan - 6.5/10
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