Name: Build Hurricane
Series: Car Robots (Robots in Disguise)
Allegiance: Cybertron
Alternate Mode: Power Shovel
SHOVEL MODE
Height: 8cm Length: 13cm Width: 7cm
Build Hurricane is a pine green shovel not unlike Scavenger, although the greens are vastly different. The shovel arm itself is a grass green plastic while the treads are dark silver. Both green plastics used are slightly metallic, and the driving mechanisms on the outsides of the treads are painted grass green. There are some light silver hints here and there, mostly some robot mode surfaces peeking through save for the engine vents on the sides. This is a pretty good colour scheme that does a good job of not being a Constructicon clone, which I appreciate for a toy that's on the other side. It's probably not as visually appealing as the colours of his teammates, but it's still strong nonetheless.
The cabin sits on the left side of the vehicle and has smoky transparent windows, and the arm attaches to the right. The central block turns, although the rear of the lower platform is hollow, so you're better off moving it a little rather than a lot. The arm hinges at the base and midway, while the bucket swings back and forth. The hinge at the base doesn't quite move far enough for him to scoop up dirt, but I don't really plan to use him for that so I can deal with this restriction. There are small wheels underneath the treads, but they're too small for him to really roll, and the treads don't hold together as well as I'd like anyway.
The level of detail here is pretty good, as you'd expect of a Car Robots mould. There's grip on the front of the platform, engine covers around the vents, moulded pistons on the arm and teeth on the bucket. The treads have moulded links and the sides have moulded driving wheels and such as I've already mentioned.
I'm slightly disappointed by the hollow back and the treads that don't quite hold together, and these are the two main flaws of the toy for me. The play value doesn't work as well as the other deluxe members of the Build Team. Still, the detail is there and the colours are good making this a solid shovel mode.
TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE
Remove the shovel arm and set aside. The treads contort to become his legs, and there are about twelve joints involved. The central block opens up to reveal the chest and head, with the cabin becoming the left forearm and the plain green section opposite becomes the other forearm. The shovel arm becomes a sort of melee weapon, which can deploy over his head or fits into his left hand. The hands are actually claws that fold out from the forearms.
ROBOT MODE
Height: 15cm Width: 9cm
Again based around pine green, Build Hurricane has dark silver legs and claw-hands, light silver elbows and groin and grass green feet and a grass green head with a silver face and orange eyes. The colour scheme is more varied, yet still retains the same darkish theme the shovel mode has. I'm not a huge fan of the dark colours here, since they don't quite match the lighter colours of his comrades, this is mainly because the light silver is used quite sparingly on Build Hurricane.
Build Hurricane is both poseable and unstable, which isn't such a great combination. The idea was right, but it doesn't work quite as well as you might hope. The head turns, the shoulders rotate, the elbows are ball jointed while there are hinges at the bottom of the long elbows, and the claws swing back and forth. The hips and knees are restricted ball joints, working as swivels and hinges respectively. The groin is formed from an assortment of silver pieces, none of which clip together - it's held together by the tightness of the transformation joints. Combine this with a lack of heelspurs and you get a robot mode that should be poseable but isn't really capable of much other than relaxed poses. The arm poseability is fairly good, but the claws limit the imagination.
With long, straight legs and long chunky arms, Build Hurricane is a little muddled visually, although the lopsided claws and shovel-arm weapon mean this works as a theme rather than a mess of parts. The brow above his head simulated the lip of a shovel and the shovel itself has a silver "claw" that pops out, giving him a giant claw-weapon.
As you can probably tell I'm not a huge fan of this robot mode. The idea is a good one, but the loose groin both causes stability problems and makes posing him a pain since every time you move a leg you have to reform the groin. The claw-hands don't quite work for me on a toy that has a claw weapon anyway, although as claws for hands go they're fairly good ones.
VARIATIONS
Released by Hasbro as Grimlock, who sports a big Autobot logo on the side window of the cabin - which is a really dumb place to put it. Grimlock has some gold paint added, most noticeably on the bucket and the engine covers. The lazy placement of the Autobot symbol makes me prefer Build Hurricane by some distance.
OVERALL
The shovel mode is pretty good and the colours are fairly good, but the robot mode just drags the toy down. He's by no means a bad toy, and for a combiner Build Hurricane is a pretty nifty toy. A little more engineering effort in the robot mode would have made a big difference for me. The weakest Build Team member, despite being the most innovative - 6.5/10
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