Cliffbee.com European Bonecrusher Toy Review

Individual Review




Name: Bonecrusher (well, none officially)
Series: "European" Generation 1
Allegiance: Decepticon
Alternate Mode: Bulldozer



DOZER MODE
Height: 4cm Length: 7.5cm Width: 3.5cm

   Almost totally yellow, Bonecrusher has the same black grill as the Green Bonecrusher and a grey roof. Otherwise he's all yellow. The grey roof means he's slightly more colourful than the original, although it looks a little weird. The arms of the tray are almost grey, but are more or less concealed. The interplay between the grey roof and the rest of the toy is worse on Bonecrusher than his teammates, so this is my least favourite colour scheme of this set.

   Bonecrusher has no wheels on which to roll, so he just slides along on his fixed treads. His shovel can tilt up and down, however. He's of limited play value, although he's not really far behind the other Constructicons. Despite this, he looks convincing as a dozer, though the way he transforms can make him hard to hold together once the joints get a bit loose. Thankfully, mine's still tight enough to stay together when I slide him around, despite his age. Oh, he can carry Devastator's wrist with a missile replacing the fist on top of the engine block, but it looks pretty stupid - and it's purple on a totally devoid-of-purple yellow bulldozer. This version doesn't come with the necessary launcher, incidentally.

   I'm not so keen on the colours, but it's a fairly good bulldozer for the size, although with limited play value. The colours are realistic enough, mind you - just a little incongruous on this toy.

TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE

   Fold back the roof, swing out the sides of the engine block, swing up the shovel. Fold up his head, fold out the treads to form the legs, slide the tips of the treads and fold them up to form his feet. Rotate the arms and fold them down. Give him his gun.

ROBOT MODE
Height: 9.5cm Width: 6.5cm

   Again, he's largely yellow, now with a black head, purple groin, chrome silver arms and black fists. By virtue of a very innovative transform, he's got no kibble, since the shovel is now his chestplate. He's also rather stocky & tough looking, since his arms actually stick out and then point down. Basically his upper arms are stuck pointing outwards. This is appropriate for Bonecrusher, mind you, he's meant to be a brute and something of a thug. Oh, he also has a much bigger upper torso than lower torso, which enhances this stocky look.

   He can look down and he's able to look up since his legs fold back, but his real poseability is in his arms. The shoulders rotate freely, and his elbows fold (albeit out to the sides). Sounds weird, but his arms can hold a gun to the side or point it forward.

A very nice robot mode to display, by virtue of his stockiness, which I really like. It's innovative, Bonecrusher ends up with less kibble than most of his teammates. The colours on this version are pretty much equal to those on the original, and the grey is barely noticeable.   

VARIATIONS

   A repaint of the original green version, of course. There was a yellow G2 version, which featured a lighter purple and the yellow instead of grey plastic.

OVERALL

   One of the better Constructicon moulds, since the transformation is really clever and both modes work well. I'm not so keen on how the new colours fit the bulldozer mode, so I'd recommend the original or G2 versions over this one. Of course, this one was sold without the parts for Devastator and isn't show accurate, so while it's worthwhile if you find it cheap, but since this group can't combine, I wouldn't bother hunting it down - 6/10

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