Name: Hook (well, none officially)
Series: "European" Generation 1
Allegiance: Decepticon
Function: Surgical Engineer
Alternate Mode: Crane
Thanks to Griffin for loaning me Hook, making this review possible.
CRANE MODE
Height: 4cm Length: 9cm Width: 3.5cm
A yellow and silver crane with dark purple windows and black tyres. He has a chrome silver hook, as well as silver mechanical bits in the middle of the vehicle, which are a combination of chrome plastic and metal. Unlike the original green Hook, this version lacks the metal peg in the middle of the right side which once allowed Bonecrusher to attach. He still retains some die cast metal on the central piece, however. There's a front cab for the driver and a rear cab for the cab operator, both on the right hand side.
Hook has two sets of rear tyres and one set of front tyres, and all roll freely. The rear section supports the crane and its cabin can swivel 360 degrees - which is great considering it's not part of his transformation or part of the transformation to Devastator. The arm can lift up, and has a grey extending front section. The hook itself can move back and forth to accommodate the shifting angle of the arm. This version lacks an attack mode, since Devastator's head is no longer included, although the black handgun can still attach to the left of the driver's cabin.
Hook has probably the best vehicle mode of the Constructicons, because of the play value allowed in the crane mechanism. The colours work well here, and this is probably the only European Constructicon where the grey plastic doesn't bother me.
TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE
Extend the front section, fold over the legs and push the front back in. Pull the arms out from the sides, flip the head up. Give him his handgun.
ROBOT MODE
Height: 10.5cm Width: 4.5cm
The yellow remains on his arms & lower legs in this mode, while his head is black with a silver face. His torso is dark purple and his thighs chrome silver. Hook is the tallest Constructicon, perhaps why he's the leader according to the specs (in the cartoon, Scrapper is boss).
Like Long Haul, Hook's robot mode is assymetrical, with the driver's cabin is on his left foot. It looks a tad strange, but at the same time it adds to the personality of this toy, and defines his robot mode as being derived from a crane, rather than being the bottom of some generic vehicle (e.g. the Sparkabots). His head folds down, so he can look at the ground, and he can swing his arms at the shoulders, otherwise he can't move. He has big shoulderpads formed from the rear of the truck, but his arms clear these and so they add to the appearance of the toy rather than wrecking his poseability.
His only real downside in this mode is the attachment of some kibble on the sides of his upper thighs, which basically consists of two blocks there to make sure the crane mode has no "waist". They don't drag him down much, and they're the only fault I can find with Hook anyway.
VARIATIONS
A repaint of the original Hook minus the connecting peg and Devastator parts. This version is quite similar to the yellow G2 Hook, albeit with a darker purple and with the grey plastic (which was yellow on the G2 toy).
OVERALL
Hook was always my favourite Constructicon and I'm happy this version works well - better than most of the European Constructicons do. The peg isn't really missed on Hook himself. I'd still recommend either G1 or G2 Hook over this toy, purely because this guy cannot combine even _with_ the Devastator parts. If you're not interesting in combining, then this is a nice figure - 7/10
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