Cliffbee.com G2 Scrapper Toy Review

Individual Review




Name: Scrapper
Series: Generation 2
Allegiance: Decepticon
Function: Construction Engineer
Alternate Mode: Payloader



PAYLOADER MODE
Height: 4cm Length: 9.5cm Width: 4cm

   A solid yellow payloder with four black ridged tyres, this version is as much about yellow as the original was about lime green. The roof is composed of a slightly softer plastic than the rest of the toy, but the shade is close enough to identical. While all yellow (or orange, if you have that version) is pretty uninteresting it's quite realistic so I don't mind at all. If you lift up the scoop at the front you'll find the G2 stamp, featuring a purple G2 Decepticon logo with the word "DECEPTICON" next to it. This is about the only splash of colour here.

   Scrapper has big plastic tyres (the same as Long Haul's tyres), and a big shovel on the front. The shovel moves up and down thanks to a joint at the base of its arms, but there's no joint at the shovel end of these arms - the arms and shovel are one piece. You can sort of see his robot arms on the sides of this mode, but they do a good enough job of being steps for a driver to get into the cab that it's not a big issue.

   While somewhat simple, it's not bad. An extra joint (or set of them, really) at the shovel's end of the arms would have made him a lot better, though. The colours work slightly better than those of the original, from a realism point of view, and certainly work better than the similar colours on the European version with its grey roof.

TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE

   Flip the rear section over to form the feet, lift the shovel halfway, pull the head out and fold the shovel the rest of the way. Position the arms and give him a gun.

ROBOT MODE
Height: 9.5cm Width: 4cm

   Again based around yellow, although this robot mode is more colourful. The arms and boots are yellow whilst his thighs are chrome silver, his head black and his chest purple. The purple on his chest is a shade lighter than the purple of G1, and suits the yellow quite well. His face is a simple, silver affair and there are some silver and red stickers on his torso. The colour map is quite good and the purple and yellow contrast well without being garish.

   Scrapper can move his arms at the shoulders, and you can fold his knees - thanks to the transform - but that's it for poseability. His body proportions are good, although his head is rather square, when it probably didn't have to be. The shovel on his back does make him back heavy but he still stands ok.

   While it's a simple robot mode, it looks nice enough and does what it has to do. Scrapper's robot shape is probably the best amongst the Constructicons.

VARIATIONS

   As mentioned, this is a repaint of the original Scrapper. G2 Scrapper was available in yellow and orange - I have the more common yellow version.

OVERALL

   One of the simplest combining Transformers, but in keeping things simple Scrapper works well enough. By the time this toy was released the mould was nearly 15 years old, so Scrapper doesn't quite measure up alongside G2's new moulds, but as a fan who appreciates G1 style I quite like this G2 repaint 7/10

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