Name: Great Cannon
Series: Japanese Generation 1
Allegiance: Decepticon
Alternate Mode: Flatbed Military Truck
Thanks to tha phantom for loaning me Great Cannon for this review
TRUCK MODE
Height: 5cm Length: 23cm Width: 4cm
A blue and grey flatbed truck, Great Cannon has green diamond lattice stickers at the back while his twin cannons on the top are black. His colours are actually fairly close to Onslaught's - he's surprisingly similar to the original version of this mould. There's even Destron logos on the sides of the cab. His windows and front grille are black and there's some new stickers on the top of the hood. Unlike his teammates, he retains the rubsign indent.
This is a very long vehicle mode. The back half of the truckbed is bare, and you can put one of his teammates there quite easily (although Shuttle Gunner is way out of scale). You can remove the twin cannons from the front half to give him even more flatbed space - allowing you to fit two smaller guys on his back.
The twin cannons on his back can shoot forward or point up, they swing to about 88 degrees, so not quite straight up. He's got five sets of wheels (one in front, two rear, two middle), and can roll pretty freely, although he wont roll very far on these hard, ridged, plastic wheels.
Lastly he has a base mode, which basically consists of splitting the rear of the truck, placing a ramp (supplied specially for the purpose) between the halves, swinging the cab halves to the sides and placing the twin cannons over the exposed robot head. It's not really much to get excited about, but it does bring some play value to the set.
TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE
Flip the rear section up, then pull the folded part down and separate the halves. Fold the sides of the cabin out and down. Stand him up and pull out the fists. Attach the chestplate and give him his handgun. It's a simple transform but it works.
ROBOT MODE
Height: 19cm Width: 8cm
Great Cannon is again largely blue, a light grey groin and dark grey midriff. His thighs, fists and head are black while his eyes are a jeep orange (almost red). He has quite a few stickers which are mostly silver and very different to those of Onslaught. There's a Destron symbol on the one on his chestplate. He does look more distinct from Onslaught now, partially because of the stickers but also because of the two tone grey on his torso - which I like the look of.
Tall and a tad on the lanky side, as you'd expect from a truck toy, it's also very boxy. But it looks pretty good. Great Cannon's chest is metal, not plastic. The dual cannons are on his back in this mode, and they look pretty good there, even though what you see is the hollow undersides.
His poseability is in his arms. By virtue of three joints in each shoulder, you can do a lot with his arms. The joints are pretty rigid, too, thanks to them having to support the weight of Battle Gaia's arms. The head can turn 360 degrees, which is unusual for a G1 toy. The turning head _isn't_ needed for his transformation, either, which is a nice touch.
I can't really nail down any serious negatives in this mode, and there's a fair few positives. I'm surprised by the two tone grey and feel it works well. He's still quite subtle in his colours but notably brighter than Onslaught.
VARIATIONS
None as such. He was only sold in the Battle Gaia giftset. He shares the mould with Onslaught & Dreiler.
OVERALL
Simple, but everything works. He's got play value in his base mode, he's got good poseability for the time, and both modes look pretty good. He's a cartoon character, albeit not a major one, so there's another reason to get him. And of course you can't really make Battle Gaia without him. Without too much wrong with him, I give Great Cannon 8.5/10
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