Name: Huffer
Series: Power Core Combiners
Allegiance: Autobot
Alternate Mode: Longnose Truck Cab
Thanks to fatbot for loaning me Huffer for this review
TRUCK MODE
Height: 4.5cm Length: 10cm Width: 4.5cm
An amber longnose truck with black painted windows, black lights on the roof and a black front. The grille and exhausts are painted silver while the headlights are painted yellow. For some reason the top of the engineblock is painted a bright enamel orange - which clashes with the amber. Huffer sports the obligatory mid blue blocks of this line, sitting fairly conspicuously on the back end of the truck. The amber, along with the choice of vehicle, clearly tributes G1 Huffer, but that toy had a much more sensible colour scheme - the enamel orange & mid blue really hurt this vehicle mode.
This truck has six black plastic tyres - two at the front and four at the back, under sculpted fenders. There are two sets of sculpted fueltanks above the front fenders - the rear pair are actually well used transformation hinges. There's a black block where the hitch should be, and on top of this is a hardpoint. There are black stamped Autobot logos on either door.
The play value is pretty much what we'd expect. The six tyres roll, and the ridges make noise as Huffer rolls along. Huffer's wheels actually roll very well, and he'll happily roll along the table if you push him off. Caliburst can of course pop onto the back - he clips onto the hardpoint as a transparent blue & silver cannon. The actual barrel can lift up, and if you lift it up and face Caliburst backwards, Huffer will look like a tow truck.
A decent truck with good play value and a useful Minicon partner, although Huffer's vehicle mode is held back by stupid colour choices. The blue blocks look bad and the orange on the engine is far too random for a colour that clashes with his primary colour.
TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE
Lift the block, split both the block and roof, swing the halves out and forward to form the arms. Stand him up on the back end of the truck, which is the feet & split the legs. Swing the arms down and rotate the forearms. Flip up the head and you're done. By modern standards this is a very simple transformation for a Scout.
ROBOT MODE
Height: 11cm Width: 7cm
An amber and black robot, Huffer has amber boots and an amber groin while the upper arms, head & thighs are black. His chest is painted navy blue. His forearms & eyestrip are painted silver while the face is painted a light metallic blue. There are some yellow painted details on his torso along with a small red stamped Autobot logo on the left side of his chest. This colour scheme is a lot better since the blue & enamel orange aren't around anymore. The G1 tribute is pretty much non-existent here.
Aside from the tyres on his hips & on the outside of the boots, this robot mode is pretty generic and uninteresting. Which isn't to say Huffer looks bad, but there's not a lot of detail, a lot of black and pretty much no truck since this is essentially the underside of his truck mode.
The poseability here is a highlight. The head turns and fold forward while the shoulders, elbows & hips are all ball jointed. The knees are hinged with rotators. The blue blocks which allow him to plug into drones (not included) now form very useful heelspurs on the back of his feet, making this a very stable robot mode. Caliburst plugs into the hardpoint underneath his right forearm, forming a weapon. It works well enough even if Caliburst's legs hanging out the back under Huffer's elbow are very much kibble. Caliburst can form a chestplate and attach to a small post that flips on from Huffer's chest, but I'd recommend against this - you'll either have the cannon sticking up, covering his face, or pointing down - and frankly the less said about how that looks, the better.
While it looks quite generic, this robot mode is very playable thanks to good jointing, useful heelspurs (even if they are needlessly blue) and a pretty good weapon mode for his sidekick. This is Huffer's stronger mode, simply because colours hurt the truck mode so much.
CALIBURST
A transparent blue robot with silver wings behind his arms, silver thighs and a giant silver cannon hanging off his left arm. His face is painted metallic silver while the rest of head and his chest are transparent. He looks pretty good, thanks to the wings and the cannon. Considering that he forms a decent weapon for both of Huffer's modes, this is a nice robot mode. His poseability is pretty good, aside from the face his shoulders lift out to the side only. Incidentally, the colours tribute the original holder of the name well.
VARIATIONS
None that I'm aware of.
OVERALL
A mixed bag, Huffer has great play value and a good little Minicon, but a boring look in robot mode and some really dumb colour choices in vehicle mode. The play value is enough for this toy to work - the poseability of both figures is good. I'm going to hold out for a repaint, but I'd recommend this mould if you like the Energon line - 7/10
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