Name: Devastator (actually "Constructicon Devastator" for some reason)
Series: Transformers Universe
Allegiance: Decepticon
Alternate Mode: N/A - Gestalt comprising Bonecrusher, Scavenger, Buckethead, Hightower, Quickmix & Long Haul
Notes: These guys are actually sold separately, but at such a low pricepoint I can't imagine why collectors would pick and choose - hence the single review. I'll be making references to the original set, SixBuilder and Devastator, the inspiration for this repaint.
BONECRUSHER
Bulldozer Mode Height: 2.5cm Length: 5cm Width: 3cm
Robot Mode Height: 5.5cm Width: 3cm
The original version of this toy was a lime green dozer, the reissue Crush Bull was pine green, and we've come full circle - Bonecrusher is a light green bulldozer, although I'd call this spearmint rather than lime green. His shovel is black and his treads painted black, while the windows are a dark purple. The green and purple in this set correspond closely with the G1 Constructicons. There are wheels on the underside and a small Decepticon logo on his engine and the grill is painted dark purple.
A nice little bulldozer, with an enclosed cabin and a lot of mould detail for it's size, particularly on the treads. The shovel itself can swivel up and down, with joints at the vehicle ends of the arms.
He rolls reasonably well, and the shovel is made of a soft plastic so you won't fracture it, although it might wear easily if you push it down as you roll him along. The matte shovel contrasts with the shiny black paint on his treads.
To transform him, pull the front and rear apart, fold the shovel underneath, fold back the grill to reveal the head and position the arms. Stand him up.
Bonecrusher was the greenest Construction in robot mode, and that's again the case here. His arms are black - the front halves of his treads - and his head purple with a silver face. The Decepticon logo is on his chest, but it's upside down now.
He's got jointed arms, his legs are two pieces but cannot move independently. A nice robot mode, although a little blocky. Good colours, good dozer, decent robot.
SCAVENGER
Backhoe Mode Height: 2cm Length: 5cm Width: 2cm
Robot Mode Height: 6cm Width: 2cm
A spearmint green backhoe with a black bucket arm. I'll get it out of the way now - they're all spearmint green vehicles with dark purple windows and black wheels. Anyway, Scavenger is a backhoe on a truck, not the power shovel he was in G1. There's a drivers cabin at the front and another at the rear left (Like G1 Hook). The arm is made of the same soft plastic as Bonecrusher's shovel. There's a fair bit of mould detailing. There's a Decepticon insignia on the door of his rear cabin.
Scavenger's got pretty good play value for a Micromaster. The wheels roll, of course. But then the backhoe assembly on the back of truck rotates, and the bucket arms is jointed both midway and at the base.
Transforming him involves folding the front down to form the legs, adjusting the arms and standing him up.
Scavenger's backhoe mode gives way to a green and purple robot mode. His head, torso and thighs are purple, legs, arms and overhead kibble green. He's got some silver around his waist, and a silver face. It's not a stunningly great robot mode, but it's not awful. The purple paint on his torso is awfully dark considering it's covered by a hood of overhead kibble. Overall a good vehicle mode and an okay robot mode.
Incidentally, Scavenger shares his mould with Digger, the only chase SixBuilder component I have, so I'll do a very quick comparison. Digger is a bright lime green, the windows are a lighter purple and the soft plastic on his arm is a lime green that's very barely brighter than the rest of the toy, rather than Scavenger's black. Digger's robot torso and thighs are all green, unlike the purple on Scavenger. In this respect, Scavenger works a _lot_ better.
BUCKETHEAD
Front End Loader Mode Height: 2cm Length: 5cm Width: 2.5cm
Robot Mode Height: 5cm Width: 2.5cm
One of the three toys in this set to miss out on a Constructicon name, Buckethead lines up with Scrapper, and has an entirely new name, not a name borrowed from somewhere else in the Transformers line like Quickmix or Hightower. So despite it being the weakest of the three names, it's my favourite.
Anyway he's a spearmint front end loader like Scrapper, without the canopy. There are purple struts (actually the robot arms), big black wheels and small, enclosed cabin towards the back, with unpainted windows. This cabin is actually quite small, too, suggesting this guy's vehicle mode is _big_. The Decepticon logo it's visible here, rather it's stamped on the bottom of the tray, which places it on the front of Devastator's chest but makes it no use to Buckethead in either mode.
The wheels roll pretty well, although the bucket can hinder them if you have it folded right down. You can lift it up all the way, incidentally.
Buckethead's transformation involves folding up the bucket, extending the rear section, positioning the arm, swivelling out the head and standing him up. It's worth noting that his arms are _behind_ the attachment points for his front wheels, so they can't really move that much.
The dominance of green continues into his robot mode. The thighs, head and arms are purple as well as some detail on his chest. His face is painted silver.
A pretty dull robot mode, and the arms being behind the wheels hurts. He's not awful, but neither mode is all that inspiring. The front end loader is his stronger mode.
HIGHTOWER
Crane Mode Height: 2cm Length: 5cm Width: 2cm
Robot Mode Height: 6cm Width: 2.5cm
A crane that's very similar to Hook, but missed out on the name due to trademark issues. There's not really much of a semblance to Hightower of RiD other than the crane mode itself. Hightower has the standard purple windows and black tyres, the crane arm itself is soft black plastic like Scavenger's arm. He has an Decepticon insignia on the door of his rear cabin, which is on the right hand side - mirroring Scavenger's left side cabin so they're both visible on Devastator.
Probably his only real shortcoming in this mode is the fact his middle set of tyres are painted on. The front and rear set are real and roll, however. Like Scavenger, his rear section rotates, and he has two joints on his arm. The middle one is only really there to fold the arm for robot mode. But his hook is jointed, which for me makes this mode. Crumble, the other Micromaster crane, had a solid cast hook, this is a tiny little hook that moves (c8
Transforming Hightower is almost the same as transforming Scavenger. Fold down the front, font back the front of the hook arm, stand him up and position the arms.
Hightower retains green on his arms, lower legs, head and overhead kibble. He's also got some green paint on his chest. The remainder of the torso and the thighs are purple. His face is painted silver. The overhead kibble is less prominent than on Scavenger, and doesn't really detract. He does have a tendency to fall backwards, but you can partially fold down the crane arm, so it's not really a problem.
QUICKMIX
Cement Mixer Mode Height: 2.5cm Length: 5cm Width: 2.5cm
Robot Mode Height: 5.5cm Width: 2.5cm
Just like Bonecrusher, this mould has seen its colours go from lime green to pine green back to a light green. Apparently the name Mixmaster was taken (by a turntable kit?) so they lifted the name of a Targetmaster cement truck instead. Like Hightower, he has three sets of wheels and the middle set are painted on, but they've painted on silver hubcaps - the first time I've ever seen this on dummy wheels! The drum is painted silver and the square exhaust stacks behind the cabin are painted black. The bumper is silver and his headlights are purple. There's a Decepticon insignia on the right hand door of his cab.
The mixing drum is solid cast, but the wheels roll. Well, four of the wheels roll. Otherwise not too much play value to be had. But Quickmix looks nice, and is well moulded. The shape is close to that of his G1 namesake's, and the colours close to Mixmaster.
Mixing's transform involve pulling the front and rear sections apart to extend the thighs, positioning the arms and standing him up.
The green from Quickmix's truck mode gives way somewhat in robot mode, now present only on the lower legs and the arms. His chest is painted black, his thighs are purple and his head silver, there are twin guns on either side of his head, painted green. He has a small amount of green kibble above his head, but it's minor.
The paint mask is impressive, and while the lower legs stick out a bit, the twin canons on the sides of his head are cool. One of the better toys in this set.
LONG HAUL
Dump Truck Mode Height: 2cm Length: 5cm Width: 2.5cm
Robot Mode Height: 6cm Width: 2.5cm
A big dump truck that's very similar to the G1 version, albeit with four black tyres instead of six. The front bumper, headlights and grille are all purple. With these big tyres, I suppose he hauls around open cut mine tailings in his spare time.
Long Haul rolls quite well, and he's got as much detail as you could ask for in a truck that's going to be low on detail.
To transform Long Haul, you fold down the tray to form the legs, fold the arms down and the head up and stand him up. This transformation is clearly inspired by the G1 toy.
The overall result of this transformation is a rather tall green Micromaster with purple outbursts. The purple is on his thighs, chest and head. There's more purple on this robot than the original, thanks to the purple truck front on his chest, and a purple head instead of black.
As mentioned, he's very tall, in fact slightly out of proportion. His shoulders have swivels but he can't quite lift his arms up to 90°, since his bumper gets in the way. This is nowhere near as bad as on Buckethead, but it's a flaw. Still, it's a very nice vehicle mode and a good transformation.
COMBINED MODE
Height: 17cm Width: 15cm
Join the dots. Basically you attach them all to the connecting pieces. Quickmix is the left leg, Long Haul the right leg. Scavenger is the right arm and Hightower the left. Buckethead forms the chest and Bonecrusher gets the dubious honour of forming the back. Leaving Bonecrusher out can be done, but he'll get lonely. There is some transforming to be done to each toy, but it's more or less 6 vehicles hooked up with connecting pieces. None of them actually connect to each other! Incidentally, only Quickmix and Scavenger are in the same positions as their G1 counterparts.
As with all of the Micromaster Gestalts, he's got a lot of connecting pieces. Most of which are green plastic, although the hands are painted black and purple, the head painted black with a silver face and the thighs painted purple. I'm not sure why the head wasn't done in black plastic and the hands not done in purple - there'll be more paintwear than necessary. The gun is black with some green painted onto the front, the base green plastic only visible on the handle. The feet and chestframe are purple plastic.
The colour scheme is very similar to the G1 Devastator's and there are a lot of other similarities such as the black hands and purple wrists, black head and green groin. He has a small Decepticon symbol on his chest - Buckethead's insignia finally makes good.
SixBuilder was always the Micromaster Gestalt I wanted the most down the years, and while I did pick up the reissue set, this repaint set is appealing enough on it's own. The combined form looks good, too, especially with Scavenger's bucket on one shoulder and Hightower's hook on the other. His shoulders swivel, although they can pop off.
VARIATIONS
The rare original SixBuilder giftset is the original version of this mould, and came with a sticker sheet. Then there was the recoloured SixBuilder reissue, and then the chase set which I suspect inspired Hasbro to use this colour scheme - although this is much more than a mass release of the chase set. No actual variants of this release that I know of.
OVERALL
A nice Gestalt with very strong G1 links. All six components have G1 equivalents and there are some strong homages here, including the Gestalt itself. Buckethead is probably the weakest component, but he's still a decent toy. This is a very well done repaint and it's obvious there's a lot of effort gone into it, which is atypical of the TFU line. I'd strongly recommend this set to G1 fans and Micromaster fans - 9.5/10
|
