Devastator

Review by siningy

Ever since the announcement of Hasbro’s Combiner Wars, Devastator has been probably been one of the most requested combiners to be made. Not to be content with the many 3^rd party iterations of the figure in recent years, the Combiners War Devastator was finally announced during Toyfair 2015. While not as complex as his 3^rd party counterparts, the Combiner Wars Devastator is quite a bit more affordable at $149.99 and significantly larger, standing at a whopping 18 inches.

To fit six voyager sized transformers, Devastator comes in an equally gigantic box. I actually had quite a bit of trouble trying to photograph it.

Unlike some of the other Combiner Wars combiners that have introduced new characters, Devastator has his six classic Constructicons. On the first pic from left to right, we have Bonecrusher (I forgot to lift the dozer blade), Scrapper, and Scavenger. In the second pic from left to right, we have Mixmaster, Long Haul, and Hook. I’m not sure if this was an oversight or intentional, but Hasbro actually doesn’t explain which weapons go to which Constructicons except for the two missile pod/arms that go to Scavenger and Bonecrusher. Maybe the weapons just go to whomever, but I went with some Botcon images for reference.

Starting in no particular order, we have Long Haul first. The biggest of the Constructicons, Long Haul transforms into a large Dump Truck which sadly does not feature a functional bed. He’s really bulky with a hinge on his elbows used for transformation rather than articulation. Since he makes up the lower body of the Devastator, the leg articulation is actually pretty decent, but he’s essentially got giant thighs as legs, so you can’t do too much with them.

As a kid, Hook was my favorite Constructicon because Crane vehicles are awesome. Sadly, the CW version is pretty disappointing in vehicle mode. The crane arm can lift up and down, but is a solid piece that cannot extend or rotate. In robot mode, the crane arm is so long it essentially acts as a third leg to keep Hook standing. Unlike Long Haul, Hook looks like a pretty good approximation of his G1 cartoon design. Hook transforms into the upper body of Devastator, and contains the combiner’s head.

Bonecrusher forms the left arm of Devastator, with his rocket fold unfolding into the forearm. Bonecrusher also looks similar to his cartoon design, but his legs are pretty floppy, and the dozer blade is too loose to lift anything up; chalk it up to questionable Transformers QC which just seems to be the norm these days.

Forming the left arm, Scavenger is another good cartoon representation of the character. The claw only has two points of articulation and the claw itself cannot move. Like Bonecrusher, his legs are also really floppy and the missile pod transforms into the right forearm.

As the leader of the Constructicons, Scrapper forms the right leg. For some reason, he has no elbow articulation and his weapons are apparently the two wings on Devastators chest which I honestly have no idea what they are supposed to represent; Weird looking guns or some sort of blades? Other than the lack of elbow articulation, he’s a pretty average figure.

The only other Constructicon I owned as a kid, Mixmaster is my favorite only because of his weird hood head thing. Unfortunately I accidentally photographed his Cement Mixer mode backwards so you are looking at the rear of the vehicle and not the front. If you look at him front facing, he looks good and similar to the cartoon design but the giant mixing drum hangs off at a weird angle and the G1 figure pulls it off much better. Mixmaster transforms into the left leg of Devastator.

I don’t think anyone is buying CW Devastator for the mediocre Constructicons, so the combined form is where the toy really shines. At about a foot and a half, Devastator is gigantic and looks fantastic. The Constructicons really feel like an afterthought compared to the combined mode, where Devastator has significantly better articulation than any of the individual figures. Everything stays together tightly with lots of parts locking in place so you can really play with the Devastator without worrying about things falling off. The calves also have a hidden joint to allow that allows him to properly stand with the legs splayed. The only thing a little weird are Scrappers arms forming a heel of sorts, but it’s a pretty minor thing. Given the large size and weight, Devastator is actually pretty well balanced and can stand on one foot pretty easily.

For the most part, I’ve lost a lot of the interest I once had in Transformers and actually bought Devastator more on an impulse seeing him at Toys R Us. I used a 20% coupon so it only ended up being 130 something, which feels like a more appropriate price than the 160 TRU was trying to charge. While it’s priced as six Voyager class figures, each individual Constructicon actually feels a bit disappointing and nowhere near the quality of an actual voyager class Transformer. Half the Constructicons lack elbow articulation and the vehicle modes just feel cheap with how simplified they are. I’m also probably being overly picky, but it just seems like every Transformer I have purchased in the past few years, be it a small Hasbro figure or Takara Tomy Masterpiece has had annoying QC issues. I’m not expecting figures to absolutely perfect, but when you compare the QC of Bandai Japan products to Transformers, it’s pretty irritating. With all that said, I’ll probably never display Devastator in his individual components, and the combined form does make up for a lot of the Contructicons shortcomings. It’s a giant super solid robot you can seriously play with without worries. Oddly enough, the Japanese Unite Warriors Devastator is quite a bit better, with proper elbow articulation and actual individual G1 weapons. If you are a hardcore Transformers fan, I think the UW version is definitely the one to get, but the CW Devastator is still a fantastic toy. Personally, I’d rather save that 100 dollars and spend it on other stuff. The only thing I really want are the G1 weapons and I’m sure some 3^rd party company will make them eventually.