As with such a monumental occasion as the return of the original Transformers G1 Gestalt to toy shelves everywhere, a little time for reflection is well warranted. Canonball and DisThunder break down the giant into his components for a closer look…
Hasbro finally unleashed the beast. What has been a pipe dream for enthusiasts (and no doubt to designers) for years has finally come to pass: six voyager (one almost ultra) class construction vehicles that can merge to form the original gestalt: Devastator. This is not a regular occurrence — even in a series called “Combiner Wars,” getting a crew this big, this true to their roots . . . is unheard of. So, while the $160-ish price of this set at retail is not bad, all considered, we opted to look at these individual voyager bots and see if Devastator really is the sum of his parts.
We’ll begin our look at the front end loader/dozer: Scrapper. Forming Devatator’s right leg, he also serves as the Constructicon’s leader and engineer. As a G1 Decepticon, he got about as much characterization on the cartoon and comic as you’d expect . . . which is not much. Until IDW, the tech spec was the most insight you were likely to get into this brilliant little psycho:
A wizard at designing fortresses and energy plants, but modest. Shows his true malevolent genius by incorporating defeated Autobots into his buildings’ structures. Shovel can slice through 12in. thick carbon-steel, lift 30 tons. As right leg and part of torso, combines with fellow Constructicons to form giant robot “Devastator.”
During IDW’s G1 retelling, Scrapper and crew were at Megatron’s side from the beginning of his illegal gladiator circuit days. They gained their combining ability during All Hail Megatron — you know, the arc the other writers pretend didn’t happen anymore — and then Scrapper got whacked during Mike Costa’s run. By Spike Witwicky. Again, not something we talk about much anymore. This results in Devastator forming with a (literally) dead leg, Prowl, and, more recently, Scoop.
This last part was a bit of a concern where toys are, well, concerned. Would Hasbro bastardize the original combiner — making it a five-member team (as done in Classics) or include one of these other guys? Luckily, none of the above was done for the toy, and the Constructicons got their proper leader back. I love me some IDW, and James Roberts can do no wrong, but I like my Devastator OG, and I like my Spike wearing a hard hat and yellow boots, not shooting Constructicons in the head.
The figure here is a big, bulky, simple, and very G1-styled. True to both elements of the character, the vehicle mode is very close to the original, and the bot mode does every bit as good.
In fact, the only drawbacks here are the hollow-ish nature of the bot — par for the course for Hasbro’s bigger figures, and the fact that Scrapper here has no elbow joints. The intent here was to make his Devastator leg more robust. It might have some merit because it does seem to help, but Takara’s version is adding them back in, soooo I don’t know who to believe.
Still, he’s a great size, he nails the look, and he makes for a decent little bot. All he coulda done with is his little pistol. He did get the wings in G1 as well, but being short, the elbows make those not so useful weapons in bot mode. Would you pay $25 for him in a voyager box? Well . . . you would. But you’d be cranky about it.
Below is Canonball’s video breakdown — check it out.