For the final member of the Constructicon combiner team, we go big. Real big.Long Haul didn’t join this outfit to become a dump truck. And yet, here he is. His bio card:
Unhappy with unglamorous role, but understands its importance… helps build Decepticons’ massive energy-recovery installations. As vehicle, can carry 90 tons for 1200 miles, use a dual heat-seeking missile mount. As torso module, combines with fellow Constructicons to form giant robot “Devastator.” Can be goaded into a fight in which he’s overmatched.
It sounds weird to say this about a TV show with a buncha robots on a rotating cast, but Long Haul is really a constant of G1. Like Scrapper, he tends to be near the front whenever the Constructicons were shown. Dutiful, steady, and never one to shy away from letting everyone around him know how much it pisses him off, Long Haul out-grunts Grimlock on occasion. Hmm…
Well, in vehicle mode, there’s no challenging this guy. Dwarfing even the biggest voyager and even some leader class vehicles, Long Haul is one big chunk of truck. Living somewhat close to Kennecott Copper Mine, I’ve seen the bigger-than-a-house Komatsu movers that Long Haul is based on. His scale to a deluxe car is about right, and even his size next to Masterpiece Prowl here is respectable. After all, there’s plenty of different kinds of mining trucks. In this mode as well as bot mode, he also bares some resemblance to Energon Demolisher, making him kind of a double homage.
Long Haul is also the go-to rig for carrying Devastator parts. In a feature oddly not mentioned in the instructions, he can carry all of the extra parts in his truck bed via various pegs and ports. I like him best in this more simplified “attack mode,” which only keeps the forward firing ones, but it is a nice feature.
He doesn’t shrink any in bot mode, that’s for sure. The hulking (in more ways than one) brute towers over his teammates, and can damn near look the bosses in the eye. His styling is a bit more exaggerated than his G1 version, again, drawing Demolisher more than his original look, but it works just fine, and I can’t help but enjoy the hell out of this chunky monster.
The articulation is better than you’d expect, with lots of shoulder range, super-tight hip ratchets, and even getting a decent knee joint in there, but this is not the guy for dynamic poses. He just needs to look imposing, and he excels at that.
In sheer plastic alone, Long Haul feels like he’s worth the money. The fact that he has such great Tonka-style girth to him just makes me smile whenever I look at him. And thanks to those big heavy ratcheting joints that make him so fun to stomp around, he makes Devastator all the better.
Here’s Canonball with a Transformation demonstration and some more sleep-deprived thoughts on Long Haul:
