Review #40: Classics style Long Haul & Hook
(Maketoys Dump Truck 61 & Mobile Crane 61)
Giant Type-61 part 2 of 4
Well, while the area I am in spicifically seems to have pretty much come through things relitively unscathed, the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy has still provided me with another unepected day off from work. I didn't expect to be back again before the end of the month, but hey, here I am! Let us plunge ahead then, shall we?
Long Haul is a dump truck, and his G1 toy was a pretty simple afair with a somewhat standard transformation which resulted in his chest being the front of his vehicle and his legs being the rear. Because of his transformation, his dumping tray was vaguely articulated. His animation model, while stylized, was a decent following of his toy's design.
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Hook is a mobile crane. As a robot, his upper body is rather generic both as a toy and as a robot, just being formed by the bottom of his vehicle mode. His legs are somewhat more distinct, especially on the toy, although his animation model would often leave details off of the legs. And, of course, as a robot he had a big crane hanging off of his back.
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Funny how difficult it is to find any decent screenshots of the individual Constructicons... I suppose it makes sence, as most people are more familiar with their combined form. But I digress. Let us look at what Maketoys is offering us here.
We start things off, as usual, by looking at vehicle mode. Long Haul, officially named "Dump Truck 61" (Maketoys continues their very original naming scheme), is indeed still a dump truck, although the proportions of the vehicle make it look as if he is a much larger one then his original Generation 1 toy would have been. The dumping tray is full, which is a bit unfortunate but it is not the end of the world.
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As you can see, Long Haul's dumping tray provides vehicle mode storage for the chromed lower portions of the jackhammers seen in the last review. There's an additional piece stored there we'll see more of in the next review.
Overall, Long Haul looks pretty good from almost any angle, although he is slightly gappy when looked at from behind.
Hook. Totally not the leader of the Constructicons. I only mention this as, when playing with my G1 toys as a kid, I usually considered him as such. It only seemed natural, given which part of Devastator he formed. So I was a bit surprised, when re-discovering the joy of Transformers as an adult, when I discovered who the leader of the group actually was! (More on that, I suppose, in the next review.)
Anyway, back on the subject of these toys... Hook, here officially named Mobile Crane 61, in vehicle mode really does just seem like a larger, much better detailed updating of his G1 vehicle mode. You look at this, and if you're at all familiar with G1 Transformers, you'll know this is Hook.
Hook does have something that many may consider a blemish, and that is the large black chunk on one side of the vehicle towards the front. It is totally just a piece of the vehicle there to help support the weight of the crane arm when it is not in use, and not just Devastator's head stuck on top of the mobile crane. Okay, it's just Devastator's head stuck on top of the mobile crane. It would have been nice if the head could have been better hidden somehow... but I am hard pressed to think of what else they could have done short of making the head a seperate piece that would have just had to have been set aside when not in use. I think this is the lesser of two evils, and the head does do a half way decent job of not being completely obvious for what it is. This set of toys actually comes with two optional heads for Devastator. The one in most of these pictures is the default option. The other option, which you will see in two photos here (one for Hook's vehicle mode, one for his robot mode) is actually a recolour of the only head available with the first, yellow release of Giant. I will admit that it does integrate a bit better with Hook as an individual robot, since it has a splash of green on it, but for reasons I shall elaborate on a bit later in this review I prefer mainly using the default head.
Overall, Long Haul looks pretty good from almost any angle, although he is slightly gappy when looked at from behind.
Hook. Totally not the leader of the Constructicons. I only mention this as, when playing with my G1 toys as a kid, I usually considered him as such. It only seemed natural, given which part of Devastator he formed. So I was a bit surprised, when re-discovering the joy of Transformers as an adult, when I discovered who the leader of the group actually was! (More on that, I suppose, in the next review.)
Anyway, back on the subject of these toys... Hook, here officially named Mobile Crane 61, in vehicle mode really does just seem like a larger, much better detailed updating of his G1 vehicle mode. You look at this, and if you're at all familiar with G1 Transformers, you'll know this is Hook.
Hook does have something that many may consider a blemish, and that is the large black chunk on one side of the vehicle towards the front. It is totally just a piece of the vehicle there to help support the weight of the crane arm when it is not in use, and not just Devastator's head stuck on top of the mobile crane. Okay, it's just Devastator's head stuck on top of the mobile crane. It would have been nice if the head could have been better hidden somehow... but I am hard pressed to think of what else they could have done short of making the head a seperate piece that would have just had to have been set aside when not in use. I think this is the lesser of two evils, and the head does do a half way decent job of not being completely obvious for what it is. This set of toys actually comes with two optional heads for Devastator. The one in most of these pictures is the default option. The other option, which you will see in two photos here (one for Hook's vehicle mode, one for his robot mode) is actually a recolour of the only head available with the first, yellow release of Giant. I will admit that it does integrate a bit better with Hook as an individual robot, since it has a splash of green on it, but for reasons I shall elaborate on a bit later in this review I prefer mainly using the default head.
Not having it I can't speak much on the original, yellow Giant, but as Type-61 is the second version these toys it did give Maketoys the opertunity to tweek the designs a bit and it seems that Hook has had the most notable tweeking. In addition to the two options for Devastator's head, the crane's atriculation has been improved. Before, it could only raise up and extend. Now, it can also be rotated.
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As with the last pair, this pair can also store their weapons on their vehicle modes. Long Haul, alas, is probably the least effective in doing so. It just pluggs onto the side of his dumping tray, but at an angle where it is clear that it is only storage and not intended to be used offensively in this mode. But hey, he's a big huge dump truck. If he wants to be offensive in this mode, he's probably just going to run your arse over.
Hook, meanwhile, officially attaches his gun to the side of his crane arm. It doesn't look good there, though, in my opinion. The connection feels sloppy, seems to not fit on flushly, and points the wrong way! Fortunately, you do have a few other options. You can attach the gun directly to the front of the crane arm or, if you want a slightly more subtle aproach, there's a peg on one side of Hook's front end that will fit well into a hole on the gun. This last one is my prefered option.
Hook, meanwhile, officially attaches his gun to the side of his crane arm. It doesn't look good there, though, in my opinion. The connection feels sloppy, seems to not fit on flushly, and points the wrong way! Fortunately, you do have a few other options. You can attach the gun directly to the front of the crane arm or, if you want a slightly more subtle aproach, there's a peg on one side of Hook's front end that will fit well into a hole on the gun. This last one is my prefered option.
Of the six individual figures in this set, as a robot Long Haul is probably the one who has the most difference from his original Generation 1 version. Although he definitely looks like a Constructicon, there's very little here that immedietly leads one only familiar with the original toys and / or animation to look at him and go, "Oh, it's Long Haul!"
Looking at things objectively, Long Haul is the member of this team that most had to be engineered taking the needs and functionality of the combined mode into account. So, while it would have been nice if he looked more like his G1 self, I'm kind of satisfied that they instead did their best to not sacrifice the gestalt's functionality and work on making the best possible robot that took this into account. I can believe this reimagining as a Classics update of Long Haul, and that is what is important. |
And an interesting robot he is. He's shorter, but he is stocky. He may not have height, but he still has all of the mass. Of all of these versions of the Constructicons, he looks like the most capable of tearing some poor Autobot apart with his bare hands. Yet he also seems to have some molded in details of guns or missiles on his shoulders, in addition to his hand held gun. I don't want to mess with this Long Haul!
This Hook, however, is very close to his G1 self, even closer (thanks to the aformentioned tweaking) then his original yellow version. On the original yellow version, the crane arm was permanantly attached to the figure and, in robot mode, just ended up hanging awkwardly on the back of one of his forarms. Now, I didn't have that version... but when reading or watching reviews of the yellow Giant, that seemed to be the single biggest thing I would have complained about. So how lovely that they fixed it. The crane is now removable, and can then plug onto Hook's back. Some may complain about this slight bit of partsforming, but seeing as we have already seen what the alternative would have been, I will happily go with this instead. The only other thing that really sticks out is his green helmet. Yes, his head would have looked more "G1" if the whole thing was black, but I think it looks just fine with just his face black, and the green helmet helps his head blend in with his alt mode. (I do realise we are talking about an alt mode that already has a much larger black head rather obviously hiding on it...)
This Hook, however, is very close to his G1 self, even closer (thanks to the aformentioned tweaking) then his original yellow version. On the original yellow version, the crane arm was permanantly attached to the figure and, in robot mode, just ended up hanging awkwardly on the back of one of his forarms. Now, I didn't have that version... but when reading or watching reviews of the yellow Giant, that seemed to be the single biggest thing I would have complained about. So how lovely that they fixed it. The crane is now removable, and can then plug onto Hook's back. Some may complain about this slight bit of partsforming, but seeing as we have already seen what the alternative would have been, I will happily go with this instead. The only other thing that really sticks out is his green helmet. Yes, his head would have looked more "G1" if the whole thing was black, but I think it looks just fine with just his face black, and the green helmet helps his head blend in with his alt mode. (I do realise we are talking about an alt mode that already has a much larger black head rather obviously hiding on it...)
Articulation time. Long Haul's head is on a ball joint. His shoulders have pivots mainly intended for transformation that can also be used for some rather dynamic arm movement, and then ball joints, and then a 360 degree swivel. Elbows have a double pivot, and the wrists swivel 360 degrees. His waste has a 360 degree swivel, two pivots on each leg (one for forwards / backwards motion, one for outward motion) at the hip, and a 360 degree swivel just below that, and finally a 90 degree pivot at the knee. The large wheels at his hips can get in the way a bit, but can be worked around. One final bit of articulation is the front of his feet are on ball joints. Given Long Haul's overall small footprint, it can be a bit tricky getting him a dynamic but balanced pose, but it can be done and done well. For some reason, I always tend to end up liking him in a kneeling, punching pose.
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Except for the ball jointed feet (which, obviously, are ball joints) the joints in Long Haul's lower body, starting with the waist, are all very nice, tight, ratcheting joints. This may seem excessive on the equivalent of a Deluxe class figure, but these joints are like this for good reason that will be elaborated on in a later review.
Hook is a bit less articulated then everyone we've looked at thus far, but is still decent. He has a ball jointed head. His shoulders are also ball joints. Elbows have a double pivoting joint. His hips have ball joints, and just below each one is a 360 degree swivel. The knees can pivot backwards, and can do so exceptionally far seeing as this is also the joint on which the legs would fold up for vehicle mode.
There's a few other joints that would have been nice, such as an upper arm swivel or a waist swivel, but such joints would have been difficult to incorporate because of other design factors.
Posing Hook can be a tiny bit difficult because of a few small tabs on the bottom of one of his feet (the one that isn't a giant head) that are needed for the gestalt mode. It is far from impossible to get him to balance in a good pose, but these tabs do make it ever so slightly more of a trick. If you are trying to achieve a more extreme pose that these tabs may provide more of a problem for, one advantage to the crane arm's new placement on Hook's back is that you can extend the arm down to touch the ground and provide some additional balance.
Speaking of the crane arm, you do have a few additional placement options rather then on his back. You can leave it attached to the bottom of one of his forearms (much like its permanent attachment on the original yellow version) and swing it forward where it can look like some sort of battering ram. Or you can place it over his shoulder where, in combination with Hook's gun, it can become a massive shoulder mounted cannon.
There is something amusing about Devastator's head being one of Hook's feet. The default head works well enough as this, but it is worth pointing out that (much like with vehicle mode) the optional second head does seem to integrate a tiny bit better thanks to the splash of green paint on it. If I didn't like the default head better for the combined mode (which I will obviously go into in more detail in a later review) I'd likely just leave the optional head on, or just switch it off depending on weather I was using Hook as an individual or as part of the gestalt. But, while this set does seem very durable, I do worry about what stress I may apply if I am continuously popping heads off of and onto the ball joint here. Thus, while I am doing so for these reviews, outside of that I typically just leave on the default head.
Hook is a bit less articulated then everyone we've looked at thus far, but is still decent. He has a ball jointed head. His shoulders are also ball joints. Elbows have a double pivoting joint. His hips have ball joints, and just below each one is a 360 degree swivel. The knees can pivot backwards, and can do so exceptionally far seeing as this is also the joint on which the legs would fold up for vehicle mode.
There's a few other joints that would have been nice, such as an upper arm swivel or a waist swivel, but such joints would have been difficult to incorporate because of other design factors.
Posing Hook can be a tiny bit difficult because of a few small tabs on the bottom of one of his feet (the one that isn't a giant head) that are needed for the gestalt mode. It is far from impossible to get him to balance in a good pose, but these tabs do make it ever so slightly more of a trick. If you are trying to achieve a more extreme pose that these tabs may provide more of a problem for, one advantage to the crane arm's new placement on Hook's back is that you can extend the arm down to touch the ground and provide some additional balance.
Speaking of the crane arm, you do have a few additional placement options rather then on his back. You can leave it attached to the bottom of one of his forearms (much like its permanent attachment on the original yellow version) and swing it forward where it can look like some sort of battering ram. Or you can place it over his shoulder where, in combination with Hook's gun, it can become a massive shoulder mounted cannon.
There is something amusing about Devastator's head being one of Hook's feet. The default head works well enough as this, but it is worth pointing out that (much like with vehicle mode) the optional second head does seem to integrate a tiny bit better thanks to the splash of green paint on it. If I didn't like the default head better for the combined mode (which I will obviously go into in more detail in a later review) I'd likely just leave the optional head on, or just switch it off depending on weather I was using Hook as an individual or as part of the gestalt. But, while this set does seem very durable, I do worry about what stress I may apply if I am continuously popping heads off of and onto the ball joint here. Thus, while I am doing so for these reviews, outside of that I typically just leave on the default head.
Aarrg, I hadn't been planning another October review, so what other Halloween themed DVD could I use for size comparison? Doesn't help that I'm not a huge horror buff. I have a few other possibilities... but they're on Blu-Ray, which is a different sized case. (Blu-Ray seems to be doing quite well, but I figure more people are familiar with the size of an avarage standard DVD case.) Ah, I know. The Addams Family to the rescue!
Anyway, another excellent pair of individual robots, with Hook being a fairly faithful updating of the character (especially with the tweeks made to this version of the toy) and Long Haul being something of a reimagining, but an effective one rather then a flop. (He's Battlestar Galactica, not V.) Two thirds of the way into this set's individual figures, I'm still happy to recomend them. |
I suppose next month, we'll see if this glee continues on with the third pair, and then with the gestalt mode. See you in November! And anyone affected by the aftermath of Sandy, I wish you a swift and relitively easy recovery!
Review added 30 October 2012 by Yotsuya. Please comment!