Review #39: Classics style Scavanger & Bonecrusher
(Maketoys Excavator 61 & Bulldozer 61)
Giant Type-61 part 1 of 4
Ah, the Constructicons. An iconic sextet of Decepticons from the original G1 animated series and toy line that was the very first combining group, whose individual members all had their own vehicle and robot modes, but when more power was needed that could "merge for the kill," and form the mighty Devastator! It was only a matter of time before Classics versions of such important and, as previously stated, iconic characters were produced, right?
Right?
Well... in a sense, it did happen, and fairly quickly. In 2007, just the second year of the original Classics toy line, a Walmart exclusive did indeed bring us a Classics Devastator. But this was a massive letdown to many fans in that this was not a new mold, but just a recolored reuse of a mold from the Energon toy line in which the Constructicons had only five members, and only three unique vehicles. Two of the toys in this set were repeated molds. A huge disappointment to any nostalgic fans who expected six (not five!) Constructicons, and expected all of them to be somewhat unique individuals when not in their combined form.
And so the fandom was left unfulfilled for many years... until this past year when not one, but two third party companies decided to take a crack at releasing their own versions of this group of figures! 'Twas a good year to be a fan of the Constructicons.
Of course, with two different options, this lead to a bit of a divide in the fandom as some people got behind one third party Devastator and other people got behind the other, and both sides started getting rather serious about defending their choice and putting down the other option. There were a few (apparently extremely wealthy) individuals who got both, but many picked one and stuck with it. I am guilty of such a thing myself, and I am happy with my decision. However, while a few references to the other option may creep into these reviews, I'm going to try to for the most part stick to looking at the figures I do have, and try to refrain from too much commentary, especially of a potentially less positive sort, on figures that are probably just fine but I determined would not be my preference and have never even seen in person. I'm more interested in talking about what I actually have.
Before we proceed, a note on nomenclature. Recent years have seen a huge rise in third party Transformers, especially in complete figures as opposed to just accessory sets. And with that has come a somewhat coy way for the fandom to refer to such figures... They're referred to as "not-"s, such as calling these particular figures, "not-Constructicons," or referring to their combined mode as, "not-Devastator." Personally... I'm not a fan of such designations. The way I look at it, while these figures may not be official, in my collection they are the Constructicons, and I shall refer to them as such. I'll also make reference to their official names as provided by the company who produced them, otherwise my readers may have difficulty finding these figures for themselves should they be interested in doing so. But I shall have none of this "not-" nonsense here.
So... Maketoys. The company behind the previously reviewed third party trailer for G2 Optimus Prime. After that piece, which itself was rather good and far from simplistic, they seem to have decided to tackle a very ambitious project here. What I own is actually the second version of Maketoy's Devastator homage which, officially, was named Giant. The first version was a differently colored yellow version more closely homaging the Generation 2 Constructicon toys. This was probably a way to differentiate their offering from the previously mentioned other third party Devastator, Hercules from TFC Toys. But Maketoys was pretty clear from the beginning that those wishing for a more G1 version would only have to be patient, and a G1 recolor would be coming after their G2 version was finished being released.
And thus came Maketoys Giant Type-61. (61... G1... Get it?) It was an exciting day when this came in the mail. Now, these guys were sold in a set if all six members of the team, but to keep this review from being unwieldy, we're going to be breaking things up a bit. The original "G2" version of Giant was sold in three sets of two, and I shall be breaking up this series of reviews among similar lines, looking at the same three pairs of figures before finishing in a fourth review of the combined Devastator, or Giant if you prefer.
The first pair we are looking at, officially called Excavator 61 and Bulldozer 61, are respectively homaging Scavanger and Bonecrusher from the Generation 1 Constructicons. (Maketoys sure had original names for the individual figures, eh? But this is not important to me as, as I said, to me these guys are Scavanger and Bonecrusher, so the official names are not terribly relevant.) Before we look too much at the toys, let us take a quick look (as I sometimes like to do for third party products) at the characters they are paying homage to, with images borrowed mainly from the Transformers Wiki.
Right?
Well... in a sense, it did happen, and fairly quickly. In 2007, just the second year of the original Classics toy line, a Walmart exclusive did indeed bring us a Classics Devastator. But this was a massive letdown to many fans in that this was not a new mold, but just a recolored reuse of a mold from the Energon toy line in which the Constructicons had only five members, and only three unique vehicles. Two of the toys in this set were repeated molds. A huge disappointment to any nostalgic fans who expected six (not five!) Constructicons, and expected all of them to be somewhat unique individuals when not in their combined form.
And so the fandom was left unfulfilled for many years... until this past year when not one, but two third party companies decided to take a crack at releasing their own versions of this group of figures! 'Twas a good year to be a fan of the Constructicons.
Of course, with two different options, this lead to a bit of a divide in the fandom as some people got behind one third party Devastator and other people got behind the other, and both sides started getting rather serious about defending their choice and putting down the other option. There were a few (apparently extremely wealthy) individuals who got both, but many picked one and stuck with it. I am guilty of such a thing myself, and I am happy with my decision. However, while a few references to the other option may creep into these reviews, I'm going to try to for the most part stick to looking at the figures I do have, and try to refrain from too much commentary, especially of a potentially less positive sort, on figures that are probably just fine but I determined would not be my preference and have never even seen in person. I'm more interested in talking about what I actually have.
Before we proceed, a note on nomenclature. Recent years have seen a huge rise in third party Transformers, especially in complete figures as opposed to just accessory sets. And with that has come a somewhat coy way for the fandom to refer to such figures... They're referred to as "not-"s, such as calling these particular figures, "not-Constructicons," or referring to their combined mode as, "not-Devastator." Personally... I'm not a fan of such designations. The way I look at it, while these figures may not be official, in my collection they are the Constructicons, and I shall refer to them as such. I'll also make reference to their official names as provided by the company who produced them, otherwise my readers may have difficulty finding these figures for themselves should they be interested in doing so. But I shall have none of this "not-" nonsense here.
So... Maketoys. The company behind the previously reviewed third party trailer for G2 Optimus Prime. After that piece, which itself was rather good and far from simplistic, they seem to have decided to tackle a very ambitious project here. What I own is actually the second version of Maketoy's Devastator homage which, officially, was named Giant. The first version was a differently colored yellow version more closely homaging the Generation 2 Constructicon toys. This was probably a way to differentiate their offering from the previously mentioned other third party Devastator, Hercules from TFC Toys. But Maketoys was pretty clear from the beginning that those wishing for a more G1 version would only have to be patient, and a G1 recolor would be coming after their G2 version was finished being released.
And thus came Maketoys Giant Type-61. (61... G1... Get it?) It was an exciting day when this came in the mail. Now, these guys were sold in a set if all six members of the team, but to keep this review from being unwieldy, we're going to be breaking things up a bit. The original "G2" version of Giant was sold in three sets of two, and I shall be breaking up this series of reviews among similar lines, looking at the same three pairs of figures before finishing in a fourth review of the combined Devastator, or Giant if you prefer.
The first pair we are looking at, officially called Excavator 61 and Bulldozer 61, are respectively homaging Scavanger and Bonecrusher from the Generation 1 Constructicons. (Maketoys sure had original names for the individual figures, eh? But this is not important to me as, as I said, to me these guys are Scavanger and Bonecrusher, so the official names are not terribly relevant.) Before we look too much at the toys, let us take a quick look (as I sometimes like to do for third party products) at the characters they are paying homage to, with images borrowed mainly from the Transformers Wiki.
Bonecrusher also had a distinctive toy design, with his shovel folding up against his body to make his chest. While that chest detail is somewhat hinted at in his animation model, it is a bit too subtle and honestly, in the television show he does tend to suffer a bit from looking like a generic green robot.
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So, shall we see what Maketoys did? In these vehicle mode photos, Bonecrusher will be on the left and Scavanger will be on the right. Looking at them... they're certainly not identical to the G1 vehicle modes... but what Classics update is? They are highly evocative of the G1 versions, however. They seem to strike a nice balance between updating the designs a bit, making them perhaps a wee bit more realist looking even, without completely reinventing the wheel, so to speak.
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Overall, very nice looking vehicle modes with very little obvious kibble. Scavanger's head and one of his fists may not be exactly the most hidden in the world, but they are not so obvious as to be distracting. The figures have some limited articulation in vehicle mode. The boom arm on Scavanger's shovel contains two pivoting points of articulation, one at the base and one at the midpoint. And Bonecrusher's blade has two sets of joints in can move on to raise it up a bit or angle it slightly differently. None of this is extremely spectacular, but it is enough to satisfy me. The only semi-major complaint is that it would have been nice if Scavanger's entire upper portion could have been capable of rotating around on top of his treads, but that would have been somewhat difficult to implement with the transformation scheme that this toy has, and is not nearly bothersome enough to stop me from liking this toy.
Well, I do have one other complaint about both of these vehicles... They have no wheels! The usual thing to do with Transformers that have treaded vehicle modes (be they tanks, construction vehicles, or something else) is to have static plastic treads, but on the bottom of those have little invisible wheels upon which they could roll. Not here. For some reason, Maketoys decided to just go with the static plastic treads with nothing else, and thus no ability to roll the vehicles around. Mind you, the price these things sell for, it is definitely clear that these toys are intended for the adult collector, and not necessarily meant for small children who will spend hours playing with them and rolling around. If they're even going to be displayed in vehicle mode, that's likely all they will be doing: being statically displayed. And so the ability to roll around likely isn't essential. But as a somewhat standard feature on such toys, the absence of the ability does stick out somewhat.
The toys that make up this Devastator can theoretically use all of the parts in all of the modes, and thus Scavanger's and Bonecrusher's weapons can attach to their vehicles. I will admit the attachment is a wee bit clumsy, but not horrible looking. Personally, I always appreciate when I'm not left with too many (or any) extra parts floating around.
Well, I do have one other complaint about both of these vehicles... They have no wheels! The usual thing to do with Transformers that have treaded vehicle modes (be they tanks, construction vehicles, or something else) is to have static plastic treads, but on the bottom of those have little invisible wheels upon which they could roll. Not here. For some reason, Maketoys decided to just go with the static plastic treads with nothing else, and thus no ability to roll the vehicles around. Mind you, the price these things sell for, it is definitely clear that these toys are intended for the adult collector, and not necessarily meant for small children who will spend hours playing with them and rolling around. If they're even going to be displayed in vehicle mode, that's likely all they will be doing: being statically displayed. And so the ability to roll around likely isn't essential. But as a somewhat standard feature on such toys, the absence of the ability does stick out somewhat.
The toys that make up this Devastator can theoretically use all of the parts in all of the modes, and thus Scavanger's and Bonecrusher's weapons can attach to their vehicles. I will admit the attachment is a wee bit clumsy, but not horrible looking. Personally, I always appreciate when I'm not left with too many (or any) extra parts floating around.
And now we move onto robot mode. The first thing you might notice looking at these guys is their similarity. Yeah... they're pretty much identical from the waist down. And from the waist up, while there are no shared parts, they are certainly quite alike in how they transform. This is something some people may jump on these figures about, but I'm going to give them a pass. These figures have some shared engineering in them that is somewhat internal in vehicle mode, and not too apparent (until looking at them from behind) in robot mode, that is necessary for their functionality as arms for the combined mode. This shared engineering leaves little for the bottom half of the vehicles for anything other then the treads themselves, and honestly, how many ways can treads be turned into legs? These are good looking, good functioning legs that make sense for both characters, so why not use them twice?
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Articulation is good on these figures, and practically identical between the two of them. Their heads are on ball joints which can swivel 360 degrees and has a tiny bit of wiggle room aside from that. Shoulders have expressive ball joints in them. They have 360 degree swivels just below the shoulder. Elbows have double pivoting joints, and then the wrists are on ball joints. The waists have swivels in them, although they are a bit hampered by the kibble on the figure's backs. Even with the kibble (which is mainly the parts necessary for making the combined mode), however, you can usually get enough out of the waists to serve most decent poses. Hips, knees, and ankles all also feature ball joints, and all of the joints have decent tightness.
Scrapper (on the left in the robot mode photos) is pretty much spot on in appearance, including the silver part on his chest that I highlighted when talking about the original figure and animation model above. This part doesn't house his peg for connection to the combined form anymore, but has a non-articulated molded in detail to emulate it. This kind of touch really helps the figure feel like who it is supposed to be. An extremely picky G1 fanatic would likely complain about the excavator arm being positioned folded up on one of Scrapper's arms rather then hanging off of his back, but I rather like this change. It doesn't get much in the way folded up on his arm there, gives him another distinctive visual element, and also gives him the option to use it as a weapon in his robot more.
Bonecrusher (on the right in these photos) looks somewhat less like his G1 self, as he lacks the chest made from the bulldozer's blade. The blade instead splits in half and folds behind him, which does help his figure hide the combiner kibble hanging off his back a bit which is somewhat more visible on Scrapper. It would have been nice if he did have the proper chest, but the look he does have still fits his character and the aesthetics of the Constructicons in general.
As has been mentioned, both of these guys have a piece of built-in combiner kibble hanging off of their backs, which forms the connection point and shoulder articulation for the arms of the combined mode of Devastator. Yeah... it does slightly hinder these figure's articulation. And yeah, from a few angles it does visually stick out a bit on these guys. But objectively, not enough to really take away from these figures. I've seen plenty of official Transformers figures that have a lot worse things hanging off of their backs, and the fact that Maketoys did their best to integrate all of the necessary combination pieces into the figures themselves is much appreciated. This is kibble I can happily live with.
Bonecrusher (on the right in these photos) looks somewhat less like his G1 self, as he lacks the chest made from the bulldozer's blade. The blade instead splits in half and folds behind him, which does help his figure hide the combiner kibble hanging off his back a bit which is somewhat more visible on Scrapper. It would have been nice if he did have the proper chest, but the look he does have still fits his character and the aesthetics of the Constructicons in general.
As has been mentioned, both of these guys have a piece of built-in combiner kibble hanging off of their backs, which forms the connection point and shoulder articulation for the arms of the combined mode of Devastator. Yeah... it does slightly hinder these figure's articulation. And yeah, from a few angles it does visually stick out a bit on these guys. But objectively, not enough to really take away from these figures. I've seen plenty of official Transformers figures that have a lot worse things hanging off of their backs, and the fact that Maketoys did their best to integrate all of the necessary combination pieces into the figures themselves is much appreciated. This is kibble I can happily live with.
The guns on these figures are arm mounted. Bonecrusher's can mount on either arm, but Scrapper's is limited to his right arm since the left arm has the excavator shovel on it. If the two guns suspiciously look like they might be able to combine together... well, more on that in a future review!
Every piece can be used in every mode, but not always by the same figure. The main example of this is in the right photo above. Here you can see a pair of Constructicons actually doing construction work with a pair of jackhammers! The upper portions of them, while not used with these figures as vehicles, came with them and are used to form the forearms and hands of Devastator. (This is the one major piece of non-integrated combiner kibble for Devastator. However, even if they are separate pieces, they at least still have functionality with the individual robots, as seen here. And in a later review, we will see their functionality with a different pair of the vehicles.) The lower portions of the jackhammers are pieces that come attached to one of the other figures to be reviewed later. One jackhammer features a flat tip bit and the other features a pointed bit, and any similarities to flat head and Phillips headed screwdrivers is, I am sure, entirely coincidental.
Every piece can be used in every mode, but not always by the same figure. The main example of this is in the right photo above. Here you can see a pair of Constructicons actually doing construction work with a pair of jackhammers! The upper portions of them, while not used with these figures as vehicles, came with them and are used to form the forearms and hands of Devastator. (This is the one major piece of non-integrated combiner kibble for Devastator. However, even if they are separate pieces, they at least still have functionality with the individual robots, as seen here. And in a later review, we will see their functionality with a different pair of the vehicles.) The lower portions of the jackhammers are pieces that come attached to one of the other figures to be reviewed later. One jackhammer features a flat tip bit and the other features a pointed bit, and any similarities to flat head and Phillips headed screwdrivers is, I am sure, entirely coincidental.
This is likely my last review before Halloween, so I decided to go with an appropriate DVD for size comparison.
Seeing as this is only one third of a complete set, it is a bit difficult to come up with final thoughts on them, so expect a more detailed summing up on the final Devastator review. But just looking at these two... they're a decent, well articulated pair. Especially with Scavanger, they are very good Classics style updates of the G1 characters they are homaging. Colours and details are sharp, these figures really pop at you from the shelf right out of the box. Be back soon with the next pair to look at... But it is starting to get rather blustery out, and in fact the lights even flickered slightly, so it is a good time to wrap things up with this review before things start to get too intense with Sandy. See you hopefully soon with the next pair! |
Review added 29 October 2012 by Yotsuya. Please comment!