Review #RX-4: "Classics" Style Long Haul
(TFC Toys Heavy Labor)
TFC Hercules part 4 of 8
And now for the fourth part of Rated X's guest review, taking a look at TFC Toys' Constructicons:
TFC Heavy Labor is a good modern representation of G1 Long Haul. This is a voyager sized figure.
The dump truck mode is nice. It has four wheels that allow it to roll on a flat surface. Unfortunately due to the transformation, the truck bed doesn’t lift back like a real dump truck to release his load when he needs relief. Sadly, the robots fists are visible in the bed of the dump truck. But on the other hand, the dump truck mode is very detailed. This is the figure that will stand out the most with the added Reprolabels set. But it’s also the most difficult figure in the team to apply the Reprolabels. Especially the black stripes indented on the side of the truck bed. But in the end it’s definitely worth it. |
If you are into parts storage, the guns can be mounted on the side of the truck to look like huge smokestacks as per the instructions. (See center photo below.) I think it looks pretty stupid. If I cared about parts storage, I would much rather place them on the side of the truck beds in the robot fists as shown in the other picture (to the right, below).
The robot mode looks just as cool as the alt mode in my opinion. He resembles G1 Long Haul pretty well, with the exception of the purple legs. But that’s understandable since the bed of the dump truck doesn’t become the robots legs like the original G1 figure. The Reprolabels help a lot also and make the robot mode really stand out.
This figure seems to be the shortest of the bunch. The legs are a bit on the short side. He is stocky, but in a good way. The head is a nice homage to the original G1 Long Haul in the cartoon. As with all the individual robot heads in this set, it has nice red light piping. The figure is not as well articulated as some of the others in the Hercules set. The head is not on a ball joint but can rotate 360 degrees. The shoulder joints can move up to the side. The upper arms have swivel. The elbow joints can bend, but there is no wrist swivel. Heavy Labor has a waist swivel but you might not even realize it due to it being hindered slightly by the bed in the back and the purple piece that hides his waist screws in the front. I didn’t even notice until fellow Seibertron.com forum member Megatronus informed me. Heavy Labor does have thigh swivels, unlike some of his other teammates that don’t. The legs are connected by ratchet joints at the hips and are nice and tight. They can bend forward, backwards, and to the side. The knees can bend. The feet just flip out so the can't really be of any use for posing. They basically fold up on his legs. |
Keep in mind that the ratchet joints on the hips did come with a quality control issue from the factory. It appears that if you move the ratchet joints without lubrication, they will strip. Fortunately, I found out about this before I had the figure in hand and went right for the fix before posing him. The retailer gave you an extra set of hips that is supposed to be “fixed”. I opened the new hips up and compared them to the inside of the original hips. Everything looked the same parts wise, and the fix appeared to be Vaseline on the gears to lube it up for good friction. I applied some Vaseline to the original hip gears and haven't had problems since. I still have the “fixed” hips if the original ones ever go bad.
As with all the Hercules figures, Heavy Labor comes with a small purple gun which combines with the other members guns to form Hercules gun. A translucent red version of the same gun is also included which combines with the other members red guns to form a 2nd gun for Hercules. No need for parts storage in robot mode. Heavy Labor only comes with two guns that he can hold.
Overall, Heavy Labor is a great figure. If you’re into a more cartoon accurate G1 look, this is definitely the way to go over the Maketoys version for the robot mode. Sure he’s bigger than most of your Hasbro figures, but you’re probably buying him and his team members to display as Hercules in combiner mode. With that being said, mass shifting was a big part of the G1 cartoon, and Hercules will scale with deluxe Hasbro figures nicely. I’m happy to have this guy in my collection.
Overall, Heavy Labor is a great figure. If you’re into a more cartoon accurate G1 look, this is definitely the way to go over the Maketoys version for the robot mode. Sure he’s bigger than most of your Hasbro figures, but you’re probably buying him and his team members to display as Hercules in combiner mode. With that being said, mass shifting was a big part of the G1 cartoon, and Hercules will scale with deluxe Hasbro figures nicely. I’m happy to have this guy in my collection.
Hello, folks! Yotsuya here, for my usual post-guest review notes! As usual, click here if you'd like a refresher on my thoughts (presented as one half of the linked review) on Maketoy's version of this figure.
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So, my thoughts on Heavy Labor. He seems a decent Long Haul. Both are pretty equal in vehicle mode, in my opinion. (Although I have seen some complain about the Maketoys version's bed being full of stored parts... I suppose the TFC version is a little cleaner there, but you do still have his arms rather visible back there as Rated X pointed out.)
As for robot mode: I won't disagree that the TFC version looks more "G1," with the fact that his chest is made up of the vehicle's grill. In fact, in my review I did comment on how the Maketoys version was one of the more revisionist takes on its character in that set. But the Maketoys one does have its charm, and does make an effective Long Haul. In the end, I suppose my opinion on them would be fairly even (as long as the reported hip problem remains fixed), and this is one figure that I suppose the most important factor would be, which set do you like best as a whole? Can't reveal my final thoughts on that quite yet, of course. Not until we're done with this series of reviews! Review added 28 July 2014 by Rated X. (Prelude and post-script comments by Yotsuya.) Comments are welcomed! |
(This review originally stated, in error, that Heavy Labor had no waist articulation. After this was pointed out, the above text was altered to correct this as of 29 July 2014.)
Opinions in the body of the review and the photographs presented along with them are from Rated X. Used on this website with permission.
Opinions in the body of the review and the photographs presented along with them are from Rated X. Used on this website with permission.