Review #RX-6: "Classics" Style Scrapper
(TFC Toys Structor)
TFC Hercules part 6 of 8
And welcome to part six of Rated X's guest review taking a look at the TFC Toys Hercules set! Today he looks at the last individual member of the team. Shall we delve in?
TFC Structor (seen here with Reprolabels) is a good modern representation of G1 Scrapper. I always did like Scrapper in the cartoon because he was the leader. TFC did a great job of capturing the essence of this character in Structor.
This is a voyager sized figure. The front end loader mode looks nice. It has functioning wheels that allow it to roll. The shovel moves up and down to a nice height. It also has a working piston that allows it to move forward down or backwards up. |
The guns peg on to the alt mode for parts storage. The instructions show them pegged in the back pointing up as smoke stacks which looks pretty stupid. But there are holes in the sides that you can peg them facing forward so they look like cannons.
The side wings of Hercules chest shield can be pegged into the back holes giving you a homage to the vintage G1 figure’s armed mode. It looks good if you’ve got an itch for a construction vehicle with wings.
The robot mode is just as nice as the alt mode. He resembles G1 Scrapper pretty well. The Reprolabels help a lot. The head is a nice homage to the original G1 Scrapper in the cartoon. As with all the individual robot heads in this set, it has nice red light piping.
The figure is pretty well articulated. The head is on a swivel joint that can turn 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 due to the transformation. The figure also has waist swivel. The waist also moves side to side due to the foot pivot for combiner mode. The legs are connected by ratchet joints at the hips. They can move forward, backwards and sideways. There have been no reports about stripping gears in the hips like there was with Heavy Labor. The knees can bend. The feet are pretty much the same as the vintage G1 figure being the rear end of the alt mode. It has a molded on feet which double as vehicle lights in alt mode. The back part has flip out heel spurs for increased stability when posing. |
As with all the Hercules figures, Structor 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 second gun for Hercules. He also comes with the two side wings of Hercules chest shield which connects to the center portion that comes with Mad Blender. If you really desire parts storage bad enough, you can peg the chest shield wings on the side of Structor’s wrists so that he resembles a robot chicken.
Overall, Structor 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, Yotsuya here for my two cents. For a refresher on my thoughts of the Maketoys version of this character, click here and read the relevant portions of this review.
Well, that's the last individual member of the team. How do I feel about TFC's take on Scrapper? Well, while the vehicle mode would have more play value then Maketoys' version (with better articulation in the shovel) I still think that the Maketoys version looks better. As for robot mode... Well, I really like the legs on the Maketoys version, where as they're just kind of meh on this version. Buy I suppose that this one looks better from the waist up. So it is kind of a mixed bag.
What about the teams overall? Well, it comes down to personal preference for a lot of this, so your mileage may very. But in vehicle mode, I really think that the Maketoys version is superior. The TFC version is very stylized. When I look at them, they look like toy construction vehicles. But the Maketoys ones look more like actual construction vehicles.
Meanwhile, in robot mode, things are more of a mixed bag. Honestly, some of the TFC versions look a bit better. I didn't expect I'd say that coming into this, but after taking a closer look thanks to Rated X, I'd have to admit that. But this certainly isn't true for all of them!
But, of course, one must consider the Constructicons as a team. It isn't like you can have a mixed set on display on your shelf, and expect them to work well together. TFC Toys and Maketoys have used two very different aesthetics with their takes on these characters. They all work well with their intended teammates, but would clash very much with one another.
Also, of course, one must consider the gestalt form. It isn't as if the two team are cross-compatible! But I may be getting ahead of myself a bit here... Comments on the gestalt should wait a bit... So I'll be back with more comments after Rated X's next review!
Review added 20 August 2014 by Rated X. (Prelude and post-script comments by Yotsuya.) Comments are welcomed!
Opinions in the body of the review and the photographs presented along with them are from Rated X. Used on this website with permission.
Well, that's the last individual member of the team. How do I feel about TFC's take on Scrapper? Well, while the vehicle mode would have more play value then Maketoys' version (with better articulation in the shovel) I still think that the Maketoys version looks better. As for robot mode... Well, I really like the legs on the Maketoys version, where as they're just kind of meh on this version. Buy I suppose that this one looks better from the waist up. So it is kind of a mixed bag.
What about the teams overall? Well, it comes down to personal preference for a lot of this, so your mileage may very. But in vehicle mode, I really think that the Maketoys version is superior. The TFC version is very stylized. When I look at them, they look like toy construction vehicles. But the Maketoys ones look more like actual construction vehicles.
Meanwhile, in robot mode, things are more of a mixed bag. Honestly, some of the TFC versions look a bit better. I didn't expect I'd say that coming into this, but after taking a closer look thanks to Rated X, I'd have to admit that. But this certainly isn't true for all of them!
But, of course, one must consider the Constructicons as a team. It isn't like you can have a mixed set on display on your shelf, and expect them to work well together. TFC Toys and Maketoys have used two very different aesthetics with their takes on these characters. They all work well with their intended teammates, but would clash very much with one another.
Also, of course, one must consider the gestalt form. It isn't as if the two team are cross-compatible! But I may be getting ahead of myself a bit here... Comments on the gestalt should wait a bit... So I'll be back with more comments after Rated X's next review!
Review added 20 August 2014 by Rated X. (Prelude and post-script comments by Yotsuya.) Comments are welcomed!
Opinions in the body of the review and the photographs presented along with them are from Rated X. Used on this website with permission.
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