Ok, as promised a bunch of weeks ago, Michael Bay will be holding Transformers Thursday hostage for a little while and I’ll be taking the next month or so to feature figures from the movies that haven’t been given the spotlight on FFZ before. After sitting down and thinking about what figures I wanted to look at in particular, I ended up going with pure randomness. And so today I reached into the tote that holds my movieverse Deluxe figures and pulled out Bonecrusher. It’s been a while since I watched the ’07 movie, but if memory serves Bonecrusher had a pretty cool chase scene on the highway before having his face ripped in half by the peace-loving Autobot leader, Optimus Prime. Apparently, face ripping is the right of all sentient beings. Anyway, I’ve got no in-package shot, so let’s jump right to the alt mode. I have tried to cleanse my mind of Bayformer bias, so I can take a fresh look at this guy.

Bonecrusher is a military truck designed to clear mines from the battlefield, and honestly, it’s hard for me to quarrel with this vehicle mode. It’s a great idea for a Decepticon alt mode, not only because it’s a military vehicle, but because it has a huge claw arm on the front, which looks like it would be good for more nefarious purposes. There are not a lot of paint apps, but it truth it doesn’t need any because it is a military vehicle. Besides, I’ve certainly got used to the less paint on Transformers in the past couple of years. The plastic, on the other hand, is nice and solid and the sculpting is quite detailed. Cool little touches include the rivets along the windows, the steps on the side and the ladder on the back.

The claw arm is articulated so that it can be deployed in front of the vehicle. It also has a spring-mechanism that can work the claw by moving a lever. It’s a nice action gimmick because it adds a little play value without compromising the look and design of the toy.

One of the hardest things to get used to about the Bay movies for me was the alien robot designs. I know, they’re alien robots. It makes sense that they should look weird, but it was still a bitter pill to swallow. Bonecrusher is a fine example of that. Yes, he’s humanoid in that he has two arms, two legs, and a head in the right place, but he’s a pretty misshapen humanoid. That having been said, I can find some things to like here. The detail and complexity of the robot mode certainly conveys the chaotic, hyper-detailed movie design, at least as well as it can in a $10 Deluxe figure. Indeed, Bonecrusher sports a creepy and almost insect-like appearance that fits the whole evil alien robot thing quite well. The way two of his wheels land on the back of his shoulders is pretty cool, and I also dig that the claw on his back can still be positioned over his head and serves a function while he’s in robot mode. That could come in use in a fight! The feet are also designed to use the wheels for his roller-skating antics, something which seems like it should be really goofy, but looked rather bitchin on screen.

On the downside, the arm panel kibble is ungainly and annoying, but plenty of other Transformers designs in other lines have done it before. It feels like these panels should lock in somewhere, but they don’t. I should also note that I don’t like the head sculpt at all. Laying aside my personal preferences of what a Transformers head should look like, I just think the head on this figure is a little too chunky and simple to match the rest of the figure, let alone the movie character.

Bonecrusher features an extending arm gimmick that doesn’t work for me either. It amounts to just an extra set of hinges so that the arms can be unfolded and give him a ludicrous amount of reach. I can’t recall whether he did this in the film or if it’s just something extra they tossed into the figure design as a play feature. I find it’s best ignored.

I found it interesting to go back to a first movie figure, as I haven’t had any of these out and on display in many years. For what he is, I don’t think Bonecrusher is a bad figure at all. He certainly has a few missteps, but in terms of modeling the character from the movie into a Deluxe Class toy, I think Hasbro did a pretty fine job here. Not to forget, also that he’s a seven year old toy. Bonecrusher is certainly complex and hyper detailed and the overall lack of paint operations don’t hurt the figure because of his drab desert military motif. Had the designers been able to better engineer the arm kibble, this guy could have been quite exceptional. As he is, he’s a solid effort… for a movie toy.