Alrighty, folks, I’m back to check out the second half of Hasbro’s Combiner Wars Constructicons. Yesterday I looked at Scrapper, Mixmaster, and Long Haul and today is all about Bonecrusher, Scavenger, and Hook. Let’s go ahead and take them in that order.

Bonecrusher stays true to form with a bulldozer alt mode, which features molded treads an articulated front plow, and a fair amount of detailed sculpting, particularly on the outsides of the treads. He also comes dangerously close to melting my eyes with all that neon green and showing very little else in the way of color diversity. You get a little silver paint on the side vents, some purple paint on the windows of the cab, and some black on the robot parts showing from the back. All in all, it’s a tight little construction vehicle that rolls along on some wheels concealed inside the treads and pays respect to the original toy. Unlike the trio we looked at yesterday, Bonecrusher actually features some relatively complex transformations, with some pretty impressive results.

The original G1 Bonecrusher was my least favorite of all the Constructicons because his robot mode was awkward and even as a kid it didn’t work for me. This updated version bucks that trend and becomes one of the best this new bunch has to offer.  Most notably, he’s surprisingly well proportioned and best of all he has some of the best articulation in this whole set. You get proper ball jointed elbows and even lateral rockers in the ankles. Oddly enough, the first time I played around with him, I had all sorts of trouble keeping his crotch together, but I haven’t had that problem since. Maybe I just didn’t have it locked together properly.

Bonecrusher features a fantastic head sculpt, which invokes the original G1 character beautifully. The way the back of the plow becomes his chest works remarkably well here and there’s a ton of sculpted detail and paint to reproduce the look of the sticker on the original toy. I can’t say enough how much I love this new silver paint Hasbro is using. It really looks great with the red and purple paint and you get a Decepticon emblem right in the middle of his chest. Beautiful! I didn’t have any high hopes for this guy, but he’s probably my favorite figure in this set, next to Scrapper.

Also running high in my favorites is Scavenger. The alt mode here is a familiar backhoe and thanks to some purple paint on the sculpted treads, he isn’t quite the green-overkill assault on the eyes that his tracked-brother Bonecrusher is. You also get some purple paint on the cab windows, a little silver on the scoop hydraulics, and some red and silver vents on the sides. Sadly, Scavenger cannot pivot on his tracks, but you do get two points of articulation in his scoop arm, so that’s not too bad. Like Bonecrusher, Scavenger has a relatively complex transformation, which results in another great looking robot.

A lot of what i said about Bonecrusher is the case with Scavenger here. The way the treads form the legs is almost identical and while Hasbro could have easily gotten away with repainting and reusing the same treads here, they are actually completely new sculpts, which is cool. Scavenger also features the better articulation with ball jointed elbows. The crane arm folds up into his back as best as can be expected. It’s still rather obtrusive, but surprisingly enough Scavenger isn’t terribly back heavy and I have no problems getting him to stand up.

I’ve never been a huge fan of Scavenger’s head sculpt, mainly because of that weird box that makes up his mouth plate, but I’m still glad that Hasbro reproduced it faithfully here and they did a nice job with it too. The familiar silver plate that makes up Scavenger’s chest is also recreated nicely with more of that beautiful silver paint.

Last up is the leader of the Constructicons, Hook. Again, we get a very faithful recreation of the original G1 vehicle mode, in this case a boom crane truck. Hook features a fair amount of color diversity, at least within the confines of the Constructon deco. You get a lot more purple showing than some of the other figures and also some black on the wheels and side panels, and a little bit of silver on the hook itself. Hook has a bit of an undercarriage, which prevents him from rolling as well as I would like. Also, the crane will not rotate, which is understandable. What’s not as understandable is that the boom doesn’t extend, although it does at least raise and lower on a hinge.

Hook feels like he has a lot in common with Scrapper in the way he transforms and he does have some little drawbacks. Unlike Mixmaster, Hook’s back kibble does drag on the ground, so when he’s standing, he’s usually also leaning on the hook. You can angle it back further if you want him in a deeper stance, so it’s not that big of a problem. One annoying characteristic is the way his feet can pop off when I’m posing him, but at least he does have lateral ankle rockers. The arms technically have elbow hinges, but they’re placed a little too far down for my taste. Plus they’re those weird hollow elbows made up of a hinge on the end. I’m mostly content to just pretend he doesn’t have any elbow articulation at all.

The head sculpt is fantastic and I’m pleased that the plate hovering above his shoulders doesn’t interfere with the head articulation at all. Hook does have a combiner link making up his chest, so his torso isn’t quite as stylish as all the others, but it still looks good thanks to some great sculpting and a little paint work.

And that wraps up my look at the individual bots. I dig these guys a lot and getting them was such an amazing surprise that I’m hesitant to nitpick a lot. Nonetheless, when you look at how great Scavenger and Bonecrusher came out in terms of articulation, I really wish they could have done a better job with the others. I’ll also point out that the lack of individual guns is a huge issue with me, making it more likely that I will be picking up the Takara release later on down the road. Yes, the combiner parts have some afterthought weapon functions, but nothing in my opinion that is worth bothering with here. Nonetheless, each figure has its own charms and they look absolutely fantastic displayed on my shelf as a team. Ah, but let’s face it, the real draw of this set is the ability to build a giant Devastator and tomorrow I’ll be back to do just that!

Ever since the Toy Fair in Germany earlier this year I’ve been waiting to get my hands on Hasbro’s latest bombshell reveal… A Titan Class Devastor comprised of Voyager sized versions of all six original Constructicons. I mean, holy hell, I can’t think of too many toy lines getting as much love these days as Hasbro is showing toward their change-a-bots. Of course, since then we’ve been treated to peeks at two other versions, including an SDCC Exclusive and Takara’s own with some added articulation. I went with Hasbro’s for now, but I’m not ruling out picking up the Takara version later on down the line. This Feature is going to be broken down into three parts. Today I’ll check out the packaging and the bots that make up Devy’s lower half: Scrapper, Mixmaster, and Long Haul. Tomorrow, I’ll check out Hook, Bonecrusher, and Scavenger. And on Saturday we’ll take a look at Devastator himself.

The package here is pretty damn simple, and I don’t have a lot ot say about it. It’s a completely enclosed box, which is not nearly as big as the Metroplex box, despite them both being classified as “Titan Class” figures. The deco is in keeping with the style introduced for the Combiner Wars line with a landscape style front and some really nice artwork of Devastator doing what he does best. On the back of the box you get pictures of both the individual vehicles and robots, as well as the combined mode. Inside the box is a cardboard tray, which has the figures in their vehicle modes. You also get one character card for Devastator (sadly, none for the individual bots), and a huge folded instruction sheet. It’s all totally collector friendly, and while I do still have my Metroplex box, I doubt I’ll hang on to this one.

Before getting into specifics, I’ve got to say that these guys are an odd bunch and I feel like I need to offer up a disclaimer. They definitely feel like up-scaled figures in that they are very simple and chunky and feature rather limited articulation. The plastic used here also feels lighter than what I’m used to getting and I suspect that has something to do with making the combined mode work without being too heavy.  In all honesty, if someone had handed me one of these figures without me knowing what it was, I would bet money that it was a knock-off, albeit a mighty nicely sculpted one. I know, that sounds bad, but the truth is when all is said and done, I’m able to look past that, because so much of this set is executed so well. It’s just worth noting that if you’re expecting the same quality, detail, and complexity of other Voyager figures, you aren’t going to find it here. These guys are scaled to work with the Masterpiece figures and they scale well with a lot of individual 3P combiner figures like Worbotron and Feral Rex, but the style and detail in the sculpt isn’t there to back it up. On the other hand, they do look just fine displayed alongside Leader Class Megatron. Anywho… let’s start checking out the individual figures and I’m going to start with Scrapper, because he’s always been one of my favorites…

Scrapper is probably my favorite of the entire lot because he looks like a properly updated version of the original toy. His vehicle mode is what I like to call a scoop-dozer, because I have absolutely no idea what you really call these things. It’s a pretty good rendition of the original vehicle mode with a fair amount of panel lines, sculpted bolts, ladders, vents and all the other bits and bobs. He rolls along on four chunky wheels and you get some nice articulation in the scoop.

There are virtually no paint apps showing on Scrapper’s vehicle mode other than the purple on the windows and a Decepticon emblem on the roof. You do get a little hint of purple plastic peeking out here and there from his robot parts, the black wheels, and a whole lot of glorious neon green plastic. I’ve heard some people complain about the green being off. It’s definitely brighter and more intense than the original toys, but it works just fine for me.

Scrapper’s transformation is pretty simple. There’s a little more going on with the legs, but otherwise it ain’t all that different from the old G1 toy and damn it the results aren’t amazing. This is every bit a larger and modern update to the Scrapper toy I knew and loved as a kid, and that is wonderful. You do get some hollow caverns in the back of his lower legs, and no articulation in the elbows, well none other than swivels, but just looking at him standing on the shelf makes me happy.

It’s obvious that all of the paint apps went into the robot mode and there is indeed a lot of nice work here. What was once stickers on the G1 toy are now replaced with sculpted detail and some beautiful red and silver paintwork. You also get another big Decepticon emblem on his chest and a little gold trim on his waist. And check out the head sculpt. It’s pure old school goodness. I absolutely love this figure!

Moving on to Mixmaster, here we have a pretty big departure from the old G1 toy. He’s still a cement mixer, but a different style, with cabs on the front and the back. I’ve been told by someone who would know this is a legit design, but it feels so weird compared to the more simple G1 design. The drum is now angled up on the front, at least I think that’s the front. Holy crap is this a confusing design! You get the same black, purple and green deco on Mixmaster, with a little silver on the side tanks, front grill, and the smokestacks. In all honestly, he’s probably got just as much paint as most Deluxes shipping these days, and probably a few Voyagers too. Still, I can get behind this design, especially when the transformation preserves so much of the look of the original robot.

Yup, that’s Mixmaster, alright, right down to the twin cannons positioned on a shelf over his head. He’s even got the twin wheels positioned on his arms… beautiful! He does feature a cement drum tail hanging off his back, but it’s not too bad and it doesn’t need to rest on the ground to help the figure stand up. Mixmaster also features hinged articulation in the elbows, which is definitely one up on Scrapper.

I love the headsculpt on this guy, as it feels like a nice homage to the old toy. And as with Scrapper, you get all kinds of great sculpted detail on his chest along with some gold, silver, and red paint in place of stickers. Whatever points Mixmaster might lose because of the crazy new truck mode, he easily recoups for a bitchin’ robot mode.

And now we come to the big elephant in the room… Long Haul. Long Haul was my first Constructicon as a kid and so I have a special level of affection and nostalgia for this guy. He’s still a dump truck, and he’s a mighty big one, which makes me think of him as a hybrid of the original toy and the Revenge of the Fallen version. Besides being a big boy, Long Haul has some nice sculpted detail, and with some black, purple, and silver paint showing, he’s a little more dynamically colored, but you do still get an awful lot of neon green. I loved this mode to begin with, but once I got a look at that Decepticon emblem above the front grill, it was on a whole new level of greatness.

Of course, there’s been a lot of hate thrown Long Haul’s way because in robot mode, he’s a bit husky. So what? It’s been 30-years since we’ve seen this guy and he’s let himself go a little. I’m a somewhat portly middle-aged fellow, so I can relate, Long Haul. You won’t get any fat-shaming from me. All kidding aside, the thing I loved the most about G1 Long Haul was the way he wore the front of his vehicle mode as his chest, similar to some of the Autobots, and this design keeps it real.  Sure, he’s got little stubby arms, but so did the original toy. The bottom line is that Hasbro had to make this guy a powerhouse in order to take on the center of Devastator and I’m fine with that.

No, I think if I had one gripe about Long Haul, it would be that I wish they had painted his “helmet” black like the others. I don’t dislike his head. It’s got an interesting Cylon motif going on, but it just doesn’t match the others and that bugs me a little bit. Otherwise, Long Haul’s robot mode features some nice silver and red paint apps and there’s that Decepticon emblem on top of the grill. Don’t let the haters get you down, Long Haul, I’ve got your back!

Despite my initial disclaimer, I hope I’ve made it clear how much I like these figures. Yes, they’re a bit strange, and it’s so hard for me to put my finger on why these figures feel so different from any other Transformers Hasbro has been putting out lately. Yes, there are some paint apps I would have liked to see added, but there’s also some particularly nice paintwork on display here as well. Maybe it’s just the recognition that they seem to have started life as something smaller, or maybe that’s not even true. I’d be really curious to see how they would have turned out as Deluxes, putting them more in scale with the rest of the Combiner Wars, but then I’m getting ahead of myself, as I still have three more figures to look at. Tomorrow, I’ll be back to check out Hook, Bonecrusher, and Scavenger.