Transformers Energon Demolisher review

The Energon series had Demolishor remain as a Decepticon after the Unicron Battles, and where there was a peaceful allegiance between both factions as they rebuilt Cybertron and formed a city to mine Energon from the Earth. While he formed a bit of a friendship with the dorky punk Ironhide (a name ironically used for Demolishor in Japan while the Autobot was named Roadbuster), he resumed his loyalty towards Megatron after the Decepticon leader was resurrected. After having an internal struggle between reuniting with his friends or staying with the faction he's been a part of since Armada began, Demolishor sacrificed his life to save his leader, then he bid farewell to Ironhide (or randomly blamed Prime for his death). Megatron, retrieving his spark, later gave Demolishor a new body as he did previously with Cyclonus and Tidal Wave; while those two were renamed Snow Cat and Mirage, Demolishor was not given a new name. In Japan, where Cyclonus was Sandstorm and Tidal Wave was Shockwave, parts of their names were changed to become Snowstorm and Shockfleet. Ironhide was renamed Irontread, while Hasbro intended the toy to be named Long Haul. That and he was meant to be a separate character, a common idea within Hasbro's repaints compared to the show Takara worked on. Regardless, does the toy still hold up if we set aside a messy production for Energon? Let's find out!

Here we have Demolishor in-hand. As an earth-moving dump truck, this manages to look pretty good outside of the arms folded up in front. The giant wheels, a decent level of sculptwork, and a handful of paint apps that are realistic for a dump truck yet also keep it from looking drab help make this feel less Playskool than what Unicron Trilogy haters whined about at the time. I especially love that we have a champagne tint for the hoping used on the grille and rims to make it appear somewhat dirty (which goes well with the intentionally scuffed bumper that would probably be skipped on a modern reimagining). While he can't really dump his load, he can at least lift the bed up and use it as a turret. Sadly, only four of the missiles work, and while his truck bed may be translucent, there are no lights and sound gimmicks. Would have been cool given the possible space included.

For a size comparison, here we have him with his Armada counterpart. While dump trucks are normally used as Voyagers and the like for Transformers, I think the scale between both versions of Demolishor work fine enough. Sure, a dump truck isn't as practical for combat as a tank, but at least he's a big dude for his size class and has a bit of tank-like functionality.

Transformation is similar to G1 Long Haul, only his truck bed becomes the backpack instead of the legs. That and his arms make the aforementioned front section has the arms folded in plain sight. The resulting robot mode is a more stylized take on that design, but with some new tweaks, such as the grill folded away to make it look like he has a purple shirt underneath his green coat, and the clear arms that I'm surprised haven't broken off on me. S toy that is over 20 years old lasting longer than SS86 Jazz, get me! His proportions are chunky,  but not to the same extent as the obese-looking Combiner Wars Long Haul. One funny detail is how he has a tiny Decepticon logo on his chest, yet there's a huge one on his back, so he still feels more prideful of his faction than the PRID Airachnid toy. He has an Energon Star port on his belly button, but hey, he has paint apps on his toes that could easily be skipped. TF budgets were so good back then for paint apps.

His head sculpt is a little different than the blockhead usually found on G1 Constructicons. It looks like a mashup between G1 Gnaw and RID X-Brawn. The card art has him with an actual mouth, but the show has him without any proper face details beyond the eyes and nose. Probably something the animators did to save time with their already cheap ass show. The articulation consists of a neck swivel and slight up and down movement for a hinge, swivel shoulders, outward arm movement, bicep rotation, hinged elbows, and ratchets for the waist, hips, and knees (with rotation above the latter).

Decepticons in Energon had Hyper Modes, which were their linewide gimmick to go against the Autobots Powerlinking. For Demolishor, his inner torso hinges forward and the truck bed hovers over to make him a hunchback missile pod nothing exciting but it still is something.

Here he is next to his old self, and while a prefer the Armada design, I will admit that the Energon version has better articulation overall. Honestly, in spite of the series reception, Demolishor is still a cool toy to buy regardless if he is canonically an upgraded guy or meant to be Long Haul. He should be fairly cheap in the aftermarket, but be sure he has all 4 missiles. Sadly, no repaint options are out there, though I expected a Constructicon repaint or Landfill with Double Targetmasters.

Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐