Transformers Armada Demolishor review

Demolishor is said to make up for his lack of intelligence by being one of the more loyal Decepticons, even if some of his beliefs clash with Megatron. It was seen from time to time in Armada, and it was initially explored upon in Energon, where he first made friendships with the Autobots until Megatron returned, where his loyalty to the Decepticons returned despite having conflicts with the idea of changing sides. Then he died at one point (and would either blame Optimus Prime for his death somehow while Ironhide tells everyone to get in the ship OR tell Ironhide to remember him while everyone else told Ironhide to get in the ship) and became a Long Haul-esque robot, where he lost his memories and not only had character devolution but a much weaker design, too (seriously, a dump truck's not as effective as a tank). It sucked that it happened, but it's a reminder of how not to handle character development in future shows. Anyways, shall we continue on with the review?

Here we have Demolishor in his tank mode. Design-wise, it's pretty badass when it comes to the firepower displayed front and center. While it may look a little chibi in some areas, and the missiles do stick out more than they really need to, the way his altmode resembles what it intended to look like works here than it does with Cyclonus. Other details I like? The paint for the tank mode is pretty sweet, what with the mud leftover on the front of the tank and the drybrush added to the armor covering the dreads. The only thing I don't like is how there are some hollowed parts on the inner pieces of the tanks, but beyond that, the rest of the altmode looks pretty neat.

I should mention that the sides of the altmode are different from one another. Compare the molded details of the armor on this side with the pic from above. I should mention that this also means the Minicon port doesn't work here since the missiles don't work when you attach Blackout onto it. It works on the other side since the port is a different color, but it is possible to get another left shoulder so as to make the feature work on both sides.

This is the additional mode of the toy, where you swing the treads around to reposition the toy into a battle platform. It may not look like much from this side...

But the back has a seat for Blackout to sit on like a proper anti-aircraft missile launcher. Also included are some handles for a few Minicons to hold.

The rest of the transformation is a little more involved than it was for Cyclonus, with the best parts of it being the treads becoming the legs and the chest opening up to make the figure look more proportionate. This actually makes the robot mode look less like a helicopter grew arms and legs in comparison. The design has a nice balance between being a blocky robot while having some different proportions that would normally be found on, say, an old Headmaster. I especially love the long missile shoulders and the finger hands on this figure. The side may have part of the seat stick out weirdly, but the rest of the toy looks pretty good, I have to say. I even like the color scheme he has.

Head sculpt's pretty neat, what with the gritted teeth giving him a tougher look while also having the larger eye as the targeting monocle. I do admit it does make him look like he has one eye bigger than the other, but some repaints do make the monocle differently colored.

Articulation's pretty decent for a gimmick figure, what with the shoulders swiveling up and down, the elbows bending at a 90-degree angle, the waist swivel, and the hips moving front and back as well as slightly in and out, along with knees. 

The Minicon he came with is named Blackout. He turned into an APC with colors that matched Demolishor's, and it could either plug into the ports or be part of the tank mode (with a launching feature included)

While the Takara version has a brown face and slightly greener plastic for the tan, the new repaints are more interesting. Demolishor is not red and gray with yellow and blue highlights added. Funny enough, this character is called "Ironhide" in the Japanese series. This figure was repurposed as Shattered Glass Demolishor, even though it was in the proper Armada series.

Here we have the Energon version of the figure, decked out in Constructicon colors. Funny enough, this kind of foreshadowed his new form in the series resembling G1 Long Haul. I feel this deco would also foreshadow how his ROTF counterpart, also a Constructicon, takes these colors at one point in the Legends line. The head sculpt could go for a bit of finer details. 

Finally, we have Cybertron Demolishor, who is mostly unchanged in terms of tooling in this line compared to Cyclonus's retool, Buzzsaw. These almost Roadbuster-esque colors are pretty interesting on this figure, as they are similar to but not exactly like them. Instead of Blackout, he has a generic Cyber Key with extra tooling made to work with the missile launchers rather than a repainted Blackout.

Here he is with his pal, Cyclonus. These two are pretty neat together, though of the two, I like Demolishor more due to him being a better design all around. He feels more like a Transformer would while Cyclonus almost has a bit of a Gobot look to his proportions. I don't like talking down on Cyclo because he's neat to have, yet Demolishor wins in this round. Now if you excuse me, I have to bring him Hot Shot's friends for his dinner meal.

Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐ and a half out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐