UPDATE 11/16/2020: Studio Series 69 Devastator included in mold history
Alright, before we get to Devastator himself, I want to take a look at each of the 8 Constructicons and rank them from worst to best. Let's begin with the fairly basic guy himself, Scrapmetal. I feel he's at the bottom of the list because of how plain he is. Sure, he's not an awful toy, but I feel there are better ways to make him visually interesting since he currently looks as plain as the Beewun designs. He does remind me of RID Grimlock, the 2001 version, but he's still not as interesting as the other Constructicons.
Next up is the only other Deluxe in this team, that being Hightower. I like how unique his design is, as he's not a typical up and down robot and instead looks more animalistic. He's also more realized than the only other version of him, the Legends one; that said, I still wish he'd look a little more realized than he currently is. As it stands, he gives me the vibe of an animatronic that is used for dinosaurs made with practical effects. At least the transformation is decent.
After the Deluxes, we go to a Voyager in the form of Scrapper. This is the weakest Voyager of the set, in my opinion. The first problem comes with how awful his vehicle mode looks, with toyetic proportions on-par with the Combiner Wars version of the character. Also, this guy's transformation is fairly Gobotish if you ask me. Robot mode isn't too bad, but it reeks of M.A.R.S. Converters Earthmover. The sad part is his arm mode's underwhelming. I mean it'd probably look fine when combined with Devastator, but Scrapmetal and Hightower at least look cool when combined.
Another Voyager Class figure, this is Rampage. At first, I thought he was going to be a sucky toy, but he's actually pretty good. Unlike that stupid ROTF toy, this guy has no shitty gimmick to ruin him, and I prefer how poseable he is, too. I also appreciate the fact that he's a good size, even if his vehicle mode looks a little too big. Still, a great addition for the Constructicons, even if his weapons are a little too small for him to look convincing.
With one half of the team covered, let's start covering the other half. This is Scavenger, and he's certainly a big guy (but not as big as we all hoped Demolishor would be in 2009). I know some people don't mind the ROTF figure, but I feel this guy is more fulfilling due to how his tires (or one tire) works as hard plastic, and I also appreciate how beefy he feels by comparison. And best of all, he has claws that look pretty good. Vehicle mode proportions are a little funny, though.
In third place is Mixmaster, who thankfully isn't as difficult as the old Voyager in terms of transforming him. I will admit that his design is a little more wonky than the old Voyager, but I guess that's to make up for how he transforms as the head of Devastator (so I guess that makes him a Headmaster?). The cement truck mode's beautiful, and the head mode is a pleasant surprise because of how detailed and monstrous it looks. No cannon mode, but I don't mind that.
In second place is Overload. The recent guy is finally here, and while his vehicle mode isn't the best, I love his design and how unexpected it looks with all those arms and how wide he is. He's almost like Bonecrusher but without the tail claw from the back. And of course, it's finally good to have this guy complete the entire set of Constructicons. Some would love for him to be a proper Spider-Bot, but I think he's good as he is.
In first place is Long Haul! This guy was hard for me to find because he disappeared after seeing him one time at my college's nearest Target, and I at one point went to 5 Targets in hopes of getting him, but nothing came about, sadly. That is until I found him on Walmart.com and got him for a bit of a cheaper price than I normally paid for these figures. I love his beefy design, and while the articulation may not be the best, I at least see him use his mass as a weapon whenever he pushes someone aside or punches them real hard in the fiction.
It's certainly nice to see all of the team together for a robot mode shot, as previously mentioned in my Overload review. You can certainly look for the other reviews for my extended thoughts on these figures if you so desire, but I think it's time we get into some serious business, yeah?
Here they are in their vehicle modes for another group shot. Yes, I plan to make a stop-motion with these guys at some point in time so be sure to wait for it.
And for the moment we've all been waiting for, it's time to merge for the kill! I already talked about how each figure transforms into their component mode, with the easiest being all of the figures that become arms, the more intermediate ones being Mixmaster, Long Haul, Rampage, amd Overload, and the hardest being Scavenger thanks to his unique design. The way the pieces combine is fairly familiar in terms of how the arms attach similarly to the Combiner Wars figures, while the two legs, the waist, and the upper torso is used each slide into their rather tight slots, which may require a bit of force yet they help keep this guy fairly solid. The head, which kinda makes Mixmaster a Headmaster, is kind of hard to tab in right. He has two C-joint clips that need to clip onto Scavenger, yet it's fairly tight, and I fear of damaging the clips because of how small they are. Oh, and you need to make sure that the Vortex Grinder is clipped on to where it'll remain fairly sturdy while also attaching Rampage's stand on the butt and Scrapmetal's shield on the leg.
And now it's time to take a look at the big kahuna himself! Devastator is an impressive beast, and he captures the design of the combiner very well despite standing on two legs. I know some people will say "But Quantum Surge, this sucks because he's not like in the prototype image", and I know that he was altered between 2018 and 2020, but shut the fuck up and feast your eyes on this guy! In fact, here he is next to the other versions of Devastator! The Supreme version doesn't capture the proportions all that well and looks very toyish, the Legends version is better yet comes at the cost of being puny, and then there's the...Mega Power Bots version? Eh, had to add at least one more Devastator, but he's not really bad for what he is. And I know as he is, Devastator should be on all fours like in the movie and could go for more parts to beef him up a bit more, but if we can accept Combiner Wars Devastator and his cheap ass compromises, then we can accept Studio Series Devastator for not being able to be on all fours officially. And we'll get to that part in a bit.
The side and back both look pretty good as far as monstrous gestalts like Devastator go, and while there are some parts that could look a little funny, they're at least not as prominent as stuff that would be present for the CG model, like the treads making up a part of the Vortex Grinder. Also, I don't mind that he's standing up because he is at least hunched forward so he can sort of mimic the posture.
The head is certainly monstrous, and I especially love the beautiful sculpting as well as a great attempt to make the red parts of the face prominent from the gray and black parts of the face. Even the eyes are picked out differently from the rest of the face, and that is a very nice touch. As for the articulation of this guy, he doesn't have any for the neck, but his mouth can open and close. The shoulders can hinge front and back if you use what were Scavenger's arms, the parts that Scrapper and Hightower connect to are able to swivel, and their ratchet pieces can make them move in and out. Scrapper's claw can hinge at three points while Scrapmetal's claw can move at 10 points! There is no waist swivel despite there being a seam that would make you think it's there at first glance, but the hips can move front and back as well as in and out, the thighs swivel, and there really is no knee movement; the ankles, however, can hinge as well as pivot, with the sideways rocking supported by the ratchet joints.
Now it's time for a size comparison between him and a small selection of figures in the Studio Series line. Firstly, we have the tallest Leader Class Transformer in the form of Grimlock, one of the taller Voyagers in the form of ROTF Megatron (who should be on a pyramid yelling Devy's name out), and a standard Deluxe with Bumblebee. He towers over them without a shadow of a doubt, and not even Grimlock is as tall as he is. On the other pic is Masterpiece Movie Optimus Prime, who was in a similar height to Grimlock, and not a Transformer but a mecha in the form of the Beast-X Ultrazord from Power Rangers Beast Morphers! The Ultrazord is a little taller than Devastator is, but Devastator's heavier than the Ultrazord is, who suffers from being a little light due to his plastic not being as dense as the Constructicons are (still better than people give them credit for).
Now here's the thing people are wondering about: Can you display Devastator by putting him on all fours? Not like this you can. See, there is no proper neck movement for Devastator, nor can the limbs actually be posed as if they're flat on the floor.
However, with some modding, you can achieve Devastator in this form simple by detaching Mixmaster fron Scavenger and using the same pieces used to connect to the top wheel of Scavenger onto some unused tabs for Mixmaster. Then you're going to want to hinge the Scavenger arms forward and upward. You're also going to want to flip Scrapper upside down, flip the tires back in their vehicle mode spot, and hinge the claw scoops up so they can be more claw-like while on the floor. Then you swivel the forearms of Scrapper around and use the legs as the back fingers of the left arm. This configuration of Devastator was covered by the likes of TonTon and PrimeVsPrime already, so it's old news by the time both of them got Overload, but this is possible to do if you want to give Devastator a more movie-accurate look.
Devastator being on all fours is pretty neat, though I can see why Hasbro chose not to go this route and went with the official configuration. I have a feeling they didn't feel too confident with Scrapper and Hightower/Scrapmetal cooperating with Scavenger's arms since they all have a lot more joints than normal, and Devastator's head looks fairly thin when viewed from the dead-set front of his face and could go with a few more parts to fill in the gaps he sort of has. Still, he at least looks more ready to suck up the Twins and climb up a Pyramid to uncover the Sun Harvester! Oh, wait, I don't have the Twins in Studio Series form, as they have yet to be made (and I hope they get made because I'm not like those soy boys who bitched about them for being hip), so in the meantime, B-127 and My Name Is Cliffjumper will take over until we get proper Twins. Would love to see the be done up as the Green Beat and Reddish Orange Trax, Hasbro!
Oh, and before I forget, if you happen to get Skipjack, you can make an even more screen-accurate Devastator by replacing an reddish leg with a yellow one! I mean, it's neat, but it's not extremely important to me for now. Still, if I get Skipjack, then Rampage will be displayed on his own in reference to his brief yet cool encounter with Sam, Mikaela, his family, and Bumblebee. Plus, I know Rampage was fairly hard to find.
Now to go over the 69th release of the Studio Series line! This Devastator gift set justifies its release by adding a few more paint apps, coming in a massive backdrop, and contains every single release from the line, though Skipjack replaces Rampage. While I'm already happy with getting every single Constructicon in the line so far, I can see this being a great way for any fan who missed out on the releases to buy this set at once. I should mention that in terms of the money spent on these guys, I paid around a total of $282 compared to the $260-270 paid. Not much of a big difference, but if you can't find the individual releases (especially on clearance at places like Marshalls or Ross), then definitely take action with this set!
Putting Devastator back in his stock form, let's close off this review with a bit of a reflection on the Constructicons, the path getting to Devastator, and Devastator himself. Each Constructicon figure is great in terms of looks for at least standing out for one another, even if some look better than others, and I also love how there's a little more color variation, even if the only unique ones are Mixmaster and Long Haul. As for gettigng to the entire set, it was a little better than I expected. At first, I didn't buy the first wave of Constructicons because I was focused on getting Beewun Prime, Cogman, and Shatter, with the former being hard to find already. I thankfully got them along with Hightower and the other guys to complete the 2019 wave. I did get Long Haul in 2020 online, and I later got Mixmaster in-person and later bought Scrapper along with Sentinel and later Scavenger online with Apeface before rounding out the team with my preorder of Overload (who cost me 20 dollars less than he is right now, btw!). So it was a little long to get there, but I'm happy to have the entire set for once. And for the actual resulting Combiner, this has been a crazy ride for me, as I was honestly not expecting to own a complete Devastator. Sure, I had to wait a nearly 2 years to own him after seeing the prototype at a toy convention back in 2018, but it feels so damn good to finally own a version of the character that's not missing any important things, it doesn't have any bad proportions, and it feels very worthwhile after years of having barely passable versions of Devastator in the past. Again, I know that there are some things that deserve to be criticized, like with the exposed head for Overload and the fact that this guy doesn't stand on all fours. But I'd rather appreciate what we do have, because who knows when we'll get an even better Devastator officially made by Hasbro. I doubt we'll ever get Masterpieces of the Constructicons, so I'm happy to say that this guy is a better option than all the other ones we've got so far. Plus, I'd rather accept this guy than deal with the embarrassing Titan Class Devastator and Predaking figures, who have issues that are way more prominent than with this guy. So I don't give a fuck if you're against this design, or if you're not interested in the Studio Series line, because this is easily one of the best Combiners I've ever held in-hand, and all I can say is that I'm happy if we don't get any other combiners because unlike Devastator, no one cares about Infernocus or Dragonstorm as much. I'd rather Infernocus be 6 Deluxes combined into a Leader, anyways. So overall, I recommend getting this guy, whether it's by collecting the individual figures or getting them all in one set!
Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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