Long Haul's vehicle mode is a dump truck, as it's pretty much always been. The color scheme is almost entirely light green with some dark gray here and there-- normally this would be a pretty boring color scheme, but there's several little bits of paint detailing here and there that spice up the look of the vehicle mode a little, such as the red headlights, silver headlights and windows, and a dark gray "fade" near the bottom sides to look like some kind of paint wear. It's still not exactly the most exciting color scheme, of course, but these bits do help a bit. As for the mode design itself, when it comes to its silouhette it's quite good-- it definitely looks like a dump truck overall, maybe SLIGHTLY more "squat" than a real one, but that can be chalked up to the whole younger age group Fast Action Battlers are aimed at. The front part in particular is very well-done with a surprising amount of mold detailing for a toy from this line, with little latters, grates, and rails all molded into the front. Unfortunately, the devil is in the details, and the closer you get to Long Haul's back end in this mode the worse it gets. From the side you can see a definite hole in the overall structure of this mode, and instead of an actual dump truck bed it's just his arms-- right there, in plain view, without any real attempt at hiding them. He also doesn't have much of a back end at all-- it's just made of his upper arms and the top of his head/chest piece from robot mode, unfortunately.
    Long Haul's robot mode is definitely where the overall design's priority lies, in contrast to most other Fast Action Battlers. Some of the front top of the vehicle mode hangs behind his main body (though out of the way of MOST movement), but other than that he's a pretty solid 'bot with pretty good proportions. Making the legs out of the front part of the vehicle mode was a nice step, and they make great legs proportionally, even if that part of the design isn't movie-accurate. The arms are nice, beefy, and bulky, and really convey the brute force a guy like Long Haul is supposed to have. Parts of the rear of his vehicle mode are the same piece as his lower claw-hands, but given his limited articulation here it's not that big of a deal-- plus, it IS movie-accurate. I particular like Long Haul's head/chest sculpt-- it's REALLY well-done, with tons of details and paint apps. This guy looks REALLY darned evil. My only caveat here is that his head is the same piece as the rest of the chest, so unfortunately it can't move. Long Haul's articulation is decent for a Fast Action Battler, though below-average for a mainline toy-- he can move at the shoulders (at three points), the elbow at two points on the left arm and one point on the right (it can only rotate at the elbow on the latter), and he can also move at the hips, knees, and waist. Long Haul's main gimmick from which he gets his prefix is that, if you press down on the green button on his tire-shoulder on his right arm, his right fist will slide forward slightly like an automatic "punch". Honestly, it's a pretty weak gimmick though, especially consider it gives him no real elbow movement on that arm. The faded bright orange paint app on the lower gimmicked arm is a nice touch, though, since it makes it look like his fist is in a "heated blurr" from a fast punch.
    Most of Devastation Blast Long Haul's downsides come from his vehicle mode which, although it has a nice silouhette, has lots of robot details poking out here and there that hardly make it convicing. However, Long Haul's robot mode is probably the best among the new round of Fast Action Battlers, with a real stocky, brutish look to him and great proportions, albeit a weak gimmick. Heck, in some ways-- most notably the arms and shoulders-- I feel he even surpasses the mainline Voyager in robot mode. Still, overall I'd recommend the mainline Voyager more if you can afford him or if you want something a bit more complex. But if you don't/can't, this is a pretty darn good substitute.

Review by Beastbot

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