Demolishor
(ROTF)
*2018 UPDATE/BUYER BEWARE: After several years, reports have come about the rubber treads on Demolishor starting to emit a sort of slimy gunk that actually EATS THROUGH the surrounding plastic. Keep this in mind when purchasing this toy.*
Demolishor's vehicle
mode is an excavator. For a toy of this size, the proportions of this mode
are fairly good-- nice bulky treads, a HUGE shovel, and a remarkably well-detailed
drivers' room(?) and rails on the side. There's also some pretty cool little
railing and piston detailong on the top of this mode, and the paint wash
over the shovel arm really bring sout all the detailing quite well, with
the black fade near the end making it look more worn and "dirty". His shovel
arm can move at three different points, and when you move it up and down
at he middle point, a "metal" bit inside the shovel arm rotates as well,
which is Demolishor's "Mech Alive" feature and is quite cool. The treads
are also made of rubber, surprisingly enough, but they're thick enough
that they don't really roll around easily. The rear section of this mode
is rather weak, as it's basically just random connector pieces of Demolishor's
robot mode folded together to sort of fit the overall silhouette of the
mode. In that respect it works, but without al the great mold detailing
on the rest of the figure they still stick out a bit as being just essentially
robot mode kibble. The overall color scheme of dull red, black, and dull
white, while not exciting, fits a construction vehicle quite well, and
the white gives Demolishor some nice contrast, which is always good. Unfortunately,
it's not Demolishor's color scheme-- Demolishor is the 'Con in the beginning
fight scene if the movie, and he's primarily white. These colors are for
SCAVENGER, the 'Con we only see the vehicle mode of that combines into
Devastator late in the movie. That's kind of a big oversight, there...
can't Hasbro keep their own figures straight?
To say Demolishor's
robot mode is unique is a VAST understatement. Unless I'm forgetting something
big, this has got to be THE most unique, non-humanoid robot mode for a
Transformer I've ever seen. His entire body rotates around his head, with
the two wheels acting like some sorta big taffy puller. (Unfortunately,
as a side effect of this, he can NOT stand up by himself without having
his arms hold him up.) It can take a bit of work, but you can even keep
the arms in place as you rotate the wheels around Demolishor's head centerpoint.
He has no "body trunk" to speak of either, just a head. The head sculpt
is WONDERFULLY done, though, looking like the traditional Movie Decepticon
"bug-like" maw, but with a bit of a simian look to it that I can't quite
place. Making the treads compress into big rubber wheels is also an ingenious
move, and given the originality of it all and the fact that it actually
works with a bit of fiddling, I don't mind having a head just "hovering"
there in the center of the body, either. However, Demolishor's arms are
VERY poorly done. For one, the extra shoulder detailing doesn't work too
well with movement, given that you're supposed to bend rather thin, long
pieces of plastic downwards-- I'm rather afraid of them snapping if I accidentally
put too much force on them. Demolishor's arms also can only rotate from
side to side, and they're in an extremely awkward default position as well.
(You CAN get them to move forward, but only if you turn the shoulders forward
too, which looks pretty bad as well). His shovel-hands are also backwards,
which increases the awkward look of them. Really, the arms are just fail
all around.
Demolishor is an incredibly
unique Transformer, but it's definitely not for anybody. He's a got a nice
color scheme and some great detailing along with a decent vehicle mode,
but his very "hollow" robot mode with incredibly weak arms is a bit of
a downer. If you like the uniqueness of his look, then I'd recommend him
with hesitation, as long as you realize how bad the arms are. If you only
want your TFs to be humanoid, though, pass at all costs.
Review by Beastbot