Long Haul's dump truck mode, from a peripheral glance, is pretty good. It's proportionally spot-on, being wide in a manner that isn't adequately captured in most of his other toys. He's the only Constructicon that hails back to his G1 roots in his color scheme-- at least a little bit-- with his primarily green coloration, though it's a much more realistic shade of green. There's also no purple with black being the main other color in mode. The couple of red stripes really pop against the green and black, though-- I wish there was a bit more of that. His mold detailing is one of the best in the RotF line in my opinion, with rivets, hinges, ladders-- all the relevant detailing, practically EVERYWHERE on this figure, right down to the little rubber "rails" on the front end and the little clear cockpit. However, there is one major problem with this mode, and that's that quite a few of Long Haul's robot mode bits-- though they fit in with the overall silouhette of the vehicle-- are pretty obvious if you look at him from a side or back view. His main body is obviously between his two wheels, his arms and hands obviously below the rear half. It's a bit of a shame, given all the detailing that went into all of these parts.
    Long Haul's robot mode, unfortunately, suffers from the same problems. He's got his seriously bulky rear tires just hanging on an odd and oddly-placed bar above his head, while some pieces that comprise the top and front parts of his vehicle mode just hang off his back wihtout really clicking into place anywhere, and can getin the way of arm movement a bit. He also has some proportional problems as well. In the movie as well as the concept art, Long Haul is this seriously buff, stocky dude. Sadly, this toy of him has skinny, fairly long arms and legs. It's just such a disappointment, as his design really looked great in thos bulky proportions. On another, more minor note, the front grill pieces which wrap around his upper legs don't fully snap into their position very well and can get in the way of hip and knee movement a little. However, that's not to say there aren't several good things about this mode, too-- the mold and paint detailing on his chest and head is EXTREMELY well-done, and really looks menacing, doing his concept art justice. (His "Mech Alive" gimmick is involved here, too-- moving his head from side-to-side causes a gear in his chest to spin. It's minor, but it looks pretty cool.) In addition, moving his legs around at the ankle moves little pieces on his inner lower legs that look like springs, which is a nice touch as well. The little pistons on his upper arms are great touches as well, and there's great usage of the upper sides of his vehicle mode-- they serve as sheaths for slip-out transparent swords in this mode. (The swords themselves look cool, though I don't think just a clear plastic was the best color for them.) If you don't want Long Haul to have his swords out, you can fold back those pieces of his vehicle mode to get them out of the way a little bit. As far as the color scheme goes, some light metallic blue and teal are added to the colors in this mode, and help to diversity the colors a bit more and make the whole combo a bit more original. As far as articulation goes, Long Haul can move at the neck, shoulders (at three points), elbows, wrists, hips (at three points), knees (at two points), and where the toe/heel pieces connect to the lower foot. However, as mentioned before the movement at his hsoulders, hips, and knees is limited somewhat by his alt mode parts. He's quite stable however, given his wide feet.
    It's a shame about Long Haul's kibble issues in both modes and his oddly lanky proportions in robot mode. He's got some absolutely incredibly mold detailing, some nice gimmicks, and good vehicle mode proportions. As it is, however, unless you're an articulation buff, I'd actually spring for the Fast Action Battler of this version instead, given that A. Its appearance in robot mode is more representative of Long Haul in the movie and concept art, B. It has less kibble, and C. It's half the price of this guy.

Review by Beastbot

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