Usually when there is a 6 part combiner team they're usually all about the same size. The Constructicons used to be like that to, not anymore. Isn't that Devastating? So this week we're talking about the biggest of the six Constructicons in the Titan class Devastator boxset, Long Haul.
Long Haul transforms from a robot into a dump truck. He also forms the crotch (tee hee) of Devastator. Just like the rest of the set he's molded in green and purple. He's also got some black and a good splash of silver.
He's got a similar amount of sculpted detail as his teammates.
He's got a similar amount of sculpted detail as his teammates.
In his dump truck mode he towers over the other Constructicons. It's almost like someone got a green brick and put wheels on it! He's an absolute monster of a vehicle. Unfortunately because of how he transforms and possible because of budgeting constraints Long Haul can't dump out anything loaded into him
The bright side is you can load him up with the entire teams accessories or any figures you might have lying around that would fit in it.
There really isn't much to say about the vehicle mode. It's a fun chunk of dump truck and that's about it.
Transforming Long Haul into robot mode for the first few times was a little nerve wracking, you basically un-clip the front of the dump truck and almost all of the back dump section. Once you've done it a few times you get used to it thankfully. So much like his alt mode, Long Haul is the biggest of the 6 Constructicons and a brick.
Well he's a brick in that he is a chunky mutha, but he isn't a brick in that he lacks articulation, well in places any way.
He has ankle tilts, ratcheted knee joints and hips which have the second nosiest ratchets I've heard. You can get some decent poses out of them but I generally stick with a wide "A" stance. He has a dedicated waist joint, more as a side effect of giving Devastator a waist joint but it's welcome, and it holds the title of nosiest ratchet joint I've ever experienced. Move it one direction and it barely makes a noise, twist it in the other direction and get ready to terrify your wife, small pets and neighbours with it. I'm not even joking about the wife part, Slick HATES it when I twist the waist joint. I've tried to get into the habit of turning it the "quiet way" but you better believe that while she's not here it gets noisey in here!
The Head flips out of the chest and it's a nice sculpt, it's on a swivel joint and it has a massive red visor. The head gets a big thumbs up from me!
Lets get to the arms. long Haul, like some of the other members of his team, doesn't have "full" articulation in his arms. His shoulder joints rotate nicely but after that all he has is "Sideways Elbow Action". Now as before you can get fixes to this problem. The Takara version came with more posable elbows and one of Perfect Effect's upgrade set has new arms you can use.
Personally (as you may have heard on Welcome to Kimia) I'm not that fussed about elbows on the guy who will spend most of his time as a crotch.
Weaponry wise I usualy give Long Haul the bigger of the two gun pieces, it's the biggest weapon so it seems right he has it. If you don't want to give any of your Constructicon team weapons Long Haul can carry them, exactly like vehicle mode, and he can still stand with them on there!
Well he's a brick in that he is a chunky mutha, but he isn't a brick in that he lacks articulation, well in places any way.
He has ankle tilts, ratcheted knee joints and hips which have the second nosiest ratchets I've heard. You can get some decent poses out of them but I generally stick with a wide "A" stance. He has a dedicated waist joint, more as a side effect of giving Devastator a waist joint but it's welcome, and it holds the title of nosiest ratchet joint I've ever experienced. Move it one direction and it barely makes a noise, twist it in the other direction and get ready to terrify your wife, small pets and neighbours with it. I'm not even joking about the wife part, Slick HATES it when I twist the waist joint. I've tried to get into the habit of turning it the "quiet way" but you better believe that while she's not here it gets noisey in here!
The Head flips out of the chest and it's a nice sculpt, it's on a swivel joint and it has a massive red visor. The head gets a big thumbs up from me!
Lets get to the arms. long Haul, like some of the other members of his team, doesn't have "full" articulation in his arms. His shoulder joints rotate nicely but after that all he has is "Sideways Elbow Action". Now as before you can get fixes to this problem. The Takara version came with more posable elbows and one of Perfect Effect's upgrade set has new arms you can use.
Personally (as you may have heard on Welcome to Kimia) I'm not that fussed about elbows on the guy who will spend most of his time as a crotch.
Weaponry wise I usualy give Long Haul the bigger of the two gun pieces, it's the biggest weapon so it seems right he has it. If you don't want to give any of your Constructicon team weapons Long Haul can carry them, exactly like vehicle mode, and he can still stand with them on there!
Long Haul unfortunately has the "honor" of being the first member of the team to suffer a break. One of the clips that holds Hook on place snapped after a bad fall. It hasn't affected anything on Long Haul or Devastator but I'll talk more about it when I get to Hook and Devastator.
While some of the team suffer because they form Devastator Long Haul is improved by it. I love the bulk that he gained because he's a Titan class scale crotch. He towers over the rest of the team in both modes, he looks good with it though. The only down side to him is those elbows and you can replace them or if you're like me you don't care about them.
So that's the big guy all done, next week we continue the Devastation with Hook!
So that's the big guy all done, next week we continue the Devastation with Hook!
Stu "Darkageis" Murray is a founding member of The Old Oilhouse, a lifelong transformers nut and collector of Sentai and Kamen rider in most of it's forms. He sometimes takes epic trips and tells tales of these sagas often. When not watching people in spandex fight each other he paints miniatures, go HERE to take a look. |