Once more into the Legends breach dear friends, this time with the culmination of 4 releases that make up the Newage Devastator, or as they've dubbed him for legal reasons, Haphaestus. This is my third Legends-scale Decepticon combiner, so we've plenty of frames of reference to get into.
The dirty half-dozen
Let's look at the individual bots first - the team of 6 is a mixed bag, though all come in their classic lime-green and purple colours. In a line, they perfectly convey the Constructicon team. Scavenger and Bonecrusher were the first 2-pack out of the gate, and initially I was baffled as to why Newage would lead with the two least-interesting (and most similar) bots. Of course, they're the arms, so they do have similar roles, but they also arguably represent the best of the six, meaning that Newage put their best foot forward. Scavenger in particular has stellar articulation, he even has a swivel on his chest that allows for some very expressive movement, and the paint on the faces is absolutely spot on.
Grouped together, they look terrific!
As the releases continued, issues crept in; Mixmaster and Scrapper were the next out of the gate, Mixmaster's incredibly hollow lower legs doing him no favours, and Scrapper's inability to position his shovel closer to his body in bot mode make him look a little iffy. Feedback was so fierce on these two that Newage has promised a follow up kit to fix the perceived issues, though the biggest annoyance, a sliding mechanism on the chest areas required for transformation which are fiddly at best, are so intrinsic to the design as to be unfixable.
By the time we get to the last 2-pack of Long-Haul and Hook, expectations are suitably adjusted. I wasn't even that bothered that Hook has no waist-swivel or even head-articulation due to his design, because at this stage I knew they were going into combined mode and likely staying that way. Long-Haul has a nice colour palette and plenty of articulation, his only flaw being his huge legs that make him look like he's wearing his Dad's trousers. His fate is even more ignominious than the rest, since his role when combined is to slot into the back and basically vanish.
The big fella
So, with all six characters released, the question was always how on Earth they would combine. Take the Iron Factory Bruticus route and make a robot using extra pieces, or the Magic Square Menasor route and just provide a Gestalt skeleton to slot the bots onto? The answer? Pretty much the latter, by releasing a Devastator figure with gaps to fit the Constructicons into, the major difference being that, unlike Menasor, the limb-bots below the knees are all robot and not a massive cheat.
MS Menasor, NA Devastator and IF Bruticus
It's hard to feel too aggrieved - Transformer combiners have always been parts-formers, whether slotting in fists/feet or adding a head, chest armour or other part not integral to the parts making up the whole, so I suppose getting the "parts" in one pre-combined lump is just saving time. It does lead to a very solid feeling bot, and they've even added some premium tricks such as sliding thigh panels which are usually only found on high-end Gundam figures like the pricey Metal Builds.
You also have to smile when you realise that this "legends" scale combiner is actually much taller than its G1 equivalent, making modern Legends the same scale as the classic G1 toys they're based on.
When "Legends" scale dwarfs the original G1 toys...
The head has a visor that you can pull down, very similar in construction to Masterpiece Hot Rod, allowing you to utilise either of Devastator's looks from the cartoon. The knees and elbows have shiny metal pistons, there's a waist swivel and ankle-pivots built in to each leg-bot and the fingers are well sculpted and fully articulated. He's a solid, poseable Devastator that'll look great surrounded by smaller figures that he can menace.
The last items of note are the light up features in the eyes and gun. The gun looks okay, lit up and "pew-pewing" well enough, but the lights in the head are utterly redundant, not nearly bright enough to be seen clearly, even in dim lighting. I'd save yourself the trouble sourcing batteries.
"Merge for the kill!"
Newage have been first to market with their Legends Devastator, so far Magic Square has only mustered Scrapper and Mixmaster, both of which are taller and bulkier than their Newage counterparts. If scale is a concern, you may be forced to choose between one or the other, but as I'm less fussy about such things (as if Transformers were ever consistent in any medium) you might go for this one for a number of reasons.
It's a solid, well sculpted and cartoon accurate little beast. The few shortcomings the individual bots have look to be getting fixes in the future (hardly a first for Newage) and there's really nothing objectionable about the combined mode at all. You might prefer a beefier look, but if that's the case then Magic Square has you covered. Is it worth the £200 price of entry? Only if you're in for this scale, otherwise that sort of money will buy you the Takara Devastator which is considerably bigger and just as fun.
If you like the little fellas though, this is a worthy set to augment those dioramas and add some muscle to your Decepticon ranks.
Follow A.I. on Twitter and Like us on Facebook to get all the latest site updates
