Demolishor

If a character gets a toal redesign and a new personality, is it really the same character? Demolishor is a nasty Decepticon with an equally nasty weapons arsenal. To challenge him would be futile. He loves the thrill of the fight but he especially enjoys inflicting pain on his enemies. In vehicle mode, he is a burly dump truck that is stacked with powerful Energon launchers capable of taking down any Autobot that stands in his way. Though a bit uncontrollable at times, Megatron prides Demolishor as one of the Decepticons' greatest warriors. Demolishor was apparently redesigned for the Energon line. The name was originally assigned to one of the major villains in the preceding Armada series, though that was a weird, sci-fi style tank, and the two characters look almost nothing alike. And then he was back in his "original" body by the time of Cybertron, so who knows? In this particular incarnation, Demolishor is a dump truck. Yes, there have been dump truck Transformers before, but none like this. What sets him apart? His size. Now, not the size of the toy - 5½" long and 3" high isn't exactly epic scale - but the size of the character. At a glance, you might think this truck has no cab, but look again: that's it, tucked up there under the canopy, painted blue. Why's it so tiny? Because this isn't your average dump truck, it's a haul truck - the gigantic, stories-tall behemoths used by mining and excavation companies. Looking at the size of the cab, this thing is about the same scale as Mini-Cons or World's Smallest Transformers. So while the actual toy may be mid-sized, the vehicle it represents is, to use the scientific term, "hugenormous." It could crush pretty much any other ground-based Transformer under one mighty wheel. The sculpt on the truck is great, with tiny bolts, a realistic grill, and superb detailing in the hubcaps. The Decepticon symbol on the front is even sculpted on. There's a bit too much open space under the bed of the truck, but you can only see that when you peer in directly from the side; any other angle, and it'll look fine. Transformation is simple - maybe a little too simple. The legs fold out from under the truck bed, the arms are around the cab, and the head is underneath that. Sure, there's a bit of jiggering to get the legs into place, and there's whole weird rotation step to get the head up and into place, but for the most part it's very straightforward. Actually, that waist is a bit problematic. On some early samples of this figure, the hinge was assembled incorrectly, leaving him unable to transform properly. It's not an extremely widespread problem, but it did occur in numbers great enough to warrant mentioning. I had to buy a second Demolishor because I didn't realize it was an actual mistake until a web search brought up several instances of fans with the same problem. Sadly, this isn't something you could check for before you buy, even when the figure was in stores: it's hidden in truck mode. In robot form, the truck's bed hangs off Demolishor's back. To keep him from being over-balanced, he's got huge flat feet that extend in front and behind his legs. He also moves at the knees, hips, waist, elbows, shoulders and head, which is nice - those feet keep him standing in a lot of poses. Demolishor also has a "hyper mode," in which the torso and truckbed rotate forward, to aim a battery of missiles at his enemies. Again, with the big feet, he still stands fine. He can pop the missiles in truck mode, too, which makes him look like a rolling launcher. Four of the missiles actually fire - the others are sculpted on to make him look scarier. The figure's huge bulk and the design of his head make him look like a vehicle version of the Beast Wars character Rhinox. In Energon, Demolishor's body was destroyed, but his spark was put into a new body (the same way his best friend, Cyclonus, was turned into Snow Cat). Not that the old Demolishor was the brightest bulb, but the new version was particularly dumb - something else that mirrors Rhinox's reformatting into the villainous Tankor. Demolishor is that most classic of Transformers construction equipment color schemes, green and purple. Actually, he's more "green and brown." The purple only really comes in in the form of a truly gigantic Decepticon symbol on his back - the bed of the truck. At 2" tall, this is easily the largest faction symbol ever put on any Transformer; not even beasts like Fortress Maximus and Metroplex have nothing on Demolishor. His chest and shins are purple, though, keeping that Constructicon flavor alive. Buying Demolishor is a gamble, but the odds are in your favor. A lot of the figures were assembled incorrectly, but even then it was only a small percentage of the final number produced. He's got a good design, and is really playable. His proportions are odd, but they work for the character. Demolishor isn't a high-demand figure, so you can pick one up off eBay for less than retail, even including shipping. He's definitely worth it. What piece of construction equipment is your favorite? Tell us on our message board, the Loafing Lounge.

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