Transformers Reviews

Bonecrusher

February 2, 2009 10:37 pm Ryan Deluxe, Movie Toys, Toy Reviews

Bonecrusher hates that it’s taken this long to get a review done for him. He also hates that he probably won’t get a new toy for the Revenge of the Fallen toyline.

In vehicle mode, the first thing that jumps out about Bonecrusher is that they made him tiny. For such a big guy, he got stuck with a puny toy. Brawl got an upgrade, but no such luck for the guy that went toe to toe with Prime himself. He didn’t make out too poorly, though - there’s a ton of molded details, and the little tampographed Bonecrusher logo on the side is a nice touch. His vehicle mode is a little light on paint otherwise, though - just painted windows and a couple of painted lights (signal lights? on a minesweeper?) and spare tyres. He’s still fun, though - he’s got a good roll, and his big claw is articulated for plenty of car flipping action (admittedly, he’d be flipping Legends sized cars, but still). He’s concealed most of his obvious robot parts, excepting the toes sitting over his rear wheels.

Transformation from MCPV to Robot

Rotate the front fenders so that the front wheels face forward.
Split the top of the vehicle and swing it down to the sides.
Swing the bottom of the vehicle up so that the spare tyres are facing each other.
Swing the crotchplate down and turn the head and pull it forward.
Rotate the legs around at the swivel on the thighs, and pose the toes.
Fold the kibble on the ends of the arms against the forearms. Rotate the panel hanging off the forarm back against the other forearm kibble. Unfold the hands.
Bring the minesweeping claw up over the shoulders, pose, etc.

Now we see where the paint budget on this figure went. We’ve got copper on the shoulders, face, and torso and silver on the body and brown on the arms. He’s got a fair amount of detail in this mode, and they did a passable job of reflecting the CGI model. It’s a bit kibbley, but he really only suffers on the arms. He’s got a fair amount of posability, although his shoulders are a bit lacking (he makes up for it in the elbows), and I wish his pelvis pegged together so he wouldn’t do such an awkward splits if he’s posed oddly. He can bring his clawed tail up over his head to reach about as far as his unstretched arms and operate it as a grabber claw by splitting the forks and sliding the switch, and his arms can be extended to nearly double their regular length. He’s also got the ability to sort-of roll around on the wheels on his feet in robot mode, although the clearance is a little short. It seems like a lot of features to cram into a Deluxe size figure - hey, Hasbro, you could totally work a Voyager Bonecrusher into the Revenge of the Fallen toyline!

Articulation Breakdown

Vehicle/Tail - four swivel joints on flipper/grabber arm
Head - ball joint neck
Arms - dual swivel shoulders, dual swivel elbows, three swivel wrists
Legs - ball joint and swivel hips, swivel knees, swivel ankles, swivel toes (two toes per foot)

Score

Deco: Rating: . The vehicle mode is a bit blah, but the amount of painted detail in robot mode makes up for it. There’s tonnes of sculpted detail, and the different metallic colours they used just bring it right out.
Posability: Rating: . He’s got some awkwardness that makes me consider a lower score, but the pull of that magnificent claw just makes me forget all about it.
Transformation: Rating: . It’s a solid transformation, but I just don’t find it compelling. I don’t often find myself just wanting to transform him for the sake of transforming him. I’d also like it if he could have done something else with those big chunks of vehicle hanging off his forearms.
Bonecrushing: Rating: . They captured the character (well, what character there is of him - he’s not obviously based in anything that came before, and his “characterisation” in the movie consisted of ripping a bus in half and picking a fight) fairly well, but making him tiny cost him a point.
Vehicle mode: Rating: . The vehicle is kind of dull - it’s not pretty to look at (and really shouldn’t be), and it rolls around, but it’s a non-combat military vehicle. It’d score lower without that oversized novelty claw, which adds some play value to this mode.
Robot mode: Rating: . It’s a solid robot mode. He’s got the attack tail to play scorpion with, he’s got his extensomatic arms, he’s got his rollerblades… do I need to go on?

Overall, Overall Rating: . He’s a solid movie deluxe, and definitely worth picking up. I’m eager to see if the Jungle Bonecrusher deco appeals to me more, though.

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