What's funny is there's arm addons for the Rage set. Course, that set was made to give it less an IDW look, and more a G1 look... hence the chest shield and blocky arm addons.
I will never forget one of my earliest memories on RU-vid was finding Emgo's reviews of these guys and being slightly shocked by Mascot's voice and loving the "HI I'M DR CRANK!!!!!" joke. Oh and the whole story of them trying to build a space bridge for Megatron and shockwave and all the things that went wrong doing that. Ah, memories.
"Neckbreaker or BONECRUSHER, the first one sounds like they'll just keel you, the second one sounds like once they are done, there won't be anything left."
I miss this era of 3rd party, back when they could stylize their design and not be concerned about being accurate to anything and just focused on being the best they could be. Even over a decade after its release Hercules is still completely unique
Me too. There was so much variety and creativity in designs and aesthetics but now everything is just seeing who can emulate 40 year old model sheets the best with a few minor exceptions here and there. I get toon MP/Legends is the safest bet for a majority of 3p companies now but the oversaturation of it is so boring and the majority of the reason why I don't collect 3p.
I remember the rumors during Combiner Wars with regards to Devastator - some people actually believed that Hasbro bought the molds from TFC to release them as the Combiner Wars Titan class. This set along with City Commander from FansProject were my and many others first steps into the world of 3rd party - cause those were basically THE first steps. I still love the combiners from TFC to this very day. Especially Hercules / Devastator.
I love this set! Back when the lazy eyebrow reviewer was selling off his old collection, I was able to buy his, and it still has a little bit of yellow playdough in the hand groves from his one overdose skit! It’s one of my favorite combiners!
I really regret selling mine years ago. Seeing this brought back the memories of catching up with getting these as they came out. I miss this set a lot. I even put fishing line on hook to make the crane fully functional. It was such a pain to thread it properly through the pulleys
I have the first version of this set, in which the constructicons were much less articulated and simpler. However, currently some of them are broken and others have loose joints.
I got a hold of Hercules and the upgrade kit. I felt it was just the best "we tried a different thing than G1" that was Chug Scale. And I don't regret the hefty price I coughed up for it. Even with it's issue
"I got the whole set for 150 bucks with the upgrade kit." I remember arguing with some schmuck on reddit a bunch of years ago that they were throwing their money away on 3rd party figures because they'll never hold their value because nobody will pay mint dollars for a bunch of not-Transformers down the road. Well there you go.
I would love to see you actually find this online anywhere near what he paid at the convention. Plenty of 3rd party figures do hold their value, people can just find good deals.
@octobotimus Firstly, this wasn't a "good deal." This was a give-away price. 1/6 of what the whole thing cost when it was new. Deals don't get that good unless nobody is buying the item and the item needs to be priced to move. That also means that the figures didn't hold their value. I'm pretty sure that you weren't seeing any boxed G1 Primes for 20 bucks at this convention.
@@joes4194 giveaway deals happen at conventions because some people just need some quick cash and need something gone. like I said earlier, find it for anywhere near that price online. You won’t, It simply doesn’t sell for that low. It’s held its value about as well as most official figures and sells for a good amount. This is like using a garage sale deal to claim what something is worth on the secondary market.
I got the OS KO from Sirtoys for I think $100 CAD back in 2016. In my opinion, the upgrade kit makes the figure look so much better and better proportioned with the big shoulders. Plus the massive arm drills can spin.
I remember finding this in a local toy shop and I was so excited to get it. I ended up getting it for my birthday, but the ball joints on all the legs were super loose. And Devastator wouldn't even stand on his own. I do appreciate the set for getting me into 3rd party tho.
I have always liked the design of the core robots, but I never liked the proportions of the arms and the head in combined mode. Other than that I do want this in the future.
As someone who used to own this set I’m very happy to hear it’s still generally stable. And yeah the tread forearms are so much better than the kibble.
Got this back when it was originally released and still remember taking off work to sit at home and wait for the pile of loot from bbts that contained these guys to arrive. 3rd party or not, this is still a part of Transformers history and I am happy to have the original releases in my collection, even with the loose hips that I never got around to installing the replacement parts for
This is the figure that single handedly brought me into collecting figures as an adult. My wife bought it for me and everything just spiralled from there.
9:41 If I recall correctly, the hand is suposed to have the fingers straight, as Bonecrusher vehicle mode has a sort of plow blades on the back. It's still an awesome figure. I do remember the reviews of this piece. Good video and figure.
I had bought mine for similar money. Think it's the best because minimal parts forming and I feel it's great how the caterpillar tracks becomes the forearms. Well engineered!
When this first came out, one of the best. Gravity builder became the new hotness and Hasbro still hasn't released a perfect one yet...but at least theirs was relatively cheap
Love when third party used to have the big chunky transformations. I understand the need to stray from it but the panel messes that are coming out now just don’t hit the same
I got a deal on Hercules years ago on ebay and to this day, he's still my only Devastator. I missed the CW official one but never really regretted it, I was happy enough with this guy (and I think he fits the CW-era esthetic better than Hasbro's). Still curious to see what SS86 ends up looking like, though.
I still have the Shattered Glass box set of these guys. I ended up with way too many Devastators and sold off my green one. Not too many other options for Shattered Glass though.
I Still have my old set from When they were $100 a figure. It was quite a Treat to pose and transform each constructicon every few months as they were gradually released. So I don't regret it considering the community experience of having the time ghost in hand. We were not sure if the set would be finished or if TFC would go bankrupt first. The combined mode is somewhat modeled on the IDW comic book model at the time. Great review. A good throwback to simpler 3rd party times.
I never bought this back in the day. About once or twice a year this guy seems to pop into my RU-vid feed, and it makes me want to pick one up just for nostalgia sake.
The shattered glass colors Prometheus version of this set is something of a grail for me. I had heard of it even before seeing it in person at the horribly named local Wisconsin _Dairycon_ transformers "convention" (the event had no major hosts and the building wasn't very big) And seeing it awkwardly perched upon its own box left a very odd sensation of equal parts awe and mild disgust, cuz it was just unceremoniously _there_ with the upgrade kit half installed, at very slightly above eye level. Meanwhile other tables were chock full of BotBots, the first three waves of studio series, and pre-order scalper's copies of beast wars masterpiece Megatron
I had this set and I loved a lot of the engineering and parts use, and yeah the individual bots were great, but man, combined mode was so jank, lol. All that density in individual robot mode meant he was so top heavy. It was such a pain to keep him standing. I wound up selling him once I got the Unite Warriors Devastator. The individual robots aren't GREAT , though Takara did improve them but the combined robot is huge and so much more stable. I want to see what the SS86 is like once we got images but if that's better I might pick it up.
I have this, but the Perseus version (Shattered Glass) and it came with the upgrade kit. It's awesome, but a little short. I cant wait to see the new Studio Series.
$150 for this complete/upgraded is quite the find. Easily puts the Combiners Wars to shame given it was a complete set for about 200 at the time. While I think the combined mode looked serviceable it was impossible to get past are cheap, and awful each individual component in the set looked. Definitely had no difficulty holding off and looks like 2025 will be well worth the wait as 86 Devastator is reportedly getting both the Commander class and Voyager class treatment throughout the year. For 3rd part this is very good, and shows a combined form doesn't have to be obnoxiously complicated or have a lot of parts forming to be either animation accurate or stable. Hope Hasbro's taking notes.
I've been slowly picking up members of this guy over the past two years and just as I'm about to get the last one I've been missing 86 devastator gets revealed. Still happy with this one but still that stings lol
While I haven't done it in a long time whenever I would have this take on Mixmaster in robot mode, I would have the drum attached to his back rather nicely, which I accomplished by taking the little small piece that attaches to the drum and his back, and flip it around so the flat end faces outward, and had enoough friction then to just hang from the back.
The reason scrappers shoulders have extremely tight ratchet joints is to help keep his arms stable in combine mode. If they weren't strong Devastator wouldn't be able to stand.
I got the Jinbao OS Dev at the start of this year. I'm sure SS86 Dev will be impressive but I cannot shell out the money and effort to find the figures when it's going to be highly sought out. Plus, I think the Jinbao OS is nice, cheaper alternative.
I kind of wanted this guy until I saw the price, glad I didn't get him since I spent around the same amount for my ultimate devastator, the TW one. THis is still an amazing devastator though, I really like how the treads become the forearms in this verison
The only third party combiner i have, aside from technically the Fansproject set for ROTF Bruticus. Mine's a bit wobbly in the hips and some guns don't fit together but he's still cool. Also no mention of TJOmega? He reviewed these too and before Vangelus iirc
Honestly, he's still a favorite... minus the joints in combined mode... even after replacing the hips for Long Haul, he can't stand the best in combined mode... which is a shame. Especially since I was an early adopter too, so I paid the 100$/figure back in the day.............. Agreed about the Rage of Hercules set being mostly optional. The set absolutely doesn't need the addons. One of the best parts about this set was that, minus the hands, the figure was a completely self-contained combiner. I mean, the shoulder extensions can be nice, I suppose, but eh. (Wound up using it for an energon combiner, which could use the extensions.) Chest bits are mostly a G1 purist wishlist item. I frankly can take it or leave it.
Maketoys Giant is objectively better for half the price (at least at the time), but this is nice too. If what you want is a huge Devastator that makes up for the giant disappointment of the G1 toy that was roughly the size of a modern Voyager, this is your bot. If you want a great set of Deluxe-sized Constructicons that also combine into a decent Devastator, you should get Maketoys Giant. I was not paying $600 for an articulated statue...if the individual bots aren't good enough on their own, I'm not buying them just because they combine.
I argue that they are a mixture between G1 and Cybertron style. I sort of like the Rage of Hercules upgrade set as a concept, but I think it's slightly too fiddley. And since they aren't incorporated super well (early third part, what you gonna do am I right?) it usually just stays in the box.
So far, Toyworld’s Constructor is the best third party Devastator but he won’t be for long with Fans Toys Devastator because he’s actually show accurate. Funny thing is, Constructor at the time was the same price as Hercules despite being much bigger.
