Farblechar

SS86 Devastator looked promising upon first reveal, with maybe one or two oddities, such as the legs not being centered with where they connect to the thighs, but things like that are ultimately minor gripes, and completely understandable when you take into account that these are still toys, meant to be played with by children, developed under a budget, and sold at mass retail all while still trying to be hyper accurate to a forty year old cartoon that took a LOT of liberties with simple toys. What is harder to understand, however, is the complete and utter disregard for any sense of economy of space and the total mismanagement of the extra part introduced. What do I mean by that? To better understand, let us look back. Back ten long years to the Combiner Wars.

Combiner Wars Devastator is. Not a perfect set of figures, with the individual Constructicons all having been compromised in some way, to varying degrees. Long Haul probably suffered the most, having to be the lower torso. Being the hips is not easy. He’s very chunky and stout, and of course you can’t forget the legendary sideways elbow action, though that’s not without its charm and provides a big advantage for the full combined form. The bulk of CW Devastator is comprised of the Constructicons themselves, with only minor, tangential elements like the hands or chest plate being separate parts. That said, when it came time to do the Studio Series 86 figure, Long Haul’s proportions alone were enough reason to try something else, especially considering he needs to be at least roughly accurate to his appearance in the 1986 film The Transformers: The Movie. The solution? Make the waist and hips a separate piece from Long Haul. That works! Lord knows the Constructicons are no strangers to partsforming, either, but it’s also where our troubles lie.

I know some people vehemently despise partsforming, and I’m no major fan of it either (MMC Assaultus my beloved <3), but it is not the greatest offense to toys ever conceived and like I get it. It’s been around forever, has gotten better with time, and is an understandable solution to engineering concerns on a budget. You still need to be smart about it. I fully understand why they have the hips as a separate piece on 86 Devastator. Without it, they would have likely had to sacrifice either stability in the combined mode, or aesthetics on Long Haul or Devastator, if not both. We know what it looks like when Long Haul has to be the hips. So, save yourselves the trouble, do something different, and add a new piece. That new piece also does… something outside of combined mode, which I can appreciate, on a base, fundamental level. It serves as a platform for storing all the other accessories and connects to Long Haul’s alt mode as a “trailer”. Part of the problem arises from them committing too hard to it doing “something”, however. From the looks of it, the thighs get wrapped up in a shell of sorts, covered by a set of folding panels to obscure the fact that those are, in fact, gestalt thighs. What do these panels do, exactly? Nothing. They do nothing. They end up as a butt flap in combined mode. Not the hip skirts, or part of the back, a butt flap. So… why did you add them?

Photo credits: TFW2005

The problem with going to such a high effort to make the hips into a trailer is that it doesn’t read as like. An actual thing. It’s clearly just a chunk of combiner parts masquerading as a piece of construction equipment. It’s not cohesive enough with Long Haul to look like an articulated/extended dump truck, so why bother with so many extra panels to smooth it out? They don’t sell the effect. If it has to look solid, then surely there was a better way than just covering it with a shell that does nothing except get in the way in the mode the whole piece is designed for? You’ve added a substantial element of partsforming and then you don’t know what to do with all of it.

I understand the urge to have the piece do something. Other recent Generations Combiners consolidate their combiner kibble into a big, single chunk, with Legacy Menasor and Age of the Primes Superion using an entire frame that folds down into some manner of vehicle accessory. If you are going to have extra pieces, having them integrate into the other modes in some way for the sake of storage is appreciated, but you shouldn’t sacrifice the piece and its intended function to do that. Taking a trip to the realm of third party, Magic Square’s Devastator lets you merge all of its extra parts into a single, miscellaneous thing. It’s utter bullshit, but it’s not pretending it isn’t combiner kibble for even a second, and it’s concentrated, whole. Their Bruticus is a little worse, since, to my knowledge, it doesn’t connect together outside of just doing the combination, but that also ensures Bruticus looks “Fucking Perfect”. Iron Factory’s Liokaiser, as extreme as it is, also does not pretend that the combiner kibble is anything more than that, which allows it to function exceptionally well as a combiner frame, at least visually. It looks immaculate. Is it 70% of a robot? Yes. Absolutely. It is not, however, at any point, pretending that it is not just 70% of a robot. This is the issue with 86 Devastator and its partsforming. The hips are pretending that they are anything more than an extra part for the combined mode, to the detriment of the combined mode. The one thing they were explicitly designed for is dragged down by them. Partsforming is a compromise for a good-to-great looking combined mode. You should not be compromising the compromise.

Photo credits: IF Liokaiser courtesy of farblechar, MS Devastator and Bruticus courtesy of Showzstore, Legacy Motormaster courtesy of me

Then there’s Liokaiser. The latest high end, backer exclusive Haslab, and a highly requested candidate for the treatment at that. It brings us the first full rendition of the Breastforce since their original toys from 1989, the Combiner Wars release in 2016 having omitted some of the team and everyone’s partner animals. Much like that original set, the combiner elements appear to be integrated into the figures themselves (as far as I can tell, there are only photos of the prototype at Megacon and what’s available on the official backing page at the time of writing), with one, glaring omission. Jallguar comes with an extra piece that forms the combiner’s waist and hips, and very vaguely masquerades as a missile pod for his alt mode. It absolutely achieves the look they were going for, and I’m sure it will be plenty stable, but um… that’s his job? Jallguar is, explicitly, the lower torso of Liokaiser. This same issue applies to Long Haul but I’m talking about it here, so. That’s his entire role in the combiner.

But. Fine. Being the hips is hard. It comes with a lot and takes even more to look good, especially if you want them to look a certain way. Like, idk, hips, and thighs. Third party company Cang-Toys added a whole extra member to their Predacon set just to be Predaking’s waist, with an alt mode and proportions chosen specifically to be a good, solid lower torso which somewhat proves my point about Long Haul and Jallguar but that set was far more stylized and this is a whole other discussion with far too much nuance for me to properly articulate here. So, fair enough, you introduce a new part, but that creates a new issue. Where’s the rest of him supposed to go? Apparently, just hanging out on the back. Much like 86 Devastator, the majority of Jallguar is relegated to a backpack, though in a much, much funnier manner. It doesn’t look as egregious as Devastator’s backpack, since his is too low and centered and ends up very awkward as a result. Liokaiser comes off a little better, but it’s the principle of the matter. You’ve introduced a dedicated piece to do their job, only to now have to work around their mere presence because of that piece. You’ve replaced them as an element in the combiner, but you haven’t replaced them. Why bother shoving most of Jallguar (and Long Haul!) onto the back when you could have just used that mass to… oh, I don’t know… form the hips?

Photo credits: Haslab Liokaiser prototype and Vtuber acrylic standee shots courtesy of TFW2005, 3D renders courtesy of Hasbro's official announcement video

Yes, granted, they almost certainly would have looked worse, but it still doesn’t feel like an exceptionally elegant solution. Liokaiser especially grates in this department considering he’ll cost an extra $100 compared to Devastator, sitting at $300 USD vs Devatsators ~$200. It was so close to not having any partsforming, too… All that said, I do kinda like that the Haslab doesn’t go too far out of its way to hide the fact that these are a set of hips, unlike a certain other gestalt. I’ve been given a greater appreciation for what could have been. They store in alt mode, and it doesn’t hamper the combiner any more than needing to relocate most of Jallguar already does. Sure, it’s a missile pod. Fuck it!