Movie Bonecrusher (Deluxe)

My Review:

Robot Mode: Bonecrusher makes for a mean, dangerous looking robot. He''s only marginally humanoid in appearance, looking almost insect-like with his legs and extendable arms. Bonecrusher''s head is also worth a second look, being almost the living embodiment of ''mean''. Bonecrusher has wheels on his feet, enabling him to do the kind of skating one can see him doing in the Movie trailers. His arms are huge and can extend in length. As a weapon the two fork-like extensions on his back can snap forward. Posability, while not standard because of his strange proportions, is still quite good. The colour scheme is a bit boring and cold have use a few more accents, but apart from that he''s pretty cool. Bonecrusher is robot mode ist just plain fun. Now if only they''d made him a bit larger so he could actually go one-on-one with Optimus Prime.

Vehicle Mode: Okay, what do we have here? A boring vehicle with a boring paint-job, and some kind of shovel-thing on top that makes no sense to me whatsoever. Bonecrusher might be based on some kind of actual military vehicle, but honestly I didn''t care enough to look it up. The vehicle mode is pretty blah and forgettable, the only upside being that you can see Bonecrusher''s emblem on the side of it. Leave Bonecrusher in robot mode, he looks tons better there.

Remarks: With the movie still several days away from opening at the time of this review, the only image of Bonecrusher I''ve seen so far is the scene from the trailer where he smashes through a bus and then spears Optimus Prime. That scene certainly is impressive. I''m of two minds about Bonecrusher as a toy, though. The robot mode, while strange-looking, is pretty good and I find myself liking it a lot. The same can not be said for the vehicle mode. Apart from being a pretty boring vehicle, I really don''t know what to make of this shovel thing he has. So all in all I''m gonna put Bonecrusher on the good side of average.

Rating: C+

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And for a second opinion the review by Sam:

Robot Mode: Bonecrusher''s robot mode succeeds mostly due to his bizarre look. He doesn''t look even remotely of this world and is a good replica of the movie character. You can tell just by looking at him that we''ve got a merciless warrior here, who doesn''t back down and prefers close quarter combat. This is enhanced by the lack of ranged weaponry and the giant claw on his back. Another part of his charm is his clawed hands, as well as his feet, consisting of a wheel surrounded by four claws. They seem custom-made for stomping opponents and putting Bonecrusher into a triumphant winner''s pose.

The extendable arms are not quite my cup of tea. They kinda look gangly and silly when extended to their full length. You don''t have to extend them, of course, so I can overlook that. Bonecrusher''s posability is very good and he barely ever loses his balance. Despite the odd construction of his feet he''s pretty well balanced.

Bonecrusher''s robot mode just screams ''fight!'' and to me, just like to Phil, his only real flaw is his colouring. The basic colour is okay, but there are numerous elements that could have done with some colour highlights. The interior of his forearms, for example, which aren''t visible in vehicle mode. I think I might do a custom repaint here.

Robo-Rating: B

Alternate Mode: In vehicle form Bonecrusher is a Buffalo-MPCV. MPCV stands for Military-Personal-Carrier-Vehicle. So what we have here is a landmine-proof military troop transport. The Buffalo-MPCV is used for transporting troops through unsecured enemy territory. I once saw a video of a landmine exploding right underneath that thing and it barely shook. Even the tires are armoured. When needed the MPCV can use his fork to remove or detonate mines and other dangerous objects from a safe distance.

Bonecrusher manages a fair degree of resemblence to the vehicle model, given the prerequisites of a Transformer. For the movie the company Force Protection, which builds the MPCV, custom-built a version with an extra-large fork. You can tell. Unfortunately, though, the vehicle mode displays several of the biggest flaws of the figure. Biggest among them the wheels. Because of the way they''re attached the rear tires are bent slightly inwards, the middle axle doesn''t touch the ground, so Bonecrusher''s knees scrape over the floor when driving.

The colouring of the vehicle is like that of the original. It does look that boring in real life, too, but I would have wished for some highlights here, too, at least in form of some silver on the rear ladder or something.

Vehicle-Rating: C

Transformation: With just a little practice the transformation is no problem at all. The joints and hinges are neither too loose nor too tight, so I don''t expect any kind of long-term wear or tear. This also enables Bonecrusher to easily maintain most poses in robot mode. There are some tricky parts to the transformation which aren''t mentioned in the manual, which to my mind should have been in there. But they''re relatively easy to figure out, so I''ll not deduct too many points for that.

Trans-Rating: B

Remarks: Bonecrusher ist a pretty cool character in the movie. Of course he only appears for a very short time before being totalled by Optimus. Sad, because I would have liked to see this war machine as a participant in the final street fight. One interesting tidbit worth mentioning: The company Force Protection has, since the premiere of the movie, added a Decepticon logo to each of its Buffalos.

One overall flaw of this figure is its size. A Bufallo MPCV is a good deal larger than, for example, a Rescue Humvee (Ratceht), almost as imposing as a Peterbilt 379 (Optimus Prime). But I guess toy designers have their own philosophies. I guess he''ll be fighting Deluxe Brawl then.

Total Rating: C+

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And for a third opinion the review by LimeWire:

Prelude: Bonecrusher suffers from a peculiar dillemma: He's the Transformer that everyone saw in the Movie trailers and got excited about, but then he appeared for less than three minutes - a grave mistake in my opinion. His extremely evil look makes him one of my favourites in the Movie (in case you didn't notice, I'm a big Decepticon fan). That's why Bonecrusher is awared my first Non-AllSpark-Power-Toy review.

Alternate Mode: One thing you should know right at the start: Bonecrusher is much too small as a Deluxe figure. Voyager class would have been perfect for him, but you can't have everything.

Bonecrusher's alt mode resembles a Force Protection Inc. Buffalo MRAP mine sweeper - called "the Fork" by members of the US armed forces. The unusual shape of the truck makes this huge vehicle (more than 18 feet long and over 9 feet high) look rather squished. The "fork" of the MRAP really measures just twenty centimeters (barely 8 inches), so it's rather tiny. Michael Bay's production designers improvised and built a bigger fork, so this larger design also became part of the Bonecrusher toy. The fork can be moved almost freely, just like in the movie, so you can easily restage the highway battle scene.

Robot Mode: The first time I transformed Bonecrusher I found the transformation rather difficult, as I didn't know how to twist and position the arms and legs. I also tended to forget to fold in the rear wheels to give Bonecrusher solid footing.

As I mentioned earlier, Bonecrusher looks big and bad. His fork transforms into a sort-of capture claw, the better to tear other Transformers apart with. You can also reshape it into a sort of shoulder-mounted gatling gun, which I think looks amazing. You can even make it into a hand weapon for Bonecrusher to hold in his insect-like claws, but this makes him prone to toppling over.

The rear wheels on his legs can be folded out to make for a kind-of "skater mode", in which Bonecrusher can move pretty quickly.

Conclusion: C+

Trivia:

Bonecrusher hates this site! And he hates that he is the first figure on this site to be reviewed by three different people! He hates reviews and he hates reviewers!