Revenge of the Fallen Demolishor

Robot Mode: Where to start? As anyone should notice pretty much right at the start, Demolishor doesn't have anything approaching a standard robot mode, at least if your standard is humanoid with two legs. Demolishor is basically a big unicycle (with two wheels, yes, but he's using just one at a time) with a head right in the middle and two huge arms at the sides. This means one major disadvantage for the figure, of course: Balance. Demolishor stands on a single wheel and needs at least one of his arms as support to keep from toppling over.\r\n\r\nTwo side notes here: As you can see in one of the pictures above, Demolishor can drive on his vehicle mode treads, too, without "rounding" them into wheels. Doesn't help his lack of balance, it's just a different look. Second, you can make Demolishor drive on both wheels at once, but this doesn't just look stupid, it also means he can't see a thing.

Whether or not you like the basic design of this figure is, of course, highly subjective. Fact is, though, that Demolishor sports a lot of sculpted details and I like his black-and-red color combination, along with the white-grey arms. The arms sport decent posability, though it does take a moment to get used to it. The upper arms feature the Mech-Alive gimmick, two pistons that twist when the arms move. Not exactly wow-worthy, but a nice detail.

Demolishor doesn't have any weapons visible, he can only use his giant shovel-arms to pound stuff and roll right over things on his giant wheel. Both of which he does pretty well and you kinda wish he was a good deal bigger. As things stand he's more or less in scale with Stratosphere and can pound on Legends-class figures to his heart's desire. So the bottom line here is a robot mode with balance issues and a look that is probably not everyone's cup of tea, but that I find surprisingly appealing.

Vehicle Mode: An O&K RH 400 excavator serves as Demolishor's vehicle mode, a gigantic construction vehicle the size of a house. This monster rolls along on two huge treads (which can't actually move because of the transformation requirement) and has the big shovel sticking out front, which is pretty posable to boot. The detailing on the machine is quite good, especially on the control cabin at the top-left corner (which also nicely shows off the scale). So all in all a vehicle mode that, while certainly not spectacular, is very well done. No complaints.

Remarks: Demolishor was one of the very first ROTF figures you could see pictures of and caused quite a bit of confusion. First off, people needed a while to figure out that he wasn't meant to have legs. Then the main question was for a long time: Can this Voyager-class figure combine with others to form a huge Devastator (no, he can't!). His name, too, was up in the air for a time, as Scavenger was considered a possibility, too (and the Devastator-component ended up being called that). The first thing I thought when I saw him, though, was how much he resembled Gizmoduck from Duck Tales. Demolishor also features prominently in the ROTF movie trailers, but in the actual movie he was finished off in a matter of minutes and then coldly executed by Optimus Prime. A Demolishor-twin (Scavenger, I presume) later appeared as part of Devastator, but met with no better fate.

In many ways Demolishor represents everything that has divided the fanbase when it comes to the ROTF series. His unusual, very much non-humanoid robot design fascinates some, while others are very much opposed to it. Personally I avoided Demolishor for quite some time, as the pictures I saw of him didn't appeal to me at all and his role in the movie was far from impressive. And he couldn't even become part of Devastator. Then, though, he was clearanced and my wife brought him home as a present for me. And now that I have him here in front of me... he's not bad. I can't say he's taken me by storm and I'm still not the biggest fan of the basic Movie-aesthetic, but Demolishor is an interesting figure. Something different, you might say. As long as his design doesn't become standard, I can live with that. He's certainly not for everyone, but fans of unusual transformers will certainly find him interesting.

Rating: B-

And for a second opinion, the review by LimeWire:
Including a little time warp twist, seeing as Limey wrote this text over a year ago when the figure's name wasn't clear yet (bets were on Scavenger) and we all still thought he'd be able to combine with the other Constructicons to form Devastator. So this for a little hint at our expectations back then:

Prelude: I''m so happy that my favorite Transformer will now find his way onto the big screen, you won''t believe it. I''ve always been a fan of construction machines, robots, and giant monsters, so to get all of that in one "person" is almost putting tears in my eyes. Thank you, Michael Bay. Thank you, Dreamworks. Thank you, Paramount. And above all, thank you, Hasbro. Btw, Scavenger''s final name is only known to the Bay-people and Hasbro at this point, but who cares?

Vehicle Mode: Scavenger transforms into a truly gigantic O&K RH 400 Mine Excavator. The long arm and the shovel can move freely, but the turret can''t turn (would have been a bit much) and the treads don''t move, either. There is a reason for that, though, as you will learn later on. The attention to detail is very good here, only the back and the underside show traces of the robot mode. Well done!

Robot Mode: Just so you know, the transformation isn''t as simple as it looks. It''s actually rather difficult. Quite a few parts move and twist, it''s quite a thing. Children will probably despair. I transformed this guy (as far as possible) as we''ve seen in the teaser trailer, which probably makes me one of the first guys to manage a proper robot mode - yeah! *proud*

This guy will be a surprise for our self-professed toy designers, as he''s even more difficult than Soundwave. The transformation back to alternate mode is among the most difficult I''ve ever seen in a Transformer - oh boy...

Transformation Details: The treads fold in to form a big wheel, resulting in a giant chain wheel on top and at the bottom, both of which can turn freely. Perfect for driving inside underground tunnels. Die big shovel splits to form the arms and hands. A bit of criticism here: Why the heck can''t the shovels split into three parts to form fingers? There would have been more than enough room here, so some points deducted for that one.

I really can''t say what Scavenger ends up as - I don''t know. But he''s certainly a fast, very agile beast, able to smash just about everything that gets in his way. Posing isn''t exactly this guy''s strong suit, but he''s a very faithful adaption of his big screen counterpart. And his face looks like the devil personified - AWESOME!

Conclusion: I love this guy! I''d rather forget how much I paid for him, but he was worth it. I adore this toy. He''s already my favorite Transformer and only the completed Devastator will trump him. A little side note on that: You can already guess at some things used for the combination mode, but I really can''t photograph it. You have to see it, it''s hard to explain. What I can say is this: Devastator will be harder to transform than anything seen previously.

Rating: A-

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