TFC Structor

Prelude: Legal stuff first, as always. Structor is not an official Transformers product from Hasbro or Takara-Tomy, he hails from third party provider TFC Toys. He’s clearly meant to be an updated version of G1 Scrapper, but for legal reasons he can’t be called by that name.

Robot Mode: Structor is a pretty tall and lean looking robot. He comes in the traditional Constructicon colors and holds a good deal of resemblance to his predecessor G1 Scrapper. The only thing that slightly disturbs the lean silhouette is the big shovel on his back, but that's just part of his look and doesn't really bother me that much. Articulation is pretty good, though the hinged elbows look a bit strange at first. Still, not problem pulling off all sorts of poses, despite not having a twisting waist of twisting wrists.

Structor comes with two weapons, one in purple and one in translucent red (just like all the TFC Hercules members). Additionally he has two purple wings with him, which form part of the Hercules combiner's chest plate. Structor can mount these wings on his forearms, where you can imagine them as bladed weapons, or store them on his lower legs. Same goes for the weapons. Finally the robot is very nicely detailed, I especially like the head sculpt. Structor is not a spectacular robot, but he's a great update of the classic G1 Constructicon with no flaws. More than enough for a hearty thumbs up.

Alternate Mode: Structor transforms into a wheeled payloader in the Constructicons’ trademark lime green. Now color aside the vehicle looks pretty realistic to my untrained eye. You got a big shovel up front that can move up and down, you got a driver’s cabin (which you can unplug if it offends your eye) with a big sculpted engine behind it, and huge tires, too. No visible robot parts, though the trained fanboy eye might recognize the arms situated behind the front wheels.

The vehicle mode can, of course, be supplemented with Structor’s various add-on parts. The wings can attach to the sides of the payloader, mimicking the way the original G1 Scrapper could sport Devastator’s big chest shield in vehicle mode, too. The two weapons can attach either as weapons or exhaust stacks. You can either attach wings and guns separately or attach the wings to the guns, whatever looks best to you. So all in all, a solid vehicle mode with no flaws. Not spectacular, but fully sufficient.

Combiner Mode: Structor forms the right leg of the Hercules combiner, for which I’ll do a separate review.

Remarks: While the Constructicons never had a clearly defined leader in the G1 cartoon and comics (except in the Dreamwave comics), Scrapper is probably the one with the best case. He had the most lines in the cartoon, the Dreamwave profile series explicitly names him leader, just about the only thing going against him is the fact that he’s not the head and torso of the combiner, but rather “just” a leg. Still, to me Scrapper (and thus Structor) is the leader of the team.

Despite the fact that Structor is among the less spectacular of the TFC Not-Constructicons, he's my favorite of the six. He's nothing more and nothing less than a great, Voyager-sized update of the classic G1 figure, which is exactly what I expected from him. Of course his price point is far above and beyond what anyone would pay for a simple Voyager-class figure... if it weren't part of a huge G1 Devastator look-alike combiner. So leaving the money issue aside, Structor is a great robot on his own and a nice leg for Hercules, too. I won't recommend him above the others for the simple reason that you're either gonna buy all six or none of them, but as I said, he's my favorite of the group.

Rating: B+